Typhoon Suvivors Take Refuge in Sabang:

Charlie and the members of New Beginnings Sabang, Philippines had the opportunity to assist aid and minister to 63 survivors of the typhoon. These 63 survived the most powerful typhoon ever in history for they were on the island of Leyte in the city of Tacloban, Philippines, where the category 5 monster hit land. The men of this group are fishermen on one of those large boats that has the appearance of a pirates ship. The call came from the coast guard warning them of the storm. The boat captain knew of a cove where he hid the boat praying it would survive and then they agreed after the storm if anyone of them survived they would meet at an decided location. The fishermen disbanded to join their family members and proceeded to take them to a safe place. They found refuge in a three story government building and hung onto the rafters of the roof until the water receded. When they escaped, the building they were in was almost destroyed and all the buildings around were not standing. They made their way to their homes stepping over dead bodies all the way. Their homes were completely destroyed, they had lost everything and neighbor's bodies were all around. When they made it to the decided location all had survived except one. The boat was safe and they headed out to Surigao City.

There is a boat captain living in Surigao City who is a member of New Beginnings Church that is a friend to these fisherman. He let them stay with him and the news got to Pastor Charlie. So they came to the campus of Fruitful Harvest and was treated to supper with proceeds from the FH and the feeding program as there were children in the group. The picture will show that the orphanage played a big role in housing them for the meal. Charlie visited with several of the men and heard horrifying stories of their survival. One of the men had a deep cut on his neck that sheet iron from sheet iron and another had stepped on a rusty nail and one of the children had diarrhea. They were taken to city health and treated. It was a touching sight when the nurses realized these people had endured the monster storm. They held the little girl and cried along with her mom. The man's cut needed stitches but it had been too many days so they cleaned and treated it.

That night at the Wednesday church services testimonies were given by the crew and family. As they spoke in the local dialect, Ma'am Aileen Barton informed Charlie that all these folks are not born again as first thought. They were Catholics and Muslims among them. So Charlie gave a salvation message and most all of them walked up front and accepted Jesus. Praise the Lord.

Charlie is praising the Lord that NB,  Fruitful Harvest,  Compassion for the Fatherless and the Sandi Chester Feeding Program could lend assistance to the refugees from this horrific record making storm. They were feed a meal, given money to help them with traveling back to their original home. The mayor sent a bus to take them home and now we can report they have arrived back in General Santos. Charlie reported that one of the crew members had graduated from a Baptist Seminary in Davao and he encouraged him to disciple the recent converts. It was a touching afternoon and many tears were shed by all.

Eating their meal in the orphanage

Survivor wounded from Typhoon

Survivors being prayed over 

 

Please forgive me for being absent for so long. It certainly wasn't because I didn't have anything to blog! I locked myself out of the site and by the time I got the info to get back on I was totally out of the habit. So here goes. Just how do I catch up?

Just a few lines each day maybe...if you're like me you want read long blogs.

At this time in our ministry Charlie has been home on furlough since November 1, 2012. His time on the field was Jan. 5- March 29 then home for the wedding of our youngest son Marshall and Cherish. Then back to the Philippines for an emergency on May 20th. The June team left the USA on the 6th with 31 of us meeting up with Charlie in Cebu and then we ministered on the island of Negros and then to Mindanao to spend a few days in Surigao City where Fruitful Harvest is headquartered. Charlie stayed behind and I came home on June 26. I returned on October 18th with James & Vickie Hathcoat and Mike Sellers and we all came home on November 1st. Little by little I will fill in the gaps!

To be frank I don't understand where all the time goes? Tuesday September 20 will be a day for 4 of the team of 8 leaving for the Philippines. Robert, & Robbie Newsom, myself and Karli Carmon will spend a few days in Surigao City with Charlie and then we will come back to the island of Cebu and pick up Jack Newsom, Jay Sanders, Justin Sanders and Mike Sellers as they will arrive on the 27th. We then will prepare to leave early the next morning for a short flight to the southern part of the island of Mindanao in the city of Davao. We will spend 5 days doing medical, dental, optical Clinics and as always presenting the gospel and also working with the children. We will joined by our very own Missionary Shauna Hefner and Philippines Fruitful Harvest Coordinator, Dr. Lina Dumale and two of our FH seminary students, Jamin Morales and Floramae Salas. We anticipate a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit as we join and conduct this effort under the direction Col. Ramon Sawan. Our spirits are high. Please continue to look for updates via this blog as I have Internet connection. God bless all of you that has contributed financially to this effort. May the Lord bless you.





