| NEWSLETTER APRIL 2019
Hello dear friends,
Greetings from the Philippines
Sometimes there is so much happening that I just don't know where to start, so I'll just give you a brief summary of our news.
Trevor and Birgit Majoinen visited
Mindoro Island to hold a discipleship course, a seminar for pastors, and public meetings in different areas. Our Hosea churches have seen many new conversions, with many coming to faith through receiving divine healing. News about miraculous healings quickly
spreads and that is the reason why sick people come to our churches for help. The Lord's healing power has been really evident.
Pastor Billy from Sablayan Church and our youth group continue to visit hospitals, where they go to pray for the patients and they have seen remarkable healings.
The day of the blessings
Nathan Osnes from Norway travelled to the Philippines after Trevor and held another event entitled 'Day of Blessing' in the city square of Mamburao, in spite of several difficulties along the way. Nathan had been given some time on the local radio to advertise his meetings, the publicity fliers had been printed with the youth distributing them in the city, and the big central venue had been reserved for us. But just two days before the event we were told that the venue would be given instead to the senator to hold his election campaign event in the city. Even a telephone call to the highest authority on the island did not help -- the senator was considered more important than us. But Nathan determined that since God was a higher authority even than the senator that he would pray for God's intervention. Soon afterwards surprising news came. The senator’s election trail was rescheduled and the event in Mamburao was moved elsewhere after all! That was particularly remarkable because election events are normally held in main centres of government on the island such as Mamburao City.
People being prayed for
God helps fix broken hearts
The day before Nathan's event he came down with a very sore throat and lost his voice. Strangely enough I lost my voice at the same time and this hampered my efforts to pray. But thankfully some of my Australian friends started prayer warfare and on the day of the event everything went according to plan, with Nathan's voice coming back and multitudes of people flooding into the venue so that it was packed with participants. It seemed like the whole city had turned out. Sick people were healed and many came into the kingdom. Martin Luther Jr has said “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing”.
A big thank you too to the churches in Canberra Australia for inviting me to speak on your woman's day and to visit several of your churches on the same trip. I really appreciate you! Even the drop in temperature from 37 degrees in Brisbane to 17 degrees there was bearable given such a warm welcome! Your gift to Hosea has been received with such gratitude in the Philippines. It will enable us to renovate our slum school in Aroma village which was hit by the typhoon and flood recently. My thanks also go out to the many other individual donors that I will not mention by name and the Canberra's Finnish Society. Your gifts have enabled us to bring food to hundreds of children.
Our visit to a Mangyan tribe in Abra reminded us of the harsh reality there of the tribes people's lives. The children told us they they had not eaten anything for two days. But now they received both food and the good news of Jesus. Abra is a new target for our evangelistic outreach amongst the tribes.
Student from Hosea Tonga
A class being taught
News from Tonga
Our Hosea school on Vava'u Island
in Tonga has received blessings from surprising quarters. A large proportion of our students come from Mormon families and the Mormon church has recommended our school to their parents because the level of teaching is the best available. The Mormons kindly
donated new desks and chairs to our school. They have also expressed their thanks for the powerful impact our school has had upon the island as a whole. Even though we do not follow Mormon teaching and doctrine, the Mormon church there clearly values the Christian education we provide and the high academic standards achieved by our pupils. They told us that they are willing to support us further in the future if we should require such help. Our headteacher Dorothy expresses her sincere gratitude for all that God is doing there. Gods word says: If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land (Isaiah 1:19)
With blessings
Mangyans had bravely formed a choir and even composed a song. We have now more than 40 adult students in the school, their ages varying from young to old. They told us that they were now able to vote for the first time in the elections. Earlier they had had to give their voting slip to others to fill in, without knowing what they wrote in them, because they could not read or write.
When the Mangyan students were singing their song, I was standing in the back of the church. Suddenly I noticed four small children hiding between benches. Our teacher said that they were our students, and she then went and asked why they were not among the other children. One of them explained with tears, that they were so hungry that they could not go to sing. I was so surprised to learn that they were already 6 year olds, even though they looked more like 2 year olds, skinny and bony small children. Nheng commented that this is due to malnutrition, which is the reason why all these tribespeople are so small: their continuous lack of food stunts their growth. We brought a 40 kg bag rice with us and also other foodstuff and fed them all after the meeting, thanks again to the donors! We made so much food that there was enough for evening meal as well.
Last spring Hosea organized a medical mission for the Mangyan tribe. We also left some medicines with the local Pastor, so the tribespeople could be given help later as well. The Pastor said that some Mangyans come even at night begging for help in their desperation. Also some people from other tribes turned up for medicine and were given some, for it is hard to turn desperate people away without help. Now we are in the process again of collecting funds for another medical mission, which should happen sometime next year.
While we were in the Mangyan village, I recognised that most of them were walking bare foot again. I wondered what had happened to all those sandals which had been donated for them a year earlier. The Pastor laughed and explained that the Mangyans have a peculiar walking style, they step heavily on their heels and that wears out the heels of the shoes very quickly. That means that they will need a new pair of sandals every year. One man had a good pair of sandals slung over his shoulders, so I went and asked him why he didn't use them. The man replied: “I don't want to use them as they would wear out. When they hang on my shoulders everyone can see that I have shoes.” So this man had still good shoes, while others had worn theirs out”¦ Now, who is the wise and where is the wisdom here?
We also distributed a bag full of clothes. Birgit and Ulla went to buy some more and as always the Mangyans put the new clothes on top of their old rags. They can't see any reason why the old clothes should be taken off, so they carry their whole wardrobe with them all the time. The same clothes are worn day and night and the extra clothing keeps them warm at night on the mountains. The price tags are also left on, so everyone can see they are new clothes.
Hosea's second fishing boat is now operating on the eastern side of Mindoro Island (Oriental Mindoro) where it is manned by our Mangyan pastor, thus serving the Mangyans also. There are more fish now on the Oriental side of the island because big Indonesian fishing trawlers have appeared close to the Occidental Mindoro shores (the western side of the island). Occidental Mindoro is facing the open ocean, so Indonesian factory ships come close to the shore and take in all fish, big and small, diminishing the fish population. Locals usually fish with spears, sparing spawning fish for reproduction. They understand the laws of the nature and know that spawn fish are needed to keep fish stocks -- you cannot empty the ocean of fish. Local small fishing boats can't drive away large foreign fishing vessels, so locals are deprived of their fishing livelihood.
The Hosea Filipino team want to send their heartfelt thanks to all the supporters and prayer warriors. They and also our students keep praying for you. They understand that it is because of you, your prayers and your donations, that they have this wonderful opportunity to get an education and thus a good start to their lives. It was really great to meet some of our very first students, the ones with whom we started this ministry in the Philippines. It was so wonderful to see the fruit of this work. Many parents are also saved as they attend our weekly Bible studies.
Great blessings from the islands,
ANNE
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