Heaven and Earth are full of Your Glory

 

A couple of weeks ago I was on an island in the western Visayas region of the Philippines. There is a Balete tree there which has stood (and is still growing) for 1300 years according to Botanists. Amazing to think of all the history that has unfolded since it first sprouted from the earth. In the same town is Mount Kanlaon, an active volcano that has been spitting out rocks since Dinosaurs walked the earth; a truly magnificent sight as the sun rose and glistened on its peak and a squadron of swallows flew by and added their benediction. I am often in awe at the wonders of creation, it restores something in the heart to be immersed in it. 

But there was more glory in that town to be seen as I moved from creation to redemption. I went for coffee at Joring’s Café. Now in her 70’s her testimony is written on the wall of the café. A rebellious teenager, married at 16 and abandoned with 2 children by 21 she had a tough journey ahead of her. In 1976, with only 27 pesos (50p) and the support of loving, pious parents she started making coffee for the traders and shoppers at the local market, her children helping to serve and do the dishes. Through many hardships, and a renewed faith and trust in God, she was able to survive and thrive as has her whole family; her grandchildren are college graduates now while she finished schooling part way through high school. But there is more to her success in that she is also an example for the young, encouraging them to obey their parents and keep their values and faith intact, to not make the same mistakes as her; and even to those who do she offers hope through change of heart, faith and diligence in work. 

If we have eyes to see it, Heaven and Earth really are full of His Glory.

 

The Wa tribes in Burma ... how they became Christians .. from Asia Harvest website

The history of Christianity among the Wa is a long one, with God first reaching them with great power through a unique demonstration of His love and grace in the 1880s. The late Don Richardson's wonderful book, Eternity in their Hearts, tells the extraordinary story of how the Gospel first came to the Wa people:

"The Wa were headhunters. Just once a year, in the planting season, Wa tribesmen felt compelled by bloodthirsty spirits to plant human heads in their fields along with their seeds—just to ensure a good crop. Neighboring tribes always wanted to leave for vacation when the Wa were planting their crops, but unfortunately that was when they had to plant their crops too.

A benign influence, however, was at work within the folk religion of the Wa people. From time-to-time prophets of the true God, whom the Wa called Siyeh, arose to condemn headhunting and spirit-appeasement! One such prophet, Pu Chan, appeared during the 1880s. He persuaded several thousand Wa tribesmen to abandon headhunting and spirit worship on the grounds that the true God was about to send a long-awaited white brother with a copy of the lost book. If he came to the Wa territory and heard that the Wa were practicing evil things, he might think them unworthy of the true God's book and turn away again! If that happened, Pu Chan warned, surely the Wa would never get another chance to have the lost book restored to them.

One morning Pu Chan saddled a pony. ‘Follow this pony,' he said to some of his disciples. ‘Siyeh told me last night that the white brother has finally come near! Siyeh will cause this pony to lead you to him. While Pu Chan's disciples gaped in astonishment, the pony started walking. Expecting the pony to stop at the nearest stream, they followed it."

Two hundred miles away, an American missionary from Nebraska, William Young, had recently set up base in the town of Kengtung. One day Young went to the marketplace to preach among the people, and he noticed strangely garbed men gravitating toward him out of the throng in the market.

They were not Wa, but were men from the neighboring Lahu tribe, who God chose to receive the Gospel first. The Lahu had also been waiting for a white man to come with a lost book that would reconnect them to the true God, whom they called Gwi'sha in their language. Richardson continues the story:

"They stared incredulously at the missionary's white face, the interior of the book in his hand, and listened to his description of the laws of God contained in that book. Then, in an outburst of powerful emotion, the Lahu pleaded with Young to follow them up into the mountains. ‘We as a people have been waiting for you for centuries,' they explained. ‘We even have meeting houses built in some of our villages in readiness for your coming.'

Some of the men showed him bracelets of coarse rope hanging like manacles from their wrists. ‘We have worn ropes like these since time immemorial. They symbolize our bondage to evil spirits. You alone, as the messenger of Gwi'sha, may cut these manacles from our wrists—but only after you have brought the lost book of Gwi'sha to our very hearths!'

