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Our first pumpboat ride, although long, was fairly calm. But the return trip was to turn treacherous! |
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3 hour Pumpboat ride turns perilous for Dunamis Staff! |
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| This month we held a training seminar on Balut Island. It is a volcanic isle about eight miles from Mindanao, separated by the Sarangani Strait. Balut, Sarangani and Olanivan Islands make up the island group known as the Sarangani Islands. We first travelled from General Santos Airport for 5 hours land trip by bus after which a pumpboat ride of 3 hours to reach the training venue which is also 10 minutes uphill walk from the seashore. Since the waves in the night were very strong and it is risky to travel by night, our team had to stay the night in Big Margus then early morning we took a pumpboat to Balut island. However, in the night in Big Margus, there was a 5.8 magnitude earthquake that shook the place violently and created a fear of tsunami as an aftershock. The pumpboat ride going to the training venue was quiet, since we are going with the current. But, 3 days later going back to proceed to the next seminar, it was completely different. Very scary!As the waves hitting our pumpboat were bigger than the boat, and made us soaking wet. It was a difficult and struggling ride as we are running against the current, and as the water would build up and form like miniature mountains. As they hit us, we would scream our fears away and sing praise and worship songs. Pastora Rose was really screaming because she had trauma already having experience being nearly drowned with a mission team years ago, which killed one of her friends. As for me, every time I saw a body of water forming to hit us, I just buried my head under my jacket. I told Jesus, I’m excited to meet You if its time, but I was thinking of 2 more seminars we are about to do, and I was calculating at least 2,000 souls more we can add to His Kingdom, if we will survive the sea trip. I thought I had recorded this on video, but I failed to press the record button and my phone was catching water so I had to put my phone inside my bag. The plastic bags we used to shield ourselves from getting wet were useless, and we were wet from head to toe for 3 hours balancing on a plank of wood stretched across the boat as a seat. We were not able to reach our docking destination because the waves were too strong and the boatman asked us if we could jump in the water and swim holding the pumpboat instead of us sitting on it. I nearly cried because I don’t know how to swim. This is an open sea which could bring us to Indonesia in 4 hours. Alternating the strong waves shaking us in the pumpboat, the water also sounded and looked like it is boiling, since it is the site of Balut Volcano. This is my very first time to ride on a pumpboat. Never in my entire life of 57 years did I imagine myself using a small boat for a 3-4 hours trip, but because our mission to bring the Gospel to the unreached prevailed, as this place is 70% Muslim and 30% Christian. We won more than a 1,000 souls in the 3 day seminar in spite of the area being predominantly Muslim with 5 Mosques on this tiny island. | ||||||
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One of the church leaders leading a Muslim to the Lord near his Mosque, Halleluiah! There were several hundred Muslims saved during the seminar. Tidal wave of Evangelism on Balut! |
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| I thank God for the company of Pastor Mamuka from Gensan who is a Chaplain Regional Director, and ECOFI and Overseer Pastor Divino Angke who never told us that we will undergo such an ordeal! We docked early on a nearby island since we cannot proceed further because I don’t know how to swim, plus I have 2 senior citizens with me who might not be able to bear the cold and the physical efforts. We were able to charter 4 single motorbikes that accommodated passengers and all luggage and materials, and travelled for another 40 minutes under the heat of the sun and our clothes dried up on our bodies. It was an adventure I will always fondly narrate to my grandchildren, how we endured and overcame the perils for the Gospel with God’s mighty protection. The bible says for us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, lol! That is true, but me and my team, we will work with courage and boldness to reach the unreached, swim the deepest ocean, cross wide rivers, climb the highest mountains for the sake of the Gospel, as we know we serve Him through the Great Commission, He is with us and He is the One who works in us to fulfill His purpose to seek and find the lost. | ||||||
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Pastora Rose on the ferry boat to Bantayan Island after spending hours on scary trip! |
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Tsunami wave of evangelism on Bantayan Island |
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| After Balut Island, we traveled to the next seminar on Bantayan Island, in Cebu, Visayas, which is 5-6 hours by bus from Mactan International Airport and is again accessible by the sea, but this time it was an easy 1-hour trip as we are onboard a big ferry boat. Yeah!!
Bantayan Island is across the Tañon Strait. It has a population of over 130,000 people. This seminar had 54 pastors and leaders who declared their breakthrough in soulwinning as most of them were first timers in one on one evangelism. Pastor Pepe has pastored for 32 years and this is the first time he is doing one on one evangelism, and won 46 souls during the seminar. As a pastor, he testified this seminar has had a great impact on his mindset, attitude, and life in the ministry. The pastors were so excited to see more than 1,200 souls saved during the training, for evangelism was highly neglected till now! There is a tsunami wave of evangelism that has risen out of this seminar. |
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Our host Pastor Edwin from New Life leading a young man to the Lord and Pastora Rosenda witnessing to ladies on the street in pedicab! |
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Fire of evangelism hits Danao City |
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| The next seminar is Danao City, just 3 hours away from Bantayan Island and the host church was one of the churches under Pastor Paul Chase of New Life, in Manila. Only 3,000 born again Christians in this city of approximately 130,000. 1,073 people were saved during this seminar. Pastora Rosenda testified that she ministered to a patient in the hospital who had no voice. After she prayed the sinner’s prayer with pastora, she regained her voice and said,”Jesus is in my heart!” Truly the Lord worked thru them and confirmed with signs and wonders. In this seminar, a lot of the student’s relatives were won to the Lord. And they have declared they shall reach all the Forgotten People in their lives because they are now equipped with a soul-winning tool that can reach their families, friends, and even their acquaintances that they are trying to build a relationship with.
In these 3 Stealth Evangelism Seminars we won thru the evangelism exercises more than 3,500 new souls to the Lord, over a hundred pastors and leaders were empowered and have committed to the Lord that they will make evangelism their life lifestyle from now on. The Gospel needs to be taken to the ends of the earth and the King’s business requires haste. We need to rescue the perishing or we’ll need rescuing ourselves (quoted from Reinhard Bonnke in one of his books) I would like to think that we made the Lord happy and proud for we are able to prove that we will do what it takes, go where He will lead us, and we are more than happy and proud because we felt His mighty presence in everything we went through. We stand tall along with you who all share and support us in this vision of empowering believers to be soul winners. May we all finish the race He has set before us, without if’s, and but’s, and occupy the land til He comes!!! All glory belongs to Him, who is Lord of Lords, Kings of Kings, forevermore. Thank You Lord for this privilege of laying down our lives for the furtherance of Your Kingdom! Note from Pastor Tony: Please begin monthly support in any amount to help bring these seminars to churches all over the Philippines. These seminars bring hope to pastors that are worn out trying to keep the doors of their churches open and unable to bring the harvest in because of the lack of knowledge of one on one evangelism which can make their church grow in membership thus having more members, they would have more finances, and more workers in the ministry. You can make a difference in the lives of so many pastors and the lives of so many thousands of people who are saved monthly through the ministries of these churches. Please join us now with whatever you can. Remember the old “you eat an elephant only one bite at a time!” Your precious gift monthly will help us bring our fearless trainers to all parts of the Islands to train God’s army to deal a death blow to the kingdom of darkness. Don’t think that your gift is too small, because it all goes, 100%, to facilitate these seminars. We want to have enough funds coming in that we can have more than one team going at the same time. So please help us get this done, because time is short. Life is but for a moment my friends, so make the most of yours to impact the lives of others. We love you all, Tony & Calli Poole |
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| “Win the Philippines! Win the World!” Let’s do it together! |
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An amazing testimony brother Tony.