Day 4 - Church Visit to Luzon Ave. Foursquare Church

Hi, this is Jasen....

As you can see...this is a few days late as the New Hope Team had an opportunity to visit Luzon Ave. Foursquare for Sunday service and worship God alongside the filipinos of the community. Sunday service was awesome....and God was all over it. Pastor Jon (of New Hope Seattle) and I went to this same church last year and we absolutely fell in love with them. Pastor Fred is truely gifted in reaching out to the community and his wife Mira has a gift to work with the kids.

What struck me most about these two is how much they love the Lord. Pastor Fred has his eyes set on other properties adjacent to his building so that he can expand his services. Mira also wants to expand the church to at least 300 meters (no idea how much feet that is).....so that she can turn her school into a government accredited school. Many of her students rank in the top of their class as they go into elementary school (1st grade) and you can tell as she commands their attention.

We arrived at the church early so we got to fellowship with the people out in the community. I was so blessed to reconnect with some old friends including a man named "Toto" (previously known as TonTon by me - i got his name wrong last year). He was the man who gave his testimony about losing his construction job, but still had so much faith that God will provide. I really connected with him last time and it was so good to see him again. It was especially nice to have Aunty Eva and Mary Ann there to help me communciate with Toto and translate. I learned through them that he had 2 girls in the province and continues to send money to his wife and children. He is working on a 40-story condominium and works very hard. He is one of the few men to go to the foursquare church and we even asked if he would show us where he lives. Shawn and I climbed up a narrow stair case up to his room where thin strips of wood layed on the floor in which he slept. No furniture, no electronics...simply a floor with a thin sheet of blanket and some clothes for him.

Another person that I was able to reconnect with was little "Leogi" (previously known as Luigi). I couldn't believe how much Leogi has grown (approximately 4 inches)...but I learned that he is now in the 3rd grade now and also attends the children's version of Sunday service (at 1:30pm). Again, Mary Ann and Eva was able to communicate with him and I learned that his favorite subject is english and he likes skateboarding - although he would like to get a skateboard some day. Leogi was entertained by the camera again and the Mosaic ohana also poured out God's love to this child. He was shy at first...but then he gave in towards the end and was dancing, laughing and playing with us. He played pog's with his friends and was always curious where we were. We also got to meet his mother, sister and cousin Jonny (in which Christy was attached to) and see where he lived. Its amazing how these communities are so tightly knit with one another and the importance of family.

Finally, I wanted to share what an amazing experience the New Hope team had with this special church and their service. Worship was definitely moving the people of this church and you can see their hearts to praise God. After pastor Fred introduced our team to the congregation, it was our opportunity for God to use us to speak to these people. Mary Ann did a phenomenal job preaching and sharing her testimony about "Surrender." Mary Ann was able to speak to each of the Nani's (Mother's) hearts directly about divorce and bring up multiple scripture versus about what it means to surrender to God. From personal experience, she was really able to speak into their lives about issues that they currently struggle with (where their husbands often leave their wives behind for multiple reasons). Aunty Eva was able to share a similar experience and you can really tell that that these people were engaged into the message. It also helped that they were able to preach in "taglish" (taglog and english). Shawn and Christy also did a wonderful job as they spoke more then their allowed 5-minutes to continue the theme of surrender. Then I wrapped up the service and did my first "alter call." It was weird at first, but then God helped me to invite these people to have a personal relationship with Christ. With every head bowed and eyes closed, we had 2 people accept Christ for the first time and then 4 people rededicate. Praise GOD! We closed out the service in prayer and declared it in God's name to be with these people. Amen.