Moving Like the Wind

"The wind blows wherever it want. Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit." - John 3:8
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I hardly have words to describe the 28 hours I spent this weekend at the high school student retreat. It was one of those experiences that were both remarkable, mysterious, and disorienting to me. My friend, Neil, has been wanting me to join him on some joint activity (retreat, workshop, seminar) for years. Finally, the opportunity came to be a guest speaker for a sophmore (2nd year high school) retreat he was leading out in in Negros Occidental, which is located one island over from Cebu.

Neil had warned me beforehand of the spiritual and physical hunger and poverty that I was about to witness this weekend. He had shared with me his prior experiences of seeing students, who are grouped together for sleeping and eating, hardly have anything to eat during the weekend. Neil told me that he has seen a group of 4-5 students, who were responsible for brining their own food, share one small can of sardines for their meal while some other kids had no food at all. When I arrived yesterday morning, I met with a couple of the teachers, who told me that it is not uncommon for students to arrive at school hungry and complain of stomach pains or become faint because of the lack of food. All the students that attend their school are children of poor laborers, many of them belonging to the sugar cane haciendas where families serve as indentured and landless servants for generations. The teachers told me that some of the students live in the nearby mountains and walk up to two hours one way to get to school. Although the normal age for a sophmore here in the Philippines is 14 years old, there were several students much older - up to their early twenties, having quit school to either work as household help in Manila or Cebu if you were a girl, or loading sugar cane on trucks if you were a young man. I later found out that Negros Occidental has one of the highest rates of child labor and exploitation in the entire Philippines.

These were the kind of kids I was standing in front of as I began to share the Word, starting in Genesis and right into one of my favorite books of the Bible - Ecclesiastes. My premise? We were created to for one place and for one person. That place is Heaven. And the Person is Jesus. Life this side of heaven was meant to never truly satisfy (Everything is Meaningless! says the Teacher). The curse in Genesis made this so. But Jesus came to reverse the curse (Galatians 3:13) and that there is no condemnation under Christ (Romans 8:1). We played the Chris Tomlin song - Amazing Grace - My Chains Are Gone numerous times throughout my two talks, which ended in Revelation. This was my way of summing up the entire God Story. I had no idea how it resonated with the kids. But during numerous times throughout the weekend, while Neil was engaging with the kids, we witnessed open weeping and sobbing. It was so deep and wide spread (everyone of the 60 plus kids) that it confused me. I did not know what it was about. As Neil and I gathered together to pray amongst ourselves, I told him that I didn't even know what to pray for on behalf of the kids. The Spirit was moving, but I didn't know how or where it was coming and going. I trusted that our Heavenly Father knew what their groaning was about, and that the Spirit would intercede on their behalf. We later found out the deep emotions of guilt, worry, sadness and hoplessness. I prayed with four young girls, who were terrified of the violence and anger they were witnessing at home. Another girl was anxious because of their poverty.

At the end of the retreat, the kids read letters written by their parents beforehand. Every student openly wept and sobbed for almost 30 minutes straight. I have no idea what was conveyed in their letters. So I prayed that somehow someway, our Heavenly Father would sent His Spirit (The Comforter) to speak and touch each young person.

There were times of utter joy as seen in some of the photos below. These are strong and beautiful kids, each of whom are precious in the sight of their Heavenly Father. I cannot stop thinking of each of them.

Neil and I have been invited back next month for another retreat with another nearby school.

I love this brother! God is doing some amazing things through Neil and it was a privilege to be part of his ministry here in the Philippines.







With a circle of students surrounding an empty chair, we invited Jesus to sit in our midst. The students were invited to take one step forward as we confessed our sins.


I then shared the passage in Hebrews 4:16 - "Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy anf find grace to help us in our time of need."