Recently, a Ten Days team from the Philippines went to Chittagong, Bangladesh. Read about their report here.

It’s just mind-blowing how God orchestrates things to happen. What we thought was just a random visit turned out to be something more fruitful! We later on invited the students we met to the “farewell party” we were planning to hold a week after. Later on that evening, I learned from Tina that the original group of missionaries had tried to tap into the University three years ago but they couldn’t. And that day, without even trying or even thinking of it, opportunities just came! The English faculty head asked for resumes to be submitted and some of the teachers asked the team to be back and to help out with their Talking Club!

God really moves in ways we cannot imagine. We were hoping to engage students in going to the university. But we did more than that as we got to meet several teachers, the English faculty head, the translation faculty head and even the dean of the European Language Department. Now there are open doors to minister not only to the students but their educators as well. One teacher we met, by the way, is Christian. So she may be helpful in reaching out to the students and teachers.

Another note-worthy thing is how God used a Muslim for all this to happen. He was really instrumental in all this and during the English classes, Osan was bringing more and more of his friends to join!

2. During the second party, we had a “Pera O Bayong”-like game. The girl that got to the jackpot round, Salta, was a new believer who just accepted Christ last August and is being discipled by Nazgul. She chose the bag instead of the 1,000 coms being offered to her. The whole time, she stood firm with her decision of picking the bag despite Dan increasing the amount he was offering in its place. Because she chose the bag, she won a brand new cellular phone! It was evident how surprised and happy she was winning the phone. Later on, she shared with some of the girls that the whole time, she kept praying to God that she makes the right decision. And God answered her prayer! Her winning the phone proved to her how good and faithful God is!

3. I was pleasantly surprised at how helpful and full of initiative Aytbek turned out to be. He and Ilyas helped Dan shop for stuff for the second party. And when he got to the venue, he immediately asked around what he could do to help. During the evening, I got to talk to him and somehow the he said something about the team living lives that are “right”. And the way he said it was as if he was amazed and not at all offended in any way. It was such a blessing to hear what he said come from a self-confessed atheist. I couldn’t help but feel really blessed and privileged at that time to be used by God to “speak” to a non-believer so audibly even without actually saying anything!

4. Celebrating a Muslim holiday in the village was a treat. Even if Artyk and Iskinder knew we were Christians, they still invited us to their family’s farmhouse in the village. Their relatives took the time to prepare a feast for us. They even slaughtered a lamb for the event! It was such a wonderful just to be part of something that they really value.

5. Askhat and Artyk are being reached out to but not yet believers. Since they are always hanging out with Dan and Rodel, they see how differently they live their lives. Without being forced to, Askhat chose to quit smoking on his own and said he wanted the lives Dan and Rodel have. It’s now been over a month since he quit. As for Artyk, he promises to quit by the new year.

6. During the two Mondays that we were there, Merlee was the “guest speaker” during the girls’ weekly small group meetings. For both meetings, the girls said that they were blessed. But hearing what they had to say was more blessing to the team.

On the first Monday, Merlee talked about purpose. Before the session started, Albina seemed really sad and disengaged. But after the session ended, she seemed a lot better and was even the only one asking a lot of questions. When I asked her how she found the session, she told me that it was very helpful. She said that she was feeling really depressed but after hearing what Merlee shared, her troubles just faded away because she understood that in everything there’s a purpose and she isn’t alone.

On the second Monday, the topic was about repentance. We shared with the girls how, with repentance, we turn away from our sinful life and turn to God. And since it’s a process, speed is not important as long as one goes toward the right direction. Begaiym then shared her desire to turn from her old ways and be more serious in serving Christ. She’s really hoping to be able to come to the Philippines next year and enroll in SWM.

7. Nazgul has been really helpful during our whole stay. More than just being a translator, she was a great encouragement to the team with the passion that she has. She has seen the importance of discipleship and is actively discipling others. She works part time so that she can do “ministry work” in the afternoon. She is also hoping to enroll in SWM next year!

under the leadership of Pastor Dan Harder, is back from our 13-day mission trip to the region of Macau and God used each one of us to be a blessing to our local church (EN Macau) there and to the Macanese during our brief stay.

We maximized our time in Macau by conducting various activities to lead people to Christ and bless the local believers. We engaged students from the University of Macau and the Macau University of Science and Technology, ministered to the church leaders and had prayer walks in different parts of the region.

We engaged college students from the University of Macau
(UM) and the Macau University of Science and Technology
(MUST) through activities like bowling, dining out and English tutorials. One of the highlights of our time with the Macanese was our training with the UM Taekwondo team. The training proved to be a means of establishing our friendship with the students and connecting them to our local leaders from EN Macau.

Incidentally, during our stay, most of the full time staff from EN Macau were in the Philippines waiting for visas in order to go back so we had the privilege of helping our spiritual family in Macau by serving them in various areas. Pastor Dan preached the Word on the two Sundays we were there. We strengthened the worship team by conducting a training on Music Theory and Worship. We also had a teaching on Prayer and Intercession where afterwards, members from the church gathered together to form an Intercessory team. One of the major events during our stay was the prophetic presbytery we organized in order to strengthen, encourage and comfort the leaders in church.

Also, we knew the importance of prayer in any move of God so we made sure to include this in our agenda. Almost every morning, we would go to key and strategic locations in Macau and we conducted prayer walks there. We visited the Fisherman’s Wharf, the original trading center of Macau, and prayed at the Guia lighthouse, which overlooks the region of Macau. We also prayed at the Macau-mainland China border that God would bring in more missionaries to that place.

During our brief yet fruitful stay, we saw a region so bright from the artificial lights of casinos but so in need of the true light of God’s Word. We believe our stay there is only the beginning of God’s redemptive plan for that place.It has truly been a privilege to partner with you. Thank you for your prayers and support in reaching Macau for Christ. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20 (ESV)

“Choum Reab Sour!” (that is, “Hello!” in Khmer language)
Thank you very much for partnering with me! God is indeed faithful and made our missions trip to Cambodia a fruitful one. It was another life-changing experience for me to be among the Khmer people and learn, first-hand, their culture. Let me share with you what transpired during our missions trip to Cambodia.

We were able to pray for the different universities and government offices of Cambodia on site. The locals were so warm and friendly. We were able to meet some Khmer students and got to know them better; most were working students. They are already the children of the Khmer generation who experienced the cruelty of the Pol Pot regime. We spent time hanging around with them after their classes which gave us the opportunity to inform them about the Post-Valentine’s Party that our host church, Every Nation (EN) – Cambodia, organized. This is one of the events of EN-Cambodia to attract students to their English Language classes which make use of the Bible as textbook.

It was indeed a humbling experience to go back once again to the campuses and be able to share the gospel to Khmer students as it was done to me during my college days in Manila. I felt the same compassion for these young people who are mostly Buddhists. As the group shared the love of Christ with them, I felt in my heart that, beyond their smiling faces, they were longing for something deeper, spiritually, which only our Lord Jesus Christ can give them.

Again, I would like to thank you for believing in the call of God in my life to go to other nations and share the good news of Christianity! You’ve been a part of the continuing fulfillment of God’s destiny for my life!

Aw-kun Charran, (Thank you),
Analyn