We want to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! We are so appreciative to God and to our supporters for giving us the abilities to serve the downtrodden and needy. Certainly we have much gratitude to express because the Lord is good and His blessings are abundant. In particular, we thank Jesus Christ that He is a God who is very near and who sees the afflictions of the children in this world. Sin manifests itself in all sorts of ways and ravages the lives of so many people. Thank the LORD that He is longsuffering, so much so that He seeks and invites individuals with a servant's heart to compassionately stand in the gap and help bring relief to the suffering.
We praise the LORD that God has allowed Orphan Frontier to gradually help more and more children locally and around the world for more than five years. Within the last month, God opened doors for Orphan Frontier to be part of some good works in the Philippines.
The beautiful nation of the Philippines consists of over 105 million people with an explosive population of children everywhere. The 7,000+ islands display God's grandeur with breathtaking scenes of flourishing green mountains and stunning white beaches; however, the Philippines also is home to overcrowded cities that are filled with countless children wandering all over the streets. Amidst such beauty is the darkness of sin overshadowing the population; people are being attacked by evil forces on all fronts. Many innocent children are sexually abused by pedophiles who fly in from all over the world; the demand is ever-increasing. Religious Islamic fundamentalists are recruiting at the earliest ages for help in the ISIS jihad. Drugs and gang violence proliferate beyond measure. And hunger, poverty, and many other troubles are unmistakably noticeable because of the effects of sin.
Thankfully there are many good churches preaching about the Lord Jesus Christ, sin, righteousness, and judgment. Many churches serve the poor and hungry through feeding ministries. Among so many compassionate servants of God, an opportunity for Orphan Frontier presented itself for Brother Bowman to travel to be with two churches that also have orphanages for abused and abandoned children.
Last month Brother Bowman flew over to the Philippines. His time was well spent serving so many people in various ways. The Lord truly multiplied his labors and allowed his time to be helpful and fruitful. Brother Bowman spent a lot of time getting to know and serve the children and the staff members. In addition, God afforded him time to reach out and serve others in other important matters. During his time there, Brother Bowman was privileged by God's grace to preach at a few churches, teach in a couple of Bible colleges, preach at a local jail, and participate in some feeding ministries. In addition, God opened a very unique opportunity for Brother Bowman to serve various people in a much-needed way. He got to spend time giving some people a better understanding about sex trafficking and sexual abuse. During these times he also got to privately meet with others to discuss loneliness and how to move forward after being sexually abused.
Brother Bowman is very thankful to God that not only did he get to work with the orphanages, God also opened unusual doors for him to minister regarding sexual abuse. There are too many untold stories of adults and children who have been sexually abused and molested that nobody knows about. Both Filipinos and Americans are seeing a growing trend of people being sexually abused at alarming rates that are at epidemic proportions. Too many people (just within our own churches) are secretly living in shame, turmoil, and deep pangs of guilt through no fault of their own. These people desperately need help; sadly, the church is failing them!
We Christians need to compassionately make our personal lives, homes, ministries and churches available for anyone to open up and talk about their pangs of guilt and troubles. We need to be better listeners. We need to ensure that our compassion is extended within an environment filled with genuine concern. We need to promote and manifest caring fellowship for others so that they will be heard and embraced with love and friendship. If we do this, saturated with the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, more of our brothers and sisters in the faith will courageously open up and seek help regarding their disturbing memories of past sexual abuse.
If you at any time have any concerns or questions about anything, please feel free to reach out to us. The Holy Bible instructs us in Romans 15:7: "Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God." Why? Because Romans 15:1 says, "We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves." You, Brother Bowman, and all of us need each other. We need God. And God helps people through people. We are to be here for one another.
Thank you, and Happy Thanksgiving!