Donations From Our Church in Hawaii Have Arrived!

5 big boxes arrived at our place today full of ziploc bags containing supplies and toys for our outreach project to children in need! Thank you to Grace Alarcio, Sarah Siu and Shari Lau for making sure the boxes got here and to the Arise Women's Ministry, at our mother church Hope Chapel West Oahu, for your generous hearts!

Our outreach will be Thursday, January 5th. We'll be passing out these ziploc bags of hope to the street children in the surrounding areas near our church. Feel free to join us!

Hope Chapel Metro Story: Nadine Martinez

Here is a short video of Nadine Martinez, a member of Hope Chapel Metro. I filmed this testimony for our Christmas service. Lynnette had a chance to minister to her the first time that she visited our church. This is Nadine's journey of faith, it is a story we can all relate to in some way. 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it-GNMCp_f4?rel=0&hd=1]

Top 5 Highlights of Hope Chapel Metro Christmas Service

We just had an awesome Christmas service at Hope Chapel Metro here in Timog, Quezon City. Here are our top 5 highlights of the night:

#5: Snow!...snow? Yes, snow in Quezon City! Yes, that's right we had it snowing big fluffy snowflakes outside the entrance of church. It reminded me (DJ) of growing up in the Great White North (Canada), except warm...actually hot, no frost bite...but maybe some heat rash.

#4: Filipino Food! Delicious food to eat while enjoying the rest of the night! BBQ sticks, pancit, lumpia shanghai, puto...and of course some 3 in 1 coffee.

#3: Great Message. Pastor Nolan preached it like no other, reminding us of the incredible gift given to all mankind...Jesus.

#2: Orphanage Presentation: After service, we were blessed to have an unexpected visit and performance of songs and dance by some children from a Quezon City orphanage.

#1: New Beginnings. At least a handful of people surrendered their lives to Jesus and received the gift of grace, forgiveness and the beginning of an incredible journey of walking out the divine purpose God has for them. Simply amazing. 

Update!

Update: Praise Jesus! Got offered an additional Associate Vice Principal position combined w/ a teaching position (currently waiting on the official contract for me to sign). In the meantime, I'm still praying to see if this is what God wants me to do...(it will be a commitment of 3yrs. by contract).

As to the free Eastwood condo, unfortunately, I received a call from my boss today that the offer fell through. :( honestly, I was very very very sad receiving the news. However, I trust and know that God will provide and make a way. And if the door closes I trust that He will open another. I am definitely learning and growing in my faith as a missionary.

Please pray for continual financial support and provisions especially next year as the Philippines full time salary does not meet all our financial obligations. Thank you all for your support and encouragement it really brightens my day!

Newsletter 11.07.11: Bathroom Invaders & Other Events

Our latest video newsletter is up! 

Check out what's been going on here in the Philippines, and find out who our latest visitor from Hawaii was!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z__mHK3-bU?hd=1]

A Special Christmas Project

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJesTx5J5io?hd=1]

Join us on this special Christmas Project... We would love for you to partner with us on blessing the street kids on Christmas day by sending us a 1 gallon ziploc bag with the following items:

1. Bar of Soap
2. Toothbrush
3. Toothpaste
4. Small Towel
5. Children's Book/Stuffed Animal

It takes about 1 month for a shipment to arrive here in the Philippines. We are requesting that the items be shipped on the first week of November, in order for it to get here on time. 

If you are interested, please send us an email (dj_lynnette@garcesunplugged.com) or contact us on facebook (Don J. Garces or Lynnette Garces) and we'll send you shipping information.  

From the bottom of our hearts Salamat po (Thank you)!

Hope Chapel Metro's First Baptism

Purihin ang Diyos (Praise be to God) for the families, children, and young adults who got baptized on Saturday, Sept. 17th! Total of 12 members! It brought tears, laughter, and happiness as we gathered to declare our faith in Jesus. What a priviledge it is to participate with God and our church in fulfilling Matthew 28:19-20:

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." 

