So I am on my third of three days off. We will be a Othello tomorrow night through this coming friday. I'm excited to get back on the road.

I've spent the majority of my time off sleeping. For those of you who don't know I had a very long day this past Wednesday. See, I had been on unemployment for sometime now. And every six months they set up a time for me to meet with them and go over everything that I have done-all the places I have applied. Well, they sent me a letter while I was in Mukilteo that told me when I had to meet with them. Except I couldn't be there because I was in Mukilteo.

Just a few days later I found out about this and they told me if I wasn't there the second time then they would set a court date for me and decide what to do from there. Possibly even pay everything back-something I couldn't do.

Thank the Lord I made it, though it wasn't fun. I had a meeting at a res. and service didn't get out until about 10 Tuesday night. So by the time everything was packed and I was on the road it was around 11:30 p.m. I drove five and a half hours. Through wind and ice and snow, no joke. The pass was quite bad. I did make it before there were any real restrictions.

I didn't get home until 5 though. All-in-all, I was up about 36 hours. Needless to say, I slept really long that night. 12 hours. It was pretty great!

The meeting turned out okay. After all my worrying, I was there maybe 7 minutes. The Lord provided for me and I can't thank him enough.

This was not an attack on my finances, it was an attack on my peace and joy. My head is still being held up high!

I'm going to pick up my stuff from the dry cleaners today, and I will still have to pay/do my walk through with my apartment. Pray that that goes smoothly. I also have to close out an old bank account. Then I have no more worries!

That's pretty much it for now.

Confirmation

Just today I was giving a prophetic message. Nothing that needs to be discussed to anyone right now. I do however ask for your prayers. Even though it's from God, words of prophesy can be hard to swallow, and though I can see how God could work it out, I still would like a word of confirmation from Him.
Thanks!

P.S. I am in Kingston now, at S'klallam Worship Center. Be in Tri-cities this Wednesday with three days off from travel (Though I will still be working) and then I will be in Othello this coming Sunday!I plan on giving a more updated blog ab out my last two days in Mukilteo sometime soon!

Taste and See

I have a fun little story here, towards the end of the worship service, the worship leader was telling us about a conversation that he was in before service. They were joking around about the song 'I'm a little tea pot'.

He was sharing this story with us and asked us if we wanted God to come 'fill us up' and 'pour us out'. To the groovy beat of the previous worship song we all sang to the lyrics of that song. It was fun, and the people-after the short laugh we got from it- were really involved and singing it from the heart.

God used that though. The Lord heard our cry. This evening's service didn't get out until a quarter till ten, bet I think it is safe to say nearly half the congregation got up at the end, were baptized in the Spirit-with the evidence of speaking in tongues- and then finished the night off with prayer in the Spirit and worship.

The Lord did hear our cry. He did fill up his children like a tea pot and He did pour us out through prayer for the lost. If only you could have been there to taste and see how good the Lord really is!

It is nearly midnight and I have to be up in six hours so I should go. I have a drive to portland so please keep me in your prayers.

Mukilteo Update

I am here in Mukilteo Washington with Brother David Woods and his family. And what A might work God is doing here.

I want to first express in the best possible way how good the worship is. I don't know about half the songs but God is speaking to me through them anyway. There is a very talented worship team here.

There are many things that I would like to share but it's a bit late and my connection is not very strong-one of the things you deal with when you travel a lot.

There was a testimony that brother Woods shared with the church on Monday night that really got me thinking about heaven. I won't share it because it's not my testimony and the Spirit of God led brother Woods to tell it to this particular church. It is something that he only shares when prompted by the Holy Ghost!

This story got me thinking though. And just this evening (Tuesday) during worship I saw something so beautiful, brother Woods' two daughters had clasped hands and started to spin at the front of the church. Most people would have probably stopped their children. But this was so beautiful. Two little girls worshiping God.

I wonder if we tend to get too religious in our church (being the church in general). Where we have set so many rules that we just don't let people worship God in their own way. We need to learn to worship with child like faith no matter what the people behind us think.

I can only picture Jesus laughing at the sight of his two daughters dancing in front of everyone just because of Him!

