Mission to Mindanao: Mountains, Mud and Marvelous Ministry!

We began fasting with a prayer supporter for breakthrough and after 7 days of fasting, we were  already on a ferry to set up mission trips in Mindanao! Amen! God said to me that Satan was blocking all his promises to us but they would all suddenly manifest one on top of the other like a volcano erupting. Ann saw a vision during the journey of a volcano covering smooth mountain hills, hill exactly like the ones we were about to discover in the mountains behind Cagayan de Oro! This is a brief report of the trip!

Mission: Primarily ‘Meet and Greet’

We have three Christian friends from Hong Kong in the area and God said to meet up with them on this trip, not to do much ministry, but to ‘meet and greet’ and prepare for upcoming seminars.
We first met up with Nancy, who I taught some of the revelations God has given me 14 years ago, but I had not even seen her almost 10 years. I am asking her to coordinate our prayer team. She’s a real go-getter! Please pray for her to be able to handle this task.

Second we met Conie, who was my neighbor in Hong Kong in a village of Mui Wo. Conie and Ann and Me and another lady, Virgie, were the core of the prayer ministry in our area, and this visit when me and Ann and Conie prayed together it was like an EXPLOSION and Ann saw demons absolutely horrified, terrified at the power of God released through our praying together. Please pray for the protection and success of this teamwork!

Funny that Conie’s husband works at a Coconut Water drink factory, and his boss … is one of Ann’s close cousins! Ann has HUNDREDS of cousins in the area!

Third God said to go find Gemma, but who refused to answer any of our texts. She ran a church in our small village in Hong Kong, and when she was leaving she asked God who would take over her church and He called me out by name! She soon found me and we ran the ministry of Prayer Mountain there for a few years before I also left Hong Kong. She and her sister prayed so much there was a HUGE ANGEL in their church near the altar when I first visited! Amazing. We saw her maybe five or six years ago briefly but no idea why she wont talk to us now; but Ann saw her ‘fading away’ and I’m asking prayer to bring her back into God’s will. Please pray for Gemma!

Baptized … again

I also got baptized, again! I need a government form and they do not recognize the validity of the US passport as legal proof of my name … but they DO recognize a ‘baptismal certificate’ from any small church from any denomination written by anyone based on whatever I say my name is instead. We felt we should ask Melcher, Ann’s cousin who lived in the US for many years, who now lives on a cold mountain farm land in her ancestral area of Claveria, and who gladly and excitedly agreed! I was the first person to use his newly built baptismal basin and being a foreigner carried a special meaning to him. It’s just a ceremony for a government form, and it is my 4th water baptism, but I felt God’s presence and felt his blessings of restoration when he prayed for me afterwards. It was so COLD I was shivering just thinking of being fully immersed in frigid mountain water, it was the coldest I’ve been in years, but God had a purpose.

[baptism pic]

As I’ll get to in a minute, we had just come back from ministering in the mountains of Opol and heard of a pastor who had taken a lot of people from someone’s church. Ann saw a vision of his face and got in touch with him … he’s not a cousin … but married to one of Ann’s cousins. When we mentioned him in Claveria, well the back news continued. He not only took people from churches there as well, but there were other stories from Ann’s family of him borrowing things, money and a whole trail of bad experiences with him. But when we live streamed the baptism ceremony, he texted us and said, “Hey you’re being baptized by Melcher!!” who it turns out paid for him to go through seminary and get his start in ministry. He looks up to Melcher like a spiritual father … and all I can think is the divine connection God is setting up for Ann most likely to be able to talk to him to remedy the many broken relationships he’s caused in the local Body by his sharp dealing. I see it as a God-orchestrated situation. Please pray for Pastor C.

The ‘sea of clouds’ is a popular tourist destination in Bohol,
but we found a sea of clouds of glory in the mountains
of Opol above Cagayan de Oro!

Opals on Oppo in Opol

So the real story was what happened up in the mountains above CdO. I am watching videos to learn about Opals, and using my phone, an Oppo, and we got asked to visit Opol, as I finished a daily word puzzle which first word I solved was Opal, as Ann’s eldest son was hiking up the 9,000 foot Mount Apo. Opals, Oppo, Opol, Opal, Apo! Oh my!

