Wednesday, October 1, 2008 5:30pm (Philippines) 4:30am (USA)
It amazes me that I am sitting in Manila, Philippines. My World Race has begun. Even Sunday, when I was headed to the airport, I don’t think I had grasped the fact that I was leaving the U.S. for an 11 month adventure and journey of faith. It is so good to be back with my team, which has and will be my family this year.
All 51 of us are staying at a dorm/hostel for this week before setting out to our ministry sites on Saturday. There has been team time, prayer, worship, and intense teaching. The teaching has mostly dealt with how far or deep we are willing to go in faith, redemptive gifts, speaking in tongues, prophesy, and expectations.
We discussed in length about receiving the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. After being baptized in the Holy Spirit, we receive the gifts of speaking in tongues (to edify ourselves) and prophesy (to edify others). I am curious what all of you reading this think about those things. Although I have not spoke in tongues, several others here have. As I believe most of you are, I am very new to these ideas and gifts. But I do want that depth of faith, trust, and closeness that these gifts offer.
Our team time has consisted of setting norms for the year, guidelines for prayer time, Sabbath day, accountability, and other such issues. Saturday, my team, the Transformers, and Team Quake will be flying to Mindinao, another island in the Philippines, to work at a children’s home. As will be common all year, I do not know when I will be able to use internet again, so do not worry if you don’t hear from me in a week or more, especially when we are in certain countries like China.
