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January 3, 1997 to January 28, 1997
This area contains reports which were received from Canon Weeks while he was in the mission field. When he and a team are in the field, these dispatches are sent via e-mail and posted to the active area of the website.
To review an individual date's report, simply click on one of the dates shown below:
[ January 3, 1997 ][ January 8, 1997 ][ January 12, 1997 ]
Brothers and Sisters: Well, we have arrived safely, but first a quick note regarding our website. Our Home Page made it to be one of the finalists in a WEB PAGE OF THE YEAR contest. I would appreciate your vote for my page. You can send a direct vote via e-mail to : vmaffea1@magic.hofstra.edu. The subject of the e-mail should be VOTE and in the message block say you are voting for ID # 131 - Barnabas Ministries. For me this is an unexpected honor to be chosen. Your vote counts, but it must be done this week to be counted. You can see the Special Voting ICON at the bottom of our Home Page : http://www.inet-usa.com/barnabas/ Please VOTE now for the only Christian page [I believe] to get nominated. Second, your PRAYERS as we start our first outreach. After two aircraft problems the team arrived 5 hours late on Jan 2. I beat them to the hotel by one hour. They were suppose to arrive ahead of me. With 4 hours sleep we began our work with the first day [Friday] in orientation with the Filipino team members of our Convergence Outreach with the Charismatic Episcopal Church of the Philippines. We met with Archbishop Hines and about a dozen priests, deacons and lay members of the Cathedral of the King preparing for the outreach. I prepared a manual especially for this outreach containing modules on Language, Communication, New Birth, the Holy Spirit, Spiritual Gifts and Fruit, Liturgy, Eucharistic Worship, and Healing. Using the Manual we spent Friday and Saturday preparing for the intense outreach in Lubao, Pampanga Province near where Clark Air Force Base once was. This outreach begins Sunday [Jan 5] and we return to Manila Jan 8. The evening meetings will consist of worship, testimony and teaching by the Filipino team members concluding with a healing service Sunday and Monday. Wednesday night will conclude with an instructive Eucharist. Monday and Tuesday day meetings will be conducted by American team members teaching on Salvation, Baptism in the Spirit, Spiritual Gifts and Fruit, and the importance and meaning of Eucharistic worship. The methodology of this outreach is new. It is our first time to have a joint team of Americans and Filipinos. The interaction on the first day was a good indication that a true community is in the making. The American team consists of 4 ECUSA and 3 CEC people joining Filipinos for the purpose of witnessing to Christian unity and the furtherance of the Kingdom of GOD. We covet your prayers. My next report will be after our return to Manila Jan 8. I know I will have GLAD TIDINGS to share from the victories won for the Kingdom during this CEC outreach. Please don't forget your VOTE for my Home Page. Your vote counts. You can pray for us as you follow our mission schedule by clicking on SCHEDULE from the Web Page. Canon Philip Weeks of Barnabas Ministries Inc.
Manila, Philippines This is being sent to a select group of few beseeching PRAYER SUPPORT. Already we are experiencing the "woes" of foreign travel. One of our team people has been attacked with diarhhea and nausea, no doubt the result of extreme tiredness from the exhausting trip over, and the change in climate, food and water. While this is not ALARMING, it is something one does not need to have especially when we are 36 hours away from going into the outreach station where toilet facilities are questionable. Please undergird by name the seven of us:
The advance "indications" we have had suggest that we are in for spiritual warfare during this outreach, and we NEED constant prayer undergirding.
Barnabas Ministries' Missionary Report for Jan 5-8, 1997
Praise be to God! Passing thru LAHAR [volcanic ash from Mt Pinatubo
mixed with mud] that covered churches, homes and businesses; witnessing one
of the worse accidents I have ever seen [2 killed]; overheated van, and a
lunch stop at MacDonalds, we reached Lubao on Sunday afternoon.
Approximately 250 people attended the first night of the Charismatic
Episcopal Church's CONVERGENCE OUTREACH increasing to 350 the second, and
more than 500 our final night.
I passed out dolls to the little girls and
hot wheels to the little boys provided by USA churches. The evening
meetings were "billed" as a Healing Crusade; the day meetings teachings on
CEC presentations of Salvation, Holy Spirit Empowerment, Liturgy and
Sacraments.
The day teaching in Lubao by Barnabas members was frustrating. The
makeup of the day sessions was to be area pastors and spiritual leaders.
Only one of the participants could be identified as qualifying. Fifty or so
came and went the two days. When you try inter-active teaching, and
Filipinos act as they usually do, their stares do not make for exciting
teaching. An interpreter was necessary.
The night meetings were done
entirely by Filipinos. More than a dozen CEC clergy participated. People
came and went the first morning. The second morning the registrants were
surprised with food baskets brought from the Cathedral of the King,
collected as "thank offerings" from the cathedral worshippers. I am
impressed by the preparation that went into this crusade.
