Shifting The Paradigm Of Faith

In this episode, we explore what it truly means to experience a "paradigm shift" in our spiritual lives. We often approach faith with old mindsets and expectations, but to see God move in new ways, we must be willing to change how we see Him and His promises.

Transcript

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Welcome to the In Men Podcast, where all men from all walks of life, backgrounds, and ages can obtain the tools on how to become alpha men from a Christman perspective in today's society. Here's your host, Jimmy Greener.

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Welcome back, everybody. I am super excited about this episode. This episode is really dear to my heart. I know that I say that quite a bit in a lot of my episodes because I'm passionate, as well as Matt Sadchez is, is the person definitely behind all the scenes of this at Awakened TV. He makes the magic happen. And it is such a blessing to have him supporting and producing amenpodcast.cc. So with that being said, this episode format's going to be a little bit different than what you're used to. You're normally used to seeing uh one or two other people in here and giving a back and forth dialogue. And today, what we're going to be doing is we're going to be talking about the missions trip to the Philippines that I very recently just came back from. So I will start off by saying some commercial parts of the episode. So wherever you guys download, please make sure that you like, subscribe. We're definitely on all of your platforms. We are also on Amazon. You can find us on Amazon Music, and you can find us in the podcast section of that. You can also find us on Apple. You can find us on, like I said, just about every single platform that there is. I think the only platform that we are not on is going to be X, but we will soon be on X. We're working towards that to become part of that platform so that we can get you the content that you guys are enjoying. And we're going to go from there. So the Philippines. So this Philippines story starts about five years ago. So a very good friend of mine who is with TGM Philippines and also TGM Alaska, and that's Pastor Ron Pratt. You can also find his icon button on our website, on our landing page, TGM Ministries. So Pastor Ron and I have been friends, I would say, for about five to six years is when we started our friendship. Pastor Ron belongs to the Assemblies of God denomination. And he again also has his ministry in Alaska. His ministry primarily focuses on suicide prevention. He really dives into indigenous uh ministry with tribal kids in his area. And so, how did he make it to the Philippines, you might be asking? Okay. So before he went to the Philippines, even before he had a reason to go to the Philippines, his wife, Yolanda, she had had cancer. And unfortunately, she had she had passed because of that cancer that that took her life. And we had known her from that that season of her life and became friends with Pastor Ron. And so the transition from her passing to starting a brand new life in his 50s. And saying, Lord, what's next? What what do we do? Now Ron and I share a lot of the same likes and the same mindsets. A lot of people would say he's my my little older brother. We're about the same height, uh, but we definitely like a lot of the same things. We have a lot of commonalities. We really, I think that we share a lot of kingdom mentalities. So after his transition, he asked the hard questions, what is next? And he said, Lord, what am I to do really relationally? And God answered him and said, I want you to marry an Asian. And now this is his story that I'm sharing with you. And Ron, please don't be mad at me for messing up or mucking up your story. So he asked the Lord, he said, Well, I don't really know any Asians, so what what kind of Asian are you speaking of? And the Holy Spirit spoke to him and said, a Filipina. And he said, Okay. So he did his research, and in looking through all that research, many people, many conversations, God sent him this amazing, intelligent, uh, smart, and beautiful woman, which is his wife now, is Anne, Anne Pratt. Now I will tell you that Anne, when you look at her, she's 50 years of age, but she does not look 50, as Filipinas are very hard to tell in age. I was probably in 1920. Yeah, no, not 19, I'm sorry. 2022. In 2022, Ron had asked me, he says, brother, you need to come to the Philippines. And he goes, You gotta see what's going on here. God is moving, God is doing some wonderful things. So basically, what Ron did, in essence, is he took the model of TGM Alaska and cut and paste it and began putting it in the entire area of the Philippines. And there's a lot of places he hasn't been, but there's a lot of places that he's also ministered into as well. So he asked me and he says, you know, you got to come check this out. This place is it's incredible. And I was like, Yeah, I'm busy, you know, I've got things going on, I've got my job. You know, a lot of crazy things are taking place. And he says, Okay. And every year he'd ask me, brother, when you gonna come out? When are you gonna come out? You gotta come to the Philippines. And I said, Okay. Well, so the season that I've been in for the last six months has been incredible. And I could save that probably for another story and another episode, which I think I'm probably gonna do. But let's let's preface that by saying that the last six months of my life have literally been a reshaping, a remolding, and a resurfacing. God has completely done the redone the foundation of my life. And I think that that that redoing of that foundation of my life was so that it could open up my heart and my mind to prepare for this trip. I knew it was going to change me. I just didn't know in what areas and and how and and how deep that was gonna go. So when I'm thinking about this entire trip and trying to unpack it for you, um, I get lots of different questions from people because they know that I went on the trip. And they always say, Well, what was the greatest memory, or what was the biggest moment? And I'll get to that. So I finally said yes to Ron and I said, Okay, I'm gonna go on this trip. And God said, Well, I want you to extend your faith a little bit here. And there was a process, there was a faith step uh and a faith walk to to raise the funding to be able to go on this trip. It was literally a step-by-step faith and prayer process and trusting God. There would be people that would