So I was praying for direction and saw some pastors I needed to Meet THAT DAY. I asked if we can meet Nancy’s contacts now, but she said no, it’s elections and everyone is busy; just wait a few days. I said well, we have to be home before the elections next week, and I don’t want to miss all weekend doing touristy things, plus I see a vision of meeting some pastors today in the afternoon … Let’s ask again! Finally we met up with Nancy, who I haven’t seen in many years, and who Ann has not seen in even longer, and after touring her family seaside land, etc., we were taken up to a mountain church in Opol.

The road was mostly paved, well partly paved, well there was a paved section here and there but finally it was just dirt road through the jungle … After many kilometers in the dark of night we finally came to a nicely built large but mostly empty church and just began sharing as we walked in. After a while and coffee they started a prayer meeting and asked everyone to share a little, but I could not tell who the pastor was. One guy was sitting alone outside the circle not talking, and not leading and I think he was the pastor but he didn’t say or do anything. Sharing more and helping people to open their spiritual eyes to interact with the Lord directly in the Spirit while we prayed made me nervous because no one gave a testimony. I needed some reassurance, was I going too fast? Were they going to kick me out? God said it was ok, I was doing what he was leading me to do, and the testimonies would come later.

Afterwards, one man took me aside and asked if I could tell the church had different kinds of pillars in different areas. I said I was just noticing that and said it was because the church used to be very small, about 1/6 the current size and he pointed to a few rough pillars as being the original supports, and he said God gave him a vision a few years ago of the church needing to be greatly expanded and that it would soon be FULL, and then an overseas worker from Dubai helped to fund the expansion he saw in his vision. I think he also now runs a chicken farm and also helped. I was so relieved that he’s already prophesying and so my message and sharing would not be so far over his head!!

The place however was now very empty because someone (Pastor C!) took away several of their members … then another ministry did the same thing by the sounds of it, and took away more members including the worship leader and five youth. Part of this was connected to the coming elections (May 9) as a local pastor is now a politician who runs a neighborhood government unit (a Barangay, and is a Barangay Captain) and is closing down much of their community work, blocking resources and taking away members to stop them!! Not good! But I feel God allowed a pruning so when his Kingdom begins to really manifest it will find a faithful remnant, and take deeper root, but it is still hard to have other Christians damage your ministry like this!

The next day I started hearing testimonies of God speaking to the people in the prayer meeting the night before! We were on the right track! We went back down the mountain briefly to meet a local intercessor, Victoria, a friend of Nancy, who God told me is about to be given a national prayer ministry ‘platform’ and he asked her to be careful to share HIS WORDS not her ideas …. returning late to the mountain I finally found out that the man who was the most quiet distant observer before was in fact the pastor!

His wife was sponsored to study prophecy under Sadhu Sundar Selvaraj in Manila many summers and she is quite accustomed and so open to deep mystery and prophecy. … But why was he so quiet when we first met? He said it was because he was so overwhelmed with Peace he said he could not speak!

He also said unlike other foreigners who visit and do not talk a lot, I TALKED SO MUCH! Ann said yes, he used to be a lawyer and talks a lot, but in my defense I have so much to share from many conversations with the Holy Spirit that I want to bless people with and no one to teach or share with for many years!

I was so blessed that our sharing filled him with such overwhelming peace he was literally speechless! Understanding the struggles they’ve had to endure, lack of food and money, friction with other groups and individuals, it is like hearing the story of our last 10 years just with different names and places. And that’s when God said, Now do you understand why you had to endure everything you went through? God was preparing us to work with them by going through what they are going through ourselves. It also gives me a litmus test of who has a true heart to serve God. I feel like God prepared our way.

So they are planting three other churches currently in areas that you cannot believe have enough people to gather. It looks like wild mountain roads, remote settlements and it’s just so amazing!
One time they went to give food to ‘nearby’ remote mountain dwellers, as the pastor is also a tribal, a Negrito, not an Ati but maybe a Higao-on tribe leader. So the remote jungle is home to him, but this time he wanted to reach some unreached mountain people … so they gathered supplies of rice, food etc., and set out at 1 pm … by evening the rain, flat tyres and extreme off-road conditions made them start crying … by midnight they were determined not to quit. It was 2 am, covered in mud, wet, exhausted, and yes literally crying that they finally came to the camp they wanted to reach with food, gifts and the gospel. Who else would dare to attempt such a trip? These are the kinds of people I really am humbled to be allowed to teach, fellowship with and support!

