Light and Freedom for Family in Philippines

One of my favorite God stories here in Jolog, the Philippines, is Archee. Archee is a sweet, 11-year-old, traumatized boy who was unschooled and attached himself to us very quickly.

Through the course of the first few months in Jolog, we witnessed that Archee was abused at home. We eventually had to report the abuse to the officials. The mom was not happy with us. Eventually, after much prayer on our part, his mom came to our house. We welcomed her in and told her how great Archee was; how I desired to teach him, and then we shared the gospel with her through the bracelets that we gave out at Christmas. She received these all with a broken but welcoming smile.

A few days later, they showed up together for Archee’s class with me. Every day they came to class together and she encouraged Archee in his learning. She told us how she tried to abort Archee and she has lived under the guilt of that all her life, but we saw the Lord working and freedom slowly coming over their family. God was moving.

Day by day I saw more light and freedom in their eyes and more confidence in Archee. He was learning his ABC’s and numbers at a slow rate, but his confidence was growing so fast. He now told me he wanted to be enrolled in school because he had the confidence of knowing the alphabet and how to write his name.

One day they said they would be moving. His mom told us that they don’t fight any more and that she has been thanking the Lord for the love we gave their family. She said that she wanted to enroll Archee in school! What a HUGE answer to so many prayers.  God transforms lives from abuse to love, from fear to safety and from guilt to freedom.