The Lord had accomplished a truly incredible soul-saving and life-changing work during the recent Philippines evangelistic campaign! It has been about a month since our return to Singapore and I am still in awe of the many wonderful things that He has done and allowed us to experience there. Praise God for granting us open doors to serve Him in a land where people are so hungry for the truth..what a joy and privilege it was to reach out to so many in need of the Saviour’s love and grace.

There is proof of a ripe and vast harvest field prepared by the Lord in the Philippines and it is such a great blessing to see that the hearts of the people are ever willing and ready to hear the gospel. Thank God for the marvelous working of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of men..He had touched and changed so many lives during the campaign. All of us were expecting God to do mighty things in the lives of the people there but He also did amazing things in each of our lives too. Praise God for His grace and favour and for going before us each step of the way!

I was particularly humbled and inspired by the dedication and commitment of our Filipino brothers and sisters-in-Christ serving at Student Movement for Christ (SMC) - a campus ministry dedicated to evangelizing to students in the high schools and universities in the Philippines. These dear brethren have great unwavering love and faith in the Lord and they gave so much of themselves to the cause of winning souls to Christ.

As faithful labourers for the Lord, they always seek to be a blessing to every one that God brings into their lives. Throughout the course of the trip, they cared for our needs and made sure that we had adequate meals and lodging, arranged transportation and assured appropriate preparation and equipment at each outreach and gospel night during the evangelistic campaign. Special thanks to Pastor Mechelle and Fily Joy (SMC Dumaguete), Renz (SMC Cebu), Ven (SMC Bohol), Ate Joy (SMC Leyte) and the many faithful servants of the Lord who serve alongside them - all of them have been so giving and selfless to us without expecting anything in return. I pray that God will bless their hearts and reward their humble labour of love tremendously.

Praise God for the incredible opportunity of being part of a servant-hearted and mission-minded team of fellow believers – Filipinos (from SMC), Americans (from Highlands Baptist Church and Falls Baptist Church) and Singaporeans (from Gospel Light Christian Church) – all with the common vision of fulfilling God’s desire that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. I am very inspired by Pastor Mike’s love for God and his fervent passion in preaching the gospel. Thank God for his wonderful servant-leadership and his mentorship in evangelism. We learnt how to challenge others to place their complete faith and dependence on Christ through various soul-winning illustrations taught to us by Pastor Mike. He encouraged us, led us, prayed with us, laughed with us, and worked tirelessly with us - praise God for using him greatly to inspire, sharpen and equip us for the mission at hand.

The prayer sessions that we had as a team were very precious. These times of seeking the Lord together on our knees enabled us to catch the vision of the Lord’s heart for the lost. We prayed for Him to saturate our hearts with the love and compassion of our Saviour and to make the powerful gospel fresh and real to us as we preached it from our hearts. Our hearts were filled with much thanksgiving for the multiple answers to prayer daily as souls were saved by the hundreds and doors of opportunities for us to evangelise freely were opened. The Lord also gave us sweet unity within the team despite our different cultures and backgrounds. It was simply wondrous experiencing the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit..what a great joy it was to be one in Christ, yielded and ready to be used by Him!

The Lord blessed us in so many ways! He allowed countless opportunities for us to do room-to-room evangelism within the campuses, to give tracts out freely and to hold open-air gospel meetings attended by hundreds of high school and university students. We also had numerous divine appointments and much freedom proclaiming the gospel to many groups of students during their break-time and during after school hours at the campuses. Such light, life and liberty in soulwinning could only come from our awesome and amazing God who does the impossible. It was nothing of our own doing, but all of Him - He was definitely in absolute control.

He truly has been very faithful in equipping and strengthening each of us for the work. Having never preached the gospel and giving an open invitation to trust Christ to a large crowd in a classroom setting before, I felt quite overwhelmed, yet excited about how the Lord was going to work. I knew that I had to fully depend on the Holy Spirit to grant me courage and wisdom to speak to the people. I daily exchanged my weakness and inability for His strength for it was evident that in and of myself, it was impossible meeting the needs of the many students so hungry for His Word, His truth. It was a truly challenging and inspiring experience for me claiming God’s power and going forth boldly into each classroom jam-packed with young people to share the good news. Thank God for being so patient and merciful in guiding this weak vessel into taking steps to walk by faith and not by sight! He has been so real to me and I will never forget how He showed Himself strong, granting me opportunities to trust Him completely in my inadequacies.