come to me and they would say, Brother God told me to to give you this money. And I'm not a super emotional person, but when it comes to the things of God, that is a thing that moves my heart. People would say, I I I I don't know what this is for, but God said, I need to give this to you. So they gave. And the entire amount that was needed for that funding to go on a 10-day missions trip, it completely came in by the time I mean almost to the day. There was it was the day before. I wasn't worried, I wasn't concerned. There wasn't a worry in my mind that it was gonna take place, that it was gonna happen. And so for me, my next step was let's get this thing booked, let's let's make it happen. So we did that. I had a roughly about an 18-hour flight all the way from San Francisco to Bacolid is where I landed, and that's where they they sent for me. Bacolid is two hours away from the first city that I would stay my my first uh few nights, and that was in the city of Cadiz. Now, uh Barangay is considered a village area, it's the outskirts uh of a little bit larger town. Mabini is where we actually did our first three days of ministry. So Lighthouse Church is going to be a name that I'm gonna mention a lot in this episode. We spent three days at an Easter youth camp there. Some of you may have seen on Amen podcast for the Facebook page or Instagram, you may have seen that there, some of the postings and some of the pictures and videos that that I've been listing recently. The worldview that I had going into it, because I've been on missions trips before, I've been to European trips uh that are a part at that time in the 90s were a part of war-tour countries. And when I say war-torn, I mean literally we rolled in uh Eastern Bloc countries of Europe right after I would say three to six months after a coup had taken place. Changes of government had taken place. There had been war, they were still patching up walls. So having the experience of that wasn't unfamiliar to me. I've been to a missions to Mexico, right? So when I'm thinking about this, I'm like, okay, how is this going to compare in what I'm experiencing here? So we arrive on scene, and immediately we start to see the kids coming in. And what people don't understand is when somebody signs up for a camp in the Philippines versus an American child, we send our money, we pay for the camp here in the United States, and usually what takes place is you load up the church van or a charter van or bus and you bus all your kids to the camp, no problem. Everything's included. For a child to go to a camp of any kind, the pastor has to raise the money for gas to even make it to the camp, first of all. So the faith step has to be that they take the first step and saying, God, will you provide the money to even take our kids to this camp? So that takes place. Right now we've got probably about probably 30, 40 campers on site in the Philippines. And more are coming. And then they have this thing, this is really funny. There's there's we call it the elf truck. The elf truck is, and when I say this, I am not even kidding you. It is completely a Filipino-sized Izuzu truck. I did not scrunch down, so I wanted to look cool in this thing because it did not look cool. It was a 10-lunch box because I'm a big American and I don't fit in Filipino-sized vehicles or very much, very little Filipino things as anywhere that I would go. The only places that I would say were Americanized were American hotels. That was about it. Everything else, always Filipino size. Um, side note, majority of the transportation there is usually done by either trike, scooter, or motorcycle there. Now, when I say a trike, I'm talking like there's a side cart, there's a back cart, and it's usually attached to like a 125, 150, maybe a 175cc, two-wheel motorcycle. And so you will see very commonly large amounts of families. There'll be six, sometimes seven people, woman holding a child, no seatbelt, no safety measures whatsoever. It's it's pretty standard, standard issue there. You know, one of the things about Amen Podcasts CC that we do is that we don't just talk about the things of God. We don't talk about only in leadership. We actually try to implement these things in our lives and in the people that the men that were around. This is why it was so important for us to go on this trip and experience what is going on there. So we see, you know, people going down the road in the trikes as normal, like I was talking about, and you see nothing but scooters and and and motorcycles everywhere. It's it's wild. And there's not too many road police there. So you don't see local police. Um, you do see local police and you see those at the shopping malls because theft is very, very high there. It's just a part, it's a part of what goes on. Um, you don't get tickets for really anything on the road. Um, there's really kind of first come, first serve. The more aggressive you are, the better your chances of getting where you need to go are. So we get into this Izuzu truck, open, it's not a flatbed, but it's got some some rails in it. It's got plastic chairs. And so we're gonna go uh to Sagai City, which is about an hour away from Cadiz. And so we got to go pick up sound equipment. We'll go do that, right? Drop that off, and so partial the partial amount of people that are coming to this camp are there. Now the elf truck is going out and it's going to pick up kids in the city because what they're doing is they're being dropped off in Cadiz as a bus point so that they can then come to camp, which is about 20 minutes away. And that's what ends up happening. So now we've got all the campers on site. Now, what is incredible is that I was there two uh actually a day before camp started. Jet lagged, really tired, um, you know, basically chasing the sun with the plane. It was it was dark. No, actually, it was daytime when I when I left, and then it was daytime when I got there. There were about a 15 hour time difference. So I get there and I meet my buddy Peter, and I know that I'm gonna meet Peter, and I meet I meet a slew of other people that were just so amazing and wonderful. And so they said, Well, I want to show you my house. So I'm trying to set this landscape for you. So everywhere the eye can see on the island of Negros, you have nothing but sugarcane. So everywhere, as far as the eye can see is sugarcane. Rolling hills, beautiful green mountains, everything's lush. And so right into the left is sugarcane, and then there's a just a dirt road. And I'm