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Prayer request Christian aid worker life in danger in the Philippines

FollowingHim2

FollowingHim2

Women's Ministry
Staff member
Real Person
Female
We have two sponsored children through Hope House in Cebu in the Philippines. The man that runs it is called David, and he has been working to get girls out of trafficking situations. This has been dangerous for him many times over, but it's just gotten very bad.

I'm trying to make a long story short.
An Australian man has moved to Cebu and has abused at least 8 young girls. David managed to get 6 of them to go to the police with him and tell them what he had done. To put this in perspective of what things are like over there, some of the girls parents refused to help them as they had brought in money in this situation, and instead they put pressure on the girls not to say anything, and threatened David.
It's been a long drawn out saga, and although the police have all the proof they need, they keep delaying arresting him and coming up with excuses for months now, and David keeps nagging them to actually get this guy behind bars before he abuses any more young girls.
In the last 24 hours, David has been arrested and put in jail. He is there for supposed 'immigration' reasons, but they are made up and they have 'lost evidence' saying that he came into the country after they say he did. They are also refusing to take into account the fact that he is married to a filipino woman.
As of tonight, they have doubled the amount of guards around him, and all of them have machine guns (EDIT, not sure if it's machine guns, that doesn't quite sound right. I have covid again and my brain is not working well. But they have larger guns at the very least.) The concern is that he will be dead by morning in an 'Epstein didn't kill himself' situation.
It appears that the Australian man has connections and money to be able to bribe the right people to get out of the mess he's in. This is not unusual for the area they are in unfortunately, which is exactly why David does such incredible work there.
Please be praying that his life will be spared, that he will get out of jail without having any charges or fines, and that this other man will be arrested and prosecuted for his crimes.
 
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FollowingHim2 said:
We have two sponsored children through Hope House in Cebu in the Philippines. The man that runs it is called David, and he has been working to get girls out of trafficking situations. This has been dangerous for him many times over, but it's just gotten very bad.

I'm trying to make a long story short.
An Australian man has moved to Cebu and has abused at least 8 young girls. David managed to get 6 of them to go to the police with him and tell them what he had done. To put this in perspective of what things are like over there, some of the girls parents refused to help them as they had brought in money in this situation, and instead they put pressure on the girls not to say anything, and threatened David.
It's been a long drawn out saga, and although the police have all the proof they need, they keep delaying arresting him and coming up with excuses for months now, and David keeps nagging them to actually get this guy behind bars before he abuses any more young girls.
In the last 24 hours, David has been arrested and put in jail. He is there for supposed 'immigration' reasons, but they are made up and they have 'lost evidence' saying that he came into the country after they say he did. They are also refusing to take into account the fact that he is married to a filipino woman.
As of tonight, they have doubled the amount of guards around him, and all of them have machine guns (EDIT, not sure if it's machine guns, that doesn't quite sound right. I have covid again and my brain is not working well. But they have larger guns at the very least.) The concern is that he will be dead by morning in an 'Epstein didn't kill himself' situation.
It appears that the Australian man has connections and money to be able to bribe the right people to get out of the mess he's in. This is not unusual for the area they are in unfortunately, which is exactly why David does such incredible work there.
Please be praying that his life will be spared, that he will get out of jail without having any charges or fines, and that this other man will be arrested and prosecuted for his crimes.
Click to expand...
There is a lot of money to be made by parents who sell their kids to the pedos. The extreme poverty in many places, and ease of obtaining money by having kids do bad things, makes this all too attractive for some. The difficult part is the kids feel obligated to do this sort of stuff because they and their parents go hungry if they don't. The police are not paid particularly well so it makes them susceptible to bribery and corruption. A $20.00 "gift" can help accomplish a lot when there are long lines of people waiting for things to be done. What you have written sounds all too familiar with how hard life is and especially after the economic carnage of covid lockdowns. I agree, the Aussie guy undoubtedly has the money to pay off the officials so he will likely just be out of pocket a few $$$. May God grant mercy and protection for David.
 
Update on this.

