CHANGING A NATION THROUGH PRAYER: Philippines

You are we are joined in mind and heart to be world changers.  We have this in common.  We have found that prayer is the most important strategy in all that we seek.  Prayer must also be the first priority.

Consider a nation where we at FCM have poured out hearts, resources and tears in concert for 10 years.  We began our work there in April, 2001.  It was also the year of a terrorist attack on New York City Trade Towers, killing 3,000 people almost instantly. We have been at war with the terrorist ever since.

Please go within this blog to the excellent piece on Asia, done by Peggy Morton, to read of the political corruption and the class grip on the wealth by perhaps only one percent of the total population.  Here is a nation we know has enormous natural resources.  It is on the trade routes for all of Asia.  The opportunity for an economic and social transformation is apparent.  And yet, year after year, the poor get poorer and the rich get richer.

Let’s do this.  How many of us would pinpoint focus our prayers of this great little nation?  If you would be included, the best thing you can do to say “yes” is to write an intercession or prayer and then post it on this blog under Asia or Philippines.  That is something dynamic about agreement.  Please show your agreement.

For your convenience, here is Peggy’s post again:

Alert.net Country Snapshot: The Philippines is a fragile, unstable democracy plagued by high levels of corruption and political violence. Poverty is widespread. An improving economic growth rate in recent years has been insufficient to offset a fast growing population and extreme inequalities of wealth.

Alert.net News: MANILA, Dec 21 (Reuters) – President Benigno Aquino unveiled a plan focusing on measures to cut poverty to defeat Maoist and Muslim rebels. Since the late 1960s, the Philippines has been fighting leftist and Islamist rebellions that have killed more than 160,000 people, displaced 2 million and stunted growth in the poor but resource-rich country. Soldiers from close ally the United States have been operating in the Philippine south since 2002, providing medical care and repairing schools and roads to help defeat a small group of Islamist militants with ties to al Qaeda. “If we can stop poverty, then we can stop the war and the shooting,” Aquino said. (Excerpts from a much longer expose at Alert.net)

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Within the last 10 years, the Philippines population grew by 16M people, compared to 30M in the US. That growth rate represents about a 20% of the population in the Philippines, twice the growth rate of the US. The Philippines has 94M and the US has 320M people, so while the Philippines has only 30% of the population of the US, the Phillipines population is proportionally growing at twice the rate of the US.

In 2010, the Philippines had four times more people per area than the US. The population density comparison between the Philippines and the US is:

Philippines: 122 people/square km (50 people/square mile)

US: 38 people/square km (15 people/square mile)

For more demographics see the Philippines Alert.net country profile link to the right.

To bring these numbers down to terms of everyday life, imagine 3 more houses (or units) put on the property where you live. You would know your neighbors up close and friendly. The Philippines has run out of land and jobs for its people. The end result is that the lower echelon of society finds themselves being scavengers of the left overs. They live on the street, they live in the dumpsites, they live not day to day, but from hour to hour, trying to find enough sustenance to just stay alive, never mind get an education.

In the Philippines, about 100 families control most of the wealth, land, and political power. The country does not have a public school system like the United States. The wealthy send their children to private schools. Assume there are 10 family members for each of the 100 wealthy families, that means that about 1,000 people, out of 94M people in the Philippines, are getting an education equivalent to what we receive in the United States. The remainder of the population relies on humanitarian and missionary efforts to improve literacy and education.

The missionary arena is where Fullness in Christ Ministries is a major contributor. The ministry started over seven years ago, and within that period has educated over 1,000 of the least of the least, the poorest of the poor children in the Philippines. This year about 500 children are clothed, fed, and educated by the Fullness in Christ Ministries led pastors. The ministry goal is to reach 1,000 children in 2011. Imagine the impact of this effort on the Philippines? If the countries’ educated population base doubled through the work of the ministry – 1,000 more children would grow up to be well educated, Christian adults who can then become the future leaders of a country that desperately needs to have new blood in its governmental and judicial system. These same 1,000 children have families, and grow to become 2,000 people, who within a 100 year period would be able to move out of their family legacy of poverty and claim God’s inheritance – an inheritance of new wine, new wineskin, new provision for economic growth both in the family and within the nation, as they build their own businesses and industrial base. Compare this to the current system that is designed to benefit the wealthy, that is untouchable to the common person on the streets of nation, a system of the “Haves” and the “Have-Nots.”

The Christian efforts of ministries, like Fullness in Christ Ministries, largely work behind the scenes with little fanfare. Is it not time to start promoting the positive Christian efforts of people and organizations who give sacrificially to support a nation, as opposed to those who give to support a war? The time has come for a new season of giving, the type of giving that reflects the economies of scale in the global world in which we currently live and work in. The type of giving that is built on love and not war. The type of giving that is reflective of Jesus’ walk in God’s world. Please pray about this issue and if God leads your heart to do so, please help the children rise into their inheritance by sponsoring their education. Take action now by going to Fullness in Christ Ministries’ website and selecting the link to “Sponsor A Child,” the link to “Ministry To Children,” and/or the link to become a “Vision Bearer” for the Filipino children.

Monetary donations can also be mailed to:

Fullness in Christ Ministries

P.O. Box 136117

Ft. Worth, TX 76136-6117

info@fullnessnetwork.net 

www.fullnessonline.org

Matthew 25:31-46 (New International Version, ©2010):

³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. ³² All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

⁴¹ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

⁴⁴ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

⁴⁵ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

Good job Peggy.  Thanks for the information and inspiration this brings our hearts.

⁴⁶ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”