The Charismatic
Episcopal Church in Manila spent several months preparing. A sports' arena
was our venue and decorated with a backdrop of banners; a cloth draped over
the basketball hoop forming a cross. A music team from the Cathedral with
superior sound equipment led magnificent worship. Barnabas and CEC members
formed the evening healing teams.
This no doubt is a one-time event. CEC is
very capable of continuing the Convergence Outreaches without us. We were a
"Barnabas" [a catalyst] to get them started. They had made no evangelism
efforts since 1987, long prior to the former Christian International
Fellowship journey into the CEC.
GREAT NEWS! The evenings were "healing services" and we saw many
healings, among the most notable being a deaf woman who received her
hearing, and a 15 year old polio victim who walked 12 feet with two of us
on either side supporting her. She has great hope and faith and a long way
to go.
Pray for Rosemarie that she may not give up, and see herself as
beautiful as we saw her, regardless of the handicap that makes her see
herself as ugly. Three of the Barnabas people went to the home of a woman
with a cancerous tumor. She had been too ill to rise from her sick bed for
nearly a year. The last night she walked to the Arena and received the Body
and Blood of Jesus.
There were too many healings to report here. One
morning while I taught the other Barnabas people visited the hospital next
to the Arena and prayed for all except one [he refused prayer] patient.
Wednesday night we concluded with an instructive Eucharist combined
with laying-on-of-hands for healing. Definitely, a CEC church will be
started. Next week workers from Manila return for their first informational
meeting and Lubao's vice-mayor, the father of one of their deacons,
promised a building.
We leave tomorrow [Thursday] for Dumaguete. We will work with the
Philippine Independent Catholic Church in two churches teaching
Discipleship and Stewardship. We also will have a YOUTH RALLY at Christian
Fellowship Church and expect many young people.
The following Tuesday
[14-17] we leave for Zamboanga and need much prayer as we enter this Muslim
area. The spiritual warfare we experienced in Pampanga is only a taste of
what we expect in Zamboanga as we work in our evangelism project, preaching
against the occultism of the Philippine Benevolent Missionary Association
warring for the souls of the people we are seeking for Christ.
I will try to send another report before Jan 19. It will depend upon
our ability to connect with the Internet in Manila. There is no service
available where we will be. We expect wonderful things in the Dumaguete
area, but we have had warnings through dreams to be very cautious in the
Zamboanga outreach. Please undergird us with prayer, beginning especially
Jan 13 [USA time] thru Jan 17 - the time we will be in that troublesome
area.
Canon Philip E. P. Weeks of Barnabas Ministries reporting from the
Philippines.
Barnabas Ministries' Special News Report for Jan 12, 1997 Well, even though we are out in the mission field, our presence back home is strong. As you may know, our Internet Web Site is in a national contest for WebSurfer's Choice - Home Page of the Year. Well, I have GLAD TIDINGS - WE WON THE FIRST ROUND! We were in an initial field of 32 winnwers and now we've advanced to the "sweet sixteen". We certainly appreciate all twenty-eight of you who helped us get this far, but we REALLY need your help now. In the "sweet sixteen" round, we are up against a site which received almost three times as many votes as we did in advancing to this round. PLEASE help us with your vote again and get a friend or two to join in the festivities. To do so, just CLICK HERE. Thanks for your help and support and Praise be to God for this part of our ministry!
We arrived in Dumaguete the morning of Jan 9. Our first engagement was at St Andrew Cathedral of the Philippine Independent Catholic Church. In his quiet way, Bishop David Ga was angry. He had received that very morning a two-page letter from the National Church office blasting him for having us for the training seminar on Discipleship and Stewardship. The wording of the rebuke reflected our proposal to him last August which means he has a rat-priest in the diocese. It is a sad thing that here is a bishop who is "renewed" and wants to see good things happen in his diocese but lacks support from his priests. The National office is determined to root Barnabas out. It is amusing because as they try to close a door another opens. The executive director of their lay witnessing program invited me to minister to their leadership next trip. Where I had been told our teams would go, the venues were canceled or no preparation had been made. The Lord opened other doors. The youth rally at Christian Fellowship Church in Dumaguete was tremendous. We did not take registration, but I estimate 150 or more youth attended the 3-day rally. We did much singing. Following the Saturday teachings, art was employed to express what they had heard in the teaching. On Saturday night most of those present asked for the baptism in the Holy Spirit and a sweet season of prayer followed as many were visibly touched by God. We did not have as many as we had hoped but we were up against much competition from other groups as well as preparation for exams. We leave today, Tuesday, Jan 14, for Zamboanga. This is the area where we need tremendous prayer support. We will enter spiritual warfare in our church-planting area against one of the most vicious occultic groups in the Philippines. We will be there until Friday, Jan 17. Canon Philip E. P. Weeks of Barnabas Ministries Inc.
