"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2:5-11

Simbang Gabi

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!! 

This holiday season has been full of mixed emotions. While it is sad to be so far away from family for the first time on Christmas, God has been so faithful to remind us what Christmas is about. He is truly purifying our hearts and for that we are grateful. Christmas isn't about the gifts, the glamor, or even the family time. While I thought I knew this in America, it has truly taken refinement for me to realize these truths. And I'm only beginning to realize them. The Lord still has so much to teach us about the true JOY of Christmas. I ask you to examine your heart as well. If all that you've ever known as "Christmas" was suddenly changed, would you still worship? Would you still be full of joy? I found myself wishing the weather was cold or wishing I could help my mom and siblings decorate the tree while we sing our favorite Christmas songs. But that's not what Christmas is about. There's nothing wrong with family or trees or enjoying the weather. Those are great things.  But the moment my satisfaction is in anything but Jesus, something is wrong. And I praise the Lord that He won't allow me to wallow in false hopes. He is continually bringing me back to the cross. So this season as we celebrate His birth, we celebrate His life and His death. And we wait in great anticipation for His second coming. Finding our hope in nothing else, this Christmas will be about Jesus.
Though I've been a little homesick, I've been so thankful for how much Filipinos love Christmas. Some of them have been decorating since we arrived in September! Seriously, they consider all "ber" months as Christmas. September through December. Nonetheless, things are lively as the 25th grows closer. The market is busy and offers more than double the produce and items it normally does. You can just feel the excitement for Christmas in the air. They also sell special fruits like apples, grapes, pamello, and much more. Many people have been saving money since Septebmer to buy their Christmas meal and gifts. Aside from the marketplace, everything else pretty much seems to have stopped until the holiday passes. Schools are out and work is light. Most of the people we meet with for discipleship are taking time off to enjoy the season as well. We are in the 4th night of what is called Simbang Gabi. Simbang Gabi translated literally is "come to church at night." It originated in the Catholic church and was later adopted by all Filipinos. It begins the 16th of December and lasts until Christmas Eve. Each night (or early morning before dawn for more rural/farming communities) a service takes place where most of the community comes out to celebrate together. The Roman
Catholics and spiritists believe that if they come every night without missing a service, all their Christmas wishes will come true. While that seems a bit silly to us, it is very real for those who don't know the truth. But what a wonderful opportunity we have as believers to use Simbang Gabi to share the Gospel of Jesus. In our community, Simbang Gabi is held at our church. We sing Christmas carols, hear a small bit of the Christmas story each night, and pray together. It's a very joyful time and many of the members of the community who would not normally be interested in listening are present in hopes for their wishes to come true. Our hope is that their hearts would be pierced with the true story of Jesus and the true reason for Christmas. As the Body of Christ celebrates together around the world, join us in praying for the people in Maria Aurora. We have a few opportunities this weekend to serve and minister.  On Friday, we'll be helping facilitate a children's Christmas party, Saturday fellowship at Hot Springs, and Sunday I'll be joining the women in a Christmas cantata at Simbang Gabi.

In addition to Simbang Gabi, we've gotten a little festive around our home as well. Check out some pictures below!

Monica, Josh, and Kletz decorating the 'tree'.

Our First Christmas :)

Nativity mural

 (Josh painted this chalkboard on our wall last week. We wanted it to help with our scripture memory, writing to-do lists, just for fun, etc. For the rest of December, it's a reminder for why we celebrate)

Check out a close-up of Josh's skill!

The Great Commission

I promised to let you know more about Josh's sermon from last Sunday. Here are the notes I took. Enjoy!

• Our Mission- Get the Gospel to the Nations
• Our Promise- The Mission Will be Completed 
• Over 40% of the world has not been reached with the Gospel 
• Matthew 24:14 says "And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come." 
• The Gospel has been taken to all nations, but when we refer to nations here, we aren't referring to Philippines or America, but peoples. For instance, the Alta tribe here in Aurora. 
• Revelation 7:9 says "After this I looked and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands." 
• Matthew 28:19-20 holds 4 commands. As we read it, let's ask "Am I/Are we following this command?" "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." 
1. GO- not to be confused with come. I wouldn't go to a mosque. Why would a non-believer come to church to worship a God they don't know or worship? Example- Bro. Benjy (a local ice cream man) doesn't stay at home and shout 'Come!'. He goes to his customers. And our gospel is way more valuable than ice cream. 
2. MAKE DISCIPLES- not converts. 2 Timothy 2:2 says "and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." Make disciples who will make disciples. Pray, Go, and Give to all nations. Psalm 96 says declare His glory. God cares about this. 
3. BAPTIZE- all disciples must be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit 
4. TEACH- it doesn't say teach them all I've taught you. It says teach them to observe all I've taught you. This is more than passing on knowledge. We must teach them how to follow and obey. Knowledge is wasted if it isn't transferred into obedience. 

