You can imagine my gasp as I glanced out the window and saw this magnificent butterfly. Grabbing our camera, I scuttled out the door and crept upon him mingling among the giant yellow trumpets behind the house. It just lingered there around the beautiful bush, seemingly for me to admire it and collect photo after photo.

It effortlessly lit upon the blossoms never bothered by my intrusion. I clicked away capturing this incredible sight, grateful for a moment of unexpected beauty. God planned a lesson for me that morning.

Viewing through the camera lens, I watched the beautiful butterfly haltingly stretch out his wings in a unique stance. Excitedly I thought, “Ooh, something different is happening!” I watched amazed as the wings remained spread and the butterfly seemed to float slowly downward from it’s blossom. I couldn’t quite see clearly enough through the lens but just kept clicking shots as the weird activity continued, convinced I was witnessing something exceptional of butterflies. Instead I was witnessing something of life.

And of death. ‘My’ beautiful butterfly twitched his last there in those lovely flowers. This carefree butterfly failed to distinguish the gorgeous spider camouflaged among the blossoms.

God reminded me real danger can appear appetizing. I remembered the warning found in Matthew 7:15. False prophets come disguised but in reality are vicious! Much like the spider disguised as a nourishing flower, false prophets inject poison that paralyzes the unwary.  God’s warning flashed bright red anew. Caution and discernment must be exercised when listening to messages masquerading as teaching from Scripture. False doctrines literally spew poison from so called Christian programming and unwary believers are snared. Friends, learn with me this lesson from the spider and the butterfly. Let’s study the Bible, our true authority on God’s revelation, and allow God to raise those red flags of warning when you hear anyone twisting the Truth.

Deceived

Many of you wrote asking about the storms and any news of the survivors. We saw for ourselves the damage only hours after it hit a nearby city. Our hearts went out to those walking around covered in mud and in shock and still I am haunted seeing a little child sitting all alone in the mud crying with no one around tending to her.

We rejoice in the love of Christ that has been shown to these desperate people. Amid the horror stories were true acts of sacrifice and kindness as God’s people immediately supplied clothing, food, water and shelter to hundreds and reportedly a thousand were still missing. This relief was not the effort of an organization mobilized from foreign dollars or internationally declared need, but Christians responding with the love of Christ to people around them in need. Hospitals and churches became collection centers and then delivery personnel distributed real help to real people right away. How refreshing. No waiting on institutions to send out pleas or nations to set up web sites and tv centers for millions of dollars to be collected – just God’s people obediently showing His love without delay.

Families are completely unaccounted for. Clean water is slowly being restored to many areas after almost a month. Relocating survivors with any relatives to be found is difficult. The shock is gone but the horror and pain lingers. Please continue to pray for families to look to the Lord for comfort. Pray for those still helping them relocate to safer housing.  We could not bear to take pictures of the suffering but we’ve found photos from the internet if you care to see the images from the storm. We looked up Washi Tropical Storm and Philippine Storm on google images.

Please continue to pray that many survivors will come to know Christ and that people will find their hope in Him alone amongst the ruin.

Feeding the Awana Kids of Mt. Moriah

Awana! It’s amazing to watch 300+ kids line up for a delicious and nutritious meal after hours of running and jumping, screaming and clapping and, amazingly, quietly sitting to hear God’s Word for them.

Awana Clubs International brings the Gospel of Jesus Christ to kids. Lots and lots of kids. It’s a beautiful thing to witness and even more beautiful to participate. We visited one such club recently and the noise brought a smile to our faces even before we saw the room full of children. I stepped inside the vibrating building just to grab a few photos and video because we had a specific task to do. We were there to volunteer in the feeding of 300+ children after all the activity and teaching was finished.

God is using the directors, friends of ours since coming to the Philippines ten years ago, in such an amazing way and they serve tirelessly – well, that’s not correct. They are tired. But they are also extremely blessed to be able to reach these children before they are trapped in the path of poverty that leads to desperation that leads to crime and ultimately jail. Yes, you read that correctly. Children in jail.

The plight of street children of the Philippines is well documented in film and print for any that care to look it up. God urged this family to get out of the church pew and do something. They did. God built a tremendous ministry for them from seven children to 300+.. a proper count possible only in the bowls and cups of food as they politely file past the table for their serving. I prayed for them today knowing that there are countless others around the world giving the Gospel to children that their society ignores until it costs them – ranging from being a nuisance to causing harm.

The goal of the directors is to break the chain that drags them from abandoned or disadvantaged to jail. They want to allow God to make a difference before they become someone’s jail ministry. And thanks to God, He is making that difference. We are humbled to volunteer some of our time to help.  They encourage church teams to come for projects or even to do the program for a short time offering much needed break to the staff. Feel the need to build something? Plumb something? Teach something? Feed someone? You will return home blessed and enriched.

We’ll happily be a connection to the program if you’d like to contact us of the urge God has put upon your hearts.

Take a few minutes to go our photo page to see some of the pictures from that day. Click below:

http://blogs.ntm.org/chris-lynne-strange/photos/?album=1&gallery=26

Ages 12 - 29!

The youth group from the little mission church we attend in town has a wonderful problem!

It’s too big!

From the humble beginning of the fellowship of four young women, the group has grown to 30 in number. Teaching became difficult as many of the younger people that are coming haven’t yet placed their trust in Christ for His work on the cross. Ages span the huge gap from twelve to twenty nine and an even broader gap of understanding and need. Pretty wonderful problem for us, huh?!

