A few months ago I was sitting in a meeting with Pastor Miles and Bishop Eddie Villanueva. To his friends he’s known as “Brother Eddie” and he is the founder of Jesus is Lord Church which started in the Philippines in 1978 and is now in 42 countries around the world. He was also one of the presidential candidates for the Philippines in 2004. The purpose of this meeting was to explore the possibilities of holding the next Do Something Festival in the Philippines and for Pastor Miles and Brother Eddie to meet for the first time…or so we thought.
After the formal introductions, Pastor Miles remembered a story about when he was in the Philippines with Horizon Christian Fellowship during their first Festival of Life Conference in 1990. One Sunday, he was sitting in his room that overlooked a large park. He heard music playing and noticed hundreds of people gathering. It was Christian music, which made him even more curious as to what was going on. He decided to find out. Standing in the crowd, he heard the speaker tell a story about a time when someone had hired an assasin to kill him. But when the gunman had the perfect shot, he could not pull the trigger! His hands became frozen and he could not move them! Later on, this same gunman called the pastor to apologize for what he had attempted to do and asked for forgiveness. That pastor was Brother Eddie! Everyone in the room who heard Pastor Miles story was in amazement as to what they just heard! It is amazing how God brings people together!
Since then, we have made over 1,000 connections in the Phillipines; among them local churches, church leaders and businessmen. We’re confident that the number will continue to grow. We are still in the early stages of the festival process. Please pray for further favor as we continue to establish more relationships in the Philippines and to hear God clearly about our next steps.
