March 14 was the beginning of the series of ShareHim/QuietHour/NPUC sponsored lay evangelism meetings in the Philippines. It was exciting, yet scary, for I had never preached before. Having seen ShareHim on 3ABN, I had a burning desire to be part of such a miracle. Taking the ShareHim reports as gospel that anyone can do it, and trusting that God would work His miracles for me through the power of the Holy Spirit, I signed up for this Philippines trip. Though the whole idea seemed impossible, I kept repeating to myself, “It’s about God, not about me.” and where the Lord guides, the Lord provides.” But even then I had many second thoughts as I was preparing for the trip
The hub city that I was assigned to is San Pablo City, where we stay and then travel from there every day to our respective evangelistic sites. I was assigned to a small church in Nagcarlan, which is about an hour away, even with crazy New York City or Tiajuana type driving. (It’s a miracle that we arrive at our destination each day, I’m sure). The conference provides vans with drivers. Because four of us ride in the same vehicle to our sites, we must leave early, dropping off the closest one first (me) and then staying with the furtherest one until they have finished preaching, then return, picking up the closest one last. We leave about 4:00 pm and get back around 10:30 pm. plenty tired and sweaty from the hot, humid tropical air. There are many beautiful sites to see with lush vegetation and a clear river flowing, but most of our time is spent in preparing each night’s sermon.
Delicious vegetarian food has been prepared by a local Adventist School, though our dinner meals are provided by the various churches that usually include fish or chicken. Since I don’t like heavy meals at dinner, I have requested fruit for supper, and what delicious fruits are available. There’s star friut, mangos, papayas, lanzanos, and bananas. Soon I will try young coconut, which I understand is soft and you eat it with a spoon.
Working with a translator means reducing the sermon and removing power point picture slides. This was definitely outside my comfort zone, and the first night, I did the full presentation as scripted by ShareHim. But it was too long. The second sermon was even longer and was the church service sermon - in the heat of the day, and yet. At both sermons I felt that I was not connecting with the people. 
In addition to not connecting, I had been having constant computer problems, and questioned whether it was really the Lord’s will for me to be here. Others were talking about how wonderful their experience was, but I just felt empty. So I kept reminding God that I was doing my best, and He would have to do the rest. Well, God DID do the rest. When I got up to speak Saturday night, I could not get the script to show on my laptop. I was able to show the power point pictures, so after about 15 minutes of trying to get it to work, I told the translator that I would just have to make up my own sermon. As you probably have guessed, the Holy Spirit stepped up to the plate and hit a home run. The people listened with rapt attention as I spoke from my heart what I have learned through the years plus I now had time to include personal experiences.
I realized that using the “canned” sermons did not require as much dependence on the Holy Spirit, nor give Him the latitude that using my own words required. I knew that I had to cut 50-75% of the script plus some of the slides. Believing the scripts were prompted by the Holy Sprit, and not knowing what to cut and what to leave, I struggled with the editing. As I traveled to my site, I was feeling apprehensive. Would God do the same for me tonight that He did the last night? Had I been presumptous? It was too late to change it, and God seemed to be giving me peace.
Once again the standing room only audience was listening intently, and when I called for a decision for Christ, about 15 people came forward. Praise God!!!
The day after preaching my first sermon in Nagcarlan, the Bible worker, Jerry, told me about a 12 year old girl who had come to the meeting. She had asked permission from her uncle to attend the meetings, who told her to ask her aunt. Fearful that the aunt would say no, she came without asking. However, after the meeting was over, she was afraid to go home. So she hid in the bushes - a very dangerous place to be at night for a young girl in the Philippines. About 11:00 pm, Jerry got a call from the frantic uncle. He learned that she had gone to the meetings and wanted to know where the girl was. Jerry checked inside and outside the church and found her in the bushes. He took her home, and the uncle said that she could go to the rest of the meetings.
Posted in 2008 Philippines For Christ