I thank God for the opportunity of teaming up with Mrs. Angela Tucker and Erica Ebel from Highlands Baptist Church together with Eugene during the classroom evangelism sessions at Dumaguete – both of these dear American sisters never held back from declaring the good news with passion and love when given the opportunity to do so. The Lord had instilled in them a tremendous amount of boldness and faith and it was a real blessing witnessing the might of the Spirit with them.

In all the divine appointments that we had, it was absolutely amazing seeing many people raising their hands and indicating their desire to accept Christ. The harvest truly is plenteous and ripe for the picking..at each classroom encounter, the Lord moved in wondrous ways and many teachers and students had open hearts ready to receive Him. Their hearts are so tender towards the Lord and it was evident that they have an insatiable thirst for the truth. I saw people broken over their sin, and others being delivered from their past having made the decision to forsake their sinful lifestyles and get their hearts right with God. The manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s power in breaking each hardened heart and healing every broken heart was so real to us and we have only gratefulness in our hearts towards the Master of Miracles for bringing people to repentance and to Himself.

There were many personal encounters that we had and my most memorable one was meeting a young lady who walked into our first gospel night held at Negros Oriental State University (NORSU), Dumaguete. It was then I met A for the first time. She seemed to be living the ‘alternative’ lifestyle by the looks of her attire and behaviour. Her companion followed her into the hall and both of them took their seats at the back. That evening, Pastor Mike preached strongly against the sin of homosexuality and immorality and he implored everyone to examine their hearts and to make the most important decision of their lives to trust Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. He cited Bible verses which emphasized the need for us to forsake sin and to choose a new life and freedom in Christ. He also urged everyone to awaken to the urgency of the hour and to receive the gift of salvation that night.

God worked to convict the hearts of the people and many indicated their desire to give their hearts to Christ. A did not respond to the appeal, but her friend raised her hand and made a decision for Christ. I believed that A was struggling - a battle was raging within her heart. A’s friend made her way towards the front when Pastor Mike asked for those who responded to come forward. A remained unsurrendered and sat at her seat looking downcast. I took the opportunity to introduce myself to A and to speak to her. As I opened my Bible to share some verses with her, I could feel her confusion and pain as she opened up to me. She shared that deep within her heart she is willing to forsake her sin and give up her old lifestyle. She just did not think that God could forgive her for the ways she had lived her life. Tears flowed down her cheeks. The Lord was breaking her heart. Praying silently in my heart, I asked Him to take hold of her heart and bring her to a point of surrender. I later challenged her to allow Jesus into her life as He was the only one who could transform it and set her free from her bondage to sin. By God’s grace, she eventually made the precious choice to surrender her heart to the Lord. There was immense joy in my heart when she took the step to pray the sinner’s prayer with an earnest heart. The battle within her heart ended and the Lord had the victory.

After parting with A that evening, I thought that that was the first and only time I was to see her. Little did I know that God had greater plans. Before the start of our 3rd and last gospel night at NORSU that week, I headed to Freedom Park, a popular hang-out place of campus students, to invite people to join us for the event. It was then A came up to me and offered her help. At that very moment, I had been praying for someone to give me a hand in rounding up the students in the park and directing them to the gospel night venue in NORSU..and A was a definite answer to prayer! In a jiffy, she set off to work. Before my very eyes, Christ had converted this precious soul to become a saint and now she had become a soulwinner for Him! A crowd of young people followed A back to that same hall where she gave her heart to Christ 2 nights ago. The Lord had used her to invite about 25 newcomers and a number of them trusted the Lord that evening. I was touched to tears seeing her saved and now serving her Lord.

