Thank you so much for reading these trip updates and praying for our team. = )
Thursday’s Bottom Line:
Our “Faithful Four” held their second vision-casting in Kalinga with three more new DM groups forming(!!!), thanks to Pastor Daniel’s months of investing there. And now, they have just completed their third vision-casting in three days (WOW!) in Ramon. They are all working very well together, but the pace, the travel, the heat, and the many hours of standing and teaching are also draining.
Thursday’s Prayer Requests:
1. God to give each team member grace, patience, stamina, and strength; each of them to have the rest they need and time to prepare for whatever is coming up next.
2. Scott’s physical body to “make it through” this fairly intense week of travel and ministry; specifically, his back to stay healthy and the discomfort in his right arm to end.
3. Clear communication between the coaches and the new DM groups they are setting up in each of these new areas; the groups to start promptly and be energizing and life-giving for the participants.
4. The Holy Spirit to guide the formation of our first-ever South American online DM group; it will start this coming Monday with attendees from Peru and Columbia! (Details on this in our next update.)
Thursday’s Details:
I simply MUST tell you about Pastor Daniel and his commitment to see disciple-makers raised up, no matter the personal cost.
Pastors Wilson and Angelica live in Villasis, and they have formed disciple-making groups with other pastors and church leaders in their area, including Pastor Daniel, who was powerfully impacted by being in a DM group. Very soon, he wanted to bring that process to the people in Kalinga, where he had pastored in the past. Although Kalinga is six hours away from Villasis, for the past two-and-a-half MONTHS, Pastor Daniel, who is not a young man, has traveled to and from Kalinga every week on his motorcycle(!) to lead a DM group there. The people he has been discipling in that group spread the word, invited other area pastors and church leaders to attend our team’s vision-casting there this week, and they are now the coaches who are forming and will lead the three new DM groups in Kalinga. This is very exciting!
I was about to wrap up today’s update when Scott sent me a voice message about our team’s time in Ramon, which is where they drove after the vision-casting in Kalinga.
Kalinga (great!) to Ramon (initially no-shows) to Nueva Vizcaya (3 days of meetings)
At 9:00 AM, when the six-hour vision-casting was scheduled to start, there were ZERO people there! By 9:20, Scott was about ready to cancel the whole thing. He learned that the folks our team had worked with to arrange this vision-casting were part of a denomination whose local overseers were not pleased that they had not initiated the meeting, and because their denomination already has a discipleship process, they had forbidden folks of that denomination to attend. = {
The disciple-makers movement is not associated with or limited to any denomination. Our seminars often have pastors and church leaders from multiple denominations and non-denominations in attendance. Thankfully, our team is not easily deterred so they hung around, and after about 45 minutes, a few people did come. They were wonderfully attentive and open to what our team shared. God really put everything together and as a result, a new DM group of four or five people is now starting there!
Finally, because cultural things are often fun and usually interesting, here’s a picture Scott took a few days ago. He said, “Culture shot – double-decker tricycle. It takes passengers on top and also below (although the lower level is currently empty).”
Double-decker trike
Can you imagine tooling down the road in that?!? Thankfully we don’t have to imagine your support during this mission trip because we know you are joining your faith with ours in PRAYER. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Our team’s first day of meetings in Lasam resulted in three new disciple-makers (DM) groups being formed! They have now traveled – with effort! – on to Kalinga, where they will lead another day of vision-casting on Wednesday (Tuesday night MO time).
Tuesday’s Prayer Requests:
1. Grace for the extremely hot weather; our folks to sleep well at night, and cool breezes to prevail in Kalinga on Wednesday.
2. The specific people whose hearts are ready to learn about raising disciple-makers to attend the Kalinga vision-casting, and the Kalinga area coaches to be eager and prepared to start new groups immediately.
3. Our team members to flow and function together well with clear, honoring communication on large and small matters.
Tuesday’s Details:
Longtime readers of these trip updates will be familiar with Scott’s pattern of leading disciple-makers (DM) seminars in various places. These have typically been two-day seminars, often presented for two or three hours on a Friday evening, and then for some four hours the next morning and/or early afternoon. At the close of a seminar, attendees are encouraged to join a DM group, either locally and in person or online.
Now that Take the Challenge is “scaling” our disciple-making outreach, Scott is not the only one presenting the DM process to new people in new locations, praise God! And instead of doing full-fledged two-day DM seminars, presenters are doing what we call “vision-castings.” These are one-day (often roughly 9:00 AM to 3:00 or 4:00 PM), abbreviated seminars that explain the difference between believers and disciples, show the critical need for disciple-makers, and model Jesus’ method of raising disciple-makers. Then, attendees are invited to join DM groups led by “coaches” in that local area who are already experienced and trained in the process.
This week our team is doing vision-casting in a series of cities where coaches who have been in DM groups for several months are now on standby, ready to lead new in-person groups where they live. Our team of four during this trip includes Pastor Daniel, Pastors Wilson and Angelica (who are also our Filipino national directors), and Scott. They all traveled from their base city of Villasis to Lasam, where they held their first vision-casting on Monday.