(Btw, the song "Revive" is on the new Hope Chapel West Oahu CD, it will be released on Sept 23rd, its an incredible album, go get it!) 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMguNDGSn-Y?hd=1]

Lynnette's Mini-Church Reaches Out

The heart of Hope Chapel Metro is to be messengers of hope to the city. Our vision is to lead people to find their true hope in Jesus and then equip them to be messengers of hope. One of the goals for all our mini-churches is to be going out consistently too bless the community. Lynnette shot footage of her mini-church as they walked the streets of Timog, Quezon City and blessed the kids with toys and clothes.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bk-3TdtiUs?hd=1]

Newsletter 8.26.11 - Traveling, Teaching and Tantrums...

Check out our latest video where we talk about some new experiences and some important updates for making donations....oh, and someone throws a tantrum.

Support us by giving online. Click here to visit our support page. Or, go straight to our online giving page here:
FMI Online Giving 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crhsY_nHbj8?hd=1]

Newsletter 7.24.11 - Friends from Hawaii & Hijacking a Taxi

Although we filmed this earlier in the month, we uploaded our latest newsletter a little late, but check out this episode where had some of friends visit us from Hawaii. We also have some updates with the ministries we've been involved in with Hope Chapel Metro.
Oh yeah, and we hijacked a taxi to use in this episode...

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CJCoO0xKFQ?rel=0&hd=1]

Newsletter 6.24.11: Grand Opening and Other Highlights

These past few weeks have been busy ones, but we've been having a great time! Last weekend was Hope Chapel Metro's Grand Opening, check out the highlight video we made in this episode of our newsletter update. There's been a lot of other things too so be sure to check out the photo gallery down below the video.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwO1tRZzZWU?rel=0&hd=1] 

For those of you who don't have facebook and have missed some of our photos, here are some pics over the past couple of weeks. We've eaten some good/interesting food, had a worship night, grand opening, attended my cousin's wedding in Manila and more...

Hope Chapel Metro - Outreach to the Children!

This past weekend Hope Chapel Metro had a "Family Fun Day" outreach to bless the children in a nearby barangay community. Over 500 people attended and 200 children received backpacks full of school supplies. We also had clowns, face painting, nail painting, free ice cream, balloons, a magician and of course a message about God's love for them. It was an awesome day!

 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9KnR1x-EpI?rel=0&hd=1]

Newsletter 6.7.11: Welcome to our new home!

We've arrived in Quezon City here in Metro Manila and have just settled into our apartment. We'll be staying here for a month before we move to another location nearby. Here is a little tour of our current crib!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HhaEOeeR_s?rel=0&hd=1]

We made it to our new home!

We finally made it to our new home here in the Philippines after two years of praying, hoping and confirming! Big thanks to those who came to the airport early in the morning on a Saturday to see us off and for all the text messages and phone calls.
We were blessed to have been upgraded to business class for free, definitely a nice treat on a 10 hour flight!

It was Sunday afternoon when we arrived and we were taken to our apartment located in the same building as Pastor Nolan and Jay. We spent a little time freshening up and headed off to the Hope Chapel Metro service, our new church home! It was great to see a young crowd and a team that is passionate to love this community.
Stay tuned for our Video Newsletter coming soon!!!

Newsletter 5.11.11: We packed some guests into our car!

Come and join us at our Mission Vision Night coming up on Sunday, May 22nd at 6:00pm @ Hope Chapel West Oahu. It will be a night to share about our call to the Philippines, support raising, and as well as a night to say farewell to our wonderful friends and family!

If you are interested and would like to be on the Mission Vision Night Evite, email us your email address at dj_lynnette@garcesunplugged.com. Looking forward to seeing all of you!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttYtFThvjQY?rel=0&hd=1]

Completed our rigorous 12 day missions training today! Check out our classmates...

 

After 12 days, we finished our final day of missions training today. We met some amazing people while we here, the FMI staff and the trainers have incredible hearts, vast knowledge and experience. For anyone within Foursquare considering long term missions, this training is a must! We thought that after a dozen or so short term trips that we had under our belt, we were well equipped...we were wrong! We didn't realize how much we didn't know until we came through this. 