Before we parted, she indicated that she would like to know more about SMC and attend the Bible Studies there so I allowed her to meet fellow SMCians who shared more details regarding the ministry to her. Both A and me had a time of prayer together after and I prayed that the Lord will continue to mould and shape her life, that He will use her greatly to serve Him at SMC. Before we parted, we rejoiced in the fact that even if there was a possibility that we might not be able to see each other again in the Philippines, we will meet each other again in Heaven. Please pray with me that the Lord will continue to do a deep work in this young lady’s life and that she will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord. This encounter with A, orchestrated by the Lord, has left a deep impression on my life, and also on the lives of A’s friends who trusted the Lord. He truly can do amazing things through one heart, one life that is completely consecrated and surrendered to Him. It is my hope that the Spirit’s power be manifested in each of our lives just as it was in A’s.

We have such a great prayer-answering God, an amazing mountain-moving God..we rejoice to know that 20,643 people heard the gospel and about 11,400 of them made a decision for Christ at the end of two weeks! To all faithful prayer warriors who have been labouring in prayers for this evangelistic campaign: your labour is not in vain in the Lord! All of you have fought spiritual battles for victory on your knees and without each of you interceding for God’s power..the hearts and minds of the people would not have been so open and prepared to receive Jesus Christ; the souls of many people would not have their eternal destiny set in heaven. We experienced a number of spiritual attacks whilst we were in the Philippines, but Christ had the ultimate victory..because He used each of you to intercede for the ministry. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you so much for being such willing servants for His work! Please do pray with us for the thousands who have heard the gospel and commited their lives to Christ. Please also continue to pray that the follow-up and discipleship of the new converts through SMC and partnering churches will be fruitful and effective - that fruit will remain and that many will dedicate their lives to serving Him in SMC.

It is God’s desire that all of us will gain a greater sense of where He wants to use us in His master plan. Through all the experiences I had in the Philippines, God had left such deep impressions on my heart that I have decided to take bigger and bolder steps to make evangelism a lifestyle. I pray that I will always respond to the Lord as He directs, and that He will help me take my eyes off from myself and increase my burden for the lost. It is so true that when you choose to take a step of faith for Christ to be used by Him, you will never be the same. He will become so real to you that the ways you think, minister, give and pray will never ever be the same. The Spirit transforms and fills you at each step of faith you take for His glory and at the very end of our journey of faith with Him, we can all look forward to that glorious day in Heaven when we will be reunited with all of these precious souls again, and each of them will tell us that through our steps of faith in serving Him - God became real to their hearts and lives too.

Each of us can make a difference. The experiences I had in the Philippines made me realise this fact more then ever - that we can be that one to make a great difference for Christ, for a person, for eternity.

Will you be the one?

In a world full of broken dreams

Where the truth is hard to find

For every promise that is kept

There are many left behind

Though it seems that nobody cares

It still matters what you do

Cause there's a difference you can make

But the choice is up to you

Chorus

Will you be the one

To answer to His call

Will you stand

When those around you fall

Will you be the one

To take His light

Into a darkened world

Tell me will you be the one

Oh sometimes it's hard to know

Who is right and what is wrong

And where are you supposed to stand

When the battle lines are drawn

There's a voice that is calling out

For someone who’s not afraid

To be a beacon in the night

To a world that's lost its way

There are still some battles

That I must fight from day to day

Yet the Lord provides the power

For me to stand and say

Chorus

I will be the one

To answer to His call

I will stand

When those around me fall

I will be the one

To take His light

Into a darkened world
I will be the one

(Two SMCians, Sandra and Emily, shared this song entitled “Will You Be The One?” with a group of us during our journey to the campuses in Leyte. *Composer: Al Denson)

As sons and daughters of God, we face a crucial choice: will we turn inward and focus on the new life we have in Christ only as it benefits us? Or will we look beyond our very selves, giving ourselves completely to God and opening our hearts to His purposes for us? I pray and trust that the Lord will enable all of us to make that right choice to take the stand to say that we will be that one to answer His call...to serve Him wherever He leads us.

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

And how shall they preach, except they be sent?

~ Romans 10:13-15a

That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the LORD your God for ever.

~ Joshua 4:24