Sonshine Ministries

Greetings and Glad Tidings
Greetings and blessings to you in the Blessed name of our Lord Jesus Christ!!

God is great and greatly to be praised! My wife Jerah Mie and I would like to give God all the Glory and praise for all he has done for us and for all that He is going to do in our lives here in the Philippines. We are starting off very small and do not have many things or much money, but sa biyaya ng diyos(by the grace of God), we have food, clothing, and shelter.

Before I arrived here, God spoke a word to me that he would open the doors of my ministry here and that certainly has been true and is being fulfilled with each passing week. We would both like to praise God for the opportunities that we have had to minister the Gospel and shine the Light of Christ! By God’s grace I have had to opportunity to preach before a local congregation once for each of the 6 months that I have been here in the Philippines. I have preached in San Pedro, Laguna and Lipa City, Batangas here in our island of Luzon. My wife and I also have open invitations to travel to Candelaria, Pangasinan, Dasma, Cavite, Delgariego, and other churches across Luzon.

I have been incredibly blessed and honored to formally preach before these local congregations and look forward to traveling to the other locations also, but we know that ministry is so much more than just preaching within the walls of the church. We also travel about our local city weekly and seek to shine the light of Jesus everywhere we go.

I believe this is why God led me to name our ministry Sonshine Ministry, because we should seek to shine the light of the Son! Jesus said “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life and no man comes unto the father but by me” John 14:6

We would also like to share with you details of more glad Tidings! The ministry organization that we are affiliated with and who serve as our home office for donations and mail, Grace International World Outreach, has invited my wife and I to travel to another island to minister with them. April 4th-14th, my wife and I will be traveling to the Island of Panay to the city of Kalibo, Aklan, where we will meet up with GIWO Directors, Darrell and Denise Hutto.

We will be flying directly from Manila to Kalibo. For the 1st three days of our mission, GIWO is hosting a pastor’s conference with 200 local pastor’s from around the Philippines expected to attend. The conference will feature teaching, leadership training, discipleship training, and most importantly encouragement and fellowship with one another and the team from GIWO from the USA and my wife and who now live in the Philippines. To God be the Glory. God said that he would open the doors of my ministry and now my wife and I will have the chance to connect more ministers and fellow believers around the Philippines.

The rest of the time we will travel with Bro. Darrell and Sister Denise to some of the other locations with outreaches throughout Panay Island, including Bandiangan; Carles, Iloilo; Madalag; Antique; and Tapaz where we will visit the various Ministries and centers that have been built and are being built with the help of GIWO.

My wife and I are so thrilled and excited to be a part of what God is doing and are believing that the best is yet to come!!

In our last email we specified a need to renew my Tourist Visa once more before being able to apply for my Spouse Visa. The Spouse Visa, if approved, has two stages: Stage one involves a One Year Probationary Spouse Visa. This will grant me to remain here for one year without need for Visa Renewal. Stage two involves the approval of my full Spouse Visa at the end of the Probationary Year. This Full Spouse Visa will grant to me Permenant Residency here in the Philippines and will allow me to obtain employment here as a foreigner.

Unfortunately, upon renewing my Tourist Visa once more, we came into some new information, such as a complete list of requirements for the Spouse Visa. Upon learning this information, we have realized that this will be a more time intensive and financially intensive process. I am coming to learn that everything in regards to visas and foreigners staying and residing in the Philippines revolves around one thing; MONEY.

For most people who seek to stay in the Philippines, this is not much of an issue. Most of the foreigners are quite wealthy and have deep pockets, so for them, these fees and charges are cheap and inexpensive compared to almost any other country. This is true, the Philippines is one of the cheapest countries in which to live if you have steady income from the USA or your home country or if you have obtained wealth of savings. For me, neither of these things are true.

I have never been a wealthy man by monetary standards, but throughout life, God's favor and provision have been with me. God’s provisions allowed me to raise and provide for my younger brother from the age of 14 to 20. During which time God continually blessed us with everything that we needed and more!! God never ceases to go above and beyond what we can ask.

When God spoke to me over a year and a half ago to come to the Philippines and then later to leave everything behind and to trust Him to sustain us here, that was a scary thought. I fought this for several months. Until one night, I was driving home from work and I had praise music playing and I was just talking to the Lord. I was just praising the Lord and telling God that I was willing to go where he sent me even if it meant that I had to give up all of my earthly possessions to do so.

At that moment, God's voice spoke to me in one of the closest things to an audible voice that I can describe. God spoke and said to me these THREE words:

“WOULD YOU REALLY?”

As I was driving down the highway I heard these words from God and I said to the Lord, “Of course, Lord. I will go where you lead me.”

Then again for the second time I heard the voice of the Lord:

“WOULD YOU REALLY?”

Again I answered, but more strongly in my prayer, “Yes, Lord! I’ll go wherever you send me and if I have to give up everything to follow you then I will do it.”

Then again for the third time I heard the voice of God:

“WOULD YOU REALLY?”

At this time, the presence of a Holy God was so heavy there in my truck that I could hardly see through the tears running down my face. I cried to the Lord and said, “Lord, I will go where you have sent me.” I cried, “Lord, you know my heart even better than I do. Search my heart Lord and you will know that it is true. If I have to give up everything to follow your call, then I will do it!”

To this day I am not sure how I got to where I was going because I was not there in that moment, it was as if I was in the upper room with God… with no remembrance of having driven all those miles home.

It was about 6 or 7 months later that precisely what I had talked to the Lord about was required of me. I gave up everything to come here to the Philippines and to marry my wife beginning our lives here and launching our ministry here. Of all my earthly belongings, I kept only roughly one percent. I brought with me only the contents of two suitcases, a carry-on, a backpack. I left a few pairs of shoes with my sister to send to me at a later date and a Large Study Bible I left with a friend in the states to send to me at a later date because it was too big and heavy to travel with. I sold my motorcycle, I gave my car away to my brother, and I sold my truck.

I came here August 24th, 2022, with those few items and some money that I had saved up in cash and some money saved in a bank account in the USA. I knew that this money would not last us forever and that we would have to be totally and completely dependent on God to provide.

At this time, all of my reserve funds that I had saved have come to their end. My flesh is telling me to be stressed and upset… and my mind is asking ”how can I provide food and shelter for my wife? How will we eat each day? How can I call myself a provider?”

But my spirit and my heart is telling me that I can trust in God, the same God that has brought me through so much will not fail us now. So, that is what I am going to do, I am going to trust God.

As a missionary here, we are dependent on the support of God. God uses you and I to do His work and therefore we are dependent on the faithfulness of our friends and partners in the USA to meet our financial needs for us.

At this time, our budget is roughly 20 dollars per day. For the month, that reaches 500usd.

By the grace of God we have partners who have committed a certain amount each month for one year and this allows us to pay our rent, water, and electricity.

This leaves us with approximately 300usd per month that we are still lacking. We still lack money for daily food, and transportation. We pray that God will meet our needs. We humbly ask that you would prayerfully consider joining with us in partnership to meet our daily needs so that we can continue to shine the light of Christ wherever we go.

If you feel led to partner with us for a year long commitment of monthly giving, just as some of our other partners, please reach out to us via email at josiah.jerah.holliman@gmail.com..

If you feel led to give, please mail your checks to:

Grace International World Outreach
P.O. Box 1952
Laurel, MS, 39441

Make check payable to Grace International World Outreach and in the memo, write Sonshine Ministry.

Thank you and May God bless you all in the might Name of Jesus Christ,

Signed,

Josiah and Jerah Mie Holliman