We’ve just received permission from the church leaders to split the group to a more manageable range of age twelve to nineteen and a second group of single college and professional people. Due to limited time available from our other ministries, we must alternate the meetings.

We ask you to pray with us for these times together with the youth. Pray for the salvation of these young people. Pray for real understanding and growth. Pray that nothing hinders or distracts them from what they are learning in church and the fellowship. Pray for us to be real before the Lord and them and to live out our lives that show Christ among them.

Our dear friends in the village report a poor harvest this year. The heavy rains and earth tremors that ruined our airstrip are a joint threat to their harvest. We barely had a dry season this year which translates into a late start in burning and planting the land and a poor growing season.

Recent text messages have been spotty because the signal is very weak in our village. The news there has been difficult to hear as we wait here for a trip into the high mountain area. With that in mind, we are investigating a new way and would appreciate your prayers along those lines. I can’t give too many details here but it would be a brand new travel experience for me (Lynne). The communication to get that worked out has been difficult. The activity among those that wish to harm is high just now. While that news doesn’t cancel the plans for my going in, it does increase the need to have all the details ironed out as much as humanly possible.

We also heard a friend has had to make the difficult trip to the hospital because he was very weak and getting weaker. Amay Brayan was admitted into the hospital in a nearby city with a diagnosis of cirrhosis of the liver. Our hearts go out to the family and we count them as close friends. Our plan is to visit very soon to check on him and his family.

Please pray for Amay Brayan and the doctors that are treating him. Pray for the village and people in the surrounding jungle as they do the best to store and protect their meager harvest of rice. Pray that they might find other food abundant in the jungle to support their diet.

The beautiful expressions of our friends regarding their trust in the Lord for each difficulty they find in their lives glorify our Father. They simply said, “There are difficulties here and we are missing you very much. Our trust is in the Lord for everything.”

Chris Teaching 4th Grade

Once a week Chris is greeted enthusiastically with “Good morning Pastor Chris!” by approximately thirty little 4th graders. It’s a highlight of our week when we volunteer as substitute teachers for a Bible Story and singing at a small school in the area. The children are attentive and eager to hear about the stories God has preserved for us in the Bible. They love hearing about the giants and the mighty things people did when they obeyed God. Singing is loud and joyous and we get to learn new ways to act out the “sweet sweet love of Jesus.” Many of these little ones come from extremely poor homes. The most malnourished receive a special meal after the teaching and treatment for tuberculosis while the others play outside. We understand that for those, it’s their only nutritious meal of the day.

God stretches us to serve in ways we never dreamed when we trained and came to the field ten years ago. The most repeated phrase during training was, “be flexible.” Sometimes we feel like we are shaped like pretzels inside! Yet we look at the faces so eager to hear what we have come to say about our Father, God, and marvel at what He must be doing in these hearts. We pray for them to take in the truths of the stories and songs so that one day they respond to the gospel. They are so grateful for that hour that we give to themand we are grateful to have the opportunity to be a small part of their lives.

A financial blessing from a North Carolina Women’s mission group provided pens, pencil holders and paper for the students and erasers and chalk for the teachers in this little school. The box of supplies are on the way from America as I type this. Thank you so much for being willing to sacrifice for them.

It might be heaven before you actually meet any of them but we trust God will urge you to remember to lift these little ones that are just hearing about Him. Pray that nothing will snatch away the enthusiasm so evident in their eyes to learn new things about the God that loves them so much and that soon their eternity will be secure in His salvation. Their riches or circumstances on this earth may never be at lot different from what they now know, but with Heaven in their future – well, He makes all the difference!

(double click on image to enlarge)

It was a beautiful day when our son Brent started home from work on his bike. Seven minutes into the ride, sudden tornado force winds whipped debris from trees, gravel and dust into a swirling curtain making it impossible to continue. The closest shelter was a brick and concrete sign. The 7′ x 5′ sign looked like a safe haven to wait out the storm. But instead of protecting him, the sign failed to withstand the strong wind and toppled over onto Brent. He raised his arms to try to hold back the 500 pound sign only to hear them snap under the weight.

Knowing his arms were broken, he pushed out from under the sign just as it landed intact on his bike. The storm raged on as he managed to punch the emergency number and call for an ambulance.

Both arms were snapped between the wrist and elbow and he sported two beautiful blue casts for 8 weeks. He said everywhere he went strangers would approach him and ask, “How in the world did you do that?” We are so thankful the Lord gave him the presence of mind to push out from under the sign before it crushed him. God is so good! His computer was replaced free of charge and the bike only had a skewed kickstand.

The sign is still on the ground.

Our chief pilot, Martin Burnham and his wife Gracia served the Lord here and among their captors until his death. Since that time the NTM flight program in the Philippines was grounded. God answered our prayers by sending over pilots and their families and we are full of praise to God for each region has functioning NTM flight programs again.

This wonderful tool helps missionaries travel to and from our remote locations. Some have not been able to return to  villages in over a year. Land is getting almost impossible to obtain permission for airstrips in new locations and expenses are quickly prohibitive in some of our established locations. God has enabled the northern region of the Philippine field to use a helicopter to meet that need.

Two helicopter pilots and four fixed wing pilots are flying or preparing to fly in the very near future. We thank God for them and ask for prayers for these families that were challenged to serve the Lord here. Our locations are not easy and the risks are high. We are certainly grateful when we look up to see the familiar “red and white” dotting the skies and now we have this new silhouette to rejoice about!