close link with the church and your investment, prayers, fellowship, encouragement that we receive here. We're very thankful for that. So I appreciate very much these opportunities and thank the elders for allowing me to be able to share with you this evening. I want to give you a couple of updates. The first one, I'm going to share primarily with you an exciting project we have going on in the Philippines. I just got back from the Philippines three weeks ago. We were there in May, and I'll share a little bit about that. But before we go there, I want to say a word about the Benin Clinic at Missionary Conference. I shared during the Sunday school hour about the Benin Clinic project and how the Lord had raised that up, just put that in our way. is leading in that project and been very excited about that project. The well has been dug, water is flowing, gravel, sand has been delivered to the site, blocks have been made, they're starting to dig the foundations that will be the perimeter wall. I'm now in the process, I've been researching a solar well pump And we'll be taking that out, hopefully, with me in August, when we go out there August 2nd. We're heading out to Benin, and we'll help set up that solar system in order to pump water out, which will facilitate the rest of the construction. In April, when we had Missionary Conference, one of the prayers we mentioned, of course, was the funding for the clinic. We were trying to raise $97,500. That's not a lot of money. Well, that is a lot of money. That's not a little bit of money. That's a large chunk of change. At the mission, we've never, this was the first for us, that amount of money and a big project. And the Lord has been very gracious. I think in April, we had about $13,000. the project. Most of it at that point had been raised by Colin Overnell, my brother-in-law, who was also part of the project. Well, since April, the Lord has just started things rolling along. Around that time in April, Dr. Jack had met a dentist out in Mississippi. That dentist sold a property and gave $20,000 toward the project. Churches got on board and a number of churches gave significant portions of money, 5,000, 2,000, 4,000 here. And right before I was going to the Philippines, I was so excited because for missionaries and missions, the 50% mark is usually after that is a piece of cake. It's at least in support. Getting up to the 50% mark is difficult. And once you get to 50%, I don't know what happens. People feel, oh, they can do this now, so we'll plug in. I don't know what happens, but that's usually how it was. So I was excited. I'm like, OK, great. We've hit the 50% mark. We're going to come back from the Philippines, and we're going to start pushing this thing. We've hit the 50% mark, and let's get people on board. Well, a number of months ago, I think it was probably before April, I had been contacted by somebody. Somebody I didn't know. I don't know how they got our contact information. Somebody that doesn't want to be known. They're part of a ministry. They have a board of directors. And they contacted me and said, what would you think about a matching gift? I got to turn down money, right? But I don't know this person, so I'm sending questions and asking, you know, why are they wanting to do this? And he had questions for me. He had a bunch of questions, good questions, like, what is your plan for the clinic? How does this fit in with local pastors? How does this fit in with the national ministry? How is this going to be a part of the local pastor's discipling and a local church movement in Benin? And many other very, very good questions that demonstrated that, OK, he's not only on the same page doctrinally, but he's also on the same page philosophically. And so that was exciting. I answered his email with a few pages of responses, giving him all the details and that kind of stuff. Well, last Wednesday, I looked at my emails and I saw his name and just my response to him and prayed again, Lord, I wonder what's going on. It's been a few months since I've heard from him. I have no idea. The next day, I got an email from him. And his email was, the board of directors approved a matching gift up to $60,000. So my question to him was, he says, a new giving. So I wrote him back. I said, well, we've already raised $40,000. That $40,000 that we've already raised counts. Why do we have to raise another $30,000 in order to get the $60,000? He says, no, that counts. He says, we'll send you the check. I wrote the guys. I said, we've got our money. It's all here. If we get that check, it's all there. It's done. At first, it was kind of a light down. I thought, this is going to be I was going to get into this. I was going to do some fundraising. I hate fundraising, but I'm learning here. But the Lord is incredible. So that's exciting. Thank you for praying. Continue to pray. Now comes the hard part, I guess. It's actually making it all happen. So keep praying for that project. Thank you for your prayers. I'm gonna share with you about the Philippines. If we can have that, go ahead and have that up on the screen, Mike. In early May, I went to the Philippines with two pastors, Pastor Bill Prozick and Pastor Dan Boyce. And we went a week before the team would arrive. And our ministry, sorry, our ministry, for the first week was a ministry at a pastor's