Well well well its been a while! Thank you to all who have supported and stayed in touch! God has been blowing my mind lately in ways I never expected. I’ll try to keep this short!

So the last blog post was in 2019, and as we all know, our lives changed dramatically in 2020. God closed the door for me to move full time to the Philippines do to housing situations then ultimately the pandemic. Since then I studied Behavioral Health at Grand Canyon University, I spent time in Brazil serving at a YWAM base, and did a short term missions trip to Bali Indonesia to put on a “caring for the soul” conference for staff of a non-profit who work to get women out of sex trafficking. I also moved back to Hawaii to take a Foundations for Counseling Ministries course and was offered a full time staffing position with the Counseling Department for the University of the Nations that I will pick up in the beginning of September.
Though the world shut down, the last few years, I have been awaken to so much. I also was able to visit the Philippines after the pandemic last October! And then again with my dad 2 months ago!
With that said, I am headed to the Philippines again!!! This last trip with my dad was very powerful and clear that God was making things happen that we have been praying for years to see come through. My flexibility with the offer in Hawaii opened up my schedule to go back to the Philippines for the next 2 months. 
I will be splitting my time between Panay (where CJMI is based and where the Ati are) and Manila (the capital). CJMI has recently made connection and friendship with a few doctors and business people in Manila who want to put on a medical clinic in the province where we work. So I will be continuing my friendships while connecting different NGO’s and people to create a better support for the work we do.
I am so excited for this opportunity. I have wanted to move to the Philippines since I was a child and have often gotten impatient with God. When the pandemic hit the world, I felt I lost a dream. I was so close to moving and yet that possibility vanished so quickly.
But now looking back, I am in disbelief at what God has done. To teach me so much and show me parts of myself I had no idea I had. To prepare me for here and now. And yet in many ways, I still feel underqualified or over my head. Yet not one time God has left me hanging. Not one time has he put me in a room or meeting where He was not with me navigating my step and speech. I have grown more and more into myself in ways I am thankful for.
So with that said, I am on a layover with the next flight booked to the Philippines! I will spend a few days in Manila connecting with some of our friends and partners. I am also hoping to connect with a few team members from YWAM Philippines to just touch base and see what God may be doing. Then I will fly to the province on Panay and spend time with the Ati people. On the ground, in their homes, day to day life. With the main focus of language learning, furthering relationships, and mending things that have been broken through lack of communication and disagreements. I will be connecting with the young college students we sponsor, meeting with the teachers of the preschool on our property, and be helping plan and prepare for a medical clinic that our Manila connections will be putting on in the province. As well as preparing for a small team that my parents will be bringing mid way through July.

I have much to do but so excited to get on the ground! My heart feels alive in that country and I know God is with me!
​Thank you for your prayers and support for what God is doing in the Philippines!

A story... which had to be written, created, and directed by a master author. A story painted with grace, and riddled with suspense. One that cuts with deep pain, but carries great joy. A story written as if to classical music which changes tempo and notes, yet as a whole, brings a piece of heaven to earth. And then...CLUNK! I found myself plopped right in the middle. I am a 20 year old girl who has found herself amidst a storyline that has been going on way before my life began. 

Some of you may know my family’s long history in the Philippines. Dating back to World World II, when my grandpa escaped on the last submarine headed to America as a young boy. But God wasn’t quite finished with the Alianza name in the Philippines. The Lord brought my grandpa and his family back to that very same island he had escaped, all those years ago. From there, for years and years the Lord used them to be the hands and feet of Christ to a remote indigenous tribe on the island, called the Ati. Bringing the good news and freedom of Jesus, as well as meeting practical needs- from medical help, to creating the written language of the people. My grandma was the first white person these people had ever seen! My grandpa and his family moved back to the states once my dad was college age.

But AGAIN, the Lord was not done with the Alianzas! As my dad got married and started a family stateside, the love for the tribe and nation did not waiver. In the early 2000s, my parents started a nonprofit organization with hopes to continue to represent Jesus in a community as well and provide practical help.

This is where I come in!!!

I remember when I was 4 years old, the first time my parents took me to the Philippines. I absolutely fell in love. Fell in love with the people, the culture, and God’s beauty represented there. Ever since then, the Philippines has been my biggest focus and love. And ONCE AGAIN, God was stirring up another generation of the Alianza name that was drawn to the Philippines, and more specifically, this small little tribe. I’ve known for a long time that one day I would probably be headed to the Philippines for a long period of time. I guess I just never realized it would be when I’m still so young! But this last year especially, the Lord has been pushing me, and molding me, and jealously fighting for me in preparation for what is to come. 

So with that said, I’m headed to the Philippines late January!!!

​God has been orchestrating a way for me to use my training the last 2 years in Youth With A Mission, and take it to the Philippines with the dream of using that platform to help raise up the tribal people my family has had such a long history with. It seems my two worlds are colliding! And I couldn’t be more excited! The basic breakdown is this, I'll be staying on a YWAM base in the capital of the Philippines, as the outreach coordinator. So basically in charge of 3-8 YWAM mission trip teams coming through each quarter. This means that I will be coordinating outreaches and in contact with christians all throughout the Philippines and potentially traveling to different islands with the teams. I'll also be on the ground as a representative of indigenous people of the Philippines. Because of my family background, YWAM wants me to be the voice for those who are underprivileged and overlooked, which is often the native tribal people. The long term dream is to create a discipleship program that the indigenous people can train in, then be sent back out into their own communities to be the light of Christ among their own people! 

This is all my heart has wanted since I can remember. That the native people would know first and foremost, their identity in the Lord. That they could walk in confidence through persecution and hardship, knowing the Lord’s faithfulness and nearness. That they would get the chance to see God’s hand in their lives, and then help others see it too! I believe wholeheartedly in the power of Christ and what He can do through us! We are broken vessels who consistently need his grace, yet he uses our lives in miraculous ways! He has used my family name in the Philippines for generations, simply because they were obedient. And that is my heart’s desire, to be obedient to the Lord. And it just so happens he’s leading me back to a nation my heart adores!!! 

Thank you, thank you for your constant support to my family throughout the years! Thank you for walking in obedience to the Lord! Each of us are crucial in God’s master plan! 

-Aimee Alianza