Singapore!

It's been super long since i last updated and so much happened that I can't remember all of them. So i'll just write the highlights.

Hmm... i don't remember what i wrote on my last post so i don't know where to start...
let me think... ok.. i have no clue... i'll start with the last two weeks at Philippines.

Two weeks before we left Philippines, our team was in a town called Nasugbug. It was the most tiring week and a half we had so far. We started our day after breakfast around 8am and got back home between 6-8pm. We went to schools to share testimonies and pray for students, small communities to do open air evangalism, house to house, churches to preach, and few others. Philippinos are open to us because we were foreigners and they treat us like pop stars, but a lot of them already consider themselves Christians that when we ask something like "Do you love Jesus?" it's so easy to say "yes." Of course I don't know for sure if they do or not, but it seems many are comfortable with how much they love/know God. This is when I realized how important it is to be sensitive to the Spirit and always be asking what to do/say next during a conversation. Also, the power of testimony rather than intellectually battling trying to prove who's right.

What made that week a bit more tough but good was that the boys had to sleep in a church. The church didn't have screens on windows but just bars. There was no carpet or tiles... it was just pretty ghetto. the only source of water was a pump for us to do bucket shower. it wasn't horrible, there are far way ghetto places, but it was the most ghettoest i went through. First day seeing the church we will be sleeping at, I was like "crap.." but it was a good experience in letting go of my rights to comfort.

The last day in Philippines, we went to a place called Smokey Mountain in Manila. Smokey Mountain is a trash dump and people live there while making money. My guess is that people moved there to be closer to their job, and I mean reallllyy close. they live right next to the trash dumps. You see younngg girls there, around 14 years old, and you know they are prostitutes. We didn't spend much time there.

We've been updated that the church in a community we had open air evanglism had grown significantly that they needed to do service outside their normal place. We saw few healings there. Then another family got plugged into a church from house to house.

Another cool but also sad thing is.. a little town (Tubog) my team visited 4 times a week for 3 weeks had a witch doctor who we've been praying for outside her home. We prayed for witchcraft to leave that area. We found out she died. There could have been a nicer outcome. haha. sorry...

So we got to Singapore on August 2 and our plans have changed a bit. We are staying at a church that is connected with YWAM. the YWAM base didn't have a place for us to stay so we are staying with that church. The YWAM base and the church are located 5 minutes away from the biggest red light district in Singapore. And the church we're staying at happens to focus their ministry on prositution. The church was praying for such a big group like our team, and our team also feels we are being led to minister to the prostitues. It also seems it's strategically a good way to impact the area. So our plans have changed a bit to support the church.

Cool things that happened recently.. i'm going to have to speed up real quick because i'm running our of time at the pc bang.

So there was a big Christian conference where more than 3000 people attended. after the worship time, there were gold dusts on our palms! i wiped it off on my shirt, and more would appear. Our whole team, not sure about others in the conference, had them.

Ok i gotta bounce. Have a blessed Sunday worship tomorrow! FIRE!!!!!

Philippines!

Hey guys. super long time since i updated.

So much happened sicne i last updated but i'm just going to write about Philippines.

Everything is going well here. I've been here two weeks but it seems like i've been here for a month. We're currently at Batangas, it's 2 hour south of Manila by car. There are 16 people in my outreach team and the 16 people are divided into 3 groups. Each group has a town we go to every tuesday, wednesday, thursday, and saturday that we minister to. My team goes to a small isolated town in the middle of nowhere called Tubog. There are about 70-80 families living there and they are all from about 2-3 family trees. So for example, a friend i met there has a grandpa who had 13 children who most are now married and have children. Now the grandpa's grandchildren count over 30 kids out of about 70 kids total there.

They are poorer than the average in Philippines. MOst of the kids farm since they are born. Almost all stay in the secluded town and rarely go out to the cities. Everytime we go to Tubog, all the kids shout to their friends that we are here and run to us. It's touching how excited they get. The older guys are all quiet and shy; their spirit is very poor. The highlight so far in Tubog was this past week. A grandmother and her daughter were healed from shoulder pains and then was saved. They were then baptized two days later by our staff.

