Scott is now safely on his way to the Philippines (Dallas > Hong Kong > Philippines), and praise God, all is well!
Friday’s Details:
Scott will land in the Philippines at 12:40 AM Sunday local time, spend about an hour going through customs and immigration, and then have a good hour’s drive to Villasis (“vee-YAH-siss”), where he will stay in the home of some relatives of Wilson and Angelica, our Filipino national directors. Scott will likely finally get to bed around 3:00 AM, and I’m sure he’ll be ready to sleep. That’s all well and good, but he is then scheduled to preach in the Sunday morning church service! WOW! We know God will give him the strength he needs. = )
The next key event will be our special 30-minute Zoom Prayer Meeting at 5:00 PM Central Time (in the US and Canada) on our Sunday evening, March 3rd. Everyone is invited to log in and join us in praying for these three weeks of intense ministry work to purposefully expand the disciple-making movement in the Philippines. (Scroll to the bottom of this post to see the login information for that Zoom meeting; please come!)
That Zoom meeting will actually be occurring early Monday morning in the Philippines, and right after it, our team will begin their ten-hour drive to the location of their first all-day seminar, which will be held in Lasam on Tuesday. On this map, they will travel from Villasis (white oval below car) to Lasam (white oval top center).
Scott’s planned travels to present 11 one-day seminars in the Philippines on this trip
The blue line on the map above shows all the driving they will be doing over the next three weeks. All told, it’s between 400 and 500 miles. That’s a lot of ground transportation.
Friday’s Prayer Requests:
Scott and all his luggage to arrive intact; grace to get from the plane to the car to the bed as quickly as possible.
A wonderful Sunday morning (Saturday night MO time) church service, and a powerful worldwide prayer meeting (over Zoom) at 5:00 PM Sunday MO time.
Safe travels to Lasam for our team, and God to prepare the hearts of the people there to receive from the Lord through our friends and Scott on Tuesday.
We are grateful for your prayers right now, and please stay tuned for our next update!
Well, almost fire. Scott is in final pre-trip prep mode to leave for a 4.5-week trip to the Philippines and Morocco on Thursday!
During the first three weeks of May, the TTC team will be hosting 11 day-long meetings as well as 3 church services to expand the DM movement in the Philippines. Scott says, “There will be a special Zoom prayer meeting on Sunday (see details below). I hope you will join us in prayer.”
After spending a precious few hours with our daughter and her family (our three grandchildren!) during his layover in Hong Kong, Scott will land in the Philippines around noon MO time on Saturday.
I (Patty) plan to send out mission trip updates several times a week while Scott is on the road or in the air, including news about how God is moving in people’s lives, what’s happening when and where with our teams on the ground, and specific prayer requests. Speaking of which, here are…
Tuesday’s Prayer Requests:
1. Safety and blessings for Scott as he travels to Asia; good health, physical comfort, sound sleep, intact luggage, and God’s guidance and peace in every situation.
2. Grace and wisdom for our Filipino leadership team as they finalize logistics for the many meetings that will soon occur; keen insight as they make connections with new people in various areas.
Thank you SO much for praying for our TTC team during this trip!
Blessings,
Scott and Patty
* SUNDAY NIGHT ZOOM PRAYER MEETING *
Come join us for 30 minutes of releasing God’s power and pushing back the forces of evil before Scott’s mission trip in the Philippines. Scott will be calling in from the Philippines at 6 AM prior to a 10-hour drive to the first of 11 all-day seminars to raise disciples across the northern part of the Philippines.
Today we have all KINDS of good news along with tremendous opportunities to expand the disciple-making movement in both Asia and Africa. Buckle up; here we go!
In just two weeks Scott will begin a five-week mission trip, first to the Philippines and then on to Morocco.
For the past six months Scott and our Filipino leadership team have been leading and training 20 Filipino ministry couples who all live in different areas throughout the northern Philippines. A major focus of this trip will be for Scott and the local leaders to travel to nine of those key cities to launch the disciple-making (DM) movement in each area. In each of those nine locations, they’ll hold a DM seminar, and then the already-trained ministry couples will lead the new groups being formed. This is really exciting!
All told, our Filipino national directors, Wilson and Angelica, are currently administrating 85 disciple-makers (DM) groups in their nation. Wow! In each region, they have key people whom they have discipled, and these “pillars” mentor, train, and oversee the individual “coaches” who are leading each of those 85 groups. During this trip, all of those coaches and pillars will gather together in a central location for an amazing summit where they will receive encouragement, ongoing training, and motivation to grow personally and effectively disciple others. It will be a very exciting summit!
