philippines

march 28 i am going to the philippines for 2 weeks with manna ministries, people i have met at northview. they have planted churches there and just go to show God's love to people that don't know Him. they said that the filipinos are amazed that white people would travel so far just to tell them about God.

it all just came together yesterday. i had been talking to their son at alpha 2 weeks ago saying that i had been checking out their website and that i'd like to go to the philippines and he said they were going in a month.

they asked what talents i had and i couldn't think of any, nursing, singing, drama, sports - nada i just love God.

so i'm typing out tagalog phrases so i can hopefully communicate a little although we will have interpreters.

i'm building points on my visa until my tax return comes in.

girls night out

Girls Night Out is a two-hour evening of faith, fellowship, and fun for women. The program begins with a short music program led by one of our artist and worship leaders. A social time follows, giving participants an opportunity to mingle, share their experiences, and indulge in delicious snacks.
For more details, please go to www.gnolive.ca

Tuesday April 15th at 700pm
Chilliwack Alliance
8700 Young Road
Chilliwack BC

I went to this before and the speaker had an amazing testimony and was absolutely hilarious. If I remember correctly it was free and they just took a love offering.
Plus they had a free gift for every woman there. It's definitely an evening you'll enjoy.

speaking in tongues

paul tells us to eagerly desire spiritual gifts.

in the past 6 or 7 months two people had told me i had the gift of speaking in tongues. they had tried to encourage me in speaking in tongues but it just wasn't there and i felt silly trying to make up words. i know what my other spiritual gifts are and speaking in tongues had not been one of them. last week i was reading 'drawing near' and it was talking about speaking in tongues and it said to just open your mouth and let it happen. so i did and it did. it was total gibberish. i have heard many people speak in tongues but i'd never heard anything like what was coming out of my mouth.

this weekend at the alpha weekend away i wanted to ask someone about it. there were a few pastors i knew and many others i knew but i went to someone else. i asked an elder from northview about it. i wasn't sure how to talk about it because it sounded like gibberish to me i thought he would think i was a kook or something.

he said we should pray about it. he started praying and all of a sudden he's speaking the same gibberish that i was. tears were just pouring down my face and when we both stopped speaking at the same time he told me to keep going. when i opened my eyes i saw his eyes filled with tears.

he said he had started speaking in tongues about 6 months ago but he thought he must be making it up himself because it was such gibberish. he had never heard anyone else speak it before. he was happy to hear me speak it because it was confirmation to him that it was a heavenly language and not something he had made up. neither of us have the gift of interpretation so we have no idea what we said.

that the Holy Spirit led me to talk to this particular man whom i had never spoken to before was also confirmation for me.

1 Cor 22: Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers... Someone who came up for prayer was surprised to hear someone else speaking in tongues and said it helped them to believe.

raising peliquey in el salvador

peliquey's are a sheep raised in hotter climates for it's rich meat. they eat anything and are easy to raise, they have babies every 6 months and mature in 6 months.

world vision supplied 3 farmers with a male and 2 female peliquey's and when each has raised 11 animals they will start marketing them. they eat anything and what appears to be hay is the leaves left over after harvesting beans. they will be able to feed their families and supply their communities with fresh meat. wv gave the farmers the option of raising ducks, chickens or peligueys and 3 chose the sheep. they provide everything, the pens, the training in raising the animals and business and marketing.

fish farming in el salvador

world vision contributed the money to buy the materials to build the first tank and with help from other organizations supplied the money to build additional tanks (1.8 metres deep) and for fish fry and food to get this community set up with a fish farm. it's a 15 man coop and everyone pitches in and they get fresh fish. wv provided the business and marketing practices and training so everyone involved in the coop can earn income as well. wv provides materials and training and the people in the community supply the labour.

it had started as an irrigation project for a vegetable garden but it was too hard to get the water from the tank to the garden so they gave up the garden and started raising tilapia.

world vision sewing project in el salvador

world vision gave these 3 women a sewing machine, the materials needed to get started and training in how to sew, business and marketing and training in how to invest their income. they had made a couple pairs of sheets, tablecloths, aprons and pillow cases. they sell their merchandise in the local village but we bought everything they had and gave it to the family we were building the house for.

unbelievably though these women do not have electricty and the corner where their sewing machine is is so very dark even in bright daylight. i can imagine they won't have good eyesight for long.

but having this sewing machine gives these women an income in which to feed their children and a sense of pride in their accomplishments.

world vision projects in el salvador - computers

wow! it was wonderful to see all the projects world vision is involved in in el salvador.

world vision places a high priority on education and this is a computer classroom wv donated to the school. wv provided the money for the computers and pays for servicing them. the lady is the school principal and the man is danilo our translator.

the computer centre started in 2003 and 420 kids from grade 5 to 12 have taken courses. last year the school children won a national award in creating a website. the 3 best students get certified by microsoft. grade 12 students come to the centre to use the computers. the teachers and community leaders also learn how to use the computers.

