Missions and Outreach

By Robin Schroeder (Team Member)…

It was a privilege to be able to be a part of the team that “equipped the saints to do the work of the gospel” (Ephesians 4:11) The needs are so great but God is greater! Keeping that in mind in the face of the needs gives a healthier faith filled perspective to the needs of this world!

As we worshipped and taught I would often notice an odor wafting through the walls that were open to the outside. I learned that it was marijuana. As we praised, worshipped and taught we were smelling the desperation and emptiness in those who live next to the church.

An area that literally broke my heart and I had to watch not to become aggressively obnoxious about was old, disgusting western men who go to the Philippines expressly to pick up a young, attractive Filipina for a week or two. The hawkers on the street would try to sell you things in one hand and the other they sold Viagra! My heart went out to the young women who thought that the answer to their poverty was to sell their bodies. How do we equip the saints to reach these women and who will reach out to the foolish old men who are trying to fill a vacuum in their own lives?

On the last day when we went to the slums of Cebu City we saw and smelled the physical needs of the people. Children with red, oozing eyes, faces covered in open sores, filth, lack of clothing and sanitation, etc. That in itself was heart-wrenching. But more than that there are people who take advantage of these children and teach them how to steal and pick pockets. We saw children jumping on the back of moving trucks practicing how to steal. There is a couple in the church who works with the people in the slums and has a small group there. Faith Tabernacle has a jeepney that they send to the slums every service to pick up people and bring them to church. Those who come are given rice as well.

Poverty, disease, depravity are everywhere. Our responsibility was to focus on the Lord and ask for wisdom and discernment to deal with those things while putting Him first! He loves them more than we could ever love. The warmth of loving nature of the Filipinos touched our hearts and we were blessed by them. The best way we can bless them in return is to undergird them with prayer and look for ways to encourage their faith, equipping them to effectively reach out to those in need around them.

The challenge of a short term missions trip is not to return thinking things are better where we were but to bring the wisdom gained, the closeness to the Lord that was felt and the faith that was developed back to our home country, family, church and workplace and be a missionary where God has planted us. The Lord did not send us for a ten day mission’s trip only to equip the saints in Faith Tabernacle, Cebu City. He also was equipping us to seek His wisdom and guidance to minister to the needs here.

Thank you for your support and prayers. We felt it!