Team Philippines In Olongapo:

Olongapo, Philippines.

On Tuesday December 15th, 2009 the seven of us left Pasay, manila! We boarded a bus, circled the slum like 5 times and then headed on our 4 ½ hour journey to a city called Olongapo. It was cool to get outside of the city and see some of the God made countryside, we arrived to Olongapo under the care of Virgie and the local Youth With A mission base. Virgie is an amazing woman of God who has lain down her life to preach the Gospel to and disciple girls who have been involved in prostitution.

The city of Olongapo once was the home for an American Naval Base; though the base was shut down in 1991 there is a large influence of American culture here. There are also a lot of ex-Navy men living here in the city!

On Wednesday December 16th, 2009 the team was split in to two groups and sent out to preach the Gospel to “Bar Girl’s”. Bar Girl’s are mainly transported from smaller cities and brought up to this city and put to work for long hours! They are basically put on display, wearing next to nothing clothing, they are forced to pole dance for long hours as entertainment for those who come into the bars! In some bars the girls are nothing more than objects to be sold as prostitutes! It was a very shocking night for the crew! Very awakening! Only a few days in to this outreach the Lord has began to stretch our hearts in ways that none of us could have known!

Though the experience was rough, the Lord gave to us supernatural grace! One of the hardest truths of the night was seeing that it is mainly 40+ year old American men keeping these bars in business. There were so many middle aged American men groping little Filipino woman; it made us sick; so, the hardest part of the night for many of us was keeping our fist out of their faces! Nevertheless, our hearts were broken for these girls as we witnessed first hand what their lives look like on an hourly basis!

One praise report is that the following morning 2 of the girls came to the base; they rested and talked with Virgie and some of the others all day. In the morning our team shared testimonies (Bria and Destiny) to them and a handful of girls who have been rescued from that lifestyle and are being discipled here on the YWAm base. We than had an awesome time praying for the girls. It was a very powerful time! many of the girls could not understand what we were praying and proclaiming, but thank goodness the Lord is not challenged by any language barriers; all the girls wept as we ministered to them. The team is doing such an awesome Job stepping out with their voices.

Please continue to pray for us as we need 4,000.00 Kiwi/3,000.00 uSD to come in for our team to fulfill our ministry here in the nation of the Philippines. We are serving in an area of missions that few will give their time and money to-But we know that the Lord is faithful to care and provide for even the disregarded of the earth.

Here is how you can donate online: http://www.iwt.co.nz/donate-online. Please make any payments out to Campaigns DTS Philippines.

Team Philippines :)