Worth A Thousand Words

Hello my family and friends. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. I am not sure who “they” are but the following picture has a lot to say so keep reading. I want you to study the picture closely before moving on down the page. There will be a lot you will want to remember. 

Praise God!

This is a normal day at Happy Church, the campus church of Happy Horizons Children’s Ranch (HHCR) and the local church for those in our Bunga community.

Here is what you may not see:

1) The far left in a light blue shirt is our young preacher for today. He grew up at this Ranch and now is finishing bible college with the desire to be a pastor. His education here at the Ranch was provided by BGMC (Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge). The reason he was able to be raised at the Ranch his whole life is because of supporters like you. 

2) The group of people to the left are Happy Horizons kids (less than half, this is all that would fit in the frame).  These children have come here because they have been trafficked, orphaned, abused, or have an older sibling who was a victim of the former and were removed from the ‘parent/guardian’ for their own safety. There have been countless prayers offered for the Ranch kids and countless dollars given to maintain their livelihood from supporters like you. 

3) The group to the right are the community people who attend faithfully each week. Many of these families are also apart of our MoM (Mission of Mercy) outreach program that helps their child get an education along with meeting many other needs. Almost all the kids in this picture are touched by MoM, and in turn have learned about the love of Jesus Christ. MoM is a “child sponsor” program that ministers to the basic needs of children with food, clothes, and money for education. This ministry is funded by generous supports like you.  

4) Up-front and center is our dance team with a mix of Ranch kids and community kids. The two dancers in the back (closest to the stage) are from outside the Ranch. These two have been coming to this church most of their young lives. One is in college on a scholarship from MoM. The other is not only being sponsored by MoM, she is now a teacher of one of the age groups in our MoM Saturday program (basically a kids church with over 200 kids. We use the same area in the above photo for this program, that is why it is on Saturday). These young ladies are “living the life” because a supporter like you was able to reach out to them using MoM to teach them the love of Jesus Christ.

5) On the stage is our worship team using instruments paid for by STL (Speed The  Light). We use these instruments at every event and service. A church service to over 100 people would be very difficult without these vital ministry tools. The same instruments paid for by STL allow us to effectively minister in our Saturday morning MoM programs (that is our kids’ church) and minister in our youth services every Sunday afternoon. The worship team is composed of mostly Ranch kids but there is one adult who is also a “house parent” (meaning he is an employee of HHCR). He is able to take care of his wife and two kids as well as be a ‘parent’ for the Ranch kids because of supporters like you donating to HHCR.

6) Hanging off the stage are banners proudly paid for by the locals who take pride in their home church. Each banner is decoratively declaring glory to God. The local people would have a very difficult time trying to pay for the use of such a quality facility on their own, without the help of supporters like you. So they do what they can to show their appreciation.  

7) The whole church area; stage, stage lights, chairs, roof, and floor was provided by supporters like you. The men that were able to come and construct the facility where able to work and earn money to provide for their families because of the financial giving of supporters like you.

8) The upper level of the white building in the background is Happy Horizons Academy (HHA). The school was provided for by supporters like you. The school materials: school books, notebooks, pens, pencils, and erasers where provided by BGMC (Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge). The teachers, computers, school uniforms, and desks where all paid for by BGMC. All the Ranch kids attend HHA along with some of the HHCR Alumni’s children. HHA gives the kids a quality education foundation that will allow them the opportunity to build a productive life as an adult. 

9) The lower level of the white building in the back ground is the Ranch cafeteria. This cafeteria serves 3 meals a day every day to the kids, staff and any local workers that are working for the Ranch that day. One meal feeds 70 - 80 people. Thats roughly 225 meals in one day; 1,575 meals a week; 6,300 meals a month; 75,600 meals a year. Every meal is paid for by supporters like you!

10) From the clothes the Ranch kids are wearing to the very possibility of them being able to live at HHCR is because of people like you, who love enough to give support. 

11) The reason there is a Ranch at all is because Missionaries Glenn and Nancy Garrison obeyed the leading of the Lord. Local churches like yours and people like you continue the prayers and financial giving to keep this ministry changing lives all day, every day of every week.

12) This picture was taken by a camera paid for by a supporter like you. And I, John A. Williford took this picture because during this worship service God showed me this idea of a picture being worth a thousand words. I would not be here if not for the prayers of supporters and the financial giving of the faithful followers of Jesus Christ. I think maybe God wanted you to see what it is your prayers turn into. Maybe God wanted you to see that your giving makes a life-changing difference. Your prayers and your financial support are making a life-changing difference in a small community, in the jungle-covered mountains, on the island of Cebu, in the middle of the country of the Philippines. 

