Short term trip

 Hey everyone, well as most of you know November marked the arrival of the biggest storm to ever make landfall. Haiyan, or Yolanda as the Philippines named it had winds of up to about 230 mph. Sustained winds of 195 and gusts reaching much higher. Believe it or not the winds were not the problem, or the main one at least. Due to the high winds and the severity of the storm there was a "tsunami" type wave that caused most of the destruction. This wall of water was up at times 35-40 ft in some areas. With a initial "storm surge" of 20-30ft and then storm waves of an additional 10-15 ft. What many may not realize is the area of the Philippines that this storm greatly effected is the same area we lived and ministered during our time in there several years back. Tacloban, the city that received the most attention and was probably most effected due to the population and development of the city, is the same city that we would travel to every 59 or so days to renew our visas. Some of the less publicized areas Guiuan and Hernani we had also traveled. Guiuan really suffered the brunt of the storm, as that is where the eye made landfall. And Hernani is an area that U-Turn planted a church during our stay. All our friends and family from Borongan were also effected by this massive storm. Upon hearing about the storm, Thursday before it hit, we as a family and a church began to pray for the area knowing the size and path made it very personal. As Friday rolled around and the storm made landfall, pictures also began to trickle in and reports of the destruction were shared. Seeing the areas that we so often walked and ate in total ruin was a real shock, but worse than that was the realization that the smaller areas were most likely just as devastated. With no word or reports from Eastern Samar we began to pray "Lord if there is a way, if we are needed please make a way" I wanted to go see and help our friends. Monday morning He did just that. I received word that a initial response team from California would be in Cebu at 10am Tuesday morning, I needed to be there. Mind you it was already 9am Monday. In most parts of the world that may not be a problem but flights only leave for the Philippines from our area once every four days, I was in Thailand alone with the kids as Sarah was in Cambodia, and and and the list goes on. You know Monday the 11th happened to be a fourth day? and with a little shifting of children they were taken care of for two days while Sarah traveled home. The Lord is so good and knows what He is doing, His plans are perfect even when they seem crazy. Needless to say I made the necessary flights and met with Gerry Brown, and several other pastors from all over the Western United States as part of the initial response team. Words cannot express the things we saw, the utter destruction of so many homes, businesses, even towns. I cannot express how thankful I am that all our friends and family there were alive and mostly well, we were allowed to have great fellowship instead of retrieving bodies and funerals.There are many areas this would have been the case but the Lord showed His grace on Borongan and His people throughout Eastern Samar. Yes many many died, hundreds even, even within the church, even within the U-Turn, Calvary Chapel family, but as a whole the death toll was minimal. During the almost three week trip many things took place from the restoration of the Lalawigan church and Bible school to house future teams to the cleaning of the one remaining school in Hernani so that classes could resume, to clothes and dry food goods being handed out, even daily hot meals being prepared and passed out. Through Mercy Chefs we were even able to take part in providing a water purification system to several of the effected areas providing them with safe drinking water. Most of our relief efforts were focused on Hernani a small area totaling about 10,000, the "town proper" is 80-90% demolished with over 200 dead and over 200 missing. I have prepared a small video that provides a glimpse of the destruction and the relief work going on through U-Turn and Calvary Chapel, I have also provided a video shot on scene by Calvary Chapel. There is much work to be done and there will continue to be for months maybe years, if you feel like donating to the restoration of the Philippines I would really encourage you to do a little research and find an organization that personally has people on the ground distributing the resources not sending them to another organization or directly to the government. This is a crucial step in ensuring the assistance actually is used by those in need. U-Turn for Christ is such an organization but there are many others. I am praying about and trying to put together a team of Thai pastor/leaders to return in January for about 10 days to begin rebuilding some of the houses that were destroyed. The goal is 5 houses in two weeks, with a team of 5-10. The trip is roughly $700 per person, and each house is approx. $500, if you are interested in assisting in any way with this please make all donations to Joe Nelson and send to Calvary Chapel Valle Vista 44203 Palm Ave Hemet Ca, 92544. Thanks for reading and God bless

Calvary Chapel video footage
Click here to view video

Prayer Requests

Patong International Fellowship- This is the church plant we are working on, we have been invited to begin a second service and location, growth, guidance, maturity
Philippines- restoration physical/spiritual, guidance and funds
Family- The kids are back in home school. Joey just started High school and Jacob started middle school, understanding, growth and wisdom for students/teachers
Finances- as we are here by donation support is always a prayer, vehicle, and povision
Co-workers- As the time of our two interns draws to an end and the ministry grows help would be a great thing. 

September at a Glance

Hello Everyone,

Well this last month has been rather hectic with many many things taking place. Our move is complete we are now completely in our new home. A week or so after moving in we found a small sign on the door, it read, House on Heavens Hill. Wow thank you Lord.