thinking to myself, if I see a python come out because they have those inside, I'm I'm gonna scream like a girl. That's gonna happen. That's gonna be a thing. So I told Pastor Anthony and and and Peter, and I said, if you see me suddenly run, uh, you know, big strong guy, it's a snake. I'm I'm not hacking this. I don't dig snakes, it's not my thing, it's just the way it is. So we're walking to Peter's house, and it's probably about I would say a quarter mile one way. And so you step out of the out of the fields of sugarcane and you you're immersed in jungle. And I mean like real what you would think jungle jungle. Except this road is clearing the way. We didn't have to hack our way through it. And Peter comes from this this part of uh of travel to the church at Lighthouse Church constantly. And so he takes me through this river area, there's cables there. It's a it's a whole thing. I'm like, I'm eating it up. This is a great experience, it's wonderful. And so we get there, and we we're starting to look at his at his home, and and I've got to explain something here. So the word sati sati is not sorry, sorry, like s-o-r-r-y. It's it's s-a-r-y, is what it is. And so a sati sati store is basically you will find them everywhere in the Philippines, everywhere. And they sell soda, they sell the same thing. It's chips, candy, soups, you know, junk food, basically what it is. And so you're sitting there and you're just like, okay, they've got a store out here. Who are they gonna sell this to? This is in a jungle, right? And I see his house, uh, which they built, which was wonderful. Um, corrugated metal is pretty common, and and some bamboo and a full store, it was awesome. And then they've got a a koi pond off to the left and an open fire pit because that's that's how they cook food. And so there's, you know, anytime you call the Philippines, if you don't hear roosters in the background or chickens, then basically you're not really calling the Philippines because that's the common sound of the Philippines. So there's, you know, wild chickens off to the right, sitting down at the table, koi pond over here, family of about six people come out and introduce themselves. Wonderful, wonderful people. And they say, Are you hungry? And I said, Oh, I yeah, I could eat. And can I just tell you, I've never eaten so much sticky rice in my entire life. It was insane. It was incredible. Sticky rice, brown sugar, coconut oil, over white rice, cooked with white rice. Everybody cooks a little bit different, but really good. So they give me not just a little scoop, they're looking at this guy and they're going, this big American, we got to give them some food. So, what do they do? They give me a whole plate full of this sticky rice. It was insane. Thank you, Peter, for that sticky rice. That was awesome. And and I'm look, I'm looking around and I'm looking at my environment, and I'm saying the kindness of these people have slaughtered a chicken and and prepared it for me in my honor and made the sticky rice for me, knowing that I would be there. And it was hot when I got there. We ate the food, and as soon as we got done, Peter's like, okay, you ready to go back? I'm like, bro, we just ate like a bot of food. There's there's a lot going on there. And he's like, Well, we got to go back. I'm like, okay, so I'm, you know, I ruck about, you know, you'll see me on the videos, definitely on on our Facebook um page, and you'll see me doing, you know, everywhere anywhere between six to ten weighted ruck miles. So thank God for that, because that saved my bacon. Because Pastor Anthony, um, along with Pastor Lisa of Lighthouse Church, that guy was moving up the trail. So we were we were booking, we were going up this trail the same way we came back. We get to Lighthouse Church, and as soon as I get there, I'd say probably within 30 minutes, and I'm gonna try my best to paint the picture for the layout and the landscape of what I was experiencing and seeing. So the land that the church is on is completely um paid for, and it was donate, the money was donated for that. God provided that. The building materials for that church is at 90% completion, has all been donated. So any of the video clips that you see is because you see that in the video, that's what you're actually seeing is people being obedient to the Lord and allowing God to use them and the resources to fund and how it reached people. So we go upstairs, and and the upstairs is an open area. It's all concrete and masonry blocks, which is pretty common construction there. And I'm looking out and I'm seeing fields upon fields, green mountains, and you know how much I love mountains. And just a breathtaking view, and it's the sun is starting to set, and sunsets are completely different than here. The smog is not a factor. It's just, it's it's just beautiful. It's just a different sunset. It's the same one that God created, but just it hits the earth different there. And so I'm I'm sitting there and there's fires going off because the way that they they clear their fields there, they don't till them. They do, some of the bigger companies do because they can afford tractors. But typically you find them burning the fields there. So there's a fire going off in the background, and they say, okay, Pastor Jim, it's time to come to dinner. And that means turn around, sit down, and have some more food. Now, mind you, it'd only been about 30, maybe 40 minutes max since I'd had that tasty meal at Peter's house. Not one time did I get up and serve myself. Not one time did I get up and take my dish to a sink or trash can. The the honor and loving and serving heart of the people of Lighthouse and the Philippines as a whole. You can't measure that. I had never really experienced that kind of level of honor before. I had seen that. Especially not in America. That's something that we could really use again in our in our society and our culture. So we sit down. And you want to know what the funny thing is? There were no phones on the table except the Americans, me and Pastor Ron. Everybody else, no phones on the table. But I followed suit. So I would take my phone off the table, and we had conversation. We had community. Brothers and sisters. And you know what we talked about? We talked about God. We talked about relationships. We talked about the word. We talked about ministry, what God is doing in our world and what God is doing in their world. Real conversations. Not just how's your day. It's way deeper than that. Sometimes we