Nearly speechless with awe, Young went with them. Tens of thousands of Lahu became Christians, and it was at that stage that Pu Chan saddled his pony (200 miles away in Wa territory) and told his Wa disciples to follow it to the missing book and the messenger of the True God. When the pony finally arrived at the home of William Young, the Wa asked him: ‘Have you brought the book of God?' Young nodded. The men, overcome with emotion, fell at his feet and blurted out, ‘This pony is saddled especially for you. Our people are all waiting. Fetch the book! We must be on our way!"

Thousands of Wa heard the Gospel from both the Young family and the new Lahu Christians. They repented of their sins and gave their lives to Jesus Christ. Young's son, Vincent, later translated the New Testament into Wa.

During much of the 20th century, many Wa people continued to outwardly follow Christ, but their faith generally slipped into dead formalism. A vibrant, life-giving revival was greatly needed among the Wa, lest the amazing breakthroughs of the past would go to waste.

One reason for the spiritual decline among the Wa was the problem with their Bible. Because of their widespread locations and multiple dialects, only a fraction of Wa were able to understand the dialect the Bible was available in.

Some years ago, a Wa Bible committee was set up to address this problem, and a new translation was launched in a common vernacular that many more Wa people could understand.

Asia Harvest has been greatly blessed to provide more than 80,000 new Wa Bibles , free of charge, through our Asian Bible Fund . There are many requests for more, and we invite you to prayerfully consider supporting this strategic endeavor.

A Light in The Darkness

There are many good charities here in the Philippines (and all are needed) but mostly they serve the ‘easier poor’ where a scholarship or livelihood training program can yield a tangible and swift result. Below this are levels of more intense suffering, that of the scavengers and beggars who have no voice and very few to speak for them or reach out to them.

Drop-in Center 

During the pandemic however, when things were about to become catastrophic for them, a Catholic group stepped in. The Arnold Janssen Kalinga Foundation run by the Divine Word Missionaries were already running a drop-in center for street people where they could get a hot meal and take a bath and wash their clothes as well as receive instruction in the faith. So it has faith as its primary focus. 

Drop-in Center

They quickly formed partnerships with some Catholic universities whose facilities were opened up to house the homeless and missionaries and volunteers provided the food for several months. They also provided for many others who had lost jobs and fallen on hard times during the lockdown; a local park is still the venue where several hundred people a day queue in for lunch. 

 

in De La Salle University during Lockdown

Near Luneta Park ... daily meal distribution

Best of all is a new residential community they have opened to enable some to get off the streets and to finish their education and/or undertake skills training to lead them back into work and the mainstream of society. Its first intake are both young and old, each with their own story, from former gang members, or drug users and many others discarded by society. But here their often tragic past can be redeemed and the future infused with a new hope. Like in Luke 19:10 ‘for the Son of Man has come to seek out and save what was lost.'

Bahay Kalinga Center

For more information or to help viait :-    AJ Kalinga Foundation

‘Quest for Freedom’

 

The life story of Frederick Douglas remains a definitive work on slavery in pre-civil war America, because he was a slave, an eye witness, writing from experience. He secretly taught himself to read and freed his mind and the rest of him followed in due course.

Everything about slavery was designed to prevent any thought or hope of freedom; the slaveholders knew their craft well. The brutality required to subjugate their slaves and turn them into brutes, turned the slaveholders themselves into something much worse. One could say that to be a slave was to be possessed by the possessed.

It makes all the more understandable the condition of being a slave to sin, to be beholden to the cruellest taskmaster of all.

For Frederick, even though he was learned and articulate, there were so many obstacles and dangers in obtaining freedom, discouragements and temptations to resignation and settling for the certainties of slavery rather than the risk and uncertainty of freedom.  Many ensnared in sin suffer the same malaise. Freedom, whilst desirable, will make demands also.

