Dear friends,
One of our disciples (we’ll call her “H”) has received threats of violence from her unsaved husband (“J”). He even told me via text message that he would be “brutal” to her. J became a communist as a college student years ago, & he never really left that failed ideology, so he is hostile to Christian faith. We invited H to stay with us until it is safe to go home.
She has been faithfully growing in the grace of the Lord Jesus for almost a year. Please pray for them now, before you read any more, & again as often as you’re led to.
Thank you very much.
We have received $150 in gifts earmarked for the ‘multicab L300’ vehicle we mentioned last month, for which we are grateful. Our goal is $5000. Thank you for prayerfully considering helping us with this, so that we can replace the tiny, aging Kia & transport our dozens of friends efficiently.
The type of vehicle we’re praying for:
I’m teaching in Calvary Bible Institute every other Saturday, so we are no longer serving in Family Circus on Saturdays. We miss the kids there so much! We intend to get reconnected to FC when the semester ends in late February, if it’s God’s will.Since we are already serving kids at our place on Thursdays, I wanted to do more to prepare Filipinos for the Lord’s harvest. Many CBI grads are serving as pastors & missionaries.
We’re so excited that our disciples are rising up! Once a month, they are taking turns hosting our fellowships, because our goal is that they would eventually host & teach their own meeting every week, beginning the process of making their own disciples. We want to multiply this thing throughout the city, the island, the nation, & the Earth! I should reiterate that we teach them that we want converts, not transplants. Almost all of our disciples were saved through this ministry. Transplants are good if God brings them, but there are multitudes here who don’t know Jesus, & they need to be our focus.
Here is some of the gang in ‘wacky’ pose (it’s a fad here in the Philippines) at a Davao Bible Fellowship in Aisha’s apartment.
Justine (center, in tan dress) hosted this DBF, & she’s only 16 years old. She did an excellent job! Justine is very mature for her age (most of the time, but she & I tease each other a lot as a dad & daughter would). She’s had a very hard life & had to grow up quickly. Her grandma is next to her, & next to grandma is “F”, a bading (homosexual). Homosexual men are always very feminine in the Philippines, often cross-dressing in public (& lesbians are always masculine). Please pray for F.
I spent the last Monday through Friday teaching missions at the Kairos HQ in Tugbok, Mindanao. Gina & I paid the tuition for one student, & we paid most of the tuition for another. Here’s Ella receiving her diploma:
Prayer warriors, the last couple of months have brought plenty of trying times for our ministry regarding tech issues. My phone is having recurring problems, our internet shuts off many times every day, the computer is giving us some non-internet problems, & I have been having Excel problems. I need to send an Excel doc to Ripe For Harvest every time we withdraw money from the ministry account, & I have spent hours on docs that they said had this or that technical problem & needed re-doing. (It seems my computer simply won’t work with the latest Excel stuff) So badly-needed money gets delayed, & hours are wasted. Thank you very much for praying about these problems, & for our joy to be maintained despite these issues.
Gina & I would love to connect with your home group/Bible study through Skype! We could talk about whatever you’d like–the Philippines, our mission, our personal testimonies, or to urge folks to prayerfully consider serving the Lord in another culture. I think it would be encouraging for your group (it would certainly encourage us), & it might inspire more prayer supporters & financial supporters for Davao City Outreach. And it would be a chance for us to “see” the US again for a while. The time factor should be easy enough to work out–your evening is our morning.
Please know that each time I write “Gina & I paid” for this or that, I remember that we couldn’t do all this without your help. Your prayers & gifts are touching & changing lives for eternity, & we are honored to be the channel of your blessings. About 40% of Davao City Outreach’s budget is from you, our supporters. (The rest is my small USPS early retirement pension, 100% of which goes into the ministry)
Please pray to the Lord of the harvest, that he would send more laborers into the harvest.
Through your prayers & gifts, the Lord is preparing Filipino laborers!