The kids there are like monkies. If i tell them i want some mangos, they climb the tree super fast and swing from branch to branch and get mangos for me. If i want some coconut, they would climb coconut trees super fast and cut up some coconuts for us. It's an adventure with those kids. I climbed a tree once too because they made it look so fun.

We also went to a place called Badjao. It's the poorest place i've been to yet. It stinks there and kids have sores on their faces and many have pink eyes. I heard we're going to a poorer place though, called the Smokey Mountain. it's supose to be one of the worst places to live in the world. I heard a lot of people throw up from just smelling the smell there. It's going to be exciting going there.

I want to write more but my time on the computer is limited. I'll update again soon, hopefully. 2 more weeks then Singapore! BYE!

This coming week is our last week there

Hey guys!

Things are good here. I just got off from my work duty and now updating my Blog. If you guys didn't know (I don't remember telling u guys), I drive the shuttle van once/twice a week and take people to Walmart/Target. The days I don't drive, I wash the school cars. The driving course isn't long but driving in Hawaii is still kind of fun. Especially Saturday mornings while listening to Hawaiian music.

Anyways, to be honest, my fire to worship God has been dieing. It's hard work pressing in and really focusing on God during worship to feel His presence. Every time I zone in on Him, I feel happy and time goes by really fast. But many days, it doesn't happen naturally, and I need to really try hard to liven up the Spirit in me. I guess I got too used to that feeling and the hard work to get to that feeling isn't worth it. Also, even though I saw the awesome works of the Holy Spirit here, I know there is so much more of God that I haven't discovered or been revealed to. And all the time I've been seeking Him through giving Him my best worship didn't seem to move God enough for Him to change me. I guess that's also another reason I've been getting tired of worshiping Him, the return in blessings I'm getting from God is not enough.

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, my DTS goes to the 24 hour prayer room from 1pm-3pm. Somedays, the Holy Spirit is so thick in there that 90% of our school is dancing hard, and people who were sad are full of joy. But somedays are dead, like today. The person leading the worship in the prayer room today said if people are tired, it's not a bad idea to rest in the Holy Spirit and lay down. Many people took advantage of this and were sleeping with their mouths wide opened. I was also tired and especially with my small fire to worship God, I really wanted to get out of there. So when I got enough courage, I stood up to go to my room and just sleep since everyone else were sleeping anyways. When I went out, my leader was on his computer doing staff work, so I ended up talking to him. He reminded me worship wasn't for me to feel good and for me to receive something in return, but to worship God. And times when you don't want to worship but worship God because He is worthy, that's a sacrifice itself. I felt really dumb and deceived by Satan for even thinking the way I did. So I went back inside and started to worship.

While worshiping, Ernie called me for the first time in 2-3 weeks. I couldn't pick up in there so I called him back later. When we were talking, he gave me encouraging words and gave me hope. He's so good at doing that. Ernie reminded me to just enjoy the present and don't beat myself up for not experiencing major change. I also remembered Ernie telling me that spiritually growing is so gradual you usually don't notice the growth until you look back, like when we grow in height. Also it's so true, I shouldn't beat myself up because God will reveal Himself to me when He chooses to. Also me worshiping Him for Him to bless me in return is very selfish, and there is no formula I can create to get myself closer to God; it is He who draws us near.

I'm going to pause with my story of today and tell you what happened yesterday. So yesterday, my DTS class was practicing to hear the God's voice. So a random girl who isn't in our DTS was visiting our lecture, and she was brought up in front of our class. We were to ask God to give us any information about her or give her an encouraging word that we heard from God. When I asked God, Belle from Beauty and the Beast showed up. I had a strong burning to raise my hand and ask her if she in any way related to Belle. But I ended up not sharing.

Ok, so going back to today's story. So I was picking up people from Target to take them back to campus. The girl from yesterday that stood in front of class "happened" to have walked to Target with her friends and wanted a ride back. For SOME REASON, she decided to get shotgun. The weird thing is there were other people in the van that got in with her that I knew better. Also from this past week lecture, I've learned that Faith is spelled R I S K (to step out in faith is to take risks). So although I was nervous to ask and kept thinking how stupid I would look if she had no interest in Belle, I asked her anyways taking a risk. So I first asked her if she liked Disney movies. She said yes in a way like "how'd you know?" That got me excited so I told her how I thought God told me Belle. She seemed very interested because her two favorite Disney movies are Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast. Yeah it can be coincidence, and lots of people do like those two disney movies. But she said how she likes it when people get visions about her that are related to movies. And she felt she resembles Belle's character as other people yesterday during lecture told her characterstics very similar to Belle. Well, coincidently or not, I'm still glad I took a risk by faith today.