I (Joe) was so blessed to have made the travel to Northern Thailand for the closing ceremonies of the third semester at the Calvary Chapel Training Center that Pastor Eric has going. Joe Orozco a young man we met a during our time in the Philippines finished his time at the school and came down to Phuket with us for about a week. Great time of fellowship with this young man as he also greatly assisted in the move, we had an immense amount of time driving back and forth from old house to new and back. He left us on the 6th and Robert Parker arrived on the 7th. Having Robert around for a few days was nice while I tried to not only recoup from travel and the move, we had Drama training, Robert, church and preparing to travel back to Bangkok for the first annual Calvary Chapel Missions Conference and to meet this years CCVV short term team. The conference was "Equipping the Saints" and based around Ephesians 4:11-16. I was given the task of teaching 11 reaching unity of faith. The conference went great with the opportunity to meet and fellowship with many new missionary friends as well as some we have not seen for quite some time. While at the conference I was also formally ordained as a pastor.

The Thailand team (Nelsons and Sam) traveled back with the American team on an overnight bus to Ban Nam Khem for a few days of ministry. We did several outreaches, one of which was visiting all my friends inside the Prison where I have been teaching English during our stay here in Southern Thailand. We then traveled down to Phuket where both teams where able to participate in the ministry in Patong. Let me tell you after dark this is no place to be! The freaks come out at night. When the team left we picked up a new Thailand team member, Kayberlynn Seals from CCVV has committed to stay with us for about 5 months. Thank you Lord for sending more servants.

Sarah had mentioned in our last post about the youth group we are training in the Youth For Truth dramas, tomorrow they will do their first live presentation to both their congregation and ours. We have two separate church bodies meeting in the same location. The youth with also be traveling about three hours North later this month on a week long "Mission trip" to preform the dramas and evangelize. We have taught them two dramas and one clown skit so far and we are all very excited to see what the Lord is going to do with these youth.

As a team we are currently serving in many different areas, Joe has discipleship once a week with two young men from the fellowship, Sarah has a weekly women's ministry meeting, as a team we go out with some of the church members to do street evangelism, Sam and Kayberlynn are serving at the Burmese school we helped get started, weekly drama training, and of course Church on Sunday.

Prayer requests:
Spiritual Growth in the Church
Fruitful time of street witnessing
Health, we have all had a cough for several weeks
Vehicle funds
Finances in general

Better late than never!!!

Here is the latest update as of about 3 weeks ago. It has been delayed due to internet issues and being very busy. Keep watching for the newest info God Bless

On the road again

This week we will be moved and hopefully all settled in our new home in Kamala Beach. I am very excited for this move however; however we are also going to miss our current village. We have made so many friends and have been a part of so much here. I know the Lord knows best and His Will, will be accomplished in and through us.

I have so much news for this update, so please don’t grow weary reading. Through much prayer and fasting we have decided to partner with another missionary couple from AGM (Asia Gospel Missions) to church plant in the city. Dan and Liza are the names of the couple that we have been working with. Absolutely amazing people and so blessed to be working with them. As a church body we have been meeting at a church that allows us to use their facilities in the afternoons. We are currently looking and praying for a building to use, as we are not sure how long they will allow us to worship there. Please lift this up for us. This is officially the first week we will be having Childrens Sunday school classes. Which will be taught by Sam and myself (Sarah). Joe and Dan have been alternating teaching through the book of Romans. Most of the members are in the music industry here so our worship is always amazing.  So many things to do! I don’t think I really realized how much work it is when starting from scratch. I am super excited and can’t wait to see what the Lord is doing with all of this.

The same church we are meeting at also has a youth department with a heart for evangelism and they are  allowing us, Joey, Sam and me (Sarah) to go and train their youth in evangelism. We will be going on the 7^th of Sept. This youth department has permission to go into the local high school and do evangelism. Praise The Lord!

Joe left for the North of Thailand this week to attend the graduation of CCTCT (Calvary Chapel Training Center Thailand) students. We are so blessed to be involved with Pastor Eric and his wife Mj as they continue on in teaching and training through the word.

As Joe had mentioned in our last blog the Lord impressed upon the heart of Pastor Dana and his wife Cindy to give us one of their trucks. What an answer to prayer! The Lord knows our needs and provides them through ways we least expect. We do still need to put in a new engine. We live near the ocean and the salt water has eaten through the metal and it’s an old truck. By faith the Lord gave us the truck and I am sure by faith he will provide a way to fix it. No place would I rather be than relying on the Lord to provide my needs; helps me keep a humble heart.

The kids are all doing well in school. We are moving and I believe I will need to go back to full time homeschooling. Joey should be starting his first year of high school. This is my first high school student  so we have no curriculum. If anyone has any material or suggestions please let me know.

After my last post maybe a day or two later I fell ill with Dengue Fever or( break bone fever).It was the worst 2 weeks of flu like symptoms I have ever experienced. Praise the Lord I pulled through. The only lasting effects that it has had on me are extreme fatigue and some paralysis of the face. But nothing serious the doctor said it would go away soon. Thank you for taking the time to read our blog and to see what the Lord is doing here in Thailand.

Prayer requests

Pray for our new church (Still praying about a name)

Pray for a building to worship and the finances to do so

For Gods love and grace to be abundantly poured out here in Thailand

New engine in our truck

Nelson Kids schooling