As far as my journey goes, things are great. I've been keeping quite busy. This Thursday brother Woods and I are going to take a trip down to Portland (three hour trip one way). We have an organ to pick up for our worship service on Friday night!

So prayers for traveling mercies would be appreciated. Also, this friday we are having a camera crew come up here to record. This is-Lord willing-the first of the Word for the World Ministries product. So please pray that everyone can get here and that the Lord will move in a powerful way this Friday evening. If only we could capture the work of God on camera. Unfortunately we can only give you a glimpse.

I plan on posting pictures when I get a better connection! (And did we ever get some good pictures!) I will try to report back to you one more time this week!

1 More Prayer Request

One of the things that I guess many people are tested with when they first start in the ministry is trusting God. We plan things out our own way, organizing everything, and God does something different. So please pray that I also learn to trust God and His perfect plan, and not get too caught up on my own plan that I lose focus on Him!

Change of Plans, Prayer Request, Random Thoughts

I am sitting here in a chair in front of a desk within the living room of a house in the middle of a town that is in a state on the corner of a country on a portion of the earth somewhere in our galaxy within the universe, writing this blog.
Not a whole lot has happened since my journey has started. Mostly because it hasn’t started yet. I was intending to meet with brother Woods yesterday in Portland to get all of the little last minute things organized. He e-mailed me and told me it would be best to just meet him in Mulkiteo this Sunday. So I am here waiting. Very impatiently.

But still waiting!

I have done a lot of arguing with myself as I wait. Not literally though. You know how it is, making a very important decision that can compromise the moral principles that you live by. Okay, well it’s not that big of a decision. I keep going back and forth weather I should buy a Kindle or not. He he! I don’t need one but they are really cool! I recently heard someone’s shopping motto,
‘every purchase has a purpose’.
Though this would have a purpose, and to be honest it would be quite useful as I can’t take my library of books with me, It’s not a necessity.
I think my sister and brother-in-law are getting sick of me talking about it. That’s really all that has been on my mind this past week.
Anyway, the Kindle is quite expensive and while I am getting enough money from tax return , I like to be a better steward of my money. So I am thinking I shall wait.
Please pray that I have enough self control not to buy it!

But enough about my personal life, this is not about that! Well, kind of!
I decided to write since it has been a few days, though there is not a whole lot happening as of now. While I am still doing my last minute preparing, there are a few prayer requests that I would like to make known and hope that you can continue praying for me on my journey!
1. Peace. Between brother Woods, his family and myself. It seems that the more you get to know people the more of their flaws you see, and the more tension develops between the people.
2. My car. I am told that my car usually starts to fall apart at around 100,000 miles, I am currently at 78,000 miles. I have taken good care of it, though I am going to take a 7,000 mile trip this summer.
3. One of the more important things, strength to carry on. Ephesisans 6 says that after you have done everything to stand, stand. We can do all that is required, but it does no good if we don’t decide to apply it to our daily life. I realized that as I was getting ready for my journey all last week there was a lot of tension. When you walk in the anointing you are a walking target. The devil has been doing quite a bit lately to get me to fail, by the grace of God I am still standing. My journey however, is just beginning and so are the trials.
I really appreciate your prayers. And I will try to update as often as possible! You are welcome to e-mail me if you like at reed.philips@mac.com, though I can’t guarantee that I will always have time to reply!
Also, I want to send out a huge thank you to my home church. Your support is so helpful. The offering I was giving was a huge help and I assure everyone that the whole offering is set aside and will not be used for personal gain but to help me along with the ministry that God has placed before me (I will not be spending that money on a Kindle he he).

My Story

On October 17, 2008 I was laid off from my job, Genie industries. It was a good job, with great pay benefits and weekends off. But the company was downsizing due to the economy.

I could probably have held it out a lot longer, after all, I been there for some time now and knew quite a bit about the assembly line that I was working on. Genie did however, have a Voluntary Exit Program (VEP) that they were stressing. They didn't want to have to lay off more people than they had to so the offered better benefits to anyone who would voluntarily leave.

I was one of the first to leave. Several reason actually,
1. I have no debt. None. Just monthly rent.
2. I'm single. I have no family to provide for, I don't have kids that I have to feed.
3. Though at the time my relationship with God wasn't as good as it is now, I was still walking under the anointing of God.