conference. The conference was held in Cebu. It's a conference that I've been at for the past eight years and have been a part of. Pastor Bill has been a part of it for a couple of years. And it was held in this island here of Cebu. And so that was a blessing. It was held at an Air Force base. You can see this is one of the meetings in the evening. There were about, at any time, there were between maybe 70 and 150 there that attended. The night meetings were usually more well attended. And by God's grace, we were able to share. This is Pastor Melman Longett, a good friend. He's been our host there in the Philippines for many years. He was one of the speakers. Pastor Dan Boyce. Some of you may remember him. He had been with us. He was actually the pastor who was instrumental in getting me involved in the Philippines, also a supporting pastor. He was with us in teaching. And then, of course, Pastor Bill, who you may not recognize because of the facial hair he now has. But Pastor Bill was with us. Each of these men had Through the week that we were there, I had about 12 hours of teaching. It was actually quite a bit. I was assigned the young people. These are 20-somethings, and I had these guys. I had eight hours with them during the week, and just a wonderful time learning and encouraging each other in the ministry. The rest of our time and the focus was on medical missions and evangelism. And I want to really focus on the part of Eastern Salmar, because that's where we are focusing as far as planting a number of churches. And I'll explain that in a little bit. Before I start, Isaiah 45, verse 7, God says, I form the light and create darkness. I make well-being and create calamity. I am the Lord who does all these things. As I've shared with some of you, Eastern Samar has been a prayer of mine since really I first started going to the Philippines and Eastern Samar is this area, Samar is this island right here. You have Western Samar actually in the north and Eastern Samar in the south. This is Leyte, so this is Leyte Gulf and Leyte Bay. And you have Tacloban City, which you would have heard a lot about right there. So the Lord had laid Easter or Samar on my heart from the very first time I went to the Philippines. And the reason was because of the lack of gospel preaching churches in the area and the need that was there. And we had for many years tried to get into Samar and the Lord just kept shutting the doors until Typhoon Haiyan. This is our team. Let me just introduce you to them really quickly. Of course, you know some of us. Jack and Jennifer, right there, Pastor Bill. This is Jamie, another dentist from Mississippi, not the one who gave him 20,000, but close to him. This is Jordan Smith. He's a pre-med student from Bob Jones. He came along to help. We have Tracy Boutris, who has been a regular with us now, has gone on every trip this year with us and will continue to do so by God's grace. And she is actually joining the mission. And then Katrina, who has been a part of our ministry for many years. She's a nurse. Joy, who is a nurse also in the Philippines and has been a part of our ministry for many years. And JP, who is actually our coordinator over in the Philippines. and leading the ministries in our absence. We have Dr. Katoran, who's a doctor and has worked with us, his brother, Pastor Neil Katoran. And then you have Neil, also a young pastor from Cebu. Neil, Pastor Neil Katoran, and JP and LeBron were our evangelism, part of the evangelism. The rest of the individuals in this are Mattes and Jessica and Joanna. These three are related and they were our translators. I'll tell you more about them a little later. So we're in Eastern Samar. I'll point out this to you. This is Giwan. This is where we're working. We would land from Manila. We would fly into Tacloban City, take a bus. And our bus had tires that looked like a beach ball. They were bald as anything. Take a bus down to Giwan. Take us about four hours over very windy roads, and half of us were carsick because of the way the drivers drive. But we arrived, and here is Giwan on that peninsula. And I'll be mentioning these places, Gahoy, Sampao, Taitai, Bagluo, and Lontud. Those are areas in which we were going to minister. As you look at this map, you see it sticks out into the peninsula. And as you know, on November 8th, at around 1 a.m., Super Typhoon Haiyan, locally known as Yolanda, hit Guiwan. Right on the tip there, it slammed into Guiwan. The locals say the wind speeds were around 250 miles an hour. That is both Katrina and Sandy's winds combined. I mean, it's more than both Katrina and Sandy's winds combined. And it hit, as you can see, right over the town of Giwan. It was Cheyenne's first landfall in the Philippines. The topography surrounding Giwan funneled and focused the winds, yielding the strongest winds that would be seen during and from this typhoon. The winds lasted seven hours and were followed on the Pacific side by a 30- to 50-foot storm surge. In Giwan and surrounding villages, every single structure sustained serious damage was really destroyed. Just incredible. Those were some stock pictures. There's a few stock pictures in here that aren't mine. This one is ours. But just to give you a sense of what happened. Destruction was, as I said, incredible. This is the Church of the Immaculate Conception, which is obviously not true, but that's what they call the church. It's considered one of the finest and most beautiful Spanish colonial structures in the Philippines. It's a building that had endured for 300 years. 