Mission to the Philippines 2004

Well, we did have an interesting 4 weeks visiting the Philippines last year! Not only did we have a great time meeting & ministering to family and friends, we also saw God move wonderfully on our visit to the Muntinlupa maximum & minimum security prisons….

We met the ‘woman who couldn’t die’ too…. She’d been beaten up & left for dead, had a live hand grenade thrown into her bedroom, was shot in the head, framed for a crime she didn’t commit & sentenced to death, and she tried committing suicide by slashing her wrists! Thankfully, she was acquitted of the crime and released from prison. She found Jesus and had her sins forgiven, and she now serves God as the house keeper in the half-way house located 20 minutes away from the prison itself.

We saw several miracles in our 4 weeks there… Firstly, we were directly in the path of a level 4 typhoon which had winds of up to 220kph. Thanks to the prayers of the people at Turbary we were protected from the devastation as the typhoon diverted its path at the 11th hour. We only had to endure a level 2 typhoon, which was just like a strong gale here in the UK… We still couldn’t go anywhere though, as it was still powerful enough to knock out the power & close the roads.

When we arrived back in Manila, we were told that the Governor of the maximum security prison had barred any visitors for a month. This was due to a prisoner pick-pocketing the wallet of a Congressman the day before our arrival!!! There seemed to be no hope of entering the prison to minister, but God made a way! We ministered in the minimum security prison in the morning, and on the off chance went to see if we could gain access to the maximum security after lunch…. WE WALKED STRAIGHT IN!
We walked through to the far end of the compound to the church fellowship we were going to minister to. When we got there, there was no electric power which had been turned off some 3 weeks before in a government ’energy saving’ program. With a corrugated iron roof and temperatures upwards of 28°C, it was looking like it was going to be a long, hot afternoon without an electric fan. But God intervened again! About 10 minutes after we arrived, there was an excited commotion and someone rushed in to tell us that the power had been turned back on!

Thanks to the generosity of the congregation at Turbary Church, we were also able to purchase a motorcycle for Pastor Lucas Dangatan, who heads up the Christian work in the Maximum security prison. This will enable him to travel easily to prisons throughout the Philippines. His hard work over the years has seen a fantastic ministry flourish inside the prison, with many prisoners lives turned around by the Gospel. He has even established a Bible college inside the compound, which trains prisoners to become Pastors. He was very excited and extremely grateful for this wonderful gift.

There are many more stories to tell about our ministry in the Muntinlupa prisons, but we have no time or space to tell you!

This coming year we are hoping to go back to the Philippines and continue the work at the Muntinlupa prison complex, hopefully in either October or November. This time though, we hope to be amongst a team of people from Turbary church…. Watch this space for news!