Why I Do What I Do

May I share a story I rarely tell?  When I was a child, my parents and I lived in rural Mississippi. Our nearest town was Ovett, which was about ten miles from our home. We had no motorized transportation. I remember riding to Ovett with my father when I was about eight years old in a horse drawn wagon. This particular time we took some shelled yellow corn to be milled into corn meal for my Mama’s cornbread and other uses.

Until that day I had never seen or shopped in a general store. My eyes were wide and searching all the new things I was seeing. I noticed a hatchet on a shelf. I picked it up and admired it while Papa was in another part of the store. I chose to put the hatchet in my overalls pocket and took it outside and hid it in our wagon.

As we left Ovett in our wagon, Papa saw the hatchet and stopped the wagon. He asked me how and where I had gotten it. Then he told me I had to return it and apologize to Mr. Dennis, the store owner, a wonderful man of Lebanese descent. I panicked at the thought of having to confess my sin, repent to Mr. Dennis and return the hatchet. I was broken and humiliated. Papa never mentioned it again. He didn’t need to.

Upon graduation from high school, I desired to attend college and get equipped to achieve good things in life. There were 12 in my graduating class. The academic quality was not good. I went to Mississippi State, but upon arrival I was assigned to remedial courses. I chose instead to join the United States Air Force. I could attend college classes while serving in the USAF and have academic funding after serving for four years. The USAF was my only “sponsor” through my B.S. and M.B.A. degrees from Louisiana State University.

In 1955, I went to the Philippines for 18 months in military service. In 2001 I found myself again in the Philippines, this time as a minister of the Gospel. I ministered in a church near a huge city dumpsite in Lapu-Lapu City on the island of Cebu. At that garbage dump I saw little girls and boys scavenging through the trash of a city with a population of about 225,000 at the time. It broke my heart to see them all smudged with dirt and soot, wearing tattered and dirty clothing. But all had bright smiles on their faces.

GOD SPOKE to and through my heart and said, “Ras, you will spend the rest of your life seeing to it that these children reverse the cycle of poverty from their heritage.” I felt He also said you will send them to school because education is important for their future. Just as I needed a sponsor to get an education, so do they.

That was in 2001. Today, our sponsors help us send almost 900 children to school, feed them and provide Christian pastoral spiritual care through 24 carefully chosen and proven pastors and churches. To God be the glory.

This is part of the story of “Why I do What I Do” and without you Partners, Sponsors and Friends, we would not be able to do this. Thanks and God bless you.

I humbly ask for your prayers as we are no longer satisfied with 900 children and 24 pastors/churches. God has spoken and His vision for us now is to increase to 10,000 children and 240 pastors/churches. Please add this new vision to your prayer list. Put a note on your fridge and dashboards: 10,000 children. 240 Filipino pastors. 10 facilities to care for widows and orphans. Transformation of a nation. Pray. Fear not. Only believe.

Thank you, thank you,
Ras Robinson

If you feel led to respond, contact us at fcm@fullnessonline.org . Are you led to give to this? Go to http://fullnessonline.org/donate

Partners for Transformation

Romans 12:2 instructs us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. The Amplified Bible says, “be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude]….”

From the beginning, the vision God gave us was the transformation of the nation of the Philippines – one child at a time. Through that vision, God has touched the lives of hundreds of children, youth and their families in the past 13 years. Many of you have been part of that through your prayers, your financial support and as sponsors for children. The ministry to the sponsored children and their families will continue. In fact we are expecting a great increase as God will give us thousands more children in many more locations across the Philippines.

Now, beyond that ministry of sponsoring children, God has spoken concerning a “New and Bigger Vision” to transform the nation. We invite you to join us and “Think Big, Believe Big and Act Big.”

God has said this is the time for raising up “Partners for Transformation.” Many of today’s prophets are saying a great revival is coming to Asia. The Philippines will be part of a great transformation in Asia. It is time to prepare a new generation.

We are asking you to consider being a “Partner for Transformation.” The vision is a three-part vision. It includes what we do now with the education and disciple-making of poor children. But these words from the apostle Paul speak to us today: “… he (Paul) withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. This took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.” (Acts 19:9-10 NASB). God wants to do this again in Asia, including the Philippines.

