Shammah Makes His Stand!

Miracle Day!!!!

Today was most interesting. It all started when we walked into our church of awaiting children. It wasn't an air of excitement, but rather of tenseness. Hmmm, am I in the right room? It's normally all excitement as the kids are ready to go! So, Verna led the worship and normally it's real high, but it was different today. I almost went and encouraged the kids to worship and that would have been alright. Somehow I just didn't want to pursue that vein. During worship, someone told me that some of the new attenders were from a religion that really denies Jesus, and there was a number of them. Well, I thought that was probably the reason that the worship service had some difficulties. So I stood there after Verna finished, and what to say, it felt "D-R-Y!". After a minute, it occurred to me, pray! So we prayed, and thanked the Father for Jesus, and His love and all He gave, along those lines. We finished praying and we just followed the Spirit and shared about Jesus. It seemed to grip some of the 'bad boys'. We went that way for several minutes and then went right into our skit about Shammah from the old testament. (Pictured is Edward as Shammah.) He had a patch of peas and didn't allow the Philistines to capture his blessing. We preached a couple of angles from this. It was so fun. The first angle was that God is with us. The Philistines overlooked that fact, and were defeated by one man who God stood with. Then we preached from this angle; that as Christians we have to stand against our enemies if we are going to keep our blessing. Some of the enemies are cheating, stealing, drugs, etc. I played the part of satan and a kept motioning to the kids "follow me", "follow me". I put on a very devious look, "follow me". It was really the mercy of God that this group of 'bad boys' were even at church. The Spirit in me kept working that flow, "follow me." They picked up on it, it really fit them well. Then in the end with some persuasion, all came forward and we led them in the sinners prayer. Wow! It was a real miracle today as the kids from that false religion are really taught to hate Jesus, they give Him no honor. They think they can go directly to the Father. That is strange for a catholic nation, but there are some here that treat Jesus that way. But today, they came face to face with the Risen Savior. Only Jesus can give Eternal Life!!!!

It's hard to tell all that happened today, I hope you can catch the spirit of it. God loves sinners, we were his hands today. It was awesome! For some more pics go here!

Thanks to all our partners and friends!!!!! Love, Love, Love, Mark and Verna

Elijah - Obedient and Blessed!

Elijah got in the Blessing and Provision line when he obeyed God. Lots of people want the blessing when it's being handed out, but they are not willing to do what it takes to be Blessed. Elijah went to the "Place" where God instructed, the only place of Blessing. Well, we had lots and lots of fun today sharing from the Story of Elijah when the ravens fed him and then the widow woman sustained him. God can help everyone, but He can help those who obey. We also prayed for the sick at the end of the worship service. The Spirit of God was present! We praise God for this opportunity to share His love, to be His hands, to preach this Gospel!

In the A-kids we ministered from Matthew 6 about the Lord's provision. It is conditional, of course, but one main condition is to not take thought, or Worry. In fact, it is listed 5 times in those short passages about not worrying! It must be important! Kids do worry, God wants them worry free as they place all their trust in Jesus. He will never let us down! Amen

Thursday's Service with the Youth is going awesome. We are having to change the date to Sunday afternoon to avoid a big conflict with the schools. Angelique ministered about following the Holy Spirit. I know God wants to save these kids from destruction. It was a demonstration of His Love. We then went in the neighborhood and hunted 'lost sheep."



With Love, Mark and Verna! More fun pics, go here!

Samson - A friend of the World

Today we had the story of Samson and Delilah. Angelique and the 'players' did a good job re-enacting the story is was so fun to watch and to watch the kids watch. Of course no good story would be complete without a long-haired Samson, and we delivered today. Of course he lost his hair, it was fast, as the hair (wig) was removed to reveal a fresh cut Samson who lost his hair and strength. All this was because he companied with the wrong people. That was the main emphasis of our preaching. Bad company corrupts good morals. We are teaching on more practical subjects like this that when we first started. Something as simple as a wrong influence can change the course of a persons life. Just ask Samson! That's what we said today. Does it matter who your friends are? Just ask Samson. In the end we had several come to receive the "Best Friend" in the world. Jesus! Lots of fun preaching and enjoying today.

In the A-kids we taught about God's care. His promises come by faith. We read Matthew 6. Take no thought for provision. Who gets God's provision?, we said. Those who believe. How do you believe? Get your mouth to moving.

We are believing for big things with our new youth group. Join with us in prayer to establish this older group for Jesus!

With Love,
Mark and Verna. More great pics go here!

Rahab - You Did Good Girl!

