Since we posted the In The Spotlight article on the Philippines, it seems that we all know Brother Jeremiah Villagracia personally. He graciously shared his life with us, as we learned how God called him at a young age to believe the Message of the hour. We also learned about how he felt a call in his life to distribute the Message to his fellow Filipinos.

From the remote islands to the inner-city prisons, Brother Jeremiah tirelessly travels from place to place, delivering Spiritual Food to waiting souls. Two months ago, he visited the believers in Samar and Leyte. He traveled by airplane, power boat, canoe, bus, car, motorbike, foot, and anything else that would bring him to his destinations. He crashed on a motorbike, spent many sleepless nights rocking in the waves under the leaky tarp of a boat, hiked into some of the most remote jungles in Asia, traveled day and night, and was honored to meet some of the most precious people in the world. The following is his report. Most of the pictures contain captions to help explain the areas he visited.

We had a very successful trip, and despite a slight motorbike accident we had while going up the hilly and slippery road to the mountain, the Lord's leading was very evident every step of the way. He was always there to protect us. The introduction and the actual itinerary report are shown below:

I give all my thanks and praises to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for the safe and wonderful trip He gave us during our recent tour of the churches in the Samar and Leyte areas of the Visayas region in the Philippines. Our thanks to you too, for your prayers truly had availed much as we had been able to accomplish the things that the Lord had laid in our hearts to do, as we aim and strive to serve the Bride of the Lord Jesus Christ in these areas.

Samar and Leyte are the two major islands in the eastern side of central Philippines, the Visayas region. As being part of the Eastern Visayas region, it is separated from Luzon by the San Bernardino Strait in the southeast while the Surigao Strait separates the province of Leyte from the northeastern part of Mindanao. The Visayan and Camotes Seas separate the region from the rest of the Visayas. On the east, the region faces the Pacific Ocean. The San Juanico Bridge connects the islands of Samar and Leyte. The terrain of the two large islands is entirely different. Leyte has a high peaked mountain mass in the interior, while Samar has low rugged hills interspersed with valleys.

Samar and Leyte belong to one of the most economically depressed regions in the country but is also one of the few regions that has the most concentration of Message churches and believers. Very interesting to note is that most of these churches are located in the more depressed towns and municipalities much farther away from the bigger and relatively more progressive cities like Tacloban and Calbayog. The poor economic conditions of this region can be attributed to its being a typhoon belt area and purely dependent on agriculture. This underdevelopment economically, had taken its toll among others on business and infrastructure, particularly the roads.It's high unemployment and under-employment rates of 5% and 23% respectively and annual per capita income (GRDP) of only less than half of the national level had resulted in the poor living conditions of the people and the believers in the area until now. All these however had not in anyway hampered or restrained the spread of the Message there and have called in and continue to call in the predestinated ones in these areas.

The recent trip serves to confirm that the churches and our brethren in these areas did get all the Message books and the Lighthouse package materials that Voice of God Recordings had been sending over the recent years. It was a joy to know that Brother Branham's CDs and tapes are being played in so far away places across remote seas, rivers and mountains that one would not have thought or imagined because of the distance and difficult roads and ways of getting the Message to these places. Something that one would come to realize when visiting these places and to find out such extent-reach of the materials that VGR had been sending to Message ministers and churches all over the country. Our personal visits aim to find out their further needs for these materials and improve our delivery system to these areas to better serve them even more.

The six-days schedule that we had allotted to try to see and visit as many ministers and churches that we could along the vast expanse of this big region, necessitated us to be always on the road every day on public transport, on bancas and boats, and on a single motorbike over most of the time. It was such an opportunity to meet and speak with God's soldiers on the field and fellowship with believers whose faith and love for this Message and the Prophet are truly evident. What an honor and blessing indeed to be in service for the Bride of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you and God bless you.

Brother Jeremiah

Since Brother Jeremiah sent in so many wonderful pictures of his trip, we will split the report into two separate slideshows with captions to explain the photos. We will post the second half of the slideshow in the days to come.