would get into theological questions. Sometimes we get into musical questions. And then we met this wonderful worship team called Deep. And they're from another church in that district. Very talented. The mother and the father of these young people, and I don't want to call them teenagers, because if you look at a Filipino, you'll pretty much, for the most part, say that they're all teenagers and they're not. They're in their early 20s. And some of them are in their teens, but for the most part, they're in their early 20s. And the mother has taught them how to be proficient in their instruments, techniques of singing, and the blessing and the gifting of that talent, they use it for the glory of God. And that was exemplified in the camp. So that night we were having a conversation at the table about biblical topics, things that we were sharing. And unknowingly, to me, the pastor of Lighthouse Church told me, Well, we would like to add you to the speaking roster. And I was like, oh, okay. I wasn't expecting that, but sure. I can't begin to tell you the honor and the joy that I felt for my tiny little part in the three days of ministry that took place there. In short, so that we can get through to some of the other moments of this trip, there was nothing but genuine praise from all the campers that were there. And by the way, those campers, they slept on hard ground. When I say hard ground, there wasn't a cabin there. There wasn't Americanized toilets. There was hard ground with rocks protruding out of them. And they slept without having one complaint. There was broken tents. Some of the shafts were broken. It was funny because some of them didn't even know how to set up their tents, but I jumped into action because I love camping outdoors. Anything that's outdoors, I'm about it. So we started helping them set up some of their tents. And they filter into the the first night of camp. And I begin sharing my testimony and sharing scripture. And there was a student that was in the crowd that that night. And he was going to commit suicide the day before he came to his camp. I think he was about 16, if I recall right. And so he gave his life to Christ that night. Now let me put it into perspective for you. Had someone not gave, had someone not prayed, had someone not been obedient to hearing the voice of God to give financially or give up their time to go there and actually build the project. That building would have not been there. It would have never placed not just that life, but all the lives that that church represents. When I say it's lighthouse church, I genuinely mean it is a light into the world, their area. It is a signal. All you that are heavy laden and heavy burdened, come to me and I will give you rest. People's lives were changed and have been being changed. So that student's life that was one of many during the three days of camp are changed forevermore, including mine. So we wrap up camp and honor shows up again. Again, I've never experienced this in America. Quite the opposite, to be honest with you. My experiences with churches and denominations have been pretty tough go. I've experienced a lot of politics, I've experienced a lot of power plays, and I've experienced Jesus as well. But honor? No. I wouldn't say I've experienced that. So they show up, there's we're at the third day of camp, and they have this laser engraved on a wooden plaque that commemorates the camp and my part that I the very small part that I played in that. Pastor Ron would take the helm because without TGM ministries and TGM Alaska, TGM Philippines, there would have been no trip for me. There would have been no Ron, there would have been no Pastor Ann, there would have been it wouldn't have been. So I lost my crap. That's all I can tell you. I lost it. I cried. I was overwhelmed by the love and the extension of Jesus, the lighthouse church in Mumbini showed me. I was fed well, I was welcomed well, I was loved well, honored well. It was amazing. It's just a different vibe there. I could do my best in this episode to try and paint that picture. It's very difficult. It's like describing a cherry pie and actually tasting a cherry pie are two different things. So then from there, we get in our Toyota van, our little caravan of three people, Pastor Ron and I, and Ann. And we head down the road, and we now got uh another two-hour van ride, had to get there right on time. And Ann is such a professional at knowing every nook and cranny of her country and how to see the pitfalls, the possibilities of not hitting timelines. So you're gonna hear a term called rowro. A rowro is basically a ferry, is what it is. And it's rowroad, row your boat. That's why I call rowro. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. I don't know. That's what I think they do. So we have to make it two hours to make our rowro ride. And then from there, it's another two hours on the rowro to go to Iloilo. Iloilo is another provincial uh island. And then from Iloilo, we have to go over to Guimaras. And Guimaras, wow, wow, what an experience. What an experience. And if I don't mention you as a pastor or a superintendent of who I met, please take no offense. It's not that you didn't have impact in my life. It's just trying to remember every single person's name is truly a challenge. But I praise God and want to honor all of those people that I did meet, that I sat down face to face and heard what God was doing in your districts and in your churches and where you were. Thank God for you. And thank God for your work that you do. It was amazing. So we we go to Gimaras, and Ron tells me about these beautiful, wonderful mangoes. And I was like, ah, okay, mangoes, he digs it, I get it. It's his thing, right? And I'll come back to the mangoes. But the first part that we get to is Pastor Jimmy's church. Pastor Jimmy's church is hard to Pastor Jimmy and his church in itself is hard to explain. So Pastor Jimmy has been born with a health defect. It has not allowed his body to grow, and his internal organs can tend to grow, and his chest is very is very, very full because of this challenge. He comes up to a little bit higher than my waist. And I need to tell you when you see what this man has accomplished, what his family has accomplished, what his church has accomplished. It will not just melt your heart, it will transform your faith, it'll rewire your mindsets. That didn't speak of faith, that I haven't seen, honor, love, and the presence of Jesus. Every place I went to, I found that. I also