300 years of storms and quakes in this area, and yet you can see the before and after picture here. It collapsed under the heavy wind and debris borne by the wind. Even today, there are still those who are considered missing, who will likely never return to their families. Haiyan took the lives of around 10,000 people, just incredible. most of them in this region of the Philippines in region eight, and has put millions through incredible suffering. The physical and emotional and spiritual needs of half a million people in this region of Eastern Samar is really impossible to communicate to you. This chart attempts to summarize the typhoon's impact to summarize the area, 13 million people affected. Three million people displaced from their lands and areas where they've grown up and lived, where they've raised their crops. About half a million homes damaged. About half of those completely destroyed. Just incredible, the destruction of this typhoon. brought. The global community has responded with around 600 million that has been pledged, of which a small portion is invested to help eastern Samar recover. And while rebuilding is in progress, it's going to take many, many years. A few pictures here just showing you the realities that are still ongoing. In the middle there, you see Sapao. I'll introduce you to Sapao. Sapao is a village that was built on two airstrips that were former U.S. Navy airfields built by the Seabees in 1944. And Sao Paulo, you would be looking this way. The rest of the pictures are gonna be looking this direction. So you have the two airfields. This one is where the village actually exists now. Nearly everything here was swept away by the wind and then buried in over 10 feet of water in this village. You can see this is kind of main street down the main boulevard and what has been rebuilt. These houses, this here, there's a number of these buildings in Sapao. Families are now living in these buildings that house 50 families each. If you count them, there are 12, 12 doors. But they say there are 50 families, and so there's another set on the other side. There are 50 families living in here, families doubled up, each of them with about 40 square feet to their name. I would say most of us probably have the same square footage in our house as that whole building. And they've got about 50 people packed in there. Just incredible. trying to cope now. While people are rebuilding physically, there is a sense that many are rebuilding spiritually. We saw this. Eastern Samar has been a stronghold of Catholicism for decades. Here's the remains of one of the churches in Sao Paulo. See the saints? the idols that are part of their worship. Here, Neil is teaching the gospel to these kids, ironically, in a Catholic church. You can see the idols behind. I don't know about the prudence of this, but it was the only place to get out of the sun. You can see him sharing the gospel with these children. Not only has Catholicism been an issue and the radical Catholicism, but Eastern Samar has a long time been a hangout of the NPA, the New People's Army of the Philippines. They're a communist rebel group that has held out in Eastern Samar for many years. Since the Bush era, Americans were discouraged and, in fact, by the government not allowed to enter Even Peace Corps groups like the Peace Corps and so on were not allowed to venture into this area because of the danger of the NPA that was there. This fanatical commitment to the Catholic religion and the presence of the NPA has dissuaded those who would venture to start churches, gospel preaching churches in this area. The day before we left for Eastern Samar, I got an encouraging note from a missionary friend who is the Asian representative of a mission agency. He said this, we served in Samar, Western, the top part, which isn't as dangerous as Eastern Samar. However, we have many contacts in the region. I would love to be there with you. I'm sure you have been told Eastern Samar can be extremely dangerous place. It's full of MPA. Please be careful. really encouraged my heart as I'm taking a team into this place. One of the difficulties that has been a reality is trying to start something where you have no contact. There's no nationals there that are believers that we have connected with. Every We don't know hotels. In fact, everything has been destroyed. We don't know restaurants. Most everything has been destroyed. And we don't have transportation. We have no connection. So that's been one of the challenges of getting into Eastern Samaria. The Lord has opened all those paths for us. People are rebuilding spiritually. People who have been loyal to the Catholic religion are now questioning why a good God will allow this kind of suffering to happen to them. And Catholicism doesn't have the answers. There's no answers that can satisfy them. Many are open to gospel conversation. All of our teams, both team members, both foreign and national, have felt this from the beginning when we first sent a team in December And then in March, we went again. And then in May, we have sensed this openness to the gospel that would not have been there