The Whosoevers concluded
For the last couple months we have been preparing for a huge outreach with the Whosoevers. This has been a great opportunity to watch God open or close doors for what He wants done. Here in Tagaytay we were denied in the high schools which was our original plan: however unintentionally we were granted complete access to all the schools in our neighboring city Talisay. We took what we could and move out for us there while still keeping our skatepark outreach in Tagaytay.
The Whosoevers flew in Wednesday night, Tuesday morning we were in Talisay for our first outreach. I knew who the Whosoevers were because they are affiliated with Calvary chapel and I met part of their team at a pastors conference about 1.5 years ago in California. All I knew about them though was that they had a manager of a skateboard team and they also had a Christian rock band. This out reach was as new for me as for the rest of the team from the college. The Whosoevers plan was to have us run the event so they walked us through what to do at the first school and then stepped back for the rest. The outreach started with really loud EDM to get the attention of the students and to get them excited. While the music is going one of the Whosoevers, who was the skateboarder would go around doing random stunts getting the kids more exited and involved. We would let this go on for a time while having a mascot run around engaging with the kids. After that's all over then they would give their testimony and the gospel. The Whosoevers are geared toward outreach regarding drug and alcohol abuse, suicide, self harm and depression. Each of their testimonies deal with these matters, hopefully encouraging the students who may also be dealing with the same issues. After the speaking then we would just hang out with the students and answer questions and hear their stories. We would then pack up and do it again at the next school. Each day we went to 4-5 schools in Talisay
after teaching all the schools in talisay we headed to the island just off the coast to reach two schools there. This is the island we went to before to do a medical outreach which opened the door for more outreaches like this. When we were first there we learned that there was no Christian church, so we made it our target to bring the gospel to them. These school were some of the most welcoming schools we went to and we will make an attempt to go back to start a home Bible study that will hopefully turn into a church plant.
Aside from the school outreaches we kept our skateboard outreach in talisay since we were denied access to the schools. We met at the local skatepark in Tagaytay and did the same outreach we would do at the schools with the addition of more opportunity for skateboard stunts as well as the contest for crowd participation. This outreach was a nice change of pace: it was more focused on having fun with the kids and that made them more comfortable with us as far as I noticed. As a bonus the Whosoevers added a new competition to the event. They stacked up extra skateboards for a high jump contest. During this contest the Whosoevers skateboarder Jairus Hodges beat the world record for the high jump previously also held by himself. After the contest they shared the gospel and lead those who wanted in a prayer to accept salvation as they do with each event.
Overall this was an amazing opportunity serving with them and reaching so many students. After the outreaches a few of the srudents reached out to us to let us know the importance of what we were doing.
There are many more dms like this but these are the ones I could share. It just goes to show what sharing the love of Christ can do to change someone's life. The outreach may have concluded here but the Whosoevers continue on the go around the world with this movement. If you want to keep updated on this movement they have an Instagram account as well as a website.