by Jonina Sharpe | Oct 8, 2014 | News
Please keep Jack Schori Liwat and her family in your prayers as her mom went to be with the Lord on October 1, 2014. In her own words, “Yesterday my mother went to be with the Lord. For the past 2 years she was in a nursing home. She who had lived all her life outdoors was now confined in between walls. She resented that. A bird in a cage. Father opened the door and set her free. In the sadness of separation, I find comfort in that thought.”
Please take time to message her or give her a call.
by Jonina Sharpe | Feb 17, 2014 | News
TACLOBAN CITY – Following the terrible destructive fury of Typhoon Haiyan-Yolanda last November 8th, 2013, that claimed 6,166 deaths, 1,785 missing, 16 million affected and 4 million people displaced, over 200 Youth With a Mission (YWAM) volunteers and her many partners have flooded the City of Tacloban with initial rescue, relief, recovery, and rebuilding of homes, evangelism, discipleship and church planting.
The YWAM Antipolo Training Center (headquartered near Metro-Manila) is providing the majority of the leadership and volunteers necessary in maintaining a temporary on-going fruitful advancement in Tacloban City until a permanent Operating Location (Op Loc) will be established.
A building and property has been located in Tacloban City to serve as staff and student housing for all future YWAM purposes such as training, evangelism, mercy ministry, church mobilisation and team housing.
The cost of the property is Philippine Peso Php: 4,500,000 which is equal to approximately USD$101,200. The 1st down payment of Php 2,500,000 (approximately USD$56,200) was paid on March 25th, 2014 when the contract was signed. Some of the money was borrowed from various sources and needs to be paid back.
The 2nd Payment of Php2,000,000 (approximately US$45,000) has the deadline of March 22, 2015. That is approximately one year from now.
Please partner with us in pioneering YWAM in Tacloban City – a strategic launching center serving the Eastern Visayas Region of the country. YWAM Tacloban will be counted as the 41st Operating Location in the Philippines since 1971.
UPDATE 1:
Renovation and preparation will begin after May 10 when the current owner of the house has officially moved out and the discipleship team arrives. Liliosa Plaza will be heading the house preparation time which is expected to last a few months.
UPDATE 2:
Mitch Metzger will be moving to Tacloban City on June 1 to lead the activities happening on the ground. Activities are currently based at the YWAM team house located at 146 Paterno St.
If you are interested to volunteer and help out in Tacloban please contact +63 919 450 6438 or email gomitch2@hotmail.com.
If you would like to help by contributing to the purchase of YWAM Tacloban Training Base please visit Ywam Purchasing Property in Tacloban City .
YWAM Looking for Permanent Location in Tacloban City
While waiting to confirm our future permanent housing we are focusing on the following five activities:
Daily Evangelism
Daily Children Ministries
House Building: Four (4) completed so far.
Distribution of Multiple Relief Items
Daily Bible Studies
Discipleship of New Believers
Youth With A Mission International has over 1,500 Operating Locations around the world with an estimated 20,000 full-time volunteers serving in 1,500 Operating Locations. In the Philippines, we have over 285 volunteers with their families on 40 Locations.
Evangelism, Training, Mercy Ministries and Church Planting is a regular activity of YWAMers in response to the Great Commission of Mark 16:15.
The Philippines Says Thank You!
by Jonina Sharpe | Feb 17, 2014 | News
ON DAY 6 FOLLOWING TYPHOON YOLANDA last November 8th, 2013, the YWAM School of Evangelism Team of six members responded to the crisis resulting in 90-days of on-going ministry in Tacloban City, Philippines with over 185 volunteers from over 10 nations partnering with us.
YWAM volunteers engaged initially in body retrieval, distribution of thousands of dollars of relief, food, medicine, tool kits, solar lights, building supplies, water filters, mosquito nets, Bibles, school supplies, and house building.
Now, 90 days later, evangelism, Bible studies, discipleship, and house building have been the primary focus. Note: Four (4) houses valued at $450 each have been built by our teams this February. Would you like to Adopt-A-Home for typhoon survivors at $450 each?
A Few Distribution Figures:
800 mosquito nets.
20 sacks of rice.
1,050 tools sets.
1,000+ solar lights.
1,000+ medical/medicines.
34 water filters.
100’s of school notebooks.
125+ Bibles Given.
500+ toys given
1,000+ noodles cooked.
544 reading glasses given.
40 school backpacks ordered.
More…!
Daily Evangelism Targeting Barangays 48a and 48b.
Continual distribution of Relief Items including 800 Mosquito Nets.
YWAM Volunteers
Day 19 Video On-Location
by Jonina Sharpe | Jan 14, 2014 | Blog
In my daily readings in the New Testament I found myself on holy ground this last week around the cross of Jesus. One particular Scripture, and only a part of the verse struck me as I was reading. “But Peter followed him at a distance,” (Matt.26:58) I wrote in my journal, “All our troubles begin when we follow Jesus at a distance, when we draw back in self-preservation and think about saving our own lives rather than laying down our lives for Him.”