found poverty. Yes, I found that as well. I found hardship. That's easy to find. You can find that here in America. But we have a different kind of hardship here. That hardship is quite different there. So we arrive at Pastor Jimmy's church, and by the way, their property is completely funded by the kingdom of God, donated, all the materials again built by the hands of people giving generously and obediently to the Lord. Pastor Jimmy met under a mango tree for five years without a building. And in that five years, they took each day, each Sunday, each service that they had, and stepped into the kingdom with faith and saying, I believe God for a miracle. I believe that God's going to give us the property. He's going to give us building materials to build our church. And God did. God did. There's pictures on the Facebook to prove that as well. This man is such a giant, a monster in the faith of the kingdom of God. For a man to be that diligent with every health obstacle stacked against him and still look in the enemy's face and spit in it and say that I will not relent. And uh amazing, the people there. Of recent, someone donated a projector. And it's a projector like you would think. Hook it up to a laptop computer, which was also donated recent. And before then, this church was handwriting all of their worship sessions by hand on sheets of large grammar paper, which you would be familiar with in elementary schools. And that's how they prep their Saturdays every single Saturday. They would prep for the worship service the night before. And if they made a mistake, they had to rewrite the entire page. Now that they have a projector, the hands of that worship leader is now allowed to focus on building a stronger worship team because they don't have to focus on handwriting the worship music all because of a projector. So many of you go to Starbucks. I went to Starbucks. Okay. Some of us go to Dutch Brothers Coffee, depending on where you go. Your favorite coffee spot. Let's just call it that. And the average bill monthly for most households in America is anywhere, and we know it's $50 to $80, maybe even upwards of $100, depending on if you're like one of one of those, you know, not so frequent people, but frequent, over $100, easy. A projector in American money is about between $30 and $60. And no, I'm not going to sell you for the for the price of a cup of coffee. It's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about somebody seeing the extension of what you're giving does, not the giving in itself. So this projector makes life easier. It expands the ability to have better quality and functionality of basic necessities that you and I take for granted on an absolute daily basis. So we go into the services that we had with Pastor Jimmy. The anointing of the Holy Spirit and the presence of God that was there was so amazing. I never saw one person ever look around and complain and say that what they have is not enough. In fact, complete opposite. Thank God for what we have. Thank God for the blessing of his presence. Thank God for his spirit being present with us because he truly is the hope that we have for today and tomorrow. With Pastor Jimmy's health condition, he prays that God would sustain him so he can complete his mission at that church. And so then Pastor Jimmy doubles down and starts a barangay church nearby. This is deep in the in the jungle area. Now, this one is much smaller. This is a what we would call like a country church. And when I say that I could not fit in this church, I legitimately am telling you that I had to duck down to get into this church. Made out of bamboo, corrugated metal roofing. That's standard. And there's probably about 12 to 15 people in there. And again, the presence of God shows up and it's an amazing experience, life-changing. Never felt the spirit of God like that before. It just that vibe just runs different there. That's all I can say. And then I see this older gentleman who's the pastor, Pastor Moses, who is 80 years of age. And he is praying down the house, man. This guy is praise Jesus! Praise God. And I think he's really going after it, you know, and he's like, he's he's gonna bring the Spirit of God right here to this place. And I'm just I'm like, man, this is cool. This guy's really he's getting after it. And then I come to find out that he operates with uh a half optional working hearing aid. So he's he's passionate because he's he can't hear how loud he is. And I was like, oh, I I didn't know this. And this is in no disrespect whatsoever to to Pastor Moses. It was just exciting to see this elder of the church, pastor, so passionate about God and this country church, and believing for what God could do miracles in. a place for God to show up and God shows up all the time so then we leave there and uh we we we took a we took a day to kind of just tune things down a little bit had a wonderful experience at the beach there we stayed at uh a really really neat place that was right on the water had phenomenal food there got to ride catamaran boats and do some island hopping pastor Ron and I and Anne all went out Pastor Ron and I swam through volcanic rock caves so exciting and so much fun and then we got to go out and walk waist high scenery that I've never seen before water clear that I've never seen before and we would stop by this this mango hut and then Ron tells me about the mangoes the mangoes are out of sight. So I get a bag and I'm a believer now I'm the biggest dried mango fan there is it's incredible. So I'm I'm I'm at the resort or slash beachfront hotel whatever whatever it is and that night I I wanted to go out and get some some exercising because I've been eating all the sticky rice and it felt like this bloated pig it was crazy. In the Philippines um lawlessness is pretty high um it works on a uh denominational standard if you want to be justified in fighting a crime that might have been uh completed against you you have to have money to fight that um rape is very high there and it is very difficult to fight against that there unless you have money or know a local magistrate um single motherhood without marriage is pretty high there is a lot of fatherlessness in the in the country and that is a large part as to why TGM Philippines and amenpodcast dot cc went there because we wanted to instill a warrior's mentality there not just a warrior's mentality but a kingdom warrior's mentality of how to become a strong masculine godly man of God that leads his family that leads his