Philippines 2023 Outreach

After one red eye flight from Cambodia, a layover in Thailand, and then an early morning flight, I finally made it to the Philippines! Not gonna lie I was absolutely exhausted due to unfortunetely not being able to sleep on either flight - but after a nice little snooze on the two hour car ride to the YWAM base in Cavite, Philippines - I was wide awake and so excited to see the all-girls team we sent to this beautiful country! 

Okay.. I'm just gonna say it now.. but I think the Philippines is my favorite country I've ever been to. When I say that this country is beautiful, I truly mean beautiful! The people (!), the landscape (!), the ministry opportunities (!) - it was all so so so amazing. 

One ministry opportunity that I have always dreamt of doing is prison ministry. And guess what.. we got to do exactly that - and it was wonderful. When we got to the prison, we were told only two were allowed in. So while the leader of the team and one of the students went inside to share the gospel, their testimonies, and pray for the inmates inside - I stayed outside with the remaining students to intercede for what God was doing inside the prison. While interceding, we felt to share the gospel to the 10 prison guards standing outside with us. One of my students ended up sharing the gospel to all of them, and after sharing - all 10 of them wanted to accept Jesus into their lives (woohoo!!!). After that moment, I felt to ask all the guards if we could pray for each of them. So, after sharing a bit of my heart behind the power of prayer, the girls and I prayed for each of the guards and they were so incredibly thankful. What an amazing day that was - God is so kind to open up that opportunity for us! 

Another ministry we were involved with while I was there was going classroom to classroom in local highschools and sharing the gospel and sharing our testimonies in each of the rooms. We would split ourselves up into groups of two and each take turns sharing, and at the end of our time in each room, we would ask if anyone wants to accept Jesus into their lives - and we ended up seeing hundreds of salvations over the course of the few days we did it. 

Some of the other ministries the Philippines team is involved with are: 

• Sharing at local churches, church leader meetings, and youth groups 

• Lots and lots of children ministries 

• Street Evangelism

• And partnering with local ministries in the various locations they are traveling to 

All in all, the Philippines exceeded my expectations in the best way possible. From the three hour bus rides (each way) to ministry with no ac on 90+ degree days, to long days with very little sleep, to acting out disney movies every night before bed, to skits and songs with the kids in the slums, to everything in between - God's hand was over every detail. It was also such a blessing to actually be able to join the team in ministry everyday I was there - this is a team of only 6 (wheras the other teams I visited are 10-12 people) - so my time wasn't consumed with just the meetings.  

Blessings,

Rebekah McGunagle