"GOD HAS NOT GIVEN US A SPIRIT OF FEAR"
II Timothy 1:7 

When Paul wrote his final letter to his spiritual son Timothy, he knew that he would soon lose his life for the cause of Christ. He warned Timothy that perilous times were coming. More than anything else, Paul wanted to remind Timothy that the spirit of fear did not come from God. We too are living in perilous times and fear and uncertainty confront us on every side. Instead of hiding in fear, we need to rest in the Lord, press in to Him, and look up for our redemption is drawing closer than ever. 

The Battle Heats Up

The spiritual battle for the souls of the tribal people of Mindanao continues to heat up. God has given great victories as eight new churches have been planted in recent weeks. Our first group of Bible school students has completed their formal training and is in the field as part of our church planting team. The enemy is not giving up without a fight and has counter attacked. One of our pioneer pastors in Agusan province had to have cancer surgery. Just before Christmas, another pastor, Virgil Roche, who also sits on the Board of Church Triumphant in the Philippines and helps provide agricultural training was hospitalized with head injuries following a motorcycle accident. Just days later, Pastor Allan Asang, who heads our outreach on Mindanao, was taken to the hospital with what turned out to be typhoid fever. God intervened and both Allan and Virgil have fully recovered and the other pastor is responding well to the treatments following surgery. 

The enemy has continued his attacks. A pastor working in an area that is predominately Muslim was shot and killed by Muslim rebels for sharing the Gospel with some children. Pastor Allan Asang has received death threats because of his effective ministry among the mountain tribal people. 

The battle in the spiritual is being mirrored in the natural as all out war has broken out in southern Mindanao between government troops and the Muslim and communist rebels who have joined together against them. The Abu Sayyaf, the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front), and the NPA (National People's Army) are all on President Bush's list of terrorist groups. They are trying to gain control of Mindanao by killing anyone who stands in their way. Hundreds of innocent people have already been killed as the Filipino army tries to drive these murderers from their strongholds. 

As most of you already know a bomb exploded at the airport in Davao City, killing 21 people including an American missionary from Iowa and wounding another American missionary and her two children along with more than 100 other innocent travelers and those who were waiting to welcome them. What you may not know is that this is the airport we use every time we fly into Mindanao. The following day a bomb exploded at City Hall in Tagum City, across the street from where we go to check our email. One person was killed and two others injured. The public school where Allan's children attend was closed down after receiving a bomb threat. Our second anniversary celebration and pastors' conference scheduled for March 18-21 has been postponed after three buses traveling to and from Tagum City were captured and burned. The Believers there have begged us not to come because it is too dangerous for us as Americans and our presence there would put them in even greater danger than they already are in now. 

Why is all of this violence taking place? What is happening in the natural is a picture of what is happening in the spiritual. The enemy is becoming desperate because he knows that he is losing! In the two and a half years since this ministry began in Mindanao, Church Triumphant in the Philippines has grown from one church with eight people in November, 2000, to forty churches with 8,000 people today. 

On February 14, 2003, there was a "Peace Convention" held in Kapalong in the mountains of southern Mindanao. Sixty tribal chieftains from eight different tribes representing approximately 90,000 souls came together to declare that the tribal people of Mindanao will seek and serve the Creator God of the Bible and that the Muslims are no longer welcome to come in any of their territories seeking to make converts! Yes, it is a perilous time for the Philippines (and the rest of the world!) but we still do not have to surrender to a spirit of fear. The war is on but Christ has already won the ultimate victory!

These tribal chieftains are among the 60 who met to form a tribal council representing all the mountain tribes of Mindanao. They declared that Mindanao belongs to Jesus Christ, not Allah.

The Harvest is Ready But the Laborers… 

The victory has already been won but thousands are still waiting to hear the Good News of that victory. The tribal chieftains of Mindanao are begging us to train their best young people as pastors who can plant churches in all their villages. We have a Bible school in Tagum City and another in South Cotabato that are actively training workers now for the harvest. There are 17 students in one location and 14 in the other. These 31 students seem like a drop in the bucket compared to the 82,000 souls who are still waiting to hear. We have a potential to start a third Bible school in Agusan province. If we had unlimited resources, we could easily train 300 students at a time, 100 at each location. The young people are willing to come for training. The teachers are willing to sacrifice to teach them. The tribal people are eagerly waiting for the workers to come bring them the Good News. We could start a new church every day if we had the workers to pastor them. The only thing that stands in the way is the $50 a month for six months that it costs to provide room and board and training materials for the students and salaries for the teachers so their families can be provided for while they give themselves for the work of the Kingdom. 

It only costs $200 to build a church building and $300 to prepare a pastor for full time ministry. Jesus said to go and make disciples. It is not enough to make converts and then turn them into spiritual orphans. That is why we will not go into a village to bring the Gospel until we have someone prepared to disciple the new converts and get them grounded in the Word of God that is able to transform their lives. We have teachers who provide agricultural skills and other teachers bringing literacy. Those things are good and important. Yet, they will have no eternal value unless those who learn to read and those who learn farming methods also learn about the salvation that is freely available to them through the Cross of Calvary. Our goal is to establish a church in every village in the tribal areas where the lost can find salvation in Jesus Christ and be discipled by someone who understands their language and their culture and can ground them in the Word of God. This war to bring the tribal people to Christ is a war that we can win, with your help. 

