March 2023 Prayer Needs from Travis and Natasha Phillips

Thank you for your continued prayers for our family and ministry. Natasha and I are about 100 classroom hours into phase 4 of our Bisaya language studies, and we have about 400 more hours to go before completing phase 4. Phase 5 is our final phase and will only be one month. We appreciate prayer for continued growth in the language and understanding of culture. 

As I am writing this (Feb 24) we just settled an incident from a drunk motorcyclist hitting our parked car around midnight last week. It was quite the scene , but we saw the grace of God in many ways that night and in the days that followed. The motorcyclist is okay, and our car is currently being repaired by a neighbor who has been a believer for four months. We appreciate prayer for my conversations with him as he is struggling in his marriage and is seeking counsel. Thank you for your continued prayers for our family and ministry. Natasha and I are about 100 classroom hours into phase 4 of our Bisaya language studies, and we have about 400 more hours to go before completing phase 4. Phase 5 is our final phase and will only be one month. We appreciate prayer for continued growth in the language and understanding of culture. 

As I am writing this (Feb 24) we just settled an incident from a drunk motorcyclist hitting our parked car around midnight last week. It was quite the scene , but we saw the grace of God in many ways that night and in the days that followed. The motorcyclist is okay, and our car is currently being repaired by a neighbor who has been a believer for four months. We appreciate prayer for my conversations with him as he is struggling in his marriage and is seeking counsel. 

Four of us guys continue to meet at the local jail each Friday to preach the gospel and pray for those in the jail. The people are only in this jail for a week or less until they get transferred to a prison or post bail, so it’s definitely a seed-planting ministry. It’s a difficult context for me to speak and understand because it is often quite loud and my language ability is still lacking. So I appreciate your prayers for continued growth to be able to contribute more to this ministry. 

We also appreciate prayer for our language helpers who are totally misled with regard to truth and the gospel by the catholic church. Our hearts break for them, and we would love to be able to study the Scriptures with them so they can see what God actually says about sin, forgiveness, salvation etc. 

Finally a big praise is that we were able to get some house repairs done, so one of our bedrooms no longer floods when it rains, septic gases so longer fill our bathroom each night, and I am in the process of replacing the rotten floor in the bedroom that previously flooded. 

To God be the glory in all these things.