Extra guards seem to have gone. David has been allowed to keep his phone so is doing frequent updates. His wife was able to visit him today and bring him snacks and a mattress for the bed.
The door is actually unlocked. He is able to open it and wander around the facility. He could just walk out and leave if he wanted to. But that is really weird, so the theory there is that if he left then they would actually have a legitimate reason to arrest him, or just shoot him. So he is staying in the jail cell.
The people who are around him, the ones who arrested him and the ones actually guarding him, all like him. They are upset that they have to put him in jail and agree that he has done nothing wrong. However, the orders have come from Manilla, and there is nothing they can do about that, they must follow them.
The intention now is for them to ship him off to prison in Manilla. At the moment he is on his own in his own jail cell, but there he would be in the general population, and it's not a pretty prison.
I think a lot of this is purely to scare him. I think they're trying to silence him without creating a giant international problem. A lot of his USA followers are calling the USA embassy in Cebu to get them to intervene.
 
FollowingHim2 said:
Update on this.

Extra guards seem to have gone. David has been allowed to keep his phone so is doing frequent updates. His wife was able to visit him today and bring him snacks and a mattress for the bed.
The door is actually unlocked. He is able to open it and wander around the facility. He could just walk out and leave if he wanted to. But that is really weird, so the theory there is that if he left then they would actually have a legitimate reason to arrest him, or just shoot him. So he is staying in the jail cell.
The people who are around him, the ones who arrested him and the ones actually guarding him, all like him. They are upset that they have to put him in jail and agree that he has done nothing wrong. However, the orders have come from Manilla, and there is nothing they can do about that, they must follow them.
The intention now is for them to ship him off to prison in Manilla. At the moment he is on his own in his own jail cell, but there he would be in the general population, and it's not a pretty prison.
I think a lot of this is purely to scare him. I think they're trying to silence him without creating a giant international problem. A lot of his USA followers are calling the USA embassy in Cebu to get them to intervene.
Click to expand...
So far it seems this for a show. Or has become. Is David US citizen? This could explain strange behaviour. Whoever ordered arrest could find himself on middle on international scandal.

If he was treated as serious criminal they wouldn't leave open jail doors.
 
MemeFan said:
So far it seems this for a show. Or has become. Is David US citizen? This could explain strange behaviour. Whoever ordered arrest could find himself on middle on international scandal.

If he was treated as serious criminal they wouldn't leave open jail doors.
Click to expand...
David is a US citizen. Unfortunately his passport was stolen years ago, and that's making things difficult. Where he lives, if it's not tied down, it gets taken. He's had heaps of stuff stolen. Sometimes he finds out who it was and gets it back, but most of the time he doesn't.
 
David has been moved to prison in Manilla. He could be there for up to 2 years before he is sent back to the USA.
They have a lawyer working on the case but it is very complicated. It seems that information about David's entry to the country has been wiped from the records.
The US embassy does not care and won't do anything, including helping him get a passport. They will help him contact his family in the US and that's it.
A lot of people have been praying very hard, and the only thing we can assume is that this is God's plan. David is meant to go to Manilla prison. He will minister to the men in there, because he ministers everywhere he goes.
 
I misread a post by his wife and was incorrect, they haven't moved him yet, but they will be doing so soon. He just posted this half an hour ago. BI is the Bureau of Immigration.


what im told by BI, while ive been sitting here, this has gone to the top. im going to a meeting with BI commisior, top embassy, whoever that is, and top BI officials from Cebu are boarding plane with me this afternoon. i have no idea whats their plan. Ailene has gone to buy clothes,they said i had to dress for it.
Click to expand...
 
David is now in the prison in Manilla. He's been put in a separate area, which is actually quite nice. He's with a bunch of other foreigners, all of which are men who have filipino wives but are having immigration problems. They are not in the general population. He still has his phone and is doing facebook lives. His wife is able to visit him 5 days of the week while he's in there.
The spot he's in is right next door to the police shooting range, so he's got gunshots right next to him all day, but that's something he'll get used to.
 
FollowingHim2 said:
David is now in the prison in Manilla. He's been put in a separate area, which is actually quite nice. He's with a bunch of other foreigners, all of which are men who have filipino wives but are having immigration problems. They are not in the general population. He still has his phone and is doing facebook lives. His wife is able to visit him 5 days of the week while he's in there.
The spot he's in is right next door to the police shooting range, so he's got gunshots right next to him all day, but that's something he'll get used to.
Click to expand...
If you have to be imprisoned for righteousness, it could be a lot worse. Continuing to pray for this brother
 
ACLJ likes to take these situations and create petitions for people to sign. They are an incredible organization that watches for situations like this, to mobilize their audience into action.
 