church that leads civically in his area that he has influence in because it's very common for for males to impregnate but not to be a father to not be a leader really common you will find trash on the road in different cities much like you would find here especially in California it would look very similar in some instances and the funny thing is that we have all of the wealth that we have in California and our state looks like a dump and that's political that's not economical it's political the political affects the the economical but there it's strictly economical at certain levels you don't you're not you actually are not it's not a right to send a child past a certain level of education you actually have to pay for education there after a certain grade so that pours into the economical challenge in education some people are allowed to go further into that and in some cases going to college is it common no it's not super common but it is but it does happen life is this is what's crazy is life is on every turn in the Philippines for the average Filipino is very it's very difficult from from an American perspective. From their perspective it's game on it's with Christ all things are possible if God is for me then who can be against me greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world commit all your plans and these things will come to pass these are the mentalities these are the prayers these are the ideologies that Filipino believers operate in on a daily basis and I don't mean that they're believing for their second edition on their stucco or brick filled building project they're believing for the provision to feed their family they're believing God for more not more things they're believing God for more so that they can impact the kingdom of God and tear down the gates of hell how do they do that I have another story for you there is a pastor who was given a motorcycle was purchased a new motorcycle that motorcycle allowed him to minister to the outer areas of his church that would then grow his church by thirty to sixty people Pastor Janelle I do not know why God made him my brother on this trip but he did it's not because I favored Pastor Janelle over anybody else we had the most time to exchange thoughts exchange ideas of what ministry looks like what God looks like what masculinity leadership in God's eyes looks like the challenges that that he faces on a daily basis and my heart just poured out for him and his church and I want to be very clear when I I look at the people of the Philippines I do not look at them from a downward position or a place of pity I look up to them from a place of humility from a place of I want to be like them I want to have that kind of level of faith I want to see that kind of impact wherever I am they taught me that they showed me what that looks like I thought I had a grasp of it from an American view no I had no clue I had no idea so by the extension of that motorcycle growing his church there's projects that I'm currently working on with with his church and with Lighthouse as well if I was going to say to anyone that has ever thought about going is it a plug yeah it's a plug but it's it's more than a plug um if you if you want to see your life as an American changed you want your worldview changed spiritually mentally I dare you to sign up and believe God to go on a trip to the Philippines with TGM it will correct what we lack in our understanding for instance let me put a perspective for you I believe that the biggest problem that Americans face is that our idea is that we don't have enough we want more things more stuff and because of that we have an ability to create wealth we have an ability to create money is there people that are homeless and people that are hurting yes we do have that but the level of hurt that is here versus the level of what it's like to hurt in the Philippines completely two different worlds literally when you go because you have an ailment you can pick up you yourself your family and you can go hop in the car and go down to an urgent care there's no urgent care nearby there. If you have to go and get groceries that's a trip that means most families have to hop inside of a trike pay the money to go on a trike round trip to that grocery store with children in tow do their grocery shopping into a city that's usually 20 plus minutes away or more gather all of that and then head back on another trike in in the heat of the sun it's cooking and I did go in the hottest time of the year so it was incredible. It was hot I mean hot crazy hot and they they show up to church they show up to church every single service happy as can be thankful as you could possibly imagine that God is working in their life and providing the groceries the trike money to get to and from that's what they do that's standard for them so when I think about how we hurt in America versus there it's a different mindset what we're gonna do is we're gonna do a a quick break and then we're gonna come back and we're gonna get into some change in format and we're gonna get some questions going and we will go from there. We'll be right back. All right welcome back everybody we as I said before we were talking about doing some a different format change and transitioning into some QA so we're gonna get some questions going and and experience what that was like all right first question you said the money came and supplied all your needs what we tell people that are trusting in themselves for their needs and not what God can provide. You have to gain the mentality that you are like a poker player. And a poker player knows when to go all in because they have the the hand in front of them. When you have the confidence that the hand is in front of you you push all your chips in and you don't care because you know no matter what, you're gonna win the hand I had to get to a point in my life in the last six months where I realized that God called me to be all in and he asked me and he says do you believe that I'm the God of more and enough do you believe that I'll be able to provide this for you so I approached the mentality every single day even when money stopped coming in I would say God's going to make it happen. I know it I don't know how he's gonna do it but he's he's going to do it. And it wasn't just words of affirmation it was a genuine belief I knew God I knew in my heart of hearts in my spirit that God was going to do it. And he did every single step of the way he did that's what was crazy about it.

