I Planted the Seed (and Woody Squashed it) takes you on a brisk mountain bus ride into a Philippine jungle filled with dangerous reptiles, rabid dogs, drunks with machetes, armed insurgents, military checkpoints and people who are hungry to know Jesus. It includes accounts of missionaries who, while on mission, became involved in illicit romances, fell seriously ill, suffered from emotional meltdown, ran out of money, and who flagrantly violated their team covenant. I Planted the Seed (and Woody Squashed it) contains candid, essential advice for short-term missionaries. It illuminates rarely considered factors when planning a mission trip. And it challenges the notion that everyone who is able to raise enough money is suitable to participate in missions. It prepares you how to respond to beggars, angry drunks, or people infected with deadly, communicable diseases like tuberculosis or leprosy. Open this book and look at the table of contents and you'll be hooked. With chapter titles like "Revolutionary Taxes" or "Am I Still Colored?" you know that this is no ordinary missionary training book! Short term missionaries have the potential to transform ministries around the world. Unfortunately, not all mission efforts are positive. I Planted the Seed (and Woody Squashed it) provides practical guidance to maximize effectiveness of short-term missionaries. It prescribes humility, cooperation, and alignment with host missionary efforts. It also includes a generous dose of common sense to prevent injury, sickness, robbery and a myriad of issues that affect international travelers.
About the Author: Barry Phillips was born in Limestone, Maine and was raised in Massachusetts, California and South Carolina. Barry joined the US Air Force immediately after he graduated from high school and spent the next twenty years in: Sacramento, California; Sumter, SC; Tucson, AZ, Champaign, IL; Osan, Korea; Honolulu, HI; and San Antonio Texas. Barry earned a bachelor's degree from Eastern Illinois University, a master's degree in information systems management from Hawaii Pacific University, and a master's degree in intercultural studies from the Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary. After "retiring" from the USAF, Barry and his family moved to Seattle in 1996 to pursue the American dream, and by 1998 he was earning a six-figure income as the technical half of a software sales team. This work required non-stop travel which kept him away from his family. Feeling that he was failing as both a father and a husband, Barry did what some people talk about, but few people do - he quit his job and moved to a tropical island. The plan, he recalls, was to take a year or two sabbatical and heal as a family, then return to Seattle and re-join the rat race. But the Lord had other plans for the Phillips family. For many years Barry was antagonistic towards people of faith, but was given the opportunity to 'be still' while in the jungle (with no telephone service, internet, or television signal) and encounter God. Barry surrendered his life to the lordship of Jesus Christ on July 29th, 2000 and he and his wife immediately began hosting weekly Bible studies for the neighborhood teenagers. Eighteen months later he was ordained as the founding pastor of Malupa Baptist Church, which has now planted nine additional churches. Barry founded Hands of Hope International (www.lifttheburden.org) in 2001 to help lift the burden of poverty and share the love of Jesus with his community in the Philippines. This organization has been instrumental in growing the Philippine ministry. Barry and his wife, Lilia, have hosted missionaries from Hawaii, California, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Australia. They continue to host teams from many locations who are eager to assist in the growth of God's kingdom in the Philippines. When he isn't teaching, preaching, growing disciples or writing, Barry designs and builds electric guitars.