Team: Forming

In steps Emily Ingole...

We were staying at Mike and Becky Ingole's house (where we had stayed on the way to MN, too; such awesome people!), but their only child lived two hours away in Columbus and worked as a nurse. I had never met her before, nor did I know she was even uncertain about coming to the conference (no wonder I had prayed so earnestly before we left Olean, that I would meet this person; but I'm getting ahead of myself, eh?), but come she finally did. And, oddly enough, I recognized her. Though, like I said, I had never met her, and any pictures I had seen of her hardly did her justice (she's much better looking in real life!), I somehow knew instantly she was Becky's daughter. But I also knew something else which only became tangible later as we were hanging out around the diner table back at the house; for some strange reason I kept wanting to encourage her to go to the Philippines with us!

Yes, apparently when I leave something to God in prayer when I'm in one state in the US, and then go to another state, I forget it completely! I could not seem to put two and two together; in fact, I forgot both prayers completely for over a week afterward!

So, like I said before, we had awesome services in OH. During breaks in the services and late nights/meals at the Ingole's house I met several people from the church--one was Michelle Harter, but that's later--and then Emily Ingole came to one of the last services. And of course, she was then at her parents' house for diner...Becky had shared with me that she had told Emily my testimony of how God had healed me from the wheelchair, but that she would probably love to hear the more detailed version from me. So during one of our first meetings, that's pretty much what I did: shared my testimony and life with her. But later, as we were sitting around the table, and most of the group had left and headed home, I turned to her and Tim and all I wanted to do was encourage her to go the Philippines. It kept popping into my head while I was sharing my testimony of what we were doing next, and yet again it was there. So finally, I figured it wouldn't hurt to say a little something.

"You know, I wish you could come with us to the Philippines!" Right after I said it, I thought of the conversation I'd had with Deb before about how careful she was who went on trips with her. And now I had just suggested that someone I had barely known for a couple hours should come! Oi! I was in so much trouble...that is until I realized Emily had just brushed it off as a "maybe someday," thing...I thought I was saved, but I could not get the idea out of my head. And I believe I must have annoyed Emily over the next week and then some about it. I never really thought she would, but yet I could not get the idea out of my head that she should! (I think I was just as annoyed with myself as she was with me by the weekend of Deb's conference at her home church in Salamanca.)

During the last day or two in OH, I had mentioned to a new young friend I had met there that it would be cool if she could come to Deb's conference. But in the end, when the end of the week rolled around and people were arriving for Salamanca's women's conference, only Becky and Emily Ingole ended up coming from OH. Which was great, because then they both got to stay here at the house with us, and I had wanted Emily to come so I could get to know her better (again, another time she didn't want to come to a conference but God gave her the boot, in a matter of speaking, and she came!).

Well, once again, I was bugging her about the Philippines. That is until one morning, when I was in the shower. I realized how annoying I had to be to her (I was so annoyed with myself, she must have felt crazy!) and was talking it out with God in the shower. And this is when I finally remember the prayer I had last prayed before going to OH: the one about the sixth person. And in a non-audible way, it was like God said, "Remember that dream you had? Which bugged you because you could not remember the name of the sixth person?" Of course as soon as I said yes, it was like my brain clicked. And I remembered all the times I heard Becky speak of her daughter—even during a brief meeting several years before as Deb and her were driving through my old hometown—and I laughed! The name had been Emily Ingole, of course.

Well, I decided to take it easy and not bug her so much about going. I knew she was supposed to go, so I just figured God would have to tell her; I had bugged her so much, I knew she wouldn't know it if I suddenly got serious about it...Wouldn't you know it, that's exactly what God did in the next service!

That evening, as a small group of us were sitting in the living room talking into the early morning hours, she not only shared her testimony and life with us, but she told us what God had just told her earlier that day...Well you bet that early the next morning Deb got the ball rolling. And, though over the next couple days there were glitches in getting her tickets (in the middle of that we had another awesome women's conference in NH), in the end there were six of us, all going off to the Philippines.

Yes, a team of SIX...God heard, and answered—yet again!

Team: Philippines 2007

A large team of six, consisting of Bill & Cathy Hoffman, Debby Davis, Tim Wright (Cathy's son, the soon-to-be widely renown musician and worship leader!), Emily Ingole, and of course ME! But in the middle of that team was another team God wove into a tight knit unit of young people; Tim, Emily, and I were not coincidently thrown together nor did we "just happen to be" the same ages (all within three months), but God brought us together. And from it--you guessed it--I got two wonderful friends!

God not only made a team for the Philippines 2006 trip, but He graciously wove two friends and gave me three close (sometimes too close) weeks with them to get to know them better and grow in a stronger, more clear, friendship (if I had thought I had known Tim before that, it was just an image of who I thought he was--he, like Emily, really began to show his "True colors" in the Philippines.)

Of course, God did a lot of work in each of us in the Philippines (I learned to trust God to a newer level, which had me either on the floor or drunk with the Holy Spirit, almost as much as I wasn't!). Emily and Tim also fell under the power of the Holy Spirit. And we all saw miraculous signs and wonders, through us and/or around us! One young lady was delivered from lesbianism, although not a word was spoken or even prayed on that issue! And many others were touched in other ways. At the end of the first week in the remote island in the Palawan District of islands in a little town called Chey (pronounced Chew-y), we heard several testimonies of people who had come to the meetings (some just for the free food we provided) intent on not falling out under the power of the HS (if they even had heard about it, before!) crawling out of the church long after the service was over! Since we have been back in the States, we have heard from our guide, friend, and interpreter, Pastor Jun (who has to be one of the funniest people you will ever meet!) that the pastor of that church has said, since we left there, they have been having meetings every night at the church and they're still feeling the Power of God moving in their midst!

We also saw many awesome things happen back at the largest island of Palawan (where we had been the year before). Had an awesome, and spontaneous, long dancing services for one of our last meetings at a Bible School; during it one of the girls jumped so far and back she ripped a Christmas banner!

On the way to and from Chey, and to and from the Philippines, we met with several oppositions and delays. But we also saw miracles and had the opportunity to pray for several people! One lady got on the bus-truck we took to Chey with Mastitis that had left her so weak she could not hold her head up and needed help to climb into the vehicle. We prayed for her and Emily gave her some medication. By the time she got off at her home, she was proudly holding her head up as she smiled and waved at us till we were out of site--there is no doubt God had healed her already!)

So, God heard me and gave me another friend. He heard Deb, and provided a wonderful addition to our team. And He kept the birthing of the revival kindled in a small group of people's hearts during a long road trip in the middle of a highway on the way to a meeting--where we usually think God-things start: a building--and kept it overflowing and growing. Into OH, NY, NH, and then all the way to, there, and from the Philippines! (I can't say how many times we had revelations and God-times on the airplanes and in the airports! I even got drunk with laughter on an airplane for about half-hour!)

And yet, like I said a couple posts back, He wasn't done yet! Not with the team (which had more to come, still!) and not with our hearts! Praise God! He's still moving on this earth today. And He's still using us, ordinary human beings, to do His extraordinary work! It's like John the Baptist said, "He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30) Why else would God use us? Unless we were willing to die to our flesh, to be simple human beings limited by our means, But to allow Him to work beyond our limitations and, therefore, we will become instruments to bring glory to His Name!