SPEAKER_01 58:46

All right second question I see the Lord's doing a great work in you I see the emotions in you I haven't seen before do you feel like this is more than what you want to do is missions that's a good question.

SPEAKER_02 59:09

I'm starting a brand new chapter of my life I'm shortly going to be moving to a new job position and that is gonna that's gonna really change my life in a lot of ways for the positive there are many factors and that's a really loaded question uh in that and I will I will kind of address it in the same way that I address the mentality of God's provisions is that when you take okay this is what Christians do in America because we have resources because we have the ability to earn money and even get money from the state when you don't have money there's no requirement for completely I am out of the boat Peter moment my hands are off the rail I'm walking on the water to Jesus mentality we have the mentality that we have control over our lives. We go to church on Sundays and maybe Wednesdays right maybe a uh you know a transformation session or ministry event that we might go to once a month or maybe a quarter something like that but the the mentality that you have to have for that kind of approach is God I offer my life to you I take my hands off of the wheel because I don't have control if I don't have control of my breath I don't have control over anything. So I say to the Lord here are my plans because his ways are not my ways and I say Lord do what you want send me am I saying that you send me in the Philippines no I'm not saying that and then and let's not mistake this for a mountain high this is not that I know what that is this is a conviction this is uh a call to action it is a uh it's a call to see the kingdom elevated in ways that that are direct impact and people will say well there's plenty of ministry opportunities here let's look around that's my point I've looked around why are things not changing why are things still the same way we're no different than the politicians that we get mad at because they waste our money they do nothing to change things the church sees what's going on but fears and cowards in the four walls of their churches and dare not go out and disciple somebody dare not go out and evangelize somebody because our culture in America is be a Christian shut up know your role and shut your hole we don't want to hear about Jesus oh oh I'm afraid God has not given us a spirit of fear but he's given us a spirit of boldness that's what he's commanded us to do.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:30

So we have to operate in that's another question I feel like the Lord I well I feel like the father was showing you how to be a son and it doesn't look like what we see it as we can experience that anywhere in the world just like the plaque I know you don't need an award or anything but I feel like that was the father telling you that he's proud of you what do you feel like the Lord was to uh showing you while you were there you're valuable your calls not forgotten people in the church may have discarded your your call they did not call you I'm your father and I called you I'm reminding you of that agreement that you made with me years ago it was restoration It was powerful it was healing it shifted my heart you know a lot of people would say that they just that puts some hitch in your gide up I didn't do just that it made me think that the word possible has so many more different meanings now I don't look at my life I don't know how to explain it to you I just don't look at my life the same way and I know people will hold me accountable to what I'm saying right now and they'll go oh well we'll see you know let's give it six months to a year and see if it you know if it snuffs out and it doesn't really go anywhere okay that's fine and some of the things that I'm saying today is going to offend people that's fine I don't care sometimes the word of God is offensive sometimes the truth is offensive so if I was going to summarize that I would just say possible in many more areas of my life all right last question that I feel like the Lord gave me uh do you feel like this mission trip was more for them or for you oh my gosh man

SPEAKER_02 1:06:01

Oh, dude, that was so I was sitting there and I was thinking that very thought on the third day of Easter camp. And I was like, you know, you got this really big old American guy coming in and just being, you know, larger than life, you know, character, because that's just how God wired me. Live out loud. That's always the way I've been, and everybody knows that about me. And uh I'm sitting in the back row and I'm seeing kids jumping up and down. Everybody. There wasn't there wasn't people on their phones being distracted, going, Oh my gosh, you know, they need to go check my stupid social media. That wasn't the attraction. The attraction was the presence of God. And these kids are sitting there and they're loving on Jesus. Jesus is loving on them, passionately praising God with everything that they had. It ministered to me. The food that I thought that I would bring spiritually. You know, there's a difference in the Bible. There's there's there's bread and then there's showbread, right? Showbread in the Old Testament was something that you presented. It was it was very nice and very neatly presentable. It was not something that you would be, you know, you would have everyday bread. That's not the way that it was it was really offered in that in that setting. And I I felt like I was bringing bread, spiritual bread to