I have learned that the Barnabas Ministries' Web Page is one of 16 finalists in the WebSurfer's Choice - Home Page Of The Year Contest, thanks to many of you who voted. But the contest is not finished yet. A vote for ID #216, Barnabas Ministries BEFORE Saturday, Jan 18 midnight will help. Either visit the page at http://www.inet-usa.com/barnabas/ or send an e-mail direct to vmaffea1@magic.hofstra.edu with a subject of CONTEST. In the message block, type VOTE FOR ID 216 Barnabas Ministries. Thanks for your support and ask a friend to vote for us as well. It will help for sure. I am still out here on the mission field. All is going well thanks to your many prayers. Some team people have had sickness but Jesus is the Great Physician. May I share with you an evangelism project we are at this very moment involved in on the mission field in the Philippines? We are in a remote jungle area of Mindanao where last year Barnabas Ministries funded the Philippine Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd the money for an evangelist to plant a church in a totally unchurched area. On Thursday, January 16, we worked in this area. As I type this report into my computer for a later transmission, I am sitting beside a 14x25 ft makeshift chapel. Our own Barbara Melton, former professional entertainer and novice Barnabas missionary, is leading the people in song. Our Filipino dentist is only a few feet away giving free dental service to the people in this barrio. Across the valley I can see the walled village of the Philippine Benevolent Missionary Association, an occultic spiritist group that has deceived the people in this area. Those who make up this Episcopal mission have come out of the PBMA village. We are watchful for there have been reports of violent reaction in the past from this group. Our teaching today concerns the difference between the beliefs of the PBMA and the claims of Jesus. We are working through a translator so the people are assured of understanding the teaching. Fr Danilo Bustamante has baptized approximately 80 converts in less than a year we have been working. No one is baptized without prior instructions and prior approval by the barrio leadership. A sure commitment is ascertained lest they return to the PBMA village and their "last state is worst than the first." We hope to begin a Child Care program in the future. It costs $200 a month for this evangelism program. Anyone who wishes to financially support this program can access my WEB PAGE for our mail address. Designate your gift for "EVANGELISM". While here in Mindanao we have visited our four Child Care Centers. The children have never seen Santa Claus except in pictures. I have allowed my beard to grow and I once worked as a professional Santa Claus years ago. I brought my suit and you can't imagine how excited the children were as I handed out dolls and hot wheels. Our Filipino dentist has traveled with us here and has treated more than 100 people in the out-of-doors, under a palm tree, in a chapel; wherever we are ministering. Our outreach concluded with a healing service in the yard around the chapel. Many people came for prayer. We witnessed tumors and goiters disappearing, among other healings. We leave Friday, January 17 for Bulucan province, north of Manila. Thank you for your prayers. Victory has gone to Jesus. Canon Philip E. P. Weeks of Barnabas Ministries
My many thanks to all who prayed for us while in Zamboanga. It was a very successful time and I believe a powerful witness in the area where we have our evangelism project. From Zamboanga we flew back to Manila and was met by Bishop Raymundo Rivera of the Philippine Independent Catholic Church. Crowded into a jeepney we drove several hours north of Manila to the Bulacan Province. This was our first visit to this diocese and Bishop Rivera invited us inspite of the attitude of the PIC national office in Manila. The three days in his diocese was a good conclusion to our three-week outreach. We visited different churches in the diocese and at each place held a healing service. I was very surprised to see the renewal taking place in the several churches we visited. The team returns home Jan 20 and I will proceed to Bacolod where I meet with the few remaining students in the Province of Negros Occidental. From there I will go to Ozamis on the Island of Mindanao and meet college students we support in that area of Mindanao. Following that I will teach at the Norwesmin Bible Institute, an Assembly of God school, in Jimenez, Misamis Occidental Province. I return home January 28. This will be my final report. If you do not already receive GLAD TIDINGS and desire to receive the February issue which will contain our Mission Outreach Report, request by sending us your mailing address. The March issue we hope will have pictures from this trip. Thanks again for your prayer support. Since I am going to be away from Internet access for the next week, I will not know if our web page made it into the next "finalist" stage. If you will continue helping us to win, check our web page and our webmaster will update the contest with the appropriate icon and message. Canon Philip E. P. Weeks of Barnabas Ministries.
Hugh Kaiser and I went to Bacolod on the island of Negros Occidental after saying good bye to the team last Monday morning. There I met with the remaining students in that province and Hugh made contacts with pastors for future planning. The next day I moved on to Mindanao and Misamis Occidental province where I met the seven college and two high school students of that area. For three days I taught in the Norwesmin Bible Institute, an Assembly of God school to some of the neatest young people you want to find anywhere. I have been trying to throw off a severe bronchis attack and recover from some kind of insect bite that just about covered my body. The itch has about stopped just short of driving me crazy. This is my FINAL report for this mission trip. The work is finished. I am now resting before returning home next week. I will be back in Florida late night Jan 28. Thanks for all your prayers and support. I don't know where we stand on the Web Page of the Year vote. The last I heard we were one of 16 finalists headed into the second stage of elimination. The best way to learn of our status is check my WEB PAGE. My webmaster is keeping it up to date. If you haven't voted, please do so. It would be an honor for a Christian page to get the Page of the Year award. Canon Philip E. P. Weeks of Barnabas Ministries
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