May 7. 2008

Dear brothers and sister in the Lord. Greetings to you in the precious name of Jesus Christ. This is our last day here in the Philippines, just before going back to Norway. As you may remember from our last letter, we had our trip prolonged because of a desire among the believers to have some meetings in the North provinces of the Philippines. The day we were going back to Manila from Davao, the question came up about the mountain provinces, and their desire to have some meetings. The most of them in the North thought we had already went back to Norway. They did not know our schedule in detail. When bro. Joaquin Elevera (Bro. Jun,) asked about the possibility of having more meetings before we went home, we felt a certain confirmation in our heart about it. After some phone calls and immigration check ups, we were ready for the mountains. When bro. Jun called the people in the North, they were both rejoicing and a little nervous. It is a simple earth bound group of believers. They don’t have unlimited sources, and may have to save up and plan for a long time before taking such actions. But this time they had to take it on the spot. The brother in Sagada, Bro. James, got so exited that he invited every one to come, even they did not know how to accommodate everyone who wanted to come.

We ended up being four cars/vans, around 30 people from Davao, Marikina, Manila and Angeles + the two strangers from Norway. Other people from the Northern province came also to Sagada, to enjoy this fellowship. We started up four o’clock in the morning. This was going to take the whole day. I got one of the cars, and we had bro. Elevera & fam. riding with us. William Lim is standard equipment with his van, so we were pretty packed up for the ride. After reaching our destination I found out we had only travelled 320 km or around 200 miles. But the roads are quite challenging. They are working on the narrow winding roads, so that some of them are concrete or cemented. But the rest of it is gravelled pit holes, and the best you can do is 10 to 20 km or 6 to 12 miles an hour. Think about going up and down “Trollstigen” in Norway for about 6 hours in the worst places. Well it took the whole day, and we came to our destination in the evening on Tuesday April 29. The nature is beautiful, and the temperature is enjoying, almost like home in Norway on a warm summer day. You can see the rice terraces all over the steep hills. The people here are using every possible inch of the nature for their agricultural development.

The best of it all, is when you can come in to a warm spiritual home, whose desire is to serve their guests with such love and care that you almost don’t want to leave again. Peter said to Jesus on that mountain, when he saw Moses and Elias in the vision, that this is a good dwelling place, come let us build a comfort home for all of you. He did not want this to end. Well we are still under mortality and there is work to be done, and we are still on our journey to our future heavenly home. We are just not home yet.

The services were very special. I can say that for the whole trip. My vocabulary is used up. I have to get me a dictionary, I keep repeating myself. The Spirit of the Lord comes down in the meetings, and souls are melting because of His presence. I preached on a subject called “the secret revealed to His people.” It is a message on how the Lord reveals His secret to His servants the prophets, and how He speaks to more than one servant in the same generation. Many believers have taken Amos 3:7, and turned it in to only; a one man story, and almost that God cannot speak to anyone anymore. God can talk to several servants at the same time and send them out; speaking the same thing. They will not become copycats of each other. God calls originals, gives them a message and sends them out.

God will not leave this generation void of knowledge of what He is going to do now. He will speak to the ones that have an open heart for more of Him. Too many people have started looking back, only to repeat and memorise what former servants have said in the past. It is good to have a platform of truth from what God has done in the past, but we are not supposed to dwell in the past. We have to look up to the One who was leading the former believers, because He can lead us on right now; if we let him.

In the services I saw people going to each other; forgiving and asking forgiveness. Many places have broken up fellowships because of human short comings and miss understandings. It was a time of healing and restoration. The presence of the Lord was so great. In the following services we went into a message in (James 2:13) on how mercy rejoice against judgment. Bearng fruits of the Spirit according to Gal 5:22-23, is a standard that God never will be against. If we can show Mercy, then God will show Mercy to us. We took a tour into the new Heavens and the new earth; in the scriptures, and how that we at last will bear 12 fruits of the Spirit, like Jesus did when he walked in His ministry.

During the day we walked around in different paths, looking at some of the natural beauties of the mountain areas. They had an old tradition here in Sagada; many years ago, that the dead were laid in coffins and hanged in the free air. They called it hanging coffins. We could see the coffins, and some places there were hundreds of them. They were laid in caves and sheltered places, but still in the open; for anyone to see it. Walking between houses was another experience. There were small paths carved out in the rocks. Some places there were no place to get a driveway up to that house. Every thing had to be carried on the back. Were we stayed; the kitchen was full from morning to night. People came and went all the time. The Church was not a big building, just a humble place, but it was packed with hungry people. You would think that this was organised well in advance. But every one did their part, and I heard laughter and joyful singing, Spiritual shearing of the word, questions and answers, and many tears of joy because of the closeness of God in our midst. The food chain was basically chicken. They were bought alive and killed at the spot. As they say in the States, many chickens ended their lives in the ministry in these meetings.

We baptised nine young people during the meetings here in Sagada. Seven in a lake higher up in the mountains, and then two more on Sunday in a big tub welded together by three 200 liters oil drums. The joy and thankfulness were overwhelming among the believers in Sagada. They tried everything to make us feel welcome. We were feasting spiritually and naturally.

When finally Monday came, and it was time for us to leave, it was hard to say good bye, so we could only say “see you.” We took another route on the way back to Angeles. We started down the hills of Sagada towards Ifugao. That was the place we had the convention in 2005. They could not arrange these meetings on such short warning, but we were received with an open heart, and they were welcoming us back next time. The fact was that they had plans for some meetings at the end of May, and bro. Jun was invited to preach in a young peoples convention. They wanted me there to, but for us it was to long to wait three more weeks before these meetings. We have now been travelling for about two months already, and I feel we have accomplished the journey the way the Lord has lead us till now. To day they are giving a combination of a birthday and farewell party for us. And people from Marikina, Manila, and here in Angeles are getting together for a celebration and thanksgiving session, thanking God for a successful trip in the Far East. May the Lord bless them all here in the Philippines, Australia, and also you all, who have stood firm and truthful in prayer and support of this humble ministry. God will recompense every honest effort you have been doing for Him, in the Kingdom to come.

Yours in Christ

Bro. Rolf & Sis. Grace Strommen.