My present concern for all of us; “Are we following Jesus from a distance?” If we are following from a distance then we like Peter are just a step away from denying Him. Take time to search your heart and get back on track with loving Him with your whole heart. Close the distance between you and Him and make loving Jesus your singular goal and passion! Remember what we covenanted together during our 50-year celebration of YWAM International.
1. To love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love my neighbor as myself (Mark 12:30-21)
2. To seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness above every concern for my own life and future (Matthew 6:25-34)
3. To serve others for no greater reason than my love for God (John 21:15-17)
4. To take up my cross and follow Jesus wherever He leads me (Mark 8:34-35)
5. To do everything I can possibly do through the power of the Holy Spirit at work in me to fulfill the Great Commission in this generation (Mark 16:15)
I covenant before God – together with my brothers and sisters – to make these my priorities until “the earth is fulled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Habbakuk 2:14)
Love Slave
Douglas Sharpe
by Jonina Sharpe | Jan 14, 2014 | Blog
Thought I would share the blog that my late wife wrote,
which got published in the September 2011 Issue of Reader’s Digest Asia.
The Joy of Raising Teenagers
By Marla Sharpe
Someone once asked me about the joy of raising teenagers. Joy … teenagers? It seems like an oxymoron. Challenge might be a better word. Insanity is a close second.
Like any good parent, we discipline our two teenage sons – Ben aged 16 and John, 14 – with the hope that they will learn to live within the boundaries we set. This is to protect them and help them make wise choices when they grow up. But no matter what age, discipline is never fun for a kid.
When I started having children, people warned me about the terrible twos. Personally, when it comes to discipline, I would rather have 20 two-year-olds than two teenage sons. First, most toddlers are less than three feet tall, which makes it easy to move them over your knee into spanking position. Secondly, you don’t have to explain to a toddler why you are punishing him – you need to blurt out a sharp “No!” and whack their little hand or behind. Thirdly, toddlers can’t talk back, thanks to their limited vocabulary.
Now consider my sons: one is six feet tall and the other 5’10” (including spiked hair). Picking them up and putting them in spanking position is out of the question. In fact, they could easily pick up my 5’3” frame! Whacking their behinds? I might break my hand on their gym-honed buns of steel.
Even worse, they want a precise, logical explanation why they are being punished. I’m beginning to think a year of law school might be good training for mothers of future teens.
Finally, they can talk your head off, turning every stone as they argue why they should not be punished. For every point you make, expect five in reply from them. Before you know it, you’re mentally exhausted and can’t remember why you were disciplining them in the first place.
Give me those toddlers anytime!
Just recently Ben and John came home two hours after their curfew. At the breakfast table the next morning, my husband Doug told them that their actions could not go unpunished. They would have to be grounded. No sooner had Doug broken the bad news than he took off for work, leaving me behind like Daniel in the lion’s den.
“Mom, how long is our grounding?” asked Ben.
“Well, I wanted it to be until you’re 35, but Dad thought I should be more merciful so we decided one month is enough,” I hold him.
“What! For coming home late only once!” Ben could not believe his fate.
“Actually, that covers all the times when you should have been grounded in the past but we just let it go.”
“Mom, isn’t there a verse in the Bible that says you can’t do that?”
All of a sudden Ben, who doesn’t read the Bible unless we force him, has become a Biblical scholar. I remember when he was five, I asked him, “What does the Bible say you should do when someone hits you on the cheek?” Ben answered, “Hit him on the other!” I should have recognized the warning signs early on.
Now, he wrinkles his forehead, trying to remember a verse.
“Do you mean the 11th commandment?” I said helpfully. “The one that says, ‘Parents, thou shalt not punish your children for more than one sin at a time.’ Sorry, that verse doesn’t exist.”
“I know – it’s don’t keep a record of sins!” Ben replied triumphantly.
“Hmmm, that does not include parents,” I concluded. “Parents have to remember their children’s sins so that they can punish them.”
If he didn’t know where to find his verse in the Bible, I had the right to interpret it anyway I wanted.
“Mom, one month is not fair!” John blurted out. This son has a bright future as a trial lawyer or a police interrogator. Many times I long for the days when he was one year old and all he could say was “Mama.”
“John, life is never fair so live with that,” I told him philosophically.
“Is that in the Bible?” he asked.
No, it’s from the School of Hard Knocks!”
I looked at my sons and wondered if I had really given birth to them. I was an obedient child, so how did I end up with two rebellious boys?
I began to fantasize: maybe my sons were switched at birth! Somewhere out there, my “real sons” are obedient kids who never break their curfew, study without being nagged, fill their notebooks with actual notes (not idle scribblings), receive every academic award in school, never run out of allowance, and are kind and considerate to their sisters.
My reverie was broken by a kiss on my cheek. “I love you mom,” said Ben.
“I love you too son.”
A little later, I heard John call out, “Mom!” I held my breath for what would come next. “Give me a hug,” he says. I stretch out my arms and we embrace. John gives me a kiss on the top of my head.
I smile and tell myself: until I am reunited with my “real sons,” I think I’ll keep these two. They may not be so bad after all.
