God Save America, a project intended to encourage the believers to establish a wall of protection against terrorist attacks through prayer-caravan on the borders of the United States, was launched on Jan 2007, in the Island of Guam, USA. Led by Ptr Benjie Beatima and Ptr Herbie Carmona, a caravan of car-riding believers and a cyclist, went around the 60 miles coastal road of the Island and claimed the Island for Jesus. In Guam, where America’s day begins, the group accomplished a symbolic act representing a huge missionary endeavor to instigate prayer revival and zeal for all the Christians in the United States of America. Equip only with a vision, with no money and without clear destination, the two leaders met in Los Angeles, CA by the end March, 2007. Immediately, Ptr Benjie and Ptr Herbie contacted their Filipino friends and shared to them the vision-mission of God Save America Prayer Caravan Project. They were led by the Lord to start the caravan from Las Vegas, NV, a city known to be The City of Sin. After presenting the vision to the Fil-Am Ministerial Fellowship of Las Vegas, the praying caravan drove from Las Vegas to Murrieta, CA, on April 16, 2007. A week after, it was presented to Fil-Am Fellowship in Los Angeles, CA. Then on May 4, 2007, the caravan took the 1,600 miles trip to the entire West Coast, from San Diego, CA to the border of USA-Canada in Seattle, Washington State. It was then that the two realized the vastness of the work and the needed participation of the churches in America. They decided to hold the project for a while until January next year. The first phase of the project has been completed; they started the ball rolling so to speak. A week after the launching the project until now, several terrorist attempts were foiled by the authorities. The biggest foil so far is the planned bombing of JFK Airport gas pipeline, which according to FBI estimates, will dwarf the 911 tragedy in terms of damage and fatalities if carried out, by some religious fanatics.
The Golden Lessons.
From the standpoint of our experience in this project, we discovered several truths concerning the shape of the core values of Fil-Am Christians in America. First is that most of them are zealous with their faith. They desire to comply with the demands of Christ as far the evangelism, worship and discipleship is concerned. However, because most of them are working double time to support their families in the US and in the Philippines, they don’t have the time needed for the ministry. Time became a luxury. Some of them feel that they are already “falling downhill” to spiritual apathy. Also, many of the churches are not that excited to cooperate or network with other ministries. The tendency of “mind-your-own” mentality is ever present. The inculcated Western culture is being applied within the context of Christian ministry, thus, coordination and cooperation do not really matters except to some who have seen the importance of such. The Apostle to the Gentiles rightly admonished the believers in 1 Cor 1:10-11 “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.” (NIV). We plan, by the grace of God, to proceed and finish the Project by next year, hoping that there will be more participation, more power, more impact in the lives of the people, believers and non-believers as well. May God save us all.