We serve a great big God. He is worthy of our praise. I hope this picture inspires you to praise the holy name of Jesus. This picture is not a picture of the glory of what “man” can do but of what God can do. These people here are praising the Lord because they are in love with the Master. They are grateful for all the prayers, all the giving, all the support. But they know it was not “man” who provided for them, but God. God uses people to bless people. He deserves all the glory, all the honor and all the praise. 

The young preacher in the blue shirt told me a great little saying “You can praise anyone, but only God deserves our worship.” Give God the Glory today!

(Oh and the word count was 1,240) 

Walat Problema (No problem!)

Things have been going ok at the ranch... a few of our older girls decided to go back to their families, and that was heart-breaking for us, but it was their choice.  We are praying for God's protection over their lives, and we ask you to do the same.


We also have received 3 new kids, and are expecting another next week.  It's bittersweet to get new kids, because it's so sad to see them missing their families, but it's so good to know that they will be safe here!


God is good.  Lately, I've been quoting Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."


I often find myself leaning on my own understanding.  I try to understand why troubles come, why innocent kids go through so much pain, why people are so cruel.  In my mind, it doesn't make sense, and it never will.  Then I remember to trust God.


I gave this illustration to my class during devotions last week. If Clara, my 4 year old, has a problem with something, she has two options.  She can try to solve it by herself, or she can get help from me.  Let's say she can't understand how to tie her shoes.  So she can try and try to do it herself until she gets so frustrated and upset and just wants to give up... or she can ask me for help.  I know how to tie shoes, no problem.  I can get it done in a few seconds.  Mana! ("Done" in Cebuano!)


Now, I know that at some point I will have to teach her how to do it herself, but that doesn't really tie in (no pun intended!) with my illustration.  


The point is, sometimes I get so caught up in trying to do everything myself, and so frustrated, and I forget that God is an all-powerful, omniscient God.  I am never going to stump him with a problem that I have.  God will never say, "Sorry, you're on your own with that one."  All I have to do is ask!


2 Corinthians 12:9  "For my power is made perfect in weakness." 


I wrote this song when I was in high school: 

I look around me, I've failed you again.  
Time after time, I try to do good, 
then I fall right back into my sin.
And I think about you,
God, do I make you sad?
'cause every time I try to do good, 
it always ends up bad.


But I want to please you, I want to hold your hand!
I want to live for you, help me understand
Your power's made perfect in my weakness,
well, I'm as weak as I can be.
But I want to please you, please can you forgive me?




Don't forget to trust in your heavenly Father today, no matter how big or small your problem is! 


Thank you for praying for us.  We appreciate you! 

wisdom we've gleaned since becoming missionaries:

Hope this makes you laugh!

• simple tasks are never as easy as they should be (example: going to the store for ground beef takes 3 hours round-trip)
• traffic laws are suggestive guidelines only. the biggest vehicle wins
• rice. 3 times a day. every day.
• spiders make really great toys

• flip-flops can be used in place of high heels, running shoes, hiking boots, steel-toe construction boots, and rain boots. just don't wear them INSIDE the house!
• personal space is an American term, and it's a luxury
• some places in the world NEVER get cold 
• roosters crow ANY time in the day or night 
• toilet paper in not very important in some countries
• toilet seats are optional
• bananas can be cooked, boiled, fried, barbecued, grilled, sugar glazed...
• the maximum quantity of passengers that will fit on one motorbike has yet to be determined   

But seriously:

• missions work is 99% perseverance
• people are very generous
• God is always faithful!

internet!!!

It's amazing!! After 8 months of living at the ranch without internet access, we've finally discovered a device that will get us a strong enough signal to check email, surf the web, and even...gasp... SKYPE!! In the past, we've only been able to skype with our families once every 2-3 weeks when we could take an overnight trip into the city.  Now we can skype from our living room!! This is a really big deal to us!

Now that we have this capability, I am realizing (once again) that God's ways are higher than ours.  If it had been up to me, i would have made sure we had an internet connection from day one.  That way when things got tough or I had a bad "culture shock" experience, I could just hop online and pretend I was in America, chat with some Facebook friends or cry to my mama.  (By the way, this is Kelli typing, not John)
: )

Now I see God's wisdom.  He knew that John and I needed to learn to depend on Him, to work through our experiences together.  And now that we finally have internet, we have already gone through the hardest "why-in-the-world-are-we-living-in-this-country" experiences and we're really enjoying our lives here.

So I am feeling very blessed today.  Our great big God takes care of all these little things, in his perfect timing.

Ok, time to go talk to my mama!!

Happy days!