God Had Prepared the Way

Also God had been telling them they need to prepare to hold seminars, but they said they did not have any teachers or know what to teach! I told them God has been asking me many years to hold seminars, one per month, and specifically to hold seminars in Cagayan de Oro, but satan has prevented us for many years. So as I left I said, OK, I’ll pray for you to find a seminar speaker, and you please pray for me to find a venue to speak at… So now I need to prepare materials that I can also use for the bible school later, but it needs to not to be too word-heavy and to be linked to practical ministry activities, not just be abstract theory. My first draft of a possible seminar program did not get the Holy Spirit’s approval … hmm. I wonder what he wants ….

Sunday: Ministry, Mountains and MUD

They allowed us to minister on Sunday before we drove into the primordial jungle to meet the other church plants they have, and God said it was ok to minister a little, but not to overdo it because I needed to rest and just ‘meet and greet’ and then later prepare for a proper seminar, but not to exhaust myself either ministering too much or doing too much jungle trekking. But He said it was ok to do some ministry on this trip so Sunday they asked me to minister and I tried to make an outline of what to share and God would not confirm any message based on his revelation to me, what I call the Foundations of the Kingdom, and I started sharing from the pulpit with no plan of what I will talk on. But the Lord filled me with inspiration on the fly! It was awesome!

I shared many ideas from Foundations, not complete areas of revelation but an overview of many things, but really felt God ministering a renewed mindset more than deeper doctrines. Two things of note.

First when we lead people to pray for each other by listening to the Holy Spirit and taking turns laying on hands in small groups, there is ALWAYS someone who won’t participate, who can’t or won’t open their heart to the Holy Spirit; but not here! 100% of all the people, youth, elderly, a blind man–everyone was praying for each other, most were crying, and everyone got personally ministered to by the Holy Spirit! 100% is not bad! I then realized the group left behind after the many members were taken away were the core of people whose hearts are right with the Lord and who he can train and use mightily. I saw this was a pruning before new impartation and new growth.

We had prayed the day before for an older lady who had a stroke, but when God began ministering to her, he focused on healing her heart of bitterness, un-forgiveness, family strife. God showed Ann a vision of people in her family fighting each other, and one in particular he wanted to touch. She however was told there was no such person. Ann said NEVER when she gets this kind of clear vision from the Lord has it been WRONG.

Well, the next day was this ministry and God pointed out a young man to Ann during the group prayer session that he wanted her to pray for. Normally in this scenario me and Ann do not pray in the small groups ourselves, but instead monitor the whole gathering looking for problems no one else can solve. Also it gives the people more experience to try their wings out and prophesy themselves. Also by removing ourselves from the small groups there is no feeling of jealousy that we are in one group and not praying for another. So we just cultivate an atmosphere of the Holy Spirit, lead EVERYONE to pray for each other, and EVERYONE to receive prayer from each other, so EVERYONE can learn and be ministered to. We just watch for problem cases. But I turned around and Ann was praying in one small group, the one with the lady with the stroke! She and Nancy were both praying and laying on hands to the young man God told Ann to minister to … and who it turns out … was the son of the lady with the stoke that God said the previous day he wanted her to pray for … but she was told no such person existed … Bingo!

Move Beyond Doctrines!

But second, and briefly, I realized the greatest thing we can teach is not doctrinal. Not 5-Fold, not even the Foundations of the Kingdom as I call the revelation God has given to me that can reform the church … not the revelations from conversations with Jesus on Isaiah 61, Grace, Power, Leadership, Diversity or the Mind of Christ. It’s maybe even more important than teaching people to pray with open spiritual eyes in what we call Communion–but it’s close. What I realized the greatest need to teach people is not doctrines of the Kingdom … but to remove the obstacles that are blocking them from having experiences with the King.

I already know this, as Jesus told me several times what we are lacking in the Body is experience with Him, and if we can’t move beyond doctrines we will never KNOW him. This sounds simple but what lies at the heart of this is the broken relationship with man and God, this is a parent / child relationship.

What we are dealing with is brokenhearted people who surely have CORRECT DOCTRINES but do not benefit from their knowledge and even gifting because they still approach God with the attitude of an orphan.