most of the kids in the grade 3 class we visited are sponsored children. there was a boy in grade 3 that looked a little embarrassed when the teacher said he was 14 years old. i was just glad that he's getting the opportunity to go to school, better late than never.

faith in el salvador

at the end of our trip i went to the beach with another girl from the team. we registered at a small, new hotel, walked down the beach, then watched a soccer game across the street from the hotel. when i tried to lock our door on the inside the lock wouldn't work so i asked the staff if they could fix it. they used a little wd40 and the lock worked.

during the night we heard people talking in the walkway (hallway) that went from the street through the hotel to the beach. we didn't understand what they were saying so we didn't pay any attention to them. about 10:30 someone tried to break into our room. i just figured it was maybe another guest who had too much to drink and had the wrong room.

i had absolute peace and calm, my roommate however was terrified. i couldn't help but talk about how God knew exactly where we were and that nothing could touch us that He didn't allow and that i knew He had His angels watching over us keeping us safe.

the next morning when i was talking to God i asked Him about the gift of faith. we are given spiritual gifts to help people. i can see how i can use my other spiritual gifts to help people but i was asking Him what good it was having faith if i didn't know how to use it and i couldn't use it to help people.

a while later 3 police and the hotel staff came to our door asking if we had been disturbed during the night. i told / showed them what someone had been doing as they tried to get into our room but as they didn't speak any english i didn't understand everything they said. i closed the door and again the lock didn't work. hm a new hotel, the lock didn't work, then it did when we needed it to, then it didn't.

as my roommate was still afraid we decided to leave. we called the transportation company we had been using and they came and got us. the driver spoke english and told us that the 3 hotel staff had been tied up during the night while the robbers posing as guests broke into every room and stole or smashed everything in sight. considering that our driver told us that gangs just kill people for the sake of killing i thank God that our 3 young staff were only tied up and not hurt.

my roommate told me that due to circumstances in her life she had lost her faith. she has it back now. thank You Jesus.

our armed guards in el salvador

i had read that el salvador has the 3rd highest homicide rate in the world and believed it when we were met by 2 armed tourist police who stayed with us for the duration of our stay. even in the rural areas we couldn't cross the road and one of them would follow or watch us. they were absolute gems and i felt like royalty as they stood out in the street to stop traffic for us. there were armed guards in front of world vision national, in front of the gated compound where we stayed and in every kind of business everywhere we went.

world vision el salvador

the staff are amazing. their love and passion for the people they serve is evident in everything they say and do.

there are 5 adp's (area development projects) supported by canadians but there are lots more that are supported by other countries.

the wv national office visits the adp offices every week to deliver mail for the sponsored children in the adp as well as go over programs.

in 2001 there were 2 major earthquakes in el salvador leaving 2 million people homeless. considering that most houses were mud packed structures most of them collapsed in the earthquake. at a cost of $6400 for each house world vision has built 2000 houses since the earthquake, that's almost $13 million. the world vision houses are 46 square metres and made of concrete blocks.

people must own their own property in a safe area to get a world vision built home. if they don't own the property wv could build a house and then have the owner tell the people they have to leave as was the case with Damaris and her family.

sometimes the government helps but the houses they build are 7 square metres smaller than what world vision builds.

after the earthquake one family slept tied together at night because they lived close to where there was a landslide. world vision bought property for them and built them a house.

3% of the adp's budget goes to rebuilding houses. since the quake 5% of sponsorship money has gone to housing.

world vision national has 4 doctors, 1 dentist and 2 psychologists to provide preventive health and help to the communities. there are doctors and health care providers in each adp office. each newly sponsored child gets a medical checkup. the ministry of health has programs designed for each age group, moms & babies, teens, seniors, adults, etc.

they provide health training for teens and kids, have special projects for HIV cases and will have a rehab project for disabled kids to work with physiotherapists. physiotherapists from other countries are going to train people in their own communities how to care for disabled kids.

world vision aids program promotes abstinence, condoms and fidelity.

the culture is such that the men sleep with lots of women and women don't tell the men to use condoms because men would think that the women were not pure. the government provides anti-viral drugs.

health, education and christian impact are the first needs met by child sponsorship.

wv has a rapid response team and training in adp's for emergency response and security measures.

40% of the people live on $2 a day, 3 out of 10 kids are severely malnourished and 1 in 5 can't read, 90% of the rivers are polluted and 45% of the people lack good water.

wv is training mothers in nutrition and teaching agriculture and improving existing methods.

it is very hard to come back to this culture. my sister was showing me her latest acquisition, an expensive ipod that plays music, games, takes pictures, etc. all i could think of were the malnourished children of el salvador.

el salvador

this 4 year old cutie, Damaris, lives with her mother Wilma and father and 9 year old sister Cindy in a house made of empty rice sacks and black plastic. her crossed eye is the result of malnutrition. she lives in a mobile home and when the property owner, an american, tells them they have to leave they pack up their bags, literally, and move. they have no bathroom, they just go in the field somewhere. the father earns $80 a month and they pay $3 a month for water.