Here is XtnYoda in disguise as "Moses" in the Philippines. Used by God. Thanks for the prayers!

For some thoughts I share the result report as given by the team leader...so the following is just copied and pasted from his report...

16,113+ responses
664+ professions of faith
407+ surrendered to full-time ministry
32,360+ meals served to peoples attending
1,207 different local churches were represented
1,565 house churches daughtered by these churches
These churches represent 123,950 church membership
These churches are surrounded by 4,946,000 people

From the time I left America until I laid my head on a pillow was over three days. When we arrived at our first ministry location they were already meeting and waiting on us...that was at St. Thomas on Mindanao. That was the one actual area evangelistic event lasting two nights and where most of the professions of faith came from.

The rest of the time was a flurry of seven conferences in various locations with various target groups such as:
Pastors and spouses
Lay leader training
Youth equipping and training meetings
Husband and wife conferences
Worship conferences with a focus on bringing different denomination groups together for joint worship and ministry.

I was used to preach, teach, sing some songs I've written, and perform a costumed presentation of the epic piece titled "Moses" by Ken Medema. I also did some subsequent preaching costumed as "Moses" which I had never planned on doing nor had ever thought of doing...matter of fact I will forever be known in the Philippines as "Moses"! I think I performed Medema's "Moses" eight times at least during the month. (If you should ever want a visit from Moses at your church just let me know!)

Half of the month we were teaching various groups at 5am and going till 10pm at night.

The first half of the month was on Mindanao which was hot and south. The second half of the month was on Luzon and in the mountains at around 5,000 feet in Bagiuo City. It was like a different world.

One very touching story from our American team of nine. One team member from Mississippi was a single, beautiful 22 year old young lady. She was a native Philippine who was abandoned by her mother at a hospital as a baby. Soon afterward she was adopted by an American couple and brought to the states and raised here. Soon afterward Mt. Pinatubo erupted and destroyed the village she was from and killed her birthed family. On our way to Bagiuo we drove by Mt Pinatubo and through the area she might have been in as a baby. It was Heather's first time back to the Philippines and very moving for her and all of us. Her's was a powerful presence to the various youth groups we visited with and her life story was used mightily by God, at least in my life.

I met incredibly dedicated people. I was dumbfounded and ashamed of myself while trying not to act so. Let me tell you of one family...

Three generations here...grandparents, kids, and grandkids. The kids feel called to go into the Muslim areas and share the good news of "Isa" with the Muslim people. (Isa is Jesus) So far one young husband has actually baptized over 140 Muslim men. This is their life...what they believe they are called to do. When the young couples go back into the Muslim areas they leave their children with the grandparents and say, "good-by". What this means is they say good-by expecting that they will die on this trip and not see their children again...they say "good-by"...

After one presentation of "Moses" a grandmother came up to me with tears streaming and shared with me that she was quitting her job as a teacher to go share Isa with the Muslim people the rest of her life. She did in fact quit her job the next day and is making preparations to go...with her husbands blessing.

Of course all the decisions being made were not to go to the Muslim groups but those were the kind of commitments people were making in those 16,000+ responses at the start of this post. We weren't asking for those kind of commitments...we didn't even have any frame of reference to ask for those kind of commitments. When I figured out the depth of decisions those believers were making I was terrified in the depths of my soul. I saw mountain tribes march three days, crossing 34 rivers to sit at our feet longing to hear how they could become more committed to Christ.

XtnYoda Shalomed