The slave to sin initially gives reasons to sin because of the pleasure derived from it, then justifies it as not being sinful at all as the heart becomes calloused. Eventually there will come a point where the slave to sin has an emptiness that is so great that it can either lead to despair and self destruction or by God’s grace to liberation and salvation.

Eventually the yearning to be free overwhelmed Frederick.  Standing over a harbour looking at the sailing ships he prayed “You are loosed from your moorings and are free, I am fast in my chains and am a slave. You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip. You are freedom’s swift winged angels. I am confined in bands of iron...It cannot be that I shall live and die a slave.” Then he escaped.

For those entrenched in lives of bondage to sin, of whatever varieties, time will come when the heart cries out in a similar way. Freedom is only a step away, a decision and a prayer for mercy and forgiveness; then freedom is given by the Lord in an instant. That’s the miracle of the Divine Mercy.

Setting the prisoners free

There once was a man named George Thomas, pastor in a small New England town. One Easter Sunday morning he came to the Church carrying a rusty, bent, old bird cage, and set it by the pulpit. Eyebrows were raised and, as if in response, Pastor Thomas began to speak..."I was walking through town yesterday when I saw a young boy coming toward me swinging this bird cage. On the bottom of the cage were three little wild birds, shivering with cold and fright.

I stopped the lad and asked, "What you got there, son?" "Just some old birds," came the reply. "What are you gonna do with them?" I asked. "Take 'em home and have fun with 'em," he answered. "I'm gonna tease 'em and pull out their feathers to make 'em fight. I'm gonna have a real good time." 

"But you'll get tired of those birds sooner or later. What will you do?" "Oh, I got some cats," said the little boy. "They like birds. I'll take 'em to them. "The pastor was silent for a moment. "How much do you want for those birds, son?"

"Huh?? !!! Why, you don't want them birds, mister. They're just plain old field birds. They don't sing. They ain't even pretty!" "How much?" the pastor asked again. The boy sized up the pastor as if he were crazy and said, "$10?" The pastor reached in his pocket and took out a ten dollar bill. He placed it in the boy's . In a flash, the boy was gone.

The pastor picked up the cage and gently carried it to the end of the alley where there was a tree and a grassy spot Setting the cage down, he opened the door, and by softly tapping the bars persuaded the birds out, setting them free.Well, that explained the empty bird cage on the pulpit, and then the pastor began to tell this story.

One day Satan and Jesus were having a conversation. Satan had just come from the Garden of Eden, and he was gloating and boasting. "Yes, sir, I just caught the world full of people down there. Set me a trap, used bait I knew they couldn't resist. Got 'em all!" "What are you going to do with them?" Jesus asked

Satan replied, "Oh, I'm gonna have fun! I'm gonna teach them how to divorce each other, how to hate and abuse each other, how to drink and smoke and curse. I'm gonna teach them how to invent guns and bombs and kill each other. I'm really gonna have fun!!"

And what will you do when you get done with them?" Jesus asked. "Oh, I'll kill 'em," Satan glared proudly. "How much do you want for them?" Jesus asked.

Oh, you don't want those people. They ain't no good. Why, you'll take them and they'll hate you. They'll spit on you, curse you and kill you. You don't want those people!!" "How much?" He asked again

Satan looked at Jesus and sneered, "All your blood, tears and your life." Jesus said, "DONE!" Then He paid the price. 

The pastor picked up the cage he opened the door and he walked from the pulpit

Turning sorrow into dancing...a story from America

John grew up in an abusive home and said he thought of suicide during his formative years. When of age, John joined the military and excelled. In Vietnam he killed many enemy soldiers and was wounded himself on several occasions. He received many decorations during his military career.

In his late 30's, he left the military and said his family life became dysfunctional. He confided his personal problems with a Christian friend who told him to call on Jesus during his time of need and He would help him.

On one particular day, John decided to end his life and so drove his wife and young daughter from their home. John then took an overdose of barbiturates and drank a lot of rum. John said he felt the spirit of death come to him. At this point, out of his innermost man, John called out to Jesus for help. (Romans 10:13) The next moment, he rose to his feet sober and felt many demonic spirits depart from him.