Melba

"TEAM PHILIPPINES" MEDICAL MISSION 2011

I will try and catch you up in the next few days. The Lord is good and the blessings are abundant in the Kingdom of God.


Charlie arrived home on May 7th after spending 3 productive months on the mission field. A short time was had getting acclimated and preparing for the trip back along with 27 others. This is our annual medical mission conducted each year to help the less fortunate in the Philippines. This year we coordinated our efforts with Compassion for the Fatherless, a ministry based in Sulphur Springs that provides awareness, education and service to orphans and adopting parents. The trip was a huge success with us visiting two orphanages in addition to conducting clinics for 4 days. This was our first endeavor to offer VBS to children in the orphanages and those that came to the clincs and in churches. VBS leaders and helpers ministered to a 1,000 children. God was so good in multiplying the supplies as we had prepared for only 600. Thanks to our awesome VBS director Christy McMorris, children's workers and FH seminary students for a job well done.

"Team Philippines" consisted of 16 first timers and 23 of the 28 being from our church, New Beginnings Fellowship, Sulphur Springs, TX. During the clinics there were 1,043 medical patients seen with the pharmacy dispensing around 4,000 prescriptions. Optical clinic fitted 866 people with reading glasses; 1,484 made decisions for Christ; test were administered for blood sugar and blood pressure was taken. The dental clinic saw over a hundred patients with many teeth extracted.

To God be the glory........more later!

I apologize for the delay in writing reports and updates. Charlie is on his way home today, Saturday, May 7, and will have many pictures for me to upload and send out to show you latest progress reports.

The new church on highway 1 has been completed with the exception of a few details in the kitchen undone. Once this is done it will allow the church to offer a feeding program for the under fed children in the community. Funds ran out before this could be concluded. Services are now being held in the afternoon under the authority of New Beginnings Fellowship in Sabang with several of the trained students conducting the teaching and preaching.

Also, the girls dorm is complete with a few minor things undone. The electricity should be added in a few days by one of the Sabang church members and the plumbing completed by the carpenter. Pastor Gerry says it should house 16 Filipino girls, it is not a large room but they are accustomed to living in small quarters unlike us spoiled Americans. The latest number of girls attending school is now up from 2 to 7. Praise the Lord. This means you have the opportunity to sponsor one of these girls for $50.00 a month.

Another area of development is the church/seminary permanent building. Praise the Lord as He has provided the funds last fall to purchase the land. It has taken all this time to receive the building permit for this building from the city. This had to be in place since the building will be two levels and built to withstand earthquakes. The construction work has been slow, but there is some progress. The beams are in place, but because of much rain the holes continue to fill with water and has to pumped out before the concrete can be added. The funds for this project has also ran out. We are trusting the Lord for his provisions for He has never let us down yet.

I will end this report for now for I know it should not be too long. More to come with pictures once Charlie returns.

Blessings to all of you and many thanks for your prayers and support.

Melba

"BLESSING BAGS"

In late March the FH Seminary Students passed out "Blessing Bags" at City Jail, Provincial Jail and City Health Facility in the Surigao City province. They did this under the supervision of John Kinsey, Pastor Apple (Paul) and the members of their New Beginnings Church in Rizal. The funds were provided through the donations of those in the USA for this project. A total of 350 bags were given out which included laundry soap, personal soap, deodorant, shampoo, toothpaste and candies. There were enough funds left to continue giving supplies to inmates who have perfect attendance to the church services conducted by the Fruitful Harvest representatives. In addition to blessing these needy folks with material needs they also heard the gospel message preached with some accepting Jesus as their personal Savior.

Wrong Diagnosis: Dear Friends, This is a “Praise the Lord” Report. Remember, we are talking about the Philippines and this happens often with many things where you think you know what’s going on but you don’t. After more discussion this lady was bitten a year ago! Since rabies is common there, when she began to have “fits” they all assumed that was the problem. She has been in the hospital for a week and they believe she has epilepsy. This is treatable and we believe all is well. I will keep you posted. I know many of you have not even read the first email for the prayer but we appreciate all of you that prayed in the late hours last night. I know I would wake up all through the night and pray for that dear lady and children. God is good and answered our prayers as I see it. What we thought to be an impossible situation God knew it wasn’t! Nothing is impossible with Him, for He always has the last say. Blessings to you all, Melba