before. Gospel opportunities here are clearly a direct result of the disaster that came in this area. During each of the ministries, as I said, in December, March, and May, we have sensed that openness. During follow-up trips that have come between those ministries, we've seen individuals come to Christ. I'll give you a few stories in a bit. As we speak right now, there's a team of seven national pastors and workers who are conducting follow-up Bible studies in these areas, in these five villages. They will return to their homes on Wednesday. They are each traveling six to 10 hours away to be here. And on a regular rotating basis, there will be a pastor who will be traveling into Eastern Samar to conduct Bible studies every week from this point onward until we find a full-time man. Let me tell you the story of Romeo. I kind of laughed at his name at first, but that's his name. Romeo. This is Tai Tai, where this building is. And this is what's left of the Barangay Hall, which would be the town hall. And it is also our makeshift dental and medical office. Jack and Jennifer are working inside below. You can't see them there. This day, we were excited. that it rained, but that excitement soon wore off. It was really hot. And we all wanted it to cool down. And we all prayed every morning, God help it to be cooled. And guess what happened when it poured? God helped the rain to go away. I kept telling everybody, you can't have it both ways. It poured and everyone and almost everything was wet. In fact, Jack and Jennifer and the other dentist, Jamie, they were working in water up over their ankles and just pouring in through the roof. Water pouring into people's mouths as they're trying to pull teeth out. It was just, it was wrong. Finally, we had to just, we had to stop. because everything, all the meds were getting wet, everything, there was just nowhere to hide. We had two little canopies that we had bought and brought, and that was the best idea we had yet. But things were somewhat dry under those canopies. You had about a four-foot area, a four-foot square area that was dry, but everything else was just so nowhere to hide from the rain. So we had to pause for a little bit. So after all of this, here's Pastor Bill setting up his station after he had dried out. Now he can smile, of course, after the sun comes out. But we had gone through this, and everybody was miserable. We had used clothes, some used clothes that we were giving out. I don't have a picture for you here. I wish I had put one in. But Jack was now wearing a pink T-shirt that said something silly on it. And Jennifer was wearing a yellow one. The pink one was way too small for Jack, but that was the only thing dry. So after a long day, finally around 4.30, our transportation, which this was our regular transportation, wasn't coming back till about five. And so they were wrapping up. So I said, all right, you guys get out of here. We'll finish up a few patients with the medical side, and then we'll come join you. So I put them on this tricycle, four fat Americans compared to Filipino sizes. None of them were bad. You know what I mean. That's what the Filipinos were thinking. On this tricycle, well, they took off. I wish I had video. They took off like this, and the thing went whee. So they had to get Pastor Bill off and put him somewhere else to equalize the thing. Anyhow. So here's Romeo. Let me give you his story. This all led up to this. So we're sitting there. Dental team is gone. We're looking to wrap up the medical. And JP has been talking to this girl for a while now. And she is just trusting Christ as her Savior. And as he's following up with her after she has accepted Christ as her Savior, she mentions her husband, Romeo. who had mentioned to her some of the same things that JP was telling her, and who had also had a wound so that he couldn't walk since November. And so JP says, well, why don't you go get him? So we send a motorcycle. They go and get Romeo. We find out Romeo is actually a believer, which is We've not found another one in this area before. He's a believer. We're all excited. He's a believer. He knows about Christ. And he tells us his story, his wound he received in November. They had stitched him up. They'd given medications, but clearly now the infection, infection which had gone on since then, he hadn't been able to walk, was in the bone. He comes from a village up north Near Tacloban, where there was another church, his pastor had been killed in the typhoon, along with the pastor's wife. And the church had kind of dispersed. He had moved down here to be with his wife and family members. So we talked to him. We shared with him. We encouraged each other in the word of God. It was just awesome to find another believer. And now his wife has been saved. Just how the Lord worked that out. And they will be the first Bible study contacts, along with a couple others, in the town of Tai Tai. So how the Lord works, the Lord's grace. Here's a lady from Quang Toan. She was saved in March, as well as her husband, her children. One of her kids, I'm told, has accepted Christ. I haven't actually met him. But she has been housing the Bible studies since March in her home, along with this lady, Ma Tess. who also made a profession of faith, Montes right here, who also made a profession of faith and has been a part of the