Mission Field Update
From Cagayan de Oro, Philippines
DEAR FAMILY AND FRIENDS
This is Cheyanne Solis sending you warm greetings from the mission field in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines! Once again, I wanted to express my deepest appreciation for the amazing families and individuals who have offered me their financial support and prayers throughout the last few months. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the sacrifices you each had to make in order to bring about this season of launching me into the deeper and deeper levels of the Lord’s will for my life.
For the past four months, I have been undergoing a Discipleship Training School with YWAM (Youth with a Mission) and have recently been planted in the nation of the Philippines for the last four weeks. I am excited to communicate that my team and I have been growing incredibly while present in the community of Cagayan de Oro and more directly, a community called Bonbon.
I can’t begin to express how blessed I am to have gotten to experience the culture, community, and revival here in the Philippines. We have been able to serve in several avenues of ministry while working alongside a YWAM “mega outreach” of over a hundred individuals from different DTS’s from Kona and England. Our Awaken DTS team has been able to blend with different teams, seek the Lord alongside friends from around the world, and see God move each day we go out to make Him known to the Filipino people.
OUR INVOLVEMENT
Being that we’ve been based in the same city for the whole duration of our outreach, my team has been able to continually build lasting relationships with the some of the members of the community through children’s ministry, house-to-house visitations, campus ministries, and street evangelism. We’ve shared the love of God through friendship and we have consequently been blessed in return. The nation of the Philippines displays the hospitable and gracious heart of the Father so well. Without an agenda to “convert,” we’ve had the privilege of hearing the stories and lives of many amazing individuals and God has taught us how to connect them to the Father in order that He may bring encouragement, hope, healing and restoration.
We’ve seen God encounter individuals uniquely each day with multiple accounts of healings (prominently of arthritis), comforted hearts, and genuine honoring of the people.
PERSONAL GROWTH
One of the biggest lessons God’s been teaching me is to be present in the moment that I’m in with the people that I’m with. Often, I’ve found that I can be gazing so intently at future plans or seeking the next step of a process to where it distracts me from the present. He encouraged me one day, “Don’t rob the future by not partaking of the fullness of the present.” It’s been a challenge to do so, but I am so touched by His patience with me as He continually teaches me to “be still and know that He is God” (Psalm 46:10).
WHAT'S NEXT
Our team’s ministries will continue in the Philippines until August 24th then we will spend a six-day layover in South Korea, using that time to bless the children of a few orphanages we’ve been connected with through YWAM contacts. From there, we will return to Kona, Hawaii and spend a few weeks of debrief with the remainder of our schoolmates, staff, and leaders then I will return home on September 12th.
PRAYER
Please continue praying for team Philippines and the various teams we have serving throughout the world out of our Awaken School. Your prayers and support have meant so much to me and had real impact in my time here abroad, so on behalf of Awaken DTS Philippines and myself: thank you and God bless!