Hi, everyone!  Hope you all are doing great!  We are doing well here at the Ranch.  Learning a lot!  I just finished my fourth week of full-time teaching.  I won’t lie, it’s been very challenging.  God is definitely teaching me some lessons in patience, endurance, and self-control.  Those aren’t very fun lessons, but I am choosing to be thankful and optimistic.  : )

John is staying busy with church events, Bible studies, visitations, and meetings.  He will be leading 2 missions teams from America in July.  He is also spending “man time” with Lincoln every Tuesday morning.  Linc and John go on adventures, play ball, and wrestle.  On Thursday and Friday afternoons, Daddy is in charge of Lincoln and Clara.  They have tons of fun!

Clara is loving “big school” (preschool) and learning a lot. She knows 4 verses from Psalms, and her teacher says Clara does great in question/answer time.  She is quite the social butterfly!  Everywhere we go, people call her “Barbie.”  Clara currently is into shoes, princesses, and bugs.  

Lincoln is enjoying his nursery class; he brought home some worksheets the other day and told me how he had to “follow instluctons”. Linc is all boy!  He has found some great wrestling buddies at the Ranch, and he just got his own basketball.  But growing up with a big sister, sometimes he can’t resist walking around in Clara’s high heels!

God is teaching us about His Provision! Last month, we lost 10% of our monthly support pledges, and that was very scary.  But, we knew that God would be faithful!  You, our supporters, gave above and beyond your regular monthly pledge, and we received EXACTLY the amount that was lacking. Hallelujah! 

Thank you for your love, prayers, and support.  We miss our family and friends, but God has given us a great support system here, and we are content.  These children are so precious, and are in need of so much love.  We are doing our best to love them with God’s love, and help them in every way that we can!  

what's new

Hello again! I am writing to you from Manila, where we are staying this weekend for the Annual Meeting. All of the missionaries from everywhere in the Philippines get together and have a business meeting, teaching sessions, and spend quality time together.  We are staying in a house with two other families, and have a grand total of 8 children here, ranging from 6 weeks to 8 years old! Needless to say, we are having lots of FUN!

John is starting his Berean classes this month, he is working towards his minister's license.  This is a goal he has had for a long time, and we are excited that he has this opportunity.

I received my "official" job placement as the teacher for levels 4 and 5.  I have 13 students whose ages range from 10 to 19 years old.  School starts in two weeks, and I can't wait! I graduated with my teaching degree, then stayed home with the kids until we moved here, so this will be my very first time to teach a class by myself! Woohoo!

Clara will be starting preschool, and is very excited about the  "univerm" (uniform) that she gets to wear! She will turn 4 on June 19th.  She has requested a chocolate Hello Kitty cake, and we are all looking forward to that!

Lincoln is just enjoying every day! He is learning quite a bit of Cebuano, and he loves to sing, dance, wrestle, read, and play with cars and balls. He is definitely a BOY!

We hope all of you are doing well. Thank you for taking the time to catch up with us! : )

Burden

I feel a little awkward sharing this post, because many of you sponsor our mission and I don't want you to think that we are not incredibly grateful for the opportunity to serve here! I just wanted to let you know how I am feeling... missions work is not a walk in the park.  It's more like running blindfolded through a jungle! And some days are hard.

This is a very honest post that I wrote about a week ago, but I am just now sharing. Hope you get something out of it!

I had this dream a few nights ago that one of my close friends had a new baby but it was very deformed, so she kept it but locked it upstairs and only fed it, just like the bare minimum to survive. She said it wasn't the child she was supposed to have, it wasn't perfect, so she would raise it, but she didn't consider it "hers". The baby's name was Brunden in the dream. I thought it was a weird name, but I knew that this baby deserved more than this life. Then I woke up.

Here is what John and I interpret: the BURDEN that God has given us, to come here and work with these kids, hasn't exactly turned out like we thought. We labored and toiled and waited a long time to get to this place, and now, honestly, I am kind of disappointed in the result. It's not perfect. There are things I don't like. (Mainly, living in a fish bowl and being so far from family). Please understand, we LOVE these kids so much! I think I just pictured all of the details to be. . . Flawless! So now I am here, doing what needs to be done each day, but not fully embracing our life here.

Whew!! Talk about a kick in the pants! This is the dream God has given me, entrusted me with, and I am treating it like this?  I am complaining about the things I miss in America, worrying about if my kids are going to be adversely affected by their surroundings, and secretly counting the days until I get to see my parents again.  

So, things will be changing. I will be THANKFUL for the new adventures God has given to our family. I won't forget how BLESSED we are to carry this burden! And I will try really hard not to miss home so much :)