them. But really what I what I thought for a moment was it's I just have show bread. They these children and these students and these people they gave me bread. So when you look at bread and you look at references in the Bible about water, you eat this bread, you're never gonna go hungry again. You drink this water, you're never gonna go thirsty again. Brother, sister, that stuff is real. It doesn't get any more real than that. What I ate and what I received on this trip, I would say it like this. God did it to me, and God did it through me. It was a conduit. What I gave and submitted to is also what I received tenfold. Tenfold. Amazing. Amazing. Yeah. So I would say this. So when you're you're thinking about this, if God's moved on your heart and you think that this is something that you need to be a part of, there is ways to give. There are many projects. We are currently working on a few different projects. There's a technological package that we're working on. What this will do is this will extend the hands and the feet of the ministers in the area. We are looking for right now, we've already had one donated, but we need four iPads. These iPads can be used. Uh preferably no crack screens and no carrier services attached, basically a wiped clean SIM card, nothing on it. Um, it needs to be updatable, is what we need to do. So we need to have that technology be able to, if it's like uh, I think uh a 10 a 10th generation or higher would be phenomenal. If you have the same thing for an iPhone, what this does is well, why can't I get Samsung? Samsungs are are not uh accessibly easy, much like uh uh you know an iPhone. They don't allow the FaceTime technology that iPhones have. They can meet with pastors, they can do multimedia on their phones and their tablets. This will revolutionize how they do ministry there. So in the Philippines, they don't have predominantly don't have carrier services. They do load per minute. So they load their data by what they can afford to use for that technology. This will also help ministers in creating messages, resources through their their iPad or their iPhone. It's see here, money goes inches. There, money goes miles, miles. Okay. So we need five iPhones. If you got a donated, no SIM card, no carriers, nothing like that, just blank phone. Uh, and a blank SIM card if you could. And that's one project that we're working on. We're also working on tents, very inexpensive tents to us, they would be, but they're they're nice. Kids were operating on broken support staff uh poles for their their tents, no air mattresses whatsoever. Most of them slept on blankets and pillow, that was it. And so they it was like sleeping on cement, and they were totally fine with it. But they need those tents so that they can provide the basics for their kids to have a better sleep experience so they can get up and learn more about God the next day, right? So we're trying to do that. We're trying to buy air mattresses, we're trying to buy uh tents, which thank God money has already started coming in. It's been phenomenal. People have given for tents and air mattresses, but we still need some more. Not much, but we need some more. And if you want to do a sleeping bag, that would be great too. Um then we have our work projects. So there is construction projects at Lighthouse and at Pastor Janelle's church in Calatrava. I am very happy to say that even before I left, I shared what God was doing in some of the areas of the Philippines, and we were able to raise a quarter of the remaining amount of funding to complete that project. This completed project will revolutionize that area in its efficiency and effectiveness because it allows work crews to come in, it allows uh camps to be done at this church, it allows American uh Americans actually to be in that area. Um there's American toilets and and all kinds of things. There's just so many things that are going on there. And then we need to complete a lot of the expansion that is going to be done at Lighthouse because that's gonna be the hub for a lot of the caps and a lot of the events. So I really want to stress this point. Pray. I'm not asking you to open up your wallet, okay? I'm asking you to pray. And if God does say give, I don't want you to think about it from a standpoint of, well, can I afford it? My question is, is can you afford not to? I can only tell you this from first hand experience. The windows of heaven blessing and favor that I've seen in some instances here. But recently, nothing but the hand of God has been a blessing in every area of my life. Has it been perfect? No, it hasn't been perfect, but my life has changed. And it's because seed was sown there. So I want to share something with you guys real quick. So if you guys want to, there is a PayPal account, and that PayPal account is at Jimmy Greer836. 100% of that giving goes directly to the project. It does not go to administration fees at all. There's no such thing. It does not go to me, it does not go to amnpodcast.cc. It does not go to TGM, it goes directly to the pastors that are funding those projects to see them completed and done for the kingdom. I really hope that you've heard the heart of this episode. And again, to all my family in the Philippines, I miss you. God is doing good things there, and He's continue to provide. Amen. Please like and subscribe all the platforms that you can find us on. And I look forward to see you guys again. Hey, Alpha Men. If you're enjoying the show, check your comms and look us up at amenpodcast.cc, where you can find all of your favorite shows and new releases. Stay alpha.