The Philippines has truly won my heart! It is one of my favourite places in all the world to minister. The people are humble, passionate, servant hearted and uncomplicatedly involved in building the Kingdom of God. My recent trip there was one of the best ministry trips of my life. It was the first one for us since starting New Nature Ministries and I’m happy to report a very successful one. I was invited in to do a “Grace for Leadership Conference” by a group of friends and ministry partners of mine from Manila. Firstly, this is a group of very effective people who plant churches, raise up leaders, and mentor pastors to grow in grace and build powerful local churches that reach their communities. I’m so grateful that God has connected me with them in fruitful partnership. Pastor Jun Yu is the senior pastor of Faith Center churches and hosted the conference. He is one of the best grace teaches in the Philippines, an incredible leader and it’s an honour to be connected with him.
Jimmy Santos, who I have known since 2011, and who has been deemed “the Connector” as he has an amazing gift for connecting pastors and churches together in partnerships of mentoring and effective Kingdom advancement, is my main contact in the Philippines who I recently named humorous yet somewhat God-ordained way, my “manager”. He picked me up from the airport in Manila and took care of me the entire time.
He is the best and scariest driver in the Philippines! To say the traffic in Manila is chaotic, is an understatement. I literally have to force myself to close my eyes most of the time and pray for God’s protection in the melee of frantic traffic with oncoming overtaking cars that don’t get back in their lane until the very last second, bumper to bumper traffic with vehicles all trying to squeeze into the 1 inch gap in front of you between your car and the next, scooters and bicycles weaving in-between cars narrowly escaping death at every moment yet as though this is a normal way of life, children casually playing on the roads and crossing it periodically to see what their friends are doing on the other side while instinctively knowing where all the threats are and how to avoid them! Jimmy lives on his horn as he alerts other drivers of his intentions and to warn them to not even think about pulling in front of him! On the roads, Jimmy is king! I don’t know how the traffic works in the Philippines, because it really shouldn’t, but some how it does! It has a rhythm that everyone seems to know, yet one I would never attempt, so thank God for Jimmy!
The conference was packed with over 300 delegates who had come from all over the Philippines far and wide. 31 churches were represented, mostly by senior pastors, pastors and various key leaders from their churches. I was deeply honoured and humbled by their presence and yet they were so honouring and thankful to me for coming. These things affect your heart and fill you with a sense of responsibility in the Kingdom of God to communicate His Word and ministry with a godly stewardship.
The first evening I worked to establish a foundation of why the Churches must never move on from grace as it is the foundation of the New Covenant and the means by which believers move on to maturity. It is also through grace that all of heavens riches are supplied to us including healing. There was a ministry time of refreshing, renewing and healing with many people touched and healed in God’s presence. The second day instantly climbed to new heights in God’s truth and his intense powerful presence. I continued with everything is supplied to us through grace including empowerment to serve God and a grace for generosity and provision. (All of these sessions will be made available on www.newnatureministries.org over the next few weeks). To respond to this we took up and offering that will go exclusively to brand new church plants in the Philippines (to be administered by Ptr Jun Yu). What an honour to witness as everyone sowed seed into this grand Kingdom venture the Holy Spirit initiated, and it felt like the God birthed something amazing which I look forward to being a part of into the future. We then had a 1 hour questions and answer session with various questions from pastors including topics like tithing, fasting, abuses of grace, how to handle strange doctrines creeping in, Israel superstition, wisdom in navigating our partnerships with people who are going off into strange doctrines, dealing with suicide, dealing with homosexuality and more. At first I was nervous of the Q&A session as I normally don’t like being on the spot but God’s grace was there in a tangible way and I found there was a resource of his wisdom to answer all these questions. I could feel revelation being imparted and lights coming on and most answers received an applause to my surprise which was greatly encouraging. After these two sessions the atmosphere felt so open and free. Truth and grace had revealed the love of God in a profound way and all eyes were on Jesus. I knew there was only one thing we could do and that was to administer the tangible presence of grace to everyone there. This was the session that absolutely blew me away in how God came. I started off asking people to stand if they had prayed the prayer “please God single me out at this conference and speak to me because I don’t want to leave empty handed, I must receive from you”. Almost everyone stood and I began to release the blessing of God. Because the atmosphere was so free due to the grace of God people received so easily. The anointing began to increase all over the room as people became engaged and intoxicated with heaven. Joy, laughter, crying, shaking, falling broke out all over the room spontaneously. God’s Kingdom was increasing bringing divine order and alignment to people’s lives. Everything that was not of the Kingdom of God was going and freedom was coming. I called out 10 people who felt the touch of God on them very strongly and as I began to pray for them and see the