MORE FLO RETREAT

The 7 participating couples were pastors and wives from Tangerang, an area of Jakarta near the airport.

Scene showing one view from the retreat center

We celebrated three birthdays of participants
Women have their own gathering to share their secrets,
while the men have their’s, too!

We have games and activities that promote paying attention to one another, communication of love in a variety of languages.

At right is one presenting a flower to his wife at a special ceremony we had the second evening.

VIVINA is one of the students in the DTS class. We had just completed teaching the first step of pulling ourselves out of depression and adversity from Philippians 4:4 (rejoice in the Lord always). When I invited all the students to stand and practice rejoicing, she remained seated. When I went back to her to challenge her, I saw that her feet were resting on a chair in front of her. She said she did not stand because her legs hurt.

I told her of the woman in the Surabaya DTS that had remained seated during worship because she was tired, and how when she was obedient and stood, she had been restored. I asked her if she would like to try to stand in obedience to the Word of God in Philippians 4:4, and she said she would. Long story short, as she started to rejoice with all the class, she was healed, and bounced up and down with joy, rejoicing not just in obedience but she was really free. Later that afternoon she said she wanted to share the testimony with the class. I told her there would be time for testimony the next morning.

The next morning, as we were having testimonies, I noticed that Vivina was not there. They said the sickness had come on her again. Long story short, they went down and brought her up, and essentially the same routine was repeated. She decided to rejoice, and as she rejoiced, she was healed. This time she not only bounced up on her toes but she jumped. The next day, she testified that this was the first time in her whole life that she had jumped! Now she was truly healed and she knew it!

All this occurred in the context of our teaching about seeing the unseen and appropriating the unseen promises of God (see teaching in JESUS the WORD blog), in this case the promise of healing. God had provided the demonstration of the teaching!

NOTES FROM JAKARTA FLO COORDINATOR

NOTES FROM JAKARTA FLO COORDINATOR

I want to thank you for your prayers. I delivered my sermon this morning at Yosep's [FLO Alumni] church. Wow, his congregation is very responsive! Their spirit is excellent, if you ask them to read everybody started to read in one accord. It was great! Yosep has an excellent spirit and his wife is a real pastor's wife who cares for her flock, you can see it from the way she greeted her congregation. It's an adventure to find the church; the church is just at the end of a lane. From the highway you go through a small winding street about 4-500 meters I think and at the end of it is a road track to the left and there is the church about 50 m in front of you.

I was fortunate to have Tri and Kim with me. When I ponder I find it very interesting to find out how God gather all these pastors for FLO, they come from places that you would never think of or imagine, from remote places. And how God works in their life, you should hear his testimony how he got started. Yosep himself comes from South Sumatera (Palembang). He depends entirely on God and God did wonders in his life. After joining FLO retreat God blessed him with a car, he's going to give his testimony about this during the next meeting.

UNEXPECTED TREASURE - COACH SANTI

Meet Coach Santi, one of our BOSS coaches. When I asked her what she got from BOSS this year, she excitedly replied “a husband!” I was more than a bit surprised.

She explained that when she heard the teaching in ‘Hope to a Thing,’ how God provides for dreams, visions, and ideas to become reality, she applied the principles to her dream of meeting the right guy. Now she is engaged and planning a marriage, as God during this year has brought her dream to reality!

LEADERSHIP SEMINAR IN ROMBLON

Every year during Holy Week (the week before Easter, for those who may not know) I go with my hosts Mirlo and Gloe, founders of the LAMP Christian Development Center and LAMP Christian Fellowship church (someday I will feature their story) to Gloe’s home town Calatrava, Romblon, for church meetings, a Leadership Seminar of some sort, and a Youth Camp.

This year the Leadership Seminar was 3 days, with a commissioning of leaders at the conclusion. 7 teams from different communities were commissioned, including two from the Manila area that took the overnight boat and hour trip over rough roads to attend.

The town mayor attended when he could, and the Philippine Ambassador to Iraq attended most of the sessions, being on leave from his post for a few days.

More photos in the gallery on our web site www.eagles-wwj.org

SUMMER YOUTH CAMP

HUNGRY for the WORD

We just completed the 9th Annual Summer Youth Camp in Calatrava, Romblon, Philippines, sponsored by LAMP Christian Development Foundation. I think I have been a speaker at all of these camps! Last year I became the Camp Organizer and Advisor, heading up our team of Camp Masters who plan and execute the camp. More photos in the gallery at our web site: www.eagles-wwj.org.

Basic data:
Just under 80 participants attended the full three days.
We had seven teams of 10 or more
Ages ranged from 9 - 27 (yes, it’s not a typo!).
We had worship, teaching, more worship, testimonies, more worship, games and contests, more worship . . . You may rightly discern that we did a lot of worship! They had morning devotions together, each camper was personally prayed over.

Camp Theme: Winners Never Quit!
Theme Day One: I am a Child of God (loved and adopted)
Memory Pledge for the day: Today I will live as a Child of God for the Spirit of God gives witness that I am a Child of God (Romans 8:16)
Theme Day Two: Palace Life (what a child of God does)
Memory Pledge: Today I will remember to play the game of life as a winner, no matter what the past, no matter what the circumstances, for I am more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ (Romans 8:37)

13 of the participants received the Lord and were baptized Saturday afternoon.

Among other things, they competed in games for highest team score. One of the favorite games was where they had to find names, stories, or information in the Bible - it was a scavenger hunt of sorts, because not every translation contains the same words, and they were looking for English and Tagalog languages as well as the different translations. I’ve never seen young people so eager to seek out the Word of God!

Lots of hard work, long hours for 3 days but well worth it!

--HK--

UNEXPECTED TREASURE - LITTLE THIEVES

LITTLE THIEVES

Be careful if you visit these kids. They will steal your heart!

These are some of the kids at the orphanage we visited Sunday 25 March, along with members of the Monday evening disciple group. The group celebrated birthdays by bringing food and presents.

The orphanage is at the edge of the city, in swamplands. As we neared the site, we were passing through the swamps and I was wondering if the road might sink!