Philippine Prayer and Praise

We will be adding to this list for those who pray for us and are prayer Warriors! Or you can email us, paul@vfm-phillipines, and let us know you are praying for us and ask for immediate requests that we have for prayer for our ministry here!  Don't forget us! Prayer is the greatest thing you can do for helping the Lord's work, where you live and on the mission fields of the World. Pray, Pray often, be persistent in praying for us!

 

1.   Pray that we can find land for church camp, leadership training and livelihood training. We have been looking for this place for almost a year.  It is hard to find land that has a clear title, a good location and is affordable. We are also trying to find a place in Bacolod City for an office and bodega (storage area). We have moved our office four times in the last four years!  We need a permanent office location!  We are talking to one owner of a place here in Bacolod and pray that the details can be worked out to purchase it.

2.  Pray for our personal  safety! We are constantly trying to be careful when we travel and are out in many unique places.  We have been "pickpocketed", "shot", and  hospitalized due to Dengue Fever twice.  When you say a prayer to God, hopefully daily, pray for the safety of missionaries and Christian workers as it is a "REAL" need! 

3.  Pray for "wisdom" as we have requests for help, often urgent and often daily coming to us! If we say yes to all requests, then we may risk some families becoming  dependent on us!  Should we do a "matching" help when we get a request? Should we help, how much, HOW? We need to constantly have your prayers for us to have "God's Wisdom" for the many requests and decisons that we must make in this culture!

4.  Pray for more "workers"! Jesus said, "the fields are white unto harvest", and that is so true.  There are so many places (towns, cities and small communities) where we don't have a church.  We need more workers! Pray for the current pastors, wives, and their families whom often have such a difficult time trying to minister and making a living at the same time.  Pray for the students who are attending  Bible College. They often can be supported by $40 a month but some can't attend because of finances. We praise God for the many faithful pastors and church workers who faithfully serve the Lord while having many difficulties!

5.  Pray for our safety while traveling.  I often travel from one side of the island to the other.  This is often across the steep mountain with very winding curvy roads. Some areas are less safe than others!  Often there are extremely old and  overloaded sugar cane trucks that travel at night without head and tail lights.  The roads are very narrow with houses within a few feet of the highway. People who are drinking here also drive. People who are drinking stumble down the roads, or ones who are crazy walk the streets. At anytime a bike, a person, a carabo, a trycee, or a child walking and carrying water will be in your lane.  Deep holes are in the road, construction places are most often unmarked and deep!  I often travel many hours each week!  Please ask God to protect us each day as we travel.  ( I will not discuss the dangers of sea travel or flying.)

6.  Pray for our family!  We are no different from any other family!  We love being with our children, our brothers, kin folks and friends. We are soon to be grandparents but doubt we can be there for the birth of our first grandchild.  We love and greatly enjoy our ministry here but oh how we miss being with family for special events such as "birthdays", "weddings", "3 day weekends"," funerals of close friends", "aniversaries" and "get-to-gethers"! Pray for us, we love so much the people here, but we often miss out on so much back home in the states! Pray for our children as they also miss having parents available.   

           Landon and his girlfriend, Jessica         

  Lydia and Josh are expecting 12-17-2010

 

7.  Pray for our VFM finances! As a mission, there are so many places that need church buildings, land that could be bought, requests for food or clothing, or funeral help, or medicine, etc.  The list could fill many pages but there are so many more needs than we have budget to help.  May we use very carefully the funds that God has so graciously provided to VFM.  Pray that we will be good stewards of every penny that is given!  Pray also for our personal financial situation. Our health insurance rates are so high, food is expensive here also, and we must try and meet our budget as any family does. We also can worry about what will happen to us at retirement! We don't have a house so where will we live if we have a major sickness and must come home or when we retire. It is more expensive to live here than we expected, and we also have some USA bills. Pray that God will direct us to be wise in the use of the VFM budget and also personally.