Such great blessings

I have been in the Philippines more than a week, and we have met some great men of God. These missionaries are working tirelessly among their people to bring them the Gospel. It is a humbling experience when seven pastors meet your airplane, and when they ask you to speak at their churches and their prayer meetings. I have been blessed to speak in Ozamis, Punta (Dipolog City), and Tampilisan. I will speak in Sindangan this Sunday then in Punta again on Tuesday. I have spoken a total of five times already (twice in Punta, then on Thursday, I spoke at Shiloh Bible Baptist