A Different Kind of War 

We experienced a far different kind of war as we traveled to England and Romania in January and February. There is a spiritual battle going on in the heavenlies in these nations also but it is manifested in the natural in very different ways. It can be seen as a battle between truth and deception or as a battle between hope and despair. 

On the surface, England is a post-Christian country in which mosques outnumber Methodist churches. But in the nation that blessed the world with John and Charles Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, and many other great men of God, there is a growing hunger for genuine Christianity and the Holy Spirit is at work. We ministered in a church in the Midlands that is seeing large numbers of Jehovah's Witnesses coming to Christ and being genuinely born again. They are being drawn by the love and acceptance they find within that congregation as compared with the bickering, backbiting, and legalism they had known at the Kingdom Hall. As the Holy Spirit quickens the large amounts of Scripture they have already memorized, they are becoming alive to its true meaning and make effective witnesses to the Truth, Jesus Christ.

Another church we ministered in has developed an effective outreach to people with special needs. They are having a growing impact on their community in Somerset. God is doing a powerful work among those that are often ignored by the world. He is reaching out to those who are mentally challenged but rejoice to receive the simple Gospel of God's love and His saving grace found only in Jesus Christ. These dear ones may have the intelligence of a child but their childlike faith is unshakable. It was a blessing to share God's love with them.

A War for Survival

In Romania this winter, the battle was one of survival. Like many parts of the world, Romania experienced the worst winter in 25 years. In Timisoara where we used to live, winter temperatures are normally in the 40's during the day and dropping into the 20's at night. An occasional snowstorm would drop a few inches of the white stuff that would disappear within a week. Not this year! A raging blizzard in December buried the city with three days and nights of continuous snowfall much of which was still on the ground in mid-February. Temperatures dropped as low as 20 below zero at times in the city, often hitting a minus 30 degrees in other areas. During the two weeks we were there in early February, it snowed almost daily. 

Prices have continued to soar since we left in 2001. Many small grocery stores have had to close their doors because people can't afford the high prices for food combined with the high cost of heating their homes or apartments. Malnutrition has become rampant in a nation that was once the "Bread Basket of Europe". Medical conditions which were bad under the communists have deteriorated even further as the nation struggles with a failed economy made worse by blatant corruption within the government.

How is the Church surviving in the midst of this suffocating blanket of hopelessness that confronts the visitor as soon as he crosses the border? Many churches have given in to the spirit of hopelessness and are just trying to survive. But for others, their hopelessness has caused them to seek after the God of all Hope who alone can meet their needs. He is meeting them in awesome ways. Our brief visit there was so timely as God enabled us to bring a message of great encouragement to the people, assuring them of His love and concern in the midst of the darkness. Souls came to Christ at every service in our busy schedule. Countless numbers were set free from hopelessness as God brought healing physically and emotionally. In one service, a Sister saw in a vision the cloud of God's glory rolling over the people as they worshipped Him from the depths of their hearts. 

In another service in a high school gymnasium, we had the privilege of ministering in a church which is reaching out to the homeless who struggle to survive the freezing temperatures by living in the underground sewer system or the train station. About 75 of these homeless people and street children gave their lives to Christ.

Life is a daily struggle for survival for these homeless people in Timisoara, Romania, who gathered to hear of God's love for them.

One of the highlights of our trip was when we were invited to visit one of the sisters of our dear friend Tina. Just before we left Romania in June, 2001, we had visited Tina's sister in the hospital and prayed for her. She had been in the hospital for three months. The doctors said she was dying of cancer and there was nothing more they could do. She was too weak to even speak above a whisper. After we prayed, her strength began to return. We had received an email saying that God had touched her. That turned out to be an understatement. The week after we prayed for her, she came home from the hospital with no trace of the cancer. When we came back to Romania and visited her home, we didn't even recognize this vibrant, robust woman as the same person lying helplessly in that hospital bed two and a half years ago. She wanted us to see for ourselves the total healing work God had done in her life in answer to prayer.

Real Hope 

Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ is the God of all Hope who is able to turn around the most hopeless situation. That is why we need not have a spirit of fear even in the most perilous times. Jesus Christ is the one real Hope this world has ever seen. He can provide healing for the sick and hurting, peace in the midst of war, and a shelter in the gathering storm. You can become a co-laborer with Him and with us through your prayers and your faithful giving to the ministry of Church Triumphant in Romania and in the Philippines. Through your gifts you can train workers who will plant churches among the 82,000 tribal people of Mindanao who are eagerly waiting for someone to tell them how they can receive Christ as Savior and enter into covenant with the Creator God who loves them. You can comfort those who have lost loved ones in the fighting throughout Mindanao. You can encourage and support your Brothers and Sisters in Christ around the world through your prayers. 

These are perilous times for us all. We can focus on ourselves and give way to fear, or we can focus on the lost and hurting. We can become a lighthouse of hope in the midst of the darkness, pointing the way to Jesus Christ who alone can bring lasting peace to a very troubled world. What will you do? $50 a month for six months will train a church planter/village pastor. $200 will build a village church able to seat up to 150 people. We are believing God to provide the finances to train 300 new church planters this year and to build 300 new churches in villages where the Gospel has never been preached before. There can be no greater investment than in the souls of men. Join with us in making an eternal difference in people's lives in these perilous times. Perhaps you can sponsor a student for $50 a month for six months or perhaps you can build a church for $200. Perhaps you could do both _ build a church and sponsor the student who will become its pastor. Pray and ask God what He would have you to do. Together we can be triumphant in the midst of our circumstances for we serve the God of all Hope.