When his wife and daughter returned home, his young daughter asked her mother who the man in the living room was. The mother told her daughter it was her father. John said his very countenance had so changed he appeared different to the young girl. John told his wife and daughter Jesus Christ had saved him, and had manifested Himself in a beautiful, powerful light. A short time later, John related his experience to a Holy Ghost minister. The minister laid hands on John and began to pray. John said the bone in his leg, which had been shot apart and healed poorly, straightened instantly.

Additionally, he was given a vision while under the power of the Holy Spirit. In the vision, he beheld an island in the sea. On the island, he saw Holy Angels ministering to multitudes of people through music. In the whitecaps of the waves striking the island were the joyful faces of people. John said he went to a pawn shop and purchased a guitar. He learned to praise the Lord in song. I asked John to sing a gospel song for me. As he began to play and sing, I felt the anointing of the Holy Spirit flow down over my head and ears like warm oil! Praise the Lord forever!!!

Relentless Love...a story from America

Nicky was only 3-1/2 years old when his heart turned to stone. As one of 18 children born to witchcraft-practicing parents from Puerto Rico, bloodshed and mayhem were common occurrences in his life. He suffered severe physical and mental abuse at their hands, at one time being declared the Son of Satan by his mother while she was in a spiritual trance.

When he was 15, Nickys father sent him to visit an older brother in New York. Nicky didnt stay with his brother long. Instead, full of anger and rage, he chose to make it on his own. Tough, but lonely, by age 16 he became a member of the notorious Brooklyn street gang known as the Mau Maus (named after a bloodthirsty African tribe). Within six months he became their president. Cruz fearlessly ruled the streets as warlord of one of the gangs most dreaded by rivals and police. Lost in the cycle of drugs, alcohol, and brutal violence, his life took a tragic turn for the worse after a friend and fellow gang member was horribly stabbed and beaten and died in Nickys arms. As Cruz reputation grew, so did his haunting nightmares.

Arrested countless times, a court-ordered psychiatrist pronounced Nickys fate as headed to prison, the electric chair, and hell. No authority figure could reach Cruz - until he met a skinny street-preacher named David Wilkerson. He disarmed Nicky - showing him something he'd never known before: Relentless love. His interest in the young thug was persistent. Nicky beat him up, spit on him and, on one occasion, seriously threatened his life. Yet the love of God remained - stronger than any adversary Nicky had ever encountered.

Finally, Wilkerson's presentation of the gospel message and the love of Jesus melted the thick walls of his heart. Nicky received the forgiveness, love and new life that can only come through Jesus. Since then, he has dedicated that life to helping others find the same freedom.

He reaches today's youth because they relate to his background, trust his peer authority, and respond to the message of hope he delivers with both passion and conviction. As one kid said after an outreach into his neighborhood, All I knew was he was an O.G. (original gangster) and he was having this big meeting tonight.

These kids are young, hardened criminals who dont respond to parents, teachers, or the jail system. They receive a glorified message of gang activity everyday in rap music, television, and films. They need to hear a different message - and they need to hear it now! They come to our invasions looking for an alternative to the hopeless cycle of drug abuse, alcoholism, and violence. We must offer them an alternative source of security than the one they find in the gangs. They won't surrender to authority figures that have let them down all their lives. But, believe it or not, they will respond to a message about God if it comes from others who have survived their same living hell. - Cruz

Israel set free from Egypt

This is the favourable time: now is the day of salvation. When Israel came out of Egypt, Jacob's people from a land of strangers, Judah became his sanctuary and Israel his domain. The sea saw it, and fled;the Jordan flowed backwards at the sight;
the mountains leapt like rams;the hills, like yearling sheep.Sea, what was it, what made you flee? And you, Jordan, why did you flow uphill? Mountains, why did you leap like rams? Hills, like yearling sheep? Tremble, Earth, at the presence of the Lord,
the presence of the Lord of Jacob, who has turned the rock into a pool of water
and made a fountain out of the flint. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen. This is the favourable time: now is the day of salvation.