So I left, if only to save one person their job.

And I have been unemployed ever since. Unemployment pays the bills, in fact, I am actually saving money on unemployment. I didn't however, find a job.

Now ever since this happened my Pastor and I have been praying for a new ministry. Because when you think about it, your job isn't just a job, it is an opportunity to minister into the lives of others.

In January of 2009 my home church in Warden Washington had a guest speaker, evangelist David Woods. Brother Woods travels the country 35 weeks of the year ministering to churches through signs, wonders and miracles.

God worked through our church in Warden through Brother Woods' ministry. I found myself quite useful while he was here, just helping out with the little things that he really didn't have time to do himself.

When he left things just kind of went back to normal as far as my daily routine goes. Though I did take on a few more little responsibilities in the church, nothing big changed. I was after all, still unemployed. I felt to be a bit useless.

My Pastor and I had a habit of meeting every Monday, he would disciple me, and I would offer as much help as I could with the church.

About two or three weeks after brother Woods left, Pastor had asked me in one of our meetings what it is that I felt called to do.

Did I have a future plan?

At the time I was just trying to be useful, and that's good, but it's not enough. Without a vision, people perish. And as far as my own life was, I didn't have a personal vision. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with helping in the local church, I encourage it, but understand that I am a twenty-three year old single guy, who is unemployed and has no collage education.

No plans.

Not much of a future.

Pastor John encouraged me to call up brother Woods f or several reasons. I was quite helpful to brother Woods at the time he was here, and he also wanted me to experience ministry outside of the local church and community. I had been involved in my local church for sometime, I had done an internship at a church before, but I still hadn't found a place to call my own.

So I walked away from that meeting planning to call brother Woods. The following week however, Pastor had left for about a week and a half, so I was doing a little more around the church to keep things running smoothly. I didn't call brother Woods. It was in the back of my mind, I just didn't take the time to call.

A few days before Pastor John had come back brother Woods called me himself, looking for some help. Keep in mind that this was only a matter of weeks after I had met brother Woods for the first time.

See, he was traveling from church to church ministering, but he always left and didn't have any material to leave for the church. So he was wanting to put together a CD collection of some of his sermons. He needed help with it and asked if I could dedicate some time to copy these CDs and then ship them to the churches before he got there so that he could have them there while he was ministering.

I agreed. What better time to talk to him about the conversation I had with Pastor then now? So I mentioned the conversation and this is how he responded:

"Philip, I wanted to ask more of you, but I knew that you were very involved with your church there and I didn't want to pull you away. I'm looking for someone to travel with me and assist me with my ministry. The job will mostly consist of all the little details."

We scheduled a time to meet in Monroe Washington. He wanted me to come so that we could talk about the details of the job. And to get a feel for what I would be doing. He did however tell me to talk to Pastor John about it, because brother Woods didn't want me to get too involved with helping him out unless I had Pastor's blessing.

So I talked to Pastor and he told me that he loved having me in the church helping out, but he also didn't want to hold me back from doing what God would call me to do. So he sent me off.

Brother Woods, his family and myself connected. There was no doubt that our meeting each other was ordained by the Lord. I have to tell you, I have never felt more at peace, more useful in my life, then when I was here with brother Woods.

The second day I was here with brother Woods, he took me to JC Pennies and bought me five suits. I have never worn a suit in my life. God was good, all the suits we looked at were anywhere from 50 to 75% off.

I returned home and told my Pastor of what was happening. We have met up nearly every morning to pray, he was advising me, I had never been in the ministry before so he was telling me of all the things he learned.

Just last Sunday March 1, 2009, the church commissioned me. This was not just Pastor sending me off. I had talked to one of the board members and he also was excited about it. I have had nearly the whole church come to me and tell me they were happy. I don't say this to brag. That is not at all my intent, I say this to assure you that my church approves of this ministry, they support it.

I left my church with their blessing. And I can't thank God enough for the opportunity.

I plan on updating this blog as often as possible. I am trusting God to provide me with a laptop that is capable of doing what I need it to accomplish. I ask that you continue to pray for me. When you walk under the anointing of God you are a walking target. Already I have had so many things happened to bring me down. By the grace of God, I am still standing!