More happened in the van when talking to other people that I feel God planned for me. After my work duty, I felt really good. haha i'm such a fruit cake, always being pleased with God when He makes me happy.

Ok, I'm going to end this blog with some exciting things that happened recently and miracle stories. So this past week lecture, a staff at our school named Amy Sollars spoke for us. Since she was young, she was very familiar with the spirit realm. She spoke tongue since she was super young, not even knowing she was speaking tongue at that time. When she was 12 years old, she was about to commit suicide because of hard times but God spoke audibly to her saying "STOP" and she passed out and then woke up with a gun next to her. This happened many times. She also sees angels, prophesy like crazyyy, and many times knocked people to the floor after she opened her eyes when singing on stage. Exciting huh?

Amy Sollars told us stories of a person who was down syndrome but now healed and leading worship. The person still looks like a down syndrome person but his mind is normal. She told us how there are many babies that are young as 2 years old speaking tongue and young kids who encounter angels quiet often.

Many many people including Amy Sollars, Mark Anderson, Kristen Williams believe Jesus is returning soon. Mark Anderson said he had a clear vision and even heard God speak to him internally and clearly about the second coming. Many people who speak here says there will be a revival in the church like never before. More signs, wonders, and miracles will be coming, and more people will have the spiritual gifts of healing, miracles, and all those goodies. How exciting, huh?

Ok, my last interesting story is... so few days ago, my ear got infected from picking my ear with q-tip too deeply. It hurt so much I didn't want to do anything because 30% of my mind will be focusing on the pain. That night, I went to my DTS worship service, and before it started, I was sitting on the side very out of what was going on in the room because of my ear. A friend of mine overheard from someone that my ear was hurting, so she asked if she can pray for me. After she prayed and when I stood up, the heat and tension in my ear relaxed and the pain was gone. The power of the Holy Spirit!

Good night!

I haven't check out her site thoroughly, but you guys should check it out! i'm sure there will be exciting and encouraging words there! www.amysollars.com

fourth week

Hey guys!

It's already been 3 weeks since I've been here and every week, the Holy Spirit has been manifesting itself in so many cool ways. Things I've only heard of before that I haven't witnessed first hand have happened so much. Bunch of healings, many complex prophesies that confirm each other, demons being casted out, Benny Hinn kind of things where people fall backward...

About two weeks ago, Mark Anderson came to speak for us for a week. He's the president of Call2All. When he came, we had a worship service where he would walk around praying for people. When we were all praying and when I had my eyes closed, all of a sudden I heard a girl screaming hecka loud and she started crying. It kind of freaked me out although it was just the Holy Spirit doing something cool. Then I saw him approach me and my heart began to pump hard. Before he came, other people were praying for me so that the Holy Spirit would manifest in me in some way, either tongue or in other way, but nothing happened. When Mark Anderson came, he prayed for me and that my mind would be clear. Then all of a sudden, every time he pointed at my chest saying, "Holy Spirit, Come!" my body started to feel more numb. It was to the point where i couldn't feel my legs that when he pushed me backward slightly and i didn't know I was losing balance. I wasn't knocked down to the floor, but I fell backward with my body feeling very very numb and electrified.

I thought that was the coolest it was going to get. But this past week (week 3), Kristen Williams from New Zealand came. On the first day, he said "I feel like God is telling me there's going to be something very special for the people I'm about the name. Jonathan, Daniel...." When he said Daniel, I almost fell backward from my chair (not really) but I was that shocked. I had this deepppppp feeling in me that he was talking about me. He said people with those names to talk to him after, and the next day he brought us up in front of about 250 DTS people. He prophesied for me which was confirming to other visions people got for me.