powerful response of God in them I suddenly became aware of my own fathers influence in my life. I was moving in ways inspired by him and I realised that his mentoring over the years has developed a depth and anointing in me that I was now able to draw on. That thought made me very happy as I then continued to release God’s fire. And he came! In fact, his fire came with much glory. I looked out over the room and could see waves of fire and glory hitting. The visible grace of God was moving over pockets of people. Spontaneously different areas would erupt as the presence of God would hit and groups of people would instantly start laughing, shouting praises, falling over under the power, shaking and rolling on the floor as the fire and electricity of the Holy Spirit moved through them with almost unrestrained intensity. The glory of God makes ministering so easy! I could see God beginning to hover over other area’s of the room and as I announced it God’s glory would land and people would go over under the power. Looking out into this atmosphere I could see every person deeply engaged with heaven. I felt we needed to sing “worthy is the lamb, seated on the throne” and as we did, it was as though each person was trying to reach into heaven and lay hold of the throne of God and grasp onto Christ with such affection, adoration and deep worship. These are the atmosphere’s I love. When everyone is caught up into heaven and captivated by Christ. When hearts are set free and God’s fiery passion burns so deeply that all you can think about is the face of Christ and giving your whole life to serve him. We ended with some big praise songs and I thought the place was going to disintegrate! 300 passionate people celebrating Jesus with all their hearts and with wild movements expressing their joy and freedom before God. In the end nobody wanted to leave. It felt as though we could do this for all eternity.
The feedback has been so positive. Many people talking about how God changed their lives over this time, and how it’s going to carry over into their churches, ministries and families. Well I can’t wait to do it again, and it looks highly likely it will take place next May 2018. We’re looking at holding a “Grace for Leadership Conference 2” in the city of Davao, Philippines and are currently in the planning stages. This time my father Rob Rufus will be joining us and I already feel like it is going to be a life changing event. Details will be coming out soon. Can I encourage your to come and bring leaders with you.
I then had the privilege on Sunday to minister into two magnificent churches. The first one was The Lord is my Shepherd Christian fellowship, led by Ptr Mel and Edna Vero in Tondo, Manila.
You can catch the whole service that was streamed live here (Jimmy Santos). This was a great time in which we saw many things including around 20-30 people giving their lives to Jesus! This is what I live for!
Then we got back into Jimmy’s car and headed up to Tagaytay along a most terrifying road that was everything I described before x2! I literally had to close my eyes for most of the trip as keeping them open was like watching death approaching and was very stressful. Haha! Jimmy is so calm in all of it and completely owns the road. I think I was more exhausted after the trip from the adrenaline released on the roads than from the ministry in the conference and churches!
They took me to a lookout with a majestic view that looks over the Taal Lake and Volcanoes. God’s creation is transcendent and truly gives worship and glory to God the creator of all things. Then it was off to a church that I describe as being “under the favour of God”.
There are some people that have a little favour, and then there are others who walk in divine supernatural favour because of the effect of grace being allowed to flow through them. Listening to all that God is doing in Faith Center Tagaytay and through Ptr Bernie, a humble servant of God, was so exciting.
From being given land, and buildings to open doors to speak regularly to the top levels in the police force including generals and politicians, to open doors into business sectors with divine fruitfulness, all just continued to give glory to the God whose unmerited grace truly brings unmerited favour.
It was such a delight to minister in their church and God’s fire once again broke out. You could feel heaven burning in the room and everyone being consumed by God. We had a powerful extended ministry time that was hard to bring to an end which felt like this could go on forever. I had the privilege of leading another 20 plus people to the Lord. It’s opportunities like these that make me feel alive and excited about what God has called me to do! I am so thankful for a fantastic first trip for NNM to the Philippines.
Thank you Philippines for having me. You have truly won my heart and I see a long partnership ahead of fruitful team ministry. I was so encouraged to see different groups of pastors that meet together to fellowship and grow in grace. No one is trying to promote their ministry, or own each other, or use each other to build “their own kingdom”, but everyone focuses on grace and how they can mentor each other in grace and be mentored in grace. The fruit of this is a healthy team of pastors building each other up and building the Kingdom of God together. I am so honoured to be a part of it and will continue to help and support it as much as God allows.
To follow this journey and stay up to date with all the conferences and teachings coming out of my partnership in the Philippines keep visiting our:
Please let us know how you have been effected by the “Grace for Leadership Conference” and the message of grace in the Philippines. And let us know what area you are in and what God is doing through you and your church. We would so love to hear about it and give glory to God as God is linking people together in divine partnership.
All my love,
Ryan Rufus.
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