Rahab. We all know her as the harlot, but she should be known for her monumental decision to follow after God. After all, she, and her family are the lone survivors of the first wave of God's dominating power that hit Canaan. She survived because of one thin thread, that we know represented Jesus. She was wise in her decision therefore she was protected and cared for. These are some of the things that we shared with the kids today. It is a very clear story of how God takes care of His own through Jesus. It was easy to see the kids receiving light while we preached. I reused the red string (scarlet thread) from the story and it really helped the kids see what a difference Jesus makes. Ahhh, the joy of all this. Well, earlier we were almost through with our Praise and Worship part, but I asked Verna to sing another song. She sang 'You are Lord' in Tagalog. There was a girl obviously troubled, so as they sang I just went and prayed for her, she was touched. God really loves these kids. Verna then called anyone with 'troubles' and many came, we prayed for them whether they needed it or not. Some of them really connected with Heaven. In the A-kids we picked that same theme up, we ministered to the Lord for a few minutes, then we ministered to the A-kids. Then we prayed for 2 to be filled with the Spirit, the we prayed for the helpers. Praise God for Impartations! With Love, Mark and Verna! More pics here!

The Mad Man - Making Right Choices

Today's story was about the Madman of Gadera. It is always fun to watch the stories being told. Today was no exception as there was a crowd of kids that stood on their feet to watch the story. Abraham Trocio, (Verna's Brother) played the Madman and really brought the madman to life! We went at the story from this angle, that is, the madman didn't get possessed by shopping or fishing or that he just just woke up and suddenly had a demon. No, he made some bad decisions along the way. We had 2 guys assist me to demonstrate our point. One wore black, the other white, representing good and evil or bad. Well the bad guy began to speak to me and, I liked it, and began to choose bad over good, and didn't want to follow good. After a while, I was a long way from the good guy and couldn't get loosed from the bad guy. Only Jesus could free me. I told them a personal story about one as a teenager the only way I though I could have nice things was to steal them. I think we identified with the kids today. We told them that stealing even for a good purpose, like school tuition is not good. God wants to bless these kids and keep them from the pains of sin. Thanks for helping us! More pics here! With Love, Mark and Verna

Love is Everywhere - The Prodigal Comes Home

Although we have done this story before, it was still fresh and new today. Love never grows old and that's what we focused on. The Lord is always faithful to give us utterance. We endeavor not just to teach information, but to impart revelation. Well today, I got to dust off my 'acting clothes' I mean I got to graphically portray some of the prodigals more forgettable moments. Like when he ate pig slop. It was loud and messy as I pretended to eat pigs food. Ahhh, the joy of obeying God. After preaching on the son part we shifted and concentrated on the Love of God. What can separate us from his love we asked? a Lie, a theft, not coming to church? We had some art drawn to demonstrate the God doesn't just have love but that God is Love. One pictured a King with a heart in his hand and the other pictured a heart, robed with a crown to show that God is Love. In the end we ended up ministering the Love of God to a group of girls as we gave an alter call for those who don't feel loved. All as I can say is that He does love them and some of the girls received well as we laid hands on them and prayed over them. Praise God for another good day. In the A-kids we ministered on Worship and Thanksgiving. God is seeking those who will worship Him in spirit and truth. Then we said that words are involved to communicate what is in our heart to God. Inside to the outside. God is doing good things here! Thanks to all our partners who make this ministry so much easier! Love, Mark and Verna. More pics go here!

A Changed Man - Paul's Encounter with the Light

What could be more satisfying that last week, well, only this week no doubt. The satisfaction that I feel in my spirit after today's children's ministry almost passes words. We focused on Saul today and re-enacted the story of his encounter with Jesus on the Road to Damascus. Some things we covered were whenever you ask who are you Lord, you must also ask what do you want me to do? We brought out that Saul (Paul) had a big change in his life. He acted differently and he talked differently. Likewise something should have occurred in our lives when we met Jesus. We ended today with telling the children something that Paul said, in effect that he kept a clear conscience before the Lord. We taught them that God talks to you on the inside. Fun, fun teaching to little ones. If you really think you know a subject, then try teaching it to children and you will see what how much you really know. We had a altar call, 6 children came forward and the end of the prayer, the Spirit was powerful as you could literally know that lives were being saved. Now the A-kids: We taught on Proverbs 20:5 drawing up wisdom by praying in the Holy Spirit. We had three that have been AWOL for a while, well they fell right back in, in the end we laid hands on them and they received as easy as any of the other kids. Then, this blessed me so much we all joined hands and lifted our voices as we prayed in other tongues. It gave me such a charge to see our labor beginning to pay off. Well, Praise God, if you help send us here or pray for us or both, you have a good fruit today. God Bless all his children. We appreciate our partners so much. Salamat Po! (Thank you in tagalog) The last pic is us guys praying together in the Spirit. More Pics here!