bearing one another's burdens

The following is my attempt to reflect on the past four weeks of ministry and adventure we’ve had since we arrived in Davao on February 11th. As always, my words will fail to sum up everything we’ve done / experienced / laughed about. But, as always, I will try. (I hope you don't mind that I'm stealing a lot of the writing below from our Facebook posts.)

We’ve been staying with the pastor of God’s Light Mission Church, Ely, and his wife, Krista. They have so graciously opened their home to a group of eight very loud - and very appreciative - women. We’ve been so grateful and struck by their kindness to share their home, and their lives, with us.

During our first week here, we planned and carried out the regularly-scheduled church ministries at God’s Light Mission Church including: a church bible study, evangelism around the neighborhood, a home bible study, a prayer meeting, a youth group meeting, and two Sunday services.

We started each day with our team devotional time and spent the day planning - and adjusting to our new home for the next 7 weeks. We loved getting to explore the beautiful fruit and vegetable market just a tricycle ride away from our home, and our friend, Mark, so graciously helps us navigate the market and carry our food whenever we go.

One of our favorite discoveries has been all of the sweet breads and pastries sold by bakeries scattered around the market. We’ll occasionally have our own little mid-morning “morning tea” time with pastries, tea, and coffee. It’s been really sweet to carry on one of the traditions of our YWAM base back in Brisbane.

As week two went on, we all started to settle into a new rhythm. Aly said it best, that the people and city of Davao “move to a different rhythm” than we’re used to - but we want to join their dance and truly do life with them, not just alongside them.

We planned and participated in the regularly-scheduled church ministries just like the first week, but found freedom in the knowledge that not every week has to look exactly the same. We really felt God asking us to fellowship with our church. Often times, we can learn more about Him simply in our communion and building relationship with other believers.

We also had the opportunity to share with a local school and their grade 6 students who will soon be graduating and moving on to high school. We performed a skit, sang some worship songs, shared a brief message on relationship with God, told some of our personal testimonies - and laughed a lot. (They loved Grace’s dance moves - especially her flossing.)

During week three, God gave us such a heart and excitement to bring more creativity and arts into our church ministries. We’ve felt encouraged to switch things up a bit and encouraged to bring freshness and passion into the ministry we’re doing.

One of our highlights of that week was our Women’s Fellowship on Tuesday evening. We really felt to provide a comfortable and open space for the women to gather together, feel cozy, and share what God’s spoken to them in the past through His word with our favorite Bible verses and passages.

Another highlight of that week was our prayer meeting with the church on Friday evening. We had the chance to share what we’ve learned in DTS about how God speaks to us in prayer, and together we practiced hearing His voice in a time of response through art and writing. It was so amazing to see the different ways God was speaking to our friends and to us, and to see the different ways they were able to respond creatively with paintings, drawings, and poems.

That week, we were also invited into four different grade five classrooms at a nearby elementary school to get to know the kids, share skits, songs and share what we’ve been learning about God! The students shared with us what they wanted to be when they are older – from pilots, police officers and engineers to nurses, flight attendants and artists. They also loved singing ‘10,000 Reasons’ with us and ran up to us at the end to give us hugs and thank us for coming. It was such an honor to be able to do this.

A highlight from this past week, week four (!!!), was our time visiting Samal Island and ministering to students in junior high and high schools there. We each individually had the opportunity to share with different classrooms in Grades 8, 9, 11, and 12 - and we know God was moving there.

We were a bit anxious and feeling unprepared, but we saw that as a perfect chance to rely on the Holy Spirit to speak through us and give us His ideas for what we should share. This was just a few days after I heard the news about my grandma’s brain cancer, and I really felt compelled to share about how God suffers with us when we’re hurting, and He is not the cause of our pain.

I shared with a Grade 9 class and a Grade 12 class about a time in my life when I blamed God for my pain and didn’t understand how He could bring good from the situation, but then I shared about how I see things now and how I know that God is always at work for our good.

I told them that I believe God can bring good even out of our most intense pain, and I shared about my family’s situation right now, and how I’m doing my best to handle this differently than I have in the past. I shared that I’m trying to seek God’s heart for this and see the good He’s already doing. I read aloud Romans 8:28 and shared about the encouragement it’s been bringing me through this season:

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” - Romans 8:28

It’s honestly hard for me to feel at home right now when my heart so badly wants to be where I consider to be my “real home,” but I can definitely say that all of the Philiqueens are feeling more and more at home here in our little corner of Davao. We love chats on our balcony overlooking the busy road below, walks through our neighborhood and to the market, and playing with some of our new little friends from next door - Princess and Dale.

God has been teaching me a lot about sisterhood - how good it is, how blessed I am to have it, and what it looks like to build an extended family outside of your blood relatives. He’s been challenging me to “lean on my queens” and ask for prayer and hugs as much and as often as I need (and yes, that is rather often right now). He’s been showing us how we can actually bear one another’s burdens, and I’m blown away by how He is using all of our personal struggles to bring us together in unity. (I am also blown away by the fact that God is using the hit teen drama, Gossip Girl, to bring us even more unity and laughter than we thought possible.)

It’s been so beautiful to get to know all of my team members as individuals and feel the power in declaring how badly we need Jesus and how badly we need each other. There’s nothing more wonderful than needing each other and having each other (and Gossip Girl).

DTP (Down To Pray Points):

• For myself and all of my team members - Robynn, Grace, Caro, Carolin, Aly, Morgan, and Anna. We are all fighting our own individual battles right now on top of planning ministry full-time, and we could really use prayers for strength in what we’re all going through personally. More specifically: Aly has a concussion, Grace is sick and her voice is strained from worshiping so much, Carolin is also sick, and the rest of us are "going through it" emotionally. (We're basically a mess but like, a high-functioning mess.)

• For our ministries - that we would continue to seek God’s heart for this time and His ideas for our ministry times. We don’t want to lose sight of what we’re doing here and fall into an attitude of “going through the motions,” but rather we want to bring excitement and newness into every ministry time we have the chance to lead. Prayers for energy and good ideas would be so appreciated.

• For the church here, GLMC - that the church body would continue to grow in size and in depth with their relationships with Jesus, and that we would continue to build the relationships that we have been forming with the people of GLMC.

• For my sweet grandma, Carol - that the Lord would bring healing and peace into her life. That He would continue to show us how He is using this for good in our family.

Thank you again for joining me and supporting me in this journey. I am still in awe of the support being shown to me constantly through this all. Thank you for your prayers, your love, your words of encouragement, and your presence. I can’t wait until I can hug all of you in person soon!!!

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” - Galatians 6:2

-bw