Philippines 06' Chronicles #6
Dear Friends & Family,
After 3 months of living in the Philippines and with the Sales Family and ministering in just about every church under their care on Negros Oriental I find myself both fulfilled and emotionally spent. Though I already miss them all and plan to go back before the end of the year I am more amazed and grateful of the work of the Holy Spirit in my own life. That a person can cry after God and He will give you what you need, to meet the needs of those you minister to. It is when we reach the end of ourselves and "beg" Him for more of His anointing and when tears become our meat in the night season that we see Him come through in most delightful ways.
After a successful week of the annual mission convention, Bible School Graduation, a great banquet for all the delegates (some 200) and seemly endless goodbyes and well wishes we departed
for Manila. As if to accentuate my departure I share with you an experience that took place in Manila. We left our hotel in the dark wee hours of the morning on Monday April 10th. As our taxi stopped at a light I was quickly taken back by the presence of a small little girl, 4 or 5 years old, standing by my passenger side window. She had some sort of necklaces in her hand holding them up for sale (at 4:30am!) I think I saw "mother" over by the side of the road. My western mind set kicked in "ignore them & they will go away" but my love for children & God's love in me compelled me to look at her. And as I looked at those sad dark eyes my heart began to break and tears welled in my eyes. It was if God were saying through her "don't forget us". I thought "Oh God give me something real to give to these people", I feel as though I will die if don't get more of God in me to touch them. I think I begin to understand Oswell Chamber's statements about being broken bread and poured out wine for the Master's use. As our Taxi drove on I thought of a dozen things I could have done but mostly pondered the question, "Lord how can I really make a difference?" 
I am now back at my home in Gainesville, FL enjoying showers at a temperature of my choosing, meals more familiar to me and the closeness of family. As I get back into the swing of things plans are already in the works for other mission trips. Our Church here is tentatively planning 2 week crusade trips to Mexico and Tanzania within 6 months. Though God has spoken to me though several prophetic words that I will go in and out to many nations I believe the Philippines will remain a recurring destination for future trips. In fact a group trip to the P.I. from this church will take place later in the year or the beginning of the next.
For now I will begin the process of putting together a DVD for Faith Island Mission for the purpose of informing supporters the progress of the work there. I will also prepare for Pastor Danden Sales' visit to the U.S. in June/July of this year. Hopefully I will get to travel with my friend up the east coast come July and be of service to him once again. If you would like for Pastor Danden to speak at your church please send me a note (rrutler@juno.com) or contact him directly & we will try to arrange it. His tentative schedule will start on the west coast in the end of June then Louisiana, FL & up the east coast to NY & New England.
Other projects I am working on will include putting the material together to take the Jesus film over on my next trip. I will need a LCD projector of at least 2000 lumens, a laptop with good hard drive space, DVD and PowerPoint capabilities, funds for screen material and DVD prints of the film in various Filipino dialects. We will also be putting together material to donate to the Mountain school we visited. This will include H.S. science lab type material such as microscopes, beakers, test tubes, molecule models and anything else involved with General Sciences, Biology, Chemistry or Physics. Though I would like to fill up a cargo container with this type of stuff I will settle for a trunk or 2 of the Walmart size for this next trip. If you have or know of anyone else who has any of these items and would like to donate them please contact me at rrutler@juno.com or call me on my cell at 352-256-5060 and I will arrange for pickup or delivery.
As always, thank you for your prayers and support. I will continue to keep you posted as we continue to "let God write our story".
God's Blessings & Best to You,
In Christ Russ