Also, during this trip our Filipino team will be joined by a ministry couple from China, who are coming there to attend the DM seminars and experience the process firsthand. The husband has already translated the Raising Disciple-Makers book into simplified Chinese, and we are praying for them to be able to get it printed and into the hands of many believers in their homeland. What an exciting opportunity!
Then Scott will travel to Morocco, a 99.6% Muslim nation of more than 38 million people. He and team members Judah and Jenni have been training two groups of disciple-makers there for the past five months, and the three of them will be on the ground to help launch the disciple-making movement in Morocco in late May, with a Saturday meeting in one city and a Sunday meeting in another. This is super exciting!
And if all that were not enough, just this week Scott had a wonderful opportunity to share the disciple-making process with some 25 pastors and church leaders who were gathered in Kansas for their annual regional conference. Several are interested in learning more, and TTC received a significant offering which will cover half the expense of sending our Kenya international director to Niger, West Africa to help launch the DM movement there! But that’s another story for another day.
Exciting Praise Reports:
Great favor and amazing connections with various organizations for future partnership and expansion.
Groundwork being laid for bringing the disciple-making movement to Niger, Peru, Columbia, and more.
Wonderful co-workers of many nationalities working together with one heart and mind to grow God’s kingdom.
Specific Prayer Requests:
God’s provision for getting the Chinese Raising Disciple-Makers book printed and into the hands of many believers there.
Wisdom and connection with the right people to launch the DM process in Niger.
All the necessary prep and details to come together for the launching of many new DM groups in the Philippines.
We greatly appreciate your prayers and support. Your faith is making a difference and enabling more and more disciple-makers to be made around the world. THANK YOU!
Today we are sharing a testimony of one of the DMM pastors from the Philippines, Pastor Chris, whose personal life and church ministry have both been transformed by the process of intentional discipleship Take the Challenge uses in all our disciple-makers groups.
He says, “Personally, intentional discipleship has made me become more responsible and intentional in my daily devotion and prayer life, and I have learned that spiritual growth does not happen accidentally—it happens when we allow ourselves to be consistently shaped by God through His Word, prayer, and accountability.
“As a pastor, intentional discipleship has also changed the way I see ministry. Before, I was sometimes content with simply having church attendees or church workers. But now, I am beginning to see not just leaders in the church, but true disciples who can also disciple others. It reminds me that the mission of the church is not only to gather people, but to grow people—so they can become mature followers of Christ [who] help others follow Him too.
Pastor Chris’ DM group
“In our church, I can clearly see many improvements in those who are under intentional discipleship. They are becoming more hungry and interested in studying the Word of God. Some who used to be quiet and not very expressive are now more confident because of the regular interaction, sharing, and encouragement within the discipleship process. Others have started building a daily devotional life, and many have become more committed, faithful, and involved in our church’s ministries.
Pastor Chris with his transformed disciple-makers!
“Intentional discipleship is not only producing activity—it is producing transformation. It is helping shape believers into disciples, and disciples into disciple-makers who are building a stronger future for the Kingdom of God.
“That’s my testimony, and To God be All the Glory!”
God’s Spirit is moving powerfully through Take the Challenge’s Disciple-Making movement (DMM) in several parts of the world, including Kenya, east Africa, where the KDMM is currently “planting trees” for major expansion.
The 30 new DM pastors under Bishop Wycliff’s leadership are growing as they meet weekly with our local team. On Thursday morning, Scott had an opportunity to personally speak to them and explain to them the vision for the Global DMM. In August, our team in Kenya will travel to the locations below (marked with red pins) to raise up new DM Outposts which will be led by those 30 pastors being trained right now. This will allow us to expand the Kenya DMM to saturate the nation with disciple-makers as we make Jesus’ last command our first priority.
Missionary James now has his new ministry car, which he will use to travel all over the country as he oversees our existing DM coaches and hosts vision-casting meetings for new groups. He is very excited that he will no longer have to travel by bus, motorcycle, and other public means. Thanks to all who gave!
Pastor James in his new car
Praise Reports:
Pastor James’ new ministry car. Thank you, partners, and thank you, God!
Successful elections in Nepal with no violence.
New God-connections between TTC and several missions organizations.
Prayer Requests:
God’s continued provision to walk through all the new doors of ministry before us.
God to give us ongoing wisdom regarding various partnerships and opportunities before us.
Grace for Rev. Hillary and his wife, Joyce, (two of our core leaders in Kenya) as they take care of Hillary’s father, Charles, who has had a stroke and is not able to move.
Thank you for joining your faith with ours as we keep raising disciple-makers around the world!
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