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by Jen Chrystman

A few months ago, I drove a van full of friends down to Trece Martires to pray with the house church members. Someone tried to sabotage the trip just like he did when I was all set to facilitate a "Freedom in Christ" workshop last December.  Like most of the trips, it was slow going through sleepy provincial towns. Unlike most journeys, however, we made almost the entire 3 hour experience in third gear. This time it wasn't the key that broke in the lock. This time it was an attack via the thingy that holds the oil in the clutch or gear box. When traffic slowed to a crawl, I  pulled the emergency brake while I kept the rpm up to ...keep.. from... stalling. My passengers had to jump out a few times to push start us again. It wasn't really fun.

Tomorrow, the Dawn for the Poor (B.L.) staff all head off for a 3 day retreat to pray and re-focus our efforts on evangelism and discipleship. Please pray that all the gadgets and training tools work well and that the saboteur would not be able to interfere with our relationships either! Spiritual protection is one of those thingies we can't afford to neglect!

by Jen Chrystman

There are a lot of ways to get closer to heaven! One of the obvious ways is to just age gracefully till the wrinkles are transformed into eternal artistry. Another is to live dangerously and do extreme sports. A third one that's common here in the Philippines is to ride ferries between islands of the archipelago! Marine fatalities are in the top five reasons for people here to leap into eternity, after more common things like cardiovascular disease and cancer. In spite of that, I'm happy to cruise over to Puerto every few months and take my chances. I'm betting on option A and the ultimate wrinkle treatment in 35 or 40 years' time.

After 3 wonderful days at the beach, my friends and I traveled to Calapan and attended one of our B.L. house churches. The average age of the group was about 20. Well.... till I walked in. Ha! We sang. We listened to a Bible reading. What we discovered was that worshiping with the young believers and sharing our insights into the scripture passage brought us all closer to Jesus. You could sense His presence with us. Really. That's the best way I know of to get just a bit closer to heaven.

by Jen Chrystman

If you stop at the doorways of small homes in our squatter areas and ask for prayer requests, the answer is almost always "Please pray for health and strength". If you probe more, you discover needs for medicines (in the case of diabetic family members) and for jobs. Those are almost always the top four requests. As rainy season approached, one lady shyly asked if we could pray for them to have a roof! For years, we've been praying with both believers and unbelievers for those very things. After the spiritual needs and emotional needs, material needs loom large. A recent joint venture has helped 20 men start pedicab businesses. But our dreams are bigger than that!

In order to provide jobs for hundreds of unemployed men and women in our relocation area south of Manila, we're praying about buying a hand made paper business that's up for sale. The US$50k worth of equipment and finished stock is on sale for US$10k. It's a stunning offer that some of us think is a no brainer. But without a piece of land for the small factory and people like production manager and marketing manager, our dreams would turn to dust. Is it a gift from God we can afford to accept?!

Please pray that the funds would be donated. If your faith is bigger, pray for the production and marketing managers! And if you think you know of people who could come and help us help the poor to provide for their families, making beautiful paper products, please let us know. You could be part of the answer to one of our big, big prayers!

by Jen Chrystman

One of the challenges in life is choosing the best things to focus on. We set priorities. We review successes and failures. We decide on lifestyle habits and eliminate the activities that don't line up with our goals. For me, Tagalog language study has been a priority in the midst of ministry co-ordinating for Serve Asia Workers (S.A.W.) I'm focusing on the audio side of life and the reward will be improved relationships with my B.L. friends.

For many of the moms in B.L. the challenge is focusing on the visual side of life. Without reading glasses, many of them have been unable to enjoy their new Bibles each day. Imagine the excitement when some money arrived last week from an American friend and reading glasses were purchased in time for the church service! The ladies modeled them for friends and then quickly tried them out on passages from the New Testament. Everyone agreed that they were perfect for the job!

Like the rest of us, these moms can now focus on regular Bible reading. I think the reward will be improved relationship with their heavenly Saviour and Friend. Way cool!

by Jen Chrystman

What happens when 3 Serve Asia workers from Holland live at my place? Supper prayers include a mention of the Dutch team. Alarms ring at 1 a.m. Flags get painted on our faces and we head down to the business district for a big screen sports and cheering experience. The final game with Spain was on at 2:30 a.m.!

The game was great but we also got a cultural experience. It appears that all the bars employ prostitute companions to sit with their male customers.  No such thing as a sports bar for a few drinks and a game to enjoy! We were having a blast but the other people in the bar  looked mostly dead or at least very miserable. Some guys headed off with their "companions" to other rooms.

The very cool thing was that one of our group was a Dutch OMFer who is working with a prostitute "rescue" organization here in Manila. She had some great conversations and several girls asked for a contact number. Maybe sometime soon, those young ladies will be grateful for the rowdy bunch of foreigners who invaded their world for a night. Maybe they'll meet the One who wants to invade their world for all of eternity.
Hup Holland Hup!