Then toward the end of 3rd week, when we were all worshiping, I heard a demonic scream coming from the back. A student who wanted to leave here for so long, and decided to leave that day, had a demon cast out of him. It didn't leave for about 10-15 minutes and people were praying for him in the back. Hearing such evil/demonic screaming confirmed there must be something that is really pure, holy and strong enough to chase the evil away.

I think it'll be cool if more people came to DTS. I'm not saying DTS is the only way to grow closer to God, but it is like a boot camp for Christians where people grow stronger in their faith quicker than usual. Some people here have actual conversations with God, not only through Bible but internal voices in their head.

I also found out what countries I'll be going to for outreach. 1.5 months in Philippines and 1.5 months in Singapore. There's going to be a big Christian convention in Philippines called Impact World Tour, and my outreach group will be staffing there. It's going to be exciting!

Wow... God surely gives when we ask

I realized a while back that God was changing me into the person I prayed for, but recently, I thought God hasn't been answering me. I felt like I was ignored so many times. but today i remembered God is a good Father, giving us what we ask when He thinks it's best. Even at DTS during worship, I felt so disappointed in me for not being able to praise Him. I prayed so many times that He would be so real that I can do nothing else but praise Him with all my heart and body. Well, I wasn't able to do that today, but He answered a different prayer.

I wrote in the last blog that people who did a past DTS would come and pray for us and prophesy for us. After I found out they were coming, I prayed to God that I would receive many blessings and hear prophesies about me. Surely, He answered my prayer even before the worship service. More than 8 people prayed for me today and 4 people prophesied about me. Oh boy, these prophesies were exciting! It's exactly what I wanted to hear!

So many things happened but one interesting thing that happened was when one of my DTS staff was praying for me. He was praying that at that moment while he had his hand on my head, I would be able to see a vision from God. I waited desperately to see something, and I wasn't able to make out anything. Then few seconds later, an apple came into my head. I doubted that sign thinking I forced it out. Few minutes later, 3 of the past DTS people that came to pray for us prayed for me. One of the guys was describing what he saw, and he said he saw a big apple tree! and that soon I will be dropping juicy apples. that was so good to hear. They also said I will overflow real soon, maybe in about a week.

There were more prophesies that fit my dreams, which gave me confidence that God really does love me and cared for me always. I realized that He never left me, it's just that I doubted His presence and the words He spoke to me. I got to be patient and trust in Him that He provides whatever I ask for His Glory.

Today was intense and it hasn't even been a week. I never felt such a revival in many many years. It was the closest I talked to God in my life. I am so excited what else God has in plan for me. I can write on forever about tonight, but I got to shower and go to bed soon.

Good night evreyone!

Day 4 at DTS

Sorry for not updating for so long! I finally got my hands on the computer last night but then the internet shut off when I was about to start blogging.

So first, Hawaii is pretty cool except the humid weather. It's so tropical here and the plants look crazy. There's a lot of colorful geckos and pretty birds. The ocean feels super clean and looks so blue. It's like a whole new country here; it doesn't seem like the U.S. at all.

Anyways, I got here Thursday night so not much happened. I just took my photo and went to my room. Few leaders took me and another roommate who came around the same time and prayed for us when we were here. I haven't seen anyone pray like them before. I don't want to be mean or rude, but the way they prayed was actually kind of funny. I almost cracked up. But the way they pray is also cool because it seems very intimate.

Before I came to DTS, I was a bit worried that I might not be able to mingle well with the students and leaders here. Cool thing was that it was a lot easier than I thought. From day 1, I really felt people's prayers that I would get along well were being answered. At UCSB, I felt very apart from the white people who talk like "Sup brooo, I'm so stokedddd." And as soon as i got on the shuttle bus to school from the airport, the first guy i met was like "Supppp brooo." Surprisingly, he's one of the guys I chill with the most here. We share a lot of common interests and think about similar things.

Some other cool things happened last night and this morning. A friend from my DTS got a phone call last night while we were sharing our testimonies that his dad, brother, and great grandma who was turning 100 this year got into a car accident and his grandma was in the ER. So we all prayed for him and oh boy, I totally felt the Holy Spirit there. People prayed that the relatives would come out better than before the accident and they would recover fast. When they prayed that, I had a deep confident feeling that they would be OK. Also people started to prophesy and share their visions saying that the Angels were with the family; it was very interesting since I haven't heard anyone prophesying. Five minutes after the prayer and when we all went to our rooms, I saw him right outside my room sharing to his roommates how he just got a phone call that his relatives were all right with only few cuts and bruises. The cool thing was this student's family doesn't believe in God and many times tried to convince this student that God wasn't real. This day was a big leap of faith for him and a big encouragement.