nucleus of the Bible study there in the town of Bong Thot. Ivy here and her daughter, who are Halo Halo makers. Halo Halo is shaved ice that they mix fruit in and put some cream over it and it's kind of like an ice cream. And it's a Filipino thing. We can't eat it because the ice is not kosher for Americans. It would put you under. But she got saved in March when we were there, and she has opened up her home. Her husband, her children have all made professions of faith, and they are seeking to share the gospel with their neighbors. It's just been incredible. Her and a couple other families there in Gahoy, in this village are going to be the nucleus of a Bible study there that we're hoping to see eventually become a church. This lady, along with a few other ladies, are the core of a Bible study now that will be going on in Sapao, in the village of Sapao, and then others in Barbó as well. So we're just so excited to see what God has been doing. In the Philippines, sometimes you can see many people make professions of faith. We haven't seen that here in this area, but we have seen some who have really put their trust in Christ and we have seen them grow and we are seeing fruit from their lives and just very encouraged. So those are some stories of individuals. I got two more stories that I wanna share with you, just God's doing. This was the vehicle that we've been using, of course, as you're in a foreign place. We get down there, we have to find transportation. In March, Pastor Neil had gone out into the marketplace and had secured a deal with these guys that drive this Jeepney. And, So in March, they were our transportation. Every morning, they would come on time, which is incredible. They would come on time. They would pick us up, load all our trunks onto the top of the jeepney, take us to the site, drop us off. They would come back on time in the afternoon. And I didn't have to pay them until the end of the week. They'd say, no, don't worry. We'll pay us at the end of the week. And at the end of the week, I paid them. We connected with them again this time, and they did the same thing. The last day of clinics, the last day of clinics, because it was a half day on Friday, because we had to go back to Tacloban, they stuck around at the clinics. And Neil spent the time sharing the gospel with them. And the two men trust in Christ. It's just incredible. Not only that, not only that, But I told you about these three translators. She's a school teacher by trade. Her daughter, Jessica, is going to school in Tacloban. She's in university now. And Joanna, as well, is in school in Tacloban. But they've been home because of the typhoon and trying to help family rebuild. They'll be going back to school. Montes made a profession of faith in March, and has been part of the Bible study in Longkot. These two girls actually translated for us in March as well. And then this time, they were such great translators, we asked them back. The day before the last, the translators, they're working for the medical people, translating for the medical people. What's your problem? Blah, blah, blah, going back and forth. I don't know what goes on in there, but you get the idea. And so there's not a whole lot of opportunity to actually sit down and witness with them. The day before last day of clinics, the medical side had actually finished up early, and Jessica was free. And I sat down with Jessica and just started talking to her. This is Jessica here. Started talking to her about the gospel, and for about an hour, I shared with her from the Word of God, and it was incredible to see her eyes light up. She got it. She's a smart, very smart girl. She got it. She understood the gospel and clearly was taking hold, and the gospel was taking root in her life. I didn't want to lead her in a prayer, or I told her she had to make a decision. I really wanted Tracy to be the one to lead her to Christ. And I wanted to confirm the next day that she really understood. And it was just wonderful to see that the rest of the team was waiting for me for about half an hour as I finished up with her. And the next day, sure enough, she came. sharing and Tracy was able to again, share with her and confirm with her. And Jessica accepted Christ as her savior. Very excited, asking very important questions and just demonstrating the depth of her understanding. And then JP the last day was able to share with Joanna and she also accepted Christ as her savior. And it was just so neat to see the Lord work in this way so that the people that we were working with, the bus drivers, the people who were driving us, and the translators who we've now worked with for more than two weeks, the Lord had brought them to himself. And just exciting. Exciting to see the Lord work. There's a few pictures here. I ask you to pray. I ask you to pray for the Filipino people in this area, Region 8 in Eastern Samar. Pray for him. Pray for gospel opportunities. Pray for these towns, for Kahoy, for Saptao, Pongkot, Taikai. I pray that the Lord would give us the right net. We're looking for a man, actually a family, to go down there as missionaries, as pioneer church planters. We're looking for a couple. We actually have the funding. We have the money. God has already provided the money. We can support a national pastor for three years down there to do the church