Well, David was doing very well. He was able to preach with the men he was with. He taught a Chinese guy who doesn't speak English using google translate, and now that man is saved. He's been preaching to a man from the Korean mafia who is going to take the gospel back to Korea with him.
He's now been put inside in the general population. He has no food, water, or medications. If he wants any of that he needs to buy it and it's massively inflated prices. His bed is dirty, and there are rats. The last guy in his bed died from an infection from rat pee. He is not allowed to see a doctor, even though he is in severe pain because of several medical conditions and they took his medication away. They won't even give him pain relief.
The US embassy is refusing to help, they say they can't come see him and it's nothing to do with them basically. So, essentially, they're corrupt too.
It is possible to get better living conditions and to live quite well if you do bribes. Not only does David not have the money for that, as he lives off donations, but he is refusing to anyway.
He still has his phone, but he is not supposed to have it at all, he's snuck it in and praying they don't find it and take it off him.
 
FollowingHim2 said:
Well, David was doing very well. He was able to preach with the men he was with. He taught a Chinese guy who doesn't speak English using google translate, and now that man is saved. He's been preaching to a man from the Korean mafia who is going to take the gospel back to Korea with him.
He's now been put inside in the general population. He has no food, water, or medications. If he wants any of that he needs to buy it and it's massively inflated prices. His bed is dirty, and there are rats. The last guy in his bed died from an infection from rat pee. He is not allowed to see a doctor, even though he is in severe pain because of several medical conditions and they took his medication away. They won't even give him pain relief.
The US embassy is refusing to help, they say they can't come see him and it's nothing to do with them basically. So, essentially, they're corrupt too.
It is possible to get better living conditions and to live quite well if you do bribes. Not only does David not have the money for that, as he lives off donations, but he is refusing to anyway.
He still has his phone, but he is not supposed to have it at all, he's snuck it in and praying they don't find it and take it off him.
Click to expand...
Glory be to God for using David to share Christ with the men you mentioned. I also praise God for granting faith and salvation to them. We really never know how God will use the evil actions of fallen men as He builds His Kingdom.

Thank you for keeping us posted.

I will continue to pray for David. I pray that the Lord will lovingly care for His servant David, that the Lord will continue to mightily use David for good, and that He will bring down wicked men that abuse the upright and the innocent (David, and the kids he works to help), and replace the cowardly or corrupt who refuse to help.

Do you think it would help for those of us that are Americans to contact the US consulate in Cebu, or other State Department officials?

Slightly off subject:
I imagine most folks here are familiar the Corrie Ten Boom. I recently watched a documentary on her life that I found encouraging and edifying. I watched it on Amazon Prime, but it is also on YouTube.


The trials that Corrie faced, and David now faces, are spreading. May we be found faithful
 
FollowingHim2 said:
Well, David was doing very well. He was able to preach with the men he was with. He taught a Chinese guy who doesn't speak English using google translate, and now that man is saved. He's been preaching to a man from the Korean mafia who is going to take the gospel back to Korea with him.
He's now been put inside in the general population. He has no food, water, or medications. If he wants any of that he needs to buy it and it's massively inflated prices. His bed is dirty, and there are rats. The last guy in his bed died from an infection from rat pee. He is not allowed to see a doctor, even though he is in severe pain because of several medical conditions and they took his medication away. They won't even give him pain relief.
The US embassy is refusing to help, they say they can't come see him and it's nothing to do with them basically. So, essentially, they're corrupt too.
It is possible to get better living conditions and to live quite well if you do bribes. Not only does David not have the money for that, as he lives off donations, but he is refusing to anyway.
He still has his phone, but he is not supposed to have it at all, he's snuck it in and praying they don't find it and take it off him.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the update, Sarah. In the same manner God used Paul and Silas suffering terrible abuses at the hands of the authorities in Philippi to bring souls to salvation, God is working through David for the salvation of souls in the prison at Manila. May there be an even greater outpouring of grace with many more being saved. In our prayers. Shalom
 
In case anyone didn't think the US embassy was corrupt, they won't help David until he can prove that he's an American citizen. He's given them his birth certificate which isn't enough, they want 5 years of records. So he's trying to get records from the school he went to as a kid to prove that he's American.
This is ridiculous.
 
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