Acting out going and bringing someone else to Jesus
The primary audience for these vision-castings are pastors and church leaders (heads of various church departments). Here Wilson (blue shirt, top center) is meeting with a number of pastors who will be joining a new DM group.
These pastors will comprise one of the three new DM groups in Lasam!
Scott said, “Pastor John and Sol will lead two in-person pastor groups. Angelica will lead one online church leaders group.”
Angelica sent us this update from after the Lasam vision-casting. “We are done with our first vision casting. Since yesterday we were concerned with our leaders in [Lasam], regarding about their commitment and to find time to lead our team regularly because of their busy schedule, but praise God He works all things for good. I can say it was a success and we have 3 groups more from this vision casting.. hallelujah!!”
They left Lasam that evening to drive to Kalinga for the Wednesday vision-casting there. At 9:30 PM Tuesday, Angelica said, “We are still in the road. Our suppose to be 2 and half hour trip turn to 4hrs. š All because of Google map.. š ”
Lasam to Kalinga (red ovals)
As you can see above, their pattern all this week is to do vision-casting during the day, then drive to the next location to do it all again the next day. After their Kalinga vision-casting on Wednesday, they will drive that evening to Ramon, etc. (It looks to me like Kalinga to Ramon will be another two to three hour trip…)
Finally, Scott said that after driving 10 hours from Villasis, when they got to the hotel in Lasam on Monday night the power went off(!!!), and with no AC or fans it was much too hot to sleep. Thankfully, after a while the power did come back on, but he just sent me this about Kalinga, where they finally arrived late Tuesday night. Note the forecast temps during their 9:00 AM-4:00 PM meetings tomorrow!
Scott said, “Tomorrow’s seminar venue has no AC. Prayer requested!” Now, if YOU were going to lead or attend an all-day meeting in a place with no air conditioning and it was going to be 98 degrees, you’d want prayer too, so let’s all pray for our team now!
Scott and his luggage have arrived in the Philippines! He slept 2:30-7:00 AM, preached in Pastor Wilson’s church, had lunch with a dear friend from many year ago, slept four more hours, and handled details for their long road trip on Monday. Scott wants us all to remember and hopefully join the special 30-minute Zoom prayer meeting at 5:00 PM today. Here are the details for that meeting:
Topic: Special Prayer for Philippines Mission
Time: May 3, 2026 05:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
1. Safety for our team on their long drive to Lasam on Monday.
2. God to make divine connections between the leaders (“coaches”) and their new group members in Lasam — and in each of the new cities throughout this trip.
3. Grace and stamina for Scott as he moves through jet lag this week.
Sunday’s Details:
Here’s a bit of background that will hopefully help you better understand the general format of this mission trip in the Philippines.
Wilson and Angelica planted the Agape San Blas church in the city of Villasis (“vee-YAH-siss”) two years ago with about 30 people. This church’s very foundation is disciple-making; it’s what the church is all about. They meet outside in this pavilion that they have built. This picture shows them all doing “the royal wave” (like dignitaries do while riding in a parade) after Scott had preached this morning on them being treasures and a royal family. I think that’s Pastor Wilson on the far right in the blue plaid shirt.
Greetings from the “royal” Agape San Blas family!
You can see in the above picture that several people are wearing dark blue shirts with “PDMM” in the red letters that stand for “Philippines Disciple-Makers Movement.” Those folks — and many more — are in disciple-makers (DM) groups. Some 85 DM groups have been launched from the seeds of this very church in the past two years, and the main goal of this mission trip is to expand the DM movement to areas farther out from Villasis.
Hence the 10-hour drive northeast to Lasam tomorrow.
In TTC’s earliest days, Scott would go to a place where someone had gathered a number of pastors and church leaders, and he’d present a two-day disciple-makers seminar. Many of the people would then want to join a DM group, but we often wouldn’t have enough local people trained to lead those groups.
Now that Scott has spent several years investing his life into key leaders in various countries, our M.O. has shifted. Those key leaders and their disciples and their disciples’ disciples now do much of the ground work Scott used to do. Before Scott goes to a location (like Lasam) to present an abbreviated DM seminar, other “pillars” (area coordinators) and “coaches” (group leaders) have already discipled people who are now ready to be coaches. When Scott gets there, he does his seminar and invites those who are interested to join a DM group. Coaches are standing in the wings, ready to get people signed up and into groups immediately. In fact, they try to have their first group meeting within a week or ten days!
On this trip, Scott is currently scheduled to present 11 seminars, so this pattern will be repeated many times. As you read these updates, please remember that each person who joins a DM group and stays with the process for a few months will soon be coaching his or her own group of disciple-makers, who will do the same… and on it goes, to the glory of God! That’s the fruit of YOUR prayers and giving, so thank you very much for standing with us!
I hope to see many of you soon in the Zoom prayer meeting!
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 allĀ 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, theyāll 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 āpillarsā mentor, train, and oversee the individual ācoachesā 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 thatās 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 Godās kingdom.
Specific Prayer Requests:
Godās provision for getting the ChineseĀ Raising Disciple-MakersĀ 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!
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