Dear All,
Our Take the Challenge team is now at a mere T-Minus 22 hours!!! and counting until our next mission trip launches to the Philippines and beyond! Mark and Whitney Phillips and their sons, Liam (12) and Korbin (10) leave Missouri Saturday afternoon for a full month of disciple-making in the Philippines, and Scott Roberts (age undisclosed) leaves Sunday evening to join them there for two weeks before heading on to Nepal and India. For all their upcoming travel and especially for their ministry on the ground, we really need your prayers.
Thursday's Prayer Requests:
- No flight delays; everybody to have good flights, sleep well, land safely with all their luggage, and adjust well to the time change, culture, and climate. It's very hot and humid in the Philippines right now.
- Pastor Gil's throat surgery to go well; for a supernatural recovery, total healing, and full use of his voice. (Note that the "G" sounds like "H," so his name is pronounced "Hill.")
- All details for the Tandem Conference to run smoothly; no hindrances to all 20 pastoral couples attending, and God to do amazing things in each person's heart, marriage, and ministry.
Thursday's Details:
Preparations for this trip have been extensive because God has opened some truly incredible doors for raising many more disciple-makers in the Philippines. To that end, three big events are planned during this Philippines trip:
- Tandem Conference (3-day Disciple-Makers and Better Together seminar, more details below)
- All-Philippines DM Summit (open to everyone who is in a disciple-makers group)
- DM Coaches Summit (special training for all the coaches who lead disciple-makers groups)
I know that all sounds rather overwhelming, but for right now, let's focus only on event #1, the Tandem Conference, which will be held on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, October 23-25. The first day will introduce the idea of raising disciple-makers and explain biblically why it's such a priority. Day 2 will be a marriage seminar designed especially for ministry couples, and the final day will explain the practical how-to's of raising disciple-makers.
The 20 pastoral couples from various parts of the Philippines who will be attending the Tandem conference have already committed to join the Disciple-Makers (DM) movement by first being trained via online DM groups for 6 months and then being the coaches who lead in-person groups in their own areas. This map shows with red markers where we are now (54 DM groups!) and with green markers where we could be in 12 months, primarily through the DM ministry of the pastoral couples who will be at next week's Tandem Conference.
All of this expansion has been developing through Pastor Gil ("Hill"), an incredibly humble man of God who is in Scott's Monday online DM group. Pastor Gil is a leader of a very large network of evangelical churches in the Philippines and has connections with and oversight of hundreds of pastors. He has been personally so impacted by the DM movement that he has strongly encouraged this subset of like-minded pastors to get involved. Unfortunately, Pastor Gil will not be able to attend the Tandem Conference as planned because of the major surgery he will be undergoing late next week to remove a tumor from his neck.
You can "meet" Pastor Gil in this 1:30 video clip. He and we deeply appreciate your prayers for him, AND for Scott and the Phillips family as they all continue to deal with details and keep on packing and preparing to GO! It's going to be an exciting weekend. = )
Blessings,
Patty Roberts