• Are we obeying this command? If yes, great. If not, why? 
• Here is a list of typical reasons why Josh believes we do no obey: 
• Lack of knowledge. If this is you, now you know. 
• We don't know how. There are so many leaders in the church who want to help you learn how. Please ask. 
• We are unwilling to change our plans. Ex- The church in America has many successes but one of it's major downfalls is their desire to build bigger buildings and pave parking lots. These in themselves are not bad, but the mission is not done! We must seek God's plan. Another ex- It's easier to invite people to church than to go to the people, but this is not necessarily what the Bible tells us to do. 
• Our satisfaction is not in Christ alone. Until we are fully satisfied in Christ, we will not desire to take His glory to the nations. 
• We are entangled in worldly passions. For example, involved in sexual immorality or maybe you care more about checking facebook and spending time on the internet. Sin keeps us from fulfilling the Great Commission. 
• We don't care about God's glory among the nations. Look at Scripture. God is passionate about His glory being made known! 
• Manny Pacquiao is known around the world. The #2 boxer is not really known outside of the Philippines. This is the difference in global vs. national fame. God wants HIS NAME to be KNOWN. He wants to be global. We go and we tell because Christ deserves the worship of all. (For all you ladies out there, like myself, who have no idea who Manny Pacquiao is, he is a world  champion Filipino boxer. Last Sunday when Josh spoke was one of his biggest fights of the year. The congregation loved that he mentioned him!) 
• 7, 107 out of 15, 565 people groups are unreached by the Gospel. This is 2.9 out of 7 billion people. Over 2/3 of the world does not worship Him. 25,000 are dying every day of preventable diseases. The command is urgent. We have to GO. 
• Our Response- Our only option is to trust Christ and obey what He said to do. 
• This life is a war and it is not easy. But our God is worth it and He has already promised that the command will be fulfilled. 
• 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says "For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. 

Please really take your time to read these words that God spoke through Josh. I was both challenged and encouraged. May you be spurred on as well.
I hope you all have a blessed week.  

Life as of lately

Hey everyone, we've had some blog trouble lately so I'm a little behind and I feel like I have so much to tell you! Literally, I've had a few thoughts of "I should blog about this" and I couldn't! We've been busy lately, so I'll try to catch you up on everything as best I can!

For starters, we've been harvesting a lot of tilapia from Barry & Lilia's pond. This has brought a lot of visitors to our house to buy the fish. And I've grown a new love for tilapia cooked in coconut milk! Yum. The pond will be plowed this week and the process will start all over again.

Doesn't this kind of remind you of a Bible story?

We had an impromptu photo shoot on the way home from a campus ministry. Once a month we will be going to the high school in a community called San Isidro to help teach Christian values. 

Isn't the scenery BEAUTIFUL?

We've set out on the quest to memorize a book of the Bible during our time here. This is one of our Trek-X assignments. Josh and I chose Colossians. 

Josh preached at church on Sunday. He really did a wonderful job. He spoke on missions/The Great Commission and I was both challenged and encouraged by his words. (There will be a blog to come sharing with you exactly what he preached!) Praise the Lord for choosing to use him as well as Kletz, his awesome translator :) 

We've been doing a lot of strategizing, planning, and praying about our goals here and how to reach Maria Aurora and the surrounding areas. We desire to make disciples, who will make disciples. 

 We received a package from my parents!! It was so exciting to get something from home. In the package we received LOTS of our favorite snacks, some cleaning products, material for ministry, games to play with the kids, more snacks, medicines, and so much more! {This is a story for a whole other blog, but Lilia was also able to share the Gospel with the delivery guys and they both prayed to receive Christ. Please pray for Donald and his friend/coworker. Pray for God to place other believers in their paths that they may be discipled into maturity.} 

Our friends Ruben and Shiela (who are engaged to be married soon!) came over on Monday to cook lunch with us. We had Sheila's favorite--duck adobo with coconut milk. It is quite possibly my new favorite as well. It was so good and so fun to spend the day with them. We believe God will use this couple in beautiful ways. 

Duck, potatoes, carrots, ginger, coconut, and so much more.

Meet Shiela

and Ruben :)

Let's see, we've also celebrated a couple of birthdays with our neighbors, attended our language lessons, and continued to train some young people in the community of Calabuanan to reach their friends, families, and neighbors with the Gospel.  Monica and I went to a women's ministry Christmas party. It lasted from 9am-3pm! We did everything from sing, to play relay games, to share potluck lunch, to exchange gifts! I was also able to share the devotion for the day. The party brought out the Christmas spirit in me for sure!

As you can see, we've been up to a alot lately. It's been so fun, so rewarding, and pretty tiring. But at the end of each day I cannot come up with enough words to praise the Lord for His continued faithfulness. He alone has qualified us for His work. He alone is worthy of our praise.