Another cool thing that happened was this morning. A guy named Josh was telling me how he was reading a book we all have to read and how he felt jealous and mad at God for now being so personal with him as the author in the book. He also told me how he broke his back long time ago and few disks popped out. Anyways, we went to church with few other guys and Josh happened to sit next to me. After the service, the pastor was telling people with depressions to come up to be prayed for. Then he said they specifically wanted to pray for people with back pains. As soon as they said that, I looked at Josh and said, "dude, that's you." When I said that, he just shook his head saying no. But then after service, he just walked toward the front to be prayed for. When i was outside talking to other people, I saw him come outside with the biggest smile. He isn't the type of guy that smiles that big. He for sure saw the love of God this morning after being so mad at God for not showing Himself personally. Oh yeah... Josh was annointed with oil and his back pain disappeared. I checked with him again earlier today and he said the pain is still gone. He was super duper happy.

Tomorrow, few people who manifests the power of the Holy Spirit in their prayers are coming. I'm really excited how I will witness the Holy Spirit. Hopefully they can prophesy about me or just pray for me deeply. I'll write about my experience tomorrow when I can get my hands on the computer again.

It's only been 4 days and I really believe the Holy Spirit is strongly present here. Of course He is everywhere, but I definitely feel Him more. I'm really curious what God has in store in the next 6 months. It's exciting!

DTS here I come!

I'm packed (hopefully I'm not missing anything... OH! my pillow! brb... ok), I did everything I need to do at home, and I think I'm ready to leave. Now I just have to wait until I go pick up my grandma and then head to the airport. It still hasn't really hit me yet though. Hopefully it doesn't hit me all at once at the airport that I drop a tear haha. 6 months isn't that long though. I've done it before when I studied abroad to Korea for 6 months, and time then went by super fast. If Korea went by that fast, spending time with God 24/7 at DTS got to be faster... Godspeed ya know? Well, I really hope God reveals Himself more than I'm expecting and that it's such a good time that time does go by super fast. I think it will though, I have a good feeling about it.

It's pretty amazing how everything is coming true. A month ago, I began to be unsure if God was calling me to DTS, but now that it's all happening, it's pretty cool. OK, I'm going to start heading out now. Pray that I'll adjust in with people there smoothly!

First Day of bloggin

Hi guys. I decided to start a blog so people would know how I will be doing while away at Discipleship Training School. It's going to be a heck of an experience so I'm going to try to give you guys a feel of what's happening during the 6 months. Ernie and Daniel Soomin in Colorado told me so much about it, and I'm having so much expectations on how God will "rock my world," as Ernie always says. Ernie even said not only will He meet my expectations but He will pass the 10 in my rating scale. So before I even go, I need to prepare my heart to be widelllyyyyyy opened so that God can work in me. Even though everyone is busy and have so much to pray about already, please please please squeeze me in your prayers and pray that my heart is completely, inside out, prepared for DTS. I truly want to be K.O.ed by the Holy Spirit and surrender to Him.

When I think about it, I can't believe I'm actually going. Within the past month when I decided to go, it was such a battle with Satan. So many things happened that would make me lose hope that I thought my calling to DTS was not true, but Ernie would help me regain hope, and now here I am leaving this Thursday. Now that I think back to when God called me to go DTS and how confident I was about the calling, I feel dumb and weak being tricked so much by Satan. I guess another thing to pray for me is for me to be more obedient to God and quit straying away from what He has called me to by thinking too much. Haha I like this blog, because I can ask whatever I want and no one is pressured to answer favorably, but still allows the loving people to pray for me. Thank you for praying for me!! Thanks for all the love and supporting me to go DTS! This past few weeks, I've really felt God's love, especially through GNC. Hopefully I'll come back a new man gladly working my butt off for GNC!

This is enough of sharing my thoughts with you guys for today... I'm really enjoying this blog thing...