planting. The money's in him. we've been looking for since February, the right man. We had one, LeBron. We thought he was going to be the man. Just a couple weeks ago, I said, no, I'm young, young family. It's far away. I don't think I'm ready for it now. In a sense, I agree. Pray, pray that the Lord will provide a man for us to put in this place. So pray for effective follow-up, the men who are there, Filipino church planter. Praise the Lord, the funding is there. And pray for God's timing. We want to seize opportunities like this for the gospel. And I think it is a unique opportunity that we have. Let me, we got a couple minutes, and in Bell fashion, we have to always go over time, right? A couple minutes, let me just challenge you from the book of Job, not Job, I'm sorry, Jonah, the other J. God asked Job a question. I don't know why I'm up here. I'd like more authority up here or something. God asked Jonah a question in the last verse of Jonah. I keep saying Jonah. Jonah. I'm going to go back down here. God asked Jonah a question in the very last verse of chapter 4. You, before the question, let me just give you the context. You remember Jonah, he fled from the Lord. Jonah finally preaches to Nineveh, a city of 600,000 people. Nineveh turns to God. Jonah goes into the desert to find himself a place so he can assault because the people of Nineveh are the archenemy of God's people, Israel. And Jonah does not find in himself, because of his own prejudice, any sense of grace or any sense of justice that God would somehow have mercy, that God would somehow be longsuffering on the people of Nineveh. And that's expressed in chapter 4 and verse 2. He says, That is why I made haste to flee to Tarsus, for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, Lord, please take my life. Jonah is angry that God is not punishing Nineveh as Jonah hoped. And Jonah goes into the desert. He builds himself a shack and he sits there to see what's going to happen to the city of Nineveh. And God creates a lesson for Jonah, an object lesson for Jonah. God starts to grow this plant, this plant that grows in the night, and all of a sudden, on the next day, it's providing shade for Jonah. And Jonah feels its shade, and he enjoys the shade, and he enjoys, in a sense, the companionship of this plant. that Jonah had really nothing to do with. He didn't plant it, he didn't till the ground, he didn't water it, he had nothing to do. But he enjoys the companionship and the comfort that it brings. And the next day, God sends a worm. And the worm eats the plant and the plant dies. And now Jonah is an inverse 6, when the plant grew up, it says Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. In verse 8, now all of a sudden Jonah says, it is better for me to die than to live because the plant had been eaten by the worm. Jonah is happy about things that are really non-consequential. He finds joy in things that mean nothing. And he gets angry about things that he shouldn't get angry about. Jonah's priorities are not right. And in verse 11, God asks Jonah this question, And should not I pity Nineveh? that great city in which there is more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left and much cattle. Should I not pity? That's God's question. I find myself in Jonah's hangout way too often and probably you can too. I become all concerned and consumed with my own pursuits, with my own projects, with my own hobbies, my own virtual world that I live in. And I forget I'm unconcerned sometimes that there is a world out there with people headed to a Christless eternity. There are people who have rejected Christ, headed to a Christless eternity, but even more so, there are people who have never heard the gospel of Christ, who are headed to a Christless eternity. God said, should I not pity? There are 120,000 in this city who don't know their right hand from their left. I wonder, are we investing more in our comfort? Are we investing more in our happiness, in our security here in this world? Or are we investing more in eternity? I tell you that those earthly things that you are investing in will surely fade away just as surely as that plant faded away. God had set Jonah up for the question. And so I ask you the question, shall I not pity? If God pities, how can we as his people not pity also? And how can this not, how can we not be driven to reach the lost. I know we are. And I'm so thankful for the mission's emphasis that this church has had. So thankful for the heart and the emphasis on the gospel, not only living the gospel, but proclaiming the gospel and sharing the gospel, not only here, but in regions beyond. God help us to have the pity that God does on those who have never heard the gospel. God help us as a church to be reaching out. I was excited this morning to see Matt Bixby as part of our new missionary family as we purpose as a church to reach the lost of Christ. Let's close in prayer. Father, thank you. Thank You for how You are using Your Word, which will not return void in Giwan and the surrounding Barambas. Thank You how You are using Your Word here. Father, help us to be about Your business. Help us to esteem the estate of those around us who do not have the Gospel as You do. Help us to see them in their need. Help us to be the source of rescue through Your Word that we ought to be in Christ's name.