The rest of our classmates/missionaries in training, were equally amazing. My faith increased immensely just hanging around them. Sooner or later they'll be heading to places like, Peru, East Africa, Haiti, Kazakhstan, Singapore/Thailand, Israel (or India), China (or Cambodia), Foster kids in the U.S., and of course the Philippines. We are grateful for the new family we've gotten to know! 

Took a day off to visit a couple of magical places...

We had a day off from our intense missions training on Sunday, so we decided to enjoy our day with some of our new friends from class! 

The gift was finally released!...

Today and for the next few days we have a gifted couple who is teaching us how to do ministry with the power of the Holy Spirit - John and Sonja Decker. However the assumption was that everyone in our class had been baptized by the Holy Spirit and could speak in a unintelligible prayer language (or tongues, even though this is not necessarily the only evidence). Anyway at the end of session I raised my hand and said that I didn't have this gift and apparently I was the only one in the class. In the past I had been prayed over for it and even brought one of my friends to support me in getting prayed for and he ended up getting the gift instead of me! Even my wife has had it for years.

Well, today Sonja prayed for me very simply and after I asked God to release it. She told me to listen because the Holy Spirit will tell me what to say. It took a few moments and I heard what this new language sounded like and I opened my mouth and began to speak it. I was reluctant because it was strange so I spoke it quietly and couldn't tell if it was really the Holy Spirit. But it just kept coming out of my mouth naturally. After we were done, I went to the bathroom to make sure I didn't lose it. Since no one was in there I just released it more and more and could really sense the Spirit's presence.

As excited as I am about this, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not about the gift of tongues, it is about moving in the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:29, Acts 1:8, 1Cor 14:4, 14-15). Thank you Lord!

Eye Opening Training in our first week

I surrender, I give my life, I will give up everything, I will serve you whole heartedly... 

By the end of the week of FMI training, we have been transformed and our eyes has opened even wider. Training sessions from 8am-7:00pm have been many insightful sessions of hearing veteran missionaries advice, suggestions, and most of all their experiences on the field. It has been a priceless experience and definitely building lifelong family and mentors. Many times we were touched and tears would roll down our cheeks as we imagine and feel the love of God of what they have gone through for God. 

We went to the training with a time frame of 1 year in the Philippines... and we are now going in complete faith and moving as if it is for LIFE or until God moves us elsewhere. "Whole heartedly" has been the theme of this week. Worship whole heartedly, pray whole heartedly, and serve whole heartedly. 

Looking forward to the rest of the sessions this week and next: Marriage Enrichment, Ministry skills (Healing the sick, dealing with demons...) etc... 

On top of all that... the FOOD has been mouth watering delish!

We've left already?!!! - Newsletter 04.05.11

We were blessed to be sent to Los Angeles to receive missions training, thanks to our church Hope Chapel West Oahu. Join us as we document our journey here for the next 2 weeks. We'll include more videos and photos, but we won't send email updates so you'll need to subscribe to our channel on YouTube or visit our website to keep up with the updates. 

If your interested in supporting us by mailing a check, just email us your mailing address at: dj_lynnette@garcesunplugged.com. Or support online by clicking here. We are praying for monthly supporters.

Newsletter 2.27.11: Ways to Support Us...plus a backseat special!

In this episode you can find out about supporting us financially by giving online. Click here to find out all the details on our SUPPORT page. 
Also find out about a new segment in our video called the "Backseat Special".

If you're wondering what this is all about, be sure to check out our first video newsletter where we talk about God's call on our lives to move to the Philippines this June. 

Newsletter 1.19.11: DJ's New Toy!

We are slowly getting ourselves prepared for our move to the Philippines, if you wanna hear more about that, be sure to check out our first video newsletter. In this episode, DJ got a new toy but it's not just for the fun of it, we really want to use it for ministry purposes in the Philippines. We'll be documenting our adventures in Manila as we look to record the interesting stories of Filipinos and also document the way God is working in the city.