Requests and Needs

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ

Blessings and greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We want to reconnect with everyone and share our heart, vision and needs here in the Philippines. For those of you who may not be familiar with us, we are serving as a missionary family here in the north of the main Island of Luzon. I, Chris Mapes, have been in the Philippines for almost 7 years.

I came to the Philippines in 2005 through the Vineyard College of Mission out of Boise, Idaho. The training was for Mission Medics…learning primary health care in developing countries. We would learn health, sanitation, and nutrition in dealing with the sick, undernourished, and diseased while presenting the love of God to the tribal peoples of Kalinga. We conducted medical outreaches, health fairs, Vacation Bible Schools, and feeding programs during that time. Originally, the students were only supposed to be in the Philippines for 4 months of practical training. After the four months, I stayed.

After my first year in the Philippines, I began dating a special woman I worked closely with and another 8 months, we married. Cathee is a Filipina who has been involved with missions since her mid-20’s when she worked as a midwife to the poor in Manila for 8 years. After that, she felt called as a missionary to her relatives in the tribal areas in the North.

HEALTH

We now have 2 beautiful children Samuel (who is 3years) and Miriam (1 year old).

Throughout the years, we have had different types of ministries. We started out with a focus mostly on medical outreaches. We are now currently focusing our resources on sponsoring medication for children and adults with tuberculosis. We have sponsored the 6-9 months of treatment to over 75 children with TB and many adults as well.

DISCIPLESHIP

We have had a boarding house for college students from the tribes. These students were mostly from the mountainous areas or the resettlement villages and ranged from 16 to 24 students living with us at one time. They were our church. We had prayer services, bible studies, Sunday service, and many activities. Our hear t is for discipleship. Today, we don’t have students living with us, but we host a mobile bi-lingual video bible school in the village. Through this Bible School, we have had testimonies of healings, of boldness in witnessing, and many powerful class teachings and discussions. These classes go out and evangelize other villages in their own tribal dialect. Our last outreach, we saw 11 salvations from older people who understood the gospel in their own language for the first time. After that we learned that one of the old ladies died about a week later. Praise God for his perfect timing. Facilitating this Video Bible school is one of the few times I have had complete assurance that I am where God wants me to be.

CHURCH STRENGTHENING

Our vision for our the Kalinga Vineyard Christian Growth Center is to get behind the local churches and missions and push them forward in their vision. We do this through discipleship (such as trainings, seminars, and the Mobile Bible School), through technical support such as gospel recordings, sound system for outreach, and computer usage for ministries. We believe the local people are the most effective missionaries to their own people and believe that God will pour out his Spirit in Kalinga and we will see great salvations, miracles, and boldness in the people to preach the Gospel.

Our current need is for monthly supporters. We are in the center of a financial emergency. With our current budget, we cannot meet our family’s basic needs. We need to raise the equivalent of $2000 dollars per month to sustain the ministry and our family’s needs. During the financial crisis in the US, our support dropped by 33% and since June, all our savings has been spent to supplement the loss of income. This month has been the hardest month financially since I have been here. We are at30% of our target support for our family and mission. Many would assume it is inexpensive to live in a developing country, but the prices of many things are higher here than they are in the USA. Gasoline is at $5.50 per gallon, vegetable prices increase drastically due to typhoons and rainy season, grocery prices keep rising due to the cost of fuel, the value of the dollar drops as the US continues to be the center of negative financial news. Currently, our monthly income is $600 per month and the duration of this income is uncertain.

The second need is monies to build buildings that will serve as our residence and a Christian Training Center. The estimated cost of this is about $35,000. We have been given a beautiful piece of land on a hill away from the main city. We envision a place we can call our own along with a training center to conduct seminars, trainings, and Bible Schools for the tribal peoples of Kalinga. If we have our own residence, our monthly cost will be decreased and having a space for trainings gives more opportunities for discipleship and Christian Growth. We've begun the work one of the buildings, but presently have no more funds to continue. We'd love to be able to finish the buildings by February. We believe the LORD will provide. We need your help.

Thank you for your consideration in financially supporting us through monthly support or one time gifts.

I am thankful for the body of Christ around the world. I know that together we can continue to reach out to be the hands, feet and mouthpiece of God through evangelism, discipleship, and power ministries.

Sincerely,

The Mapes Family