June Update

While at camp last week each day I read 1 Peter 2:9-10 and I was filled with joy knowing that our gracious God, through the Gospel, was making a chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, a people for His own possession as He is calling street children who are considered to be like the garbage rotting on the street corners from darkness into His marvelous light. Praise God for His mercy!

The following are our ministry updates for your prayer and information. Thank you for being a part of this work through your prayer and giving.

1. Street Children Camp

Last week we had 42 street kids at our camp. We had 50 lined up but 8 backed out at the last moment. Of the 10 girls who attended, several will be entering one of our project ministry's vocational training and discipleship program for older street girls. This is a breakthrough in ministry to older female street kids. Some of the boys entered Honest Hands batch # 6 which started last Monday and others are being prepared for other programs. Continue to pray that these kids will remain responsive to God's Word and their counsellors. Our next camp for street children is July 24-27 and our team is now preparing for it.

2. Honest Hands and Mustard Seed

Honest Hands, our life-skills development program for street boys opened Monday and they are off to a good start. The boys are getting medical and dental exams and soon will be getting eye check ups. Daily they are learning basic life-skills like taking care of themselves and the home in which they live along with having practical Bible studies. Pray for Pastors Mel and Lino and Carl and Lisa as they lead their 10 young students off the street and into responsible adulthood. Mustard Seed is also off to a good start with 10 young women learning sewing and what it means to be a godly woman through daily Bible study. Pray for Barb the program administrator, Sharon the instructor and their staff Doring, Leilani and Mervi as they lead their young disciples.

3. Church planting in Capalong, Quezon

ACTION and the New Testament Baptist Church of Paete, Laguna, continue in our church planting efforts in Barangay Capalong. Currently there are 6 weekly Bible studies taking place with a total of 38 adults and in May we had an evangelistic camp for 67 youth and a vacation Bible school for 72 so the momentum is certainly there. We are now developing a proposal to build a simple community center which can be used for youth and adult activities such as literacy classes, recreation, a library with computers, community meetings and worship services. This is an identified need by all involved so pray for the polishing of the proposal and funding. We have no money but we will trust the Lord for it as we move forward. This Sunday I will be preaching at NTBC for their missions Sunday, which will be followed by a meeting with their leadership to discuss how to move forward in Capalong. This year is the 50th anniversary of NTBC and they are not novices at church planting. Church planting is one of their core ministries.

I covet your prayers for God's wisdom and anointing.

By the way, this project would be ideal for a construction team along with those who want to get in on this grassroots church planting effort. I could see teams coming over with cash, books, computers, builders, preachers, cooks, teachers, you name it. Here's an opportunity for *YOU* and your church. This seaside area is rugged with no fancy hotels nearby so it will mean roughing it by sleeping on mats under mosquito nets in bamboo huts but this is mission work at its finest and would meet a real need.

4. Guests

In recent weeks our field has hosted 2 church teams. One from Burnsville, MN and the other from Indio, CA. We are always glad to have teams serve with us such as these two who contribute to the work and do not have their own agenda. We also personally hosted Andrew Sheppard for 6 days who was here for a visit. Andrew is our nephew and a grad student at the Institute of Technology at the University of Minnesota. He is on a several week trip throughout Asia and it was a joy to have him visit us. Erin Becker is our intern from Moody Bible Institute who is here for 8 weeks. She heard Mary Ann and I speak at MBI in October '05 during their missions conference and she has the "right stuff" to be a career missionary. What a delight she is.

5. Micah Ann's internship

Speaking of college interns, thank you for praying for Micah's internship. She has been working as a strength trainer at a very large high school in suburban Minneapolis and a personal trainer for up and coming figure skaters. She has also found a church home at Grace Church Roseville, not far from our condo. She is attending a Bible study and hosting one for college students.

6. Mavis Orton, M.B.E.

Some of you may remember meeting Mavis Orton when she was in Minnesota helping the Quitalig family years ago get urgent medical treatment at Mayo Clinic. Mavis recently was awarded the "Member of the British Empire" award by Queen Elizabeth for her years of outstanding missionary service with ACTION. For the fuller story and pictures, go to: http://jeffmaryann.blogspot.com/

7. ACTION Guesthouse nearly completed

Hosting guests is important to our team and we have many of them--church groups, interns, family members, short termers, project workers and others. Several months ago we started building a simple but comfortable guesthouse that sleeps 16 at our 2nd Mile ministry compound and it is nearly finished. Daryl and Sharon Germaine and Gary and Melita Root have really worked hard in seeing this project to completion and will oversee our hospitality ministry there in the future. The total cost is $30,000 for which we are still raising funds. Perhaps you would like to make a contribution and you never know, you may end up sleeping there some day.

8. Mary Ann now Personnel Director

Boy, we are really short handed in the ministry of administration. We need help in the business office and in handling the many applicants who desire to serve with ACTION Philippines. Mary Ann stepped up and recently took on the Personnel role even though her work load is already full. She has been processing 18 career applicants, 6 for short term service and helping with our recent teams along with her other projects. She is also training Jim Craig, a new Associate missionary with ACTION, to take on the coordination of the short termers ministry. July 16-18 she will be participating in a meeting for personnel coordinators at the ACTION USA office so she is busy preparing for that meeting. Pray for Mary Ann's physical, emotional and spiritual strength so she can cope and help me carry the administration load of our field. This morning at breakfast she said that the work she has before her is heavy and intense at this time, but it represents getting procedures in place which will facilitate many whom we believe God is calling to serve with our Philippine team.

9. Trip to MN

After Mary Ann's meetings in at the ACTION USA office, she will go to Minnesota to see Micah, her family and mine. She was also planning with Micah and her mother to host a graduation open house for Micah on July 28 and I did not see how I could attend due to lack of funds and time. But praise God, as it has turned out, I will leave Manila July 26 so I'll be able to help Mary Ann host this party. Several people felt I should go and even contributed to the cost of the tickets to make it possible. Amos will be with us the entire time I am there so that is great. We return to Manila August 3. Being a missionary, I'm always looking for an opportunity to preach and share the ministry, I'll be speaking at First Baptist of Anoka July 29 in their 10:30am service. It is their youth Sunday.

10. Blog

As you may know, Mary Ann and I have a passion to communicate what God is doing in and through us and our team for His glory. One of the means is our blog which you can read at http://jeffmaryann.blogspot.com. A Blog is a "weB-LOG" or journal that can be read on the internet. I invite you to read more details to these and other stories and make comments if you desire. Just click on the little envelop icon at the end of each story.

Our passion is to see the expansion of God's kingdom and His glory among all the nations which actually means people groups. Two of these people groups are the 160,000,000 street children and 104,000,000 orphans around the world. On September 18 I have been invited to give a 15 minute talk at the 9th Global Consultation on Child Welfare Services which will be held near Manila on the topic of street children. In November I have been invited to talk about our ministries to street children at the Asian Cutting Edge Conference in Bangkok and to represent 180° Alliance so I need God's wisdom as I prepare for these talks. God's people around the world need to stand up and take up our God-given mandate to minister His Gospel and compassion to each street child and orphan so we need to face God directly and ask Him for grace to do it.

-- 

Jeff Anderson
Field Director, ACTION Philippines
Director, Street Impact Team (a division of ACTION)
PO Box 110, Greenhills Post Office, 1502 Metro Manila, Philippines
Tel: 531-3709 / 533-1020 / Email: jeff@actionintl.org
Family website: http://web.mac.com/jma.anderson/
ACTION Philippine: http://www.actionph.org

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