When one of our former Charis Bible College students told me how much my Women for the Harvest book had impacted her life and asked if I would allow her to translate it into Visayan language for distribution in her native country of the Philippines, I knew that the Lord had opened the new door of ministry that I had been waiting for. Once the translation was complete, Linda Easton and I began making plans to travel to Davao City for the release of the book and to teach it in two women’s conferences there. I knew that the Philippines would be a ready harvest field for our ministry of encouraging and equipping women to become actively involved in the Great Commission since recent mission studies have shown that the Filipina women are one of the rising groups of missionaries since they are very evangelistic and travel all over the world to work as domestic helpers. Almost as soon as we had finalized our plans and booked all the reservations for the trip, we were greeted one morning by headline news that Davao City had been rocked by a terrorist attack – a bombing that left seventeen dead! We felt that we should not cancel the trip, so we continued with our plans – and by the time we were to travel, peace had been restored to the city. When we arrived, we did discover that the bombing had taken place right across the street from our hotel; however, the bright side of that story is that our hotel was under heightened security and everything was extremely safe.
Even though we had traveled for a day and a half – including one sixteen-hour leg – and were dealing with a fourteen-hour time difference, Linda and I “hit the ground running.” Since our first day in the Philippines was was a Sunday morning, we split up and ministered in different churches, where we both found the Filipinos to be very open and hungry to hear the Word.
Monday morning was the opening of our first women’s conference which was to be held in a denominational church. A bit unsure about how open the denominational leadership might be to the message of women in ministry and the operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, I had, asked my host if the pastor knew what my Women for the Harvest book was all about. She felt that he was receptive, but it turned out that she was wrong! In fact, he was so upset with what was being shared that he threatened to cancel the rest of the conference – but God had a different plan! The women who attended the meeting were totally open to our message. It was if they had been waiting for someone to come and show them how to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit. In fact, almost every one of them – including the pastor’s wife – came forward for prayer for to be filled with the Holy Spirit. They were so excited and could hardly wait for the next day’s meeting. I guess I don’t need to go on any further with the story of who won out – the pastor or his wife. On the second day of the meeting, Linda had a word of knowledge about women who were battling cancer. Five responded, and they were all healed of growths! However, one lady who was unfamiliar with this kind of move of the Spirit was so upset that she decided to walk out of the meeting. As she stepped outside the door, sharp pains ran through her whole body and she felt an impulse – which she felt was the Lord – to return to the service. As soon as she walked back into the church, the pain left and she decided to walk to the front of the church and asked to be born again! We concluded the sessions by giving each woman her own personal copy of the newly translated book and encouraged them to study further and implement all the principles in the lessons.
After the first conference, we shifted to another part of the city where a pastor and his wife who love to promote women in the ministry hosted our second women’s conference at a non-denominational venue. The building was filled with excited and hungry women – in fact, we had to limit the number of women who could attend as so many wanted to hear the message we had to share. The atmosphere was one of expectancy, and everyone responded enthusiastically to the teaching from the Women for the Harvest book as the entire group crowded to the front at each altar call. The response was so great that it was impossible for us to pray individually for them all; instead, we had to pray a group prayer and stand by to watch as the Holy Spirit fell upon them. Of course, we ended the meeting by giving each woman her own copy of Women for the Harvest in the Visayan language.
On the last day of our stay in the Philippines, we were invited to a meeting that was in the home of the area’s leading businesswomen who runs a manufacturing company that exports around the world. She had invited in friends from all denominational backgrounds, and she gave Linda and me total freedom to share as we felt led. Just as in the church services and women’s conferences, we saw the Holy Spirit move with healings, salvations, and baptisms in the Holy Spirit. Even in this up-scale residence, the harvest field was white unto harvest! But it was not only the guests who were touched; the lady who hosted the meeting told us that – after I had prayed for her – she felt that the Lord had placed a call upon her life that day and had filled her with boldness so that she could become a minister in the marketplace.
But the ministry didn’t end with the last “Amen” in the final meeting. Even on the way to the airport, God was still on the move! The Christian leader who was taking us to catch our flight told us that he was suffering from dizziness and headache because of high blood pressure. We prayed for him and expected a miracle – which had manifested by the time he arrived back home from the trip to the airport. The email that he sent us after the trip summed up what God did on this mission, “Thank you for the time and effort invested in Davao. We are very thankful for your generous time and love extended to us. We did not expect your meeting to be full of miracles, healings, and anointing. We thought that you would just do the teaching of your book. But wow! We were amazed at how God ministered through both of you! There are no ministries here in the Philippines that are doing this sort of thing. Please come back!”