An orphan does not trust or rely on a parent to care for them, feed then, pay for their expenses, play with them or protect them. They are street-wise and self-sufficient; they earn and spend their own money, they make their own solutions, they comfort their own sorrows. The law of sowing and reaping will continue but God said this is a natural law, even when dealing with supernatural seeds and harvests. Christ did not die on the cross, take away our sin, give us freely of the life that lives in him just so we can become bound by the natural laws of sowing and reaping. He came to give us SONSHIP and we can live forgiven, even when we are less than perfect, and this causes us to approach God saying, “Dad, I want a new car. Just give me one! I want a red one! My house is yuks, can you just give me a new house? Please! But a big one so I can have big parties!! I want ice cream. Let’s go somewhere special for dinner! I know, let’s go to a theme park for vacation! Can we, can we, can we?!!”

There are far too many however who say confidently that, “God will NOT grant these frivolous prayers until you prove you are worthy! Prove you are not going to sin with pride if you get these things! You don’t need them. If you want them get your own job and earn it yourself! How dare you waste God’s money! Don’t you know the crises the world is in!”

And this is EXACTLY why such people do not get such prayers answered. These criticism and critical attitudes lead them to formulate critical doctrines, but this entire way of thinking is the mindset of an orphan! Worse, it is the attitude of ‘works-based’ religion, earned rewards and the mindset of slavery to mammon. They are so adamant to tell you that are bound by a kind of ‘sowing and reaping’ based on attaining perfection in character as a prerequisite for getting God to bless them and answer their prayers. These people are not set free in the thinking of a renewed mind of a child of God who OWNS the UNIVERSE, who HAS NO LACK because if there was a lack they could speak a resource into existence to pay taxed a lot easier than going back to being a fisherman to earn a day’s wage. A child of a king DOES NOT HAVE TO EARN or work in labor to provide for their own needs, not even for their wants. People are missing the Kingdom because they refuse to be transformed into someone with a heart and mind of a child–a child of God. Instead they defend the legacy of dead works of unbelief living as an orphan, maintaining the identity of a ‘sinner’ with a grip like death, completely missing out on the Goodness of God only enjoyed by those who dare to believe they are actually adopted, literally forgiven and truly set free. Jesus told me there are a lot of people in church who think they are in prison. Well, its time to open the gates in their minds and let them come out!

You see, Jesus told me, “Faith without Works is dead, and therefore man without faith … just works.” I discovered that Faith produces a reaction, a ‘Work’ in response to the faith. There are works of faith, works or actions motivated by faith and trust … but there are also works of untrust, unbelief, self-reliance and fear. Orphans have never known a love that carries them on its hips above the mire and brambles of the fallen world, out of the bondage to a fear-based religion, or into the exemption from a work-based relationship with a higher power–they have never known the extravagant love of a kind, rich Father who has adopted them and given them the same rights as his true sons … and this is why they fail.

We cannot find God through doctrines. Through doctrines we can only come to KNOW ABOUT God. Even Satan knows a lot ABOUT God, yet he does not KNOW God, he told me. So we do have doctrines of course, but we must let our doctrines lead us into the EXPERIENCE of God, or we will never KNOW Him. He wants us, his Bride, to KNOW Him in the innermost chambers of our secret hearts, he said. No one with an orphan mindset will be able to come to God to experience his goodness in the way only a CHILD can.

So we must stop merely teaching doctrines of blessed Sons while we model the lifestyle mindsets of excluded Orphans. Are we merely seeking God through doctrines? Why are we avoiding true intimate experiences with God? Is it for fear of being exposed by him as unclean sinners? Do we understand the gospel at all?

So yes, I am hoping for routine trips back to the mountains of Opol to help those who are open to reach up to a higher realm of intimacy with the Lord. I saw us reaching down and offering a helping hand to those on a lower lever to pick them up to live up where we live. We have many revelations of the Kingdom to share that Jesus told us to share. But the greatest benefit we can bring is not mere doctrinal but adoptional–bringing people into a true relationship with God as loved, accepted Children, whose prays he answers freely, even the ones people on the outside looking in insist are frivolous!

Return Ferry : 4 days and 12 hours.

Coming home we got stuck at the ferry for 4 days! Was God testing me, I think so. Exposing my impatience, fear, lack of trust. Its always painful to go through purification but the fruit it brings is oh, so wonderful! We also met up with a young lady who used to live with us here in Bohol who maybe can help me with some of the planning work I am doing. We still tried to reach Gemma and even Pastor C during this delay but to no avail. Finally we got the money and virus testing and available seats on a boat totally overbooked for the next 10 days … and drove the last two hours to arrive home safe and sound, exhausted but ready to rest, prepare and go back for what I expect to be an earth-shattering, Kingdom-releasing seminar … soon. Please pray with us for this open door! Amen!