The elements of this “New and Bigger Vision to Transform a Whole Nation” are 3-fold: 1) Homes for orphans and widows, 2) centers for training in computers and technology and 3) centers for improved and comprehensive food distribution with instruction in healthy nutrition. Much more can be said about each of these elements and will be expounded upon in the weeks ahead.

In Luke 5, Jesus instructed Simon (Peter) to cast his net. When he did, the catch was too much for him to handle. It was sinking his boat. Scripture tells us he called his “partners” to come and help bring in the “big catch.” He then told them that from then on they would be fishing for men. We are calling to you. We need your partnership because of the massive catch and we have just begun to fish these plentiful waters of the Philippines.

We anticipate a need for $100,000 for start-up of the first 3 elements: 1) the first home for widows and orphans ($50,000), 2) the first center for training in computers and technology ($25,000) and 3) the first center for food distribution and training in healthy nutrition ($25,000).

We are asking you to seek the Lord about this new and bigger vision. Ask if He would have you be part of it and respond as He leads you. “Think Big, Believe Big and Act Big.”

Click on the link below to give.

Partner for Transformation Fund — For transforming the nation of the Philippines

Thank you for considering and praying: Think Big, Believe Big and Act Big.

Heaven’s Window – Take a Look

What you are about to read is a supernatural encounter with the living God.  It was a “Heavenly Experience.”  Come with me to Catigbian, Bohol, Philippine Islands.  I made a supernatural visit there yesterday.  As I examined Catigbian in some detail from my perch, words flooded my mind like peace, simplicity, rest, uncontaminated, Eden.

A series of things happened yesterday that drew my attention to this small town in the Philippine Islands.  I want to share them with you in the same order they came to me.  My thought was that God has taken me to a place through intercession.  He gave Catigbian to me as a prayer burden, a place I can easily see from “the wall of intercession.”

Consider joining with me after you read the following accounts:

1.  FIRST,  I WAS COPIED ON A LETTER THAT WENT TO ONE OF OUR SPONSORS OF CHILDREN:

Dear (Name),
Thank you again for sponsoring children in the Philippines.  I wanted to write to let you know the pastors are working on new photos and profiles for the children we now sponsor as well as gathering information for profiles of the new ones being sponsored.  It is a busy time for them.  I want to try and keep all 16 of the children you sponsor in one location for you if I can.  It is a remote place and the pastor has to travel a good distance to use the Internet so communication with them is sometimes a challenge.  There are exciting things happening in the town of Catigbian, Bohol, where your kids are located.  When we first

Dennis and Cleofe Abriol pastor and care for children sponsored by FCM.

began to minister there, the resistance to the Gospel was very strong.  The young pastor and his wife felt called to go there to begin an evangelical work.  There was none.  The only church was the Catholic Church and they were not happy to see an evangelical church in town.  In addition, it was an area of communist rebel strongholds.  The first time I went there, I was told to be out of the area before dark.  The pastor and his wife had much opposition from, it seemed, everyone in town, school teachers, city officials, religious leaders, almost everyone.  But they knew God had called them there and they prayed and persevered.

They began to take children off the streets into their home.  Struggling financially, they sometimes did not have enough to eat for their own family, they still took the children to live with them and trusted God for provisions.  We first met them when Dennis, the pastor, came to a meeting we had in a nearby city.  He brought 10 kids with him on the bus, 2 were his and 8 were street kids he was caring for.  God showed us his heart and it was clear He wanted us to help them.

In the years we have sponsored children in Catigbian, God has done a wonderful transformation there.  There is now favor in the schools and even in the city mayor’s office.  We saw the mayor last year and he gave his blessing to our ministry and honored us with a Certificate of Appreciation for our work with the children.  The area is no longer known as a Communist area and at least one known terrorist was saved with all his family.

You can look up “Catigbian, Bohol, Philippines” on the Internet and find out more about this beautiful place.  By the way, Ras says it is one of the most lush and beautiful places he’s ever seen.  Maybe you can go there with us sometime.

Now for you to make it possible for us to add additional sponsored children is a further confirmation of God’s exciting plans for the people in this small town. I’d like to have all 16 of your sponsored kids to be from there.  We will have the profiles soon and I will send them to you.

Thank you again for being part of God’s plan and for the big impact you are having.  God bless you more and more,

Kathy Bohlin, Director, Philippine Missions, FCM

2.  SECOND, AFTER READING THIS LETTER, I PULLED UP CATIGBIAN ON “GOOGLE EARTH.”  I BEGIN TO PRAY AS I LOOKED FROM OUTER SPACE VIA SATELLITES AT THIS BEAUTIFUL PLACE.  THE LORD GAVE ME THE FOLLOWING WORD:

April 20, 2011.  Through intercession today, I visited an Asian city.  I was watching the city from outer space through technology.  That city could be your city.  This one is hidden away.  I saw peace over the city, I prayed for more peace.  I prayed for the churches, the government and the poorest of the poor children living there.  I prayed for families, marriages and parenting to be at peace.  While looking at the city from the place where I live, I could see the city being raised up to a higher level of living.  It was like the present layer of living was eclipsed by a higher level akin to moving from the first to the second floor of a building.  The Lord says, “I want to do this for your city, your family and descendents and for you personally. 

Revelation 4:1 (NASB)  “After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.”

3.  THIRD, KATHY BOHLIN WROTE ABOUT THE WORK OF FULLNESS IN CHRIST MINISTRIES IN CATIGBIAN, USING MATERIAL IN THE LETTER ABOVE AND ADDING TO IT.  THE PIECE SHE WROTE APPEARED IN THE DAILY E-MAIL THAT WENT OUT TODAY FROM FullnessOnline. Go there.

Faith In Action – A Town Is Transformed

Dennis Abriol, man of faith, with 10 children cared for by him and his wife.

It was an act of faith when a young pastor came to see us.  He had 10 children with him.  Two were his and eight were children from the streets he had taken in.  They slept in the church, which was also the home of the pastor and his family.  Though sometimes they did not have enough to eat for their own family, they still took the children to live with them and trusted God for provisions.  The young pastor came to see if we could help him to feed the children and send them to school.

We did help them and God made it possible through sponsors and ministry partners to help many of the poorest children in town.  We have sponsored many children in Catigbian and God has done a wonderful transformation there.  Dennis and Cleofe will tell you that favor began to come to them when the poor children were sponsored.  The people in the town saw that someone really did care for the children. . 

Sponsoring children opens the door to ministry to family and community leaders.  This town has been transformed by the love of Jesus as shown to children by the pastor and his family and by FCM sponsors.  One lady sponsors several children in Catigbian and just signed up for more.  What joy is hers as she knows how God is using her gifts to impact many.  

You too can be part of transforming the life of a child, a family, a community and perhaps an entire town.  To sponsor a child cost only $30 a month. To sign up, go to Sponsor A Child.   

4.  FOURTH, A JEWISH FRIEND SENT THIS WORD:

Hi Ras,
Thank you for sending out this word. Interestingly, just yesterday, one of my best friends told me that of the nearly 7 billion people in the world, the “average” person looks like an Asian male.

So immediately when I read this, I realized what you were seeing. It was a City of Refuge. In the coming time of tribulation – whenever that is – there will be Cities of Refuge where people will go to get help because of the famines, floods, earthquakes, etc… The idea that you saw an Asian city is two-fold – one, it reminds you of the contrast to the incredible disaster in Japan and two, it ties in with the idea I shared in the beginning of the average person’s looks. And then you tied it in with Revelation, which describes details on what will happen during the tribulation and then the millennial reigh of Maschiach – Yeshua, our Messiah.

Shalom uv’racha and Chag Sameach!
Peace and blessings and A Joyous Fesitval (Passover)
————————————————————————————–

Would you pray with me for CATIGBIAN?  It is obvious God is at work there in powerful ways.  The mayor has a vision that many people from around the world will come to Catigbian.  At first glance, one might wonder why.  There are no motels. Perhaps one small café, though I am not sure about that.  No grocery stores. To use the Internet, residents must travel to another city many miles away.  Perhaps as our Jewish friend said, Catigbian is to be a City of Refuge.  The soil is fertile and will grow just about anything.  There are beautiful rivers and forests.  Yes Mayor, perhaps God has plans to use your city as a refuge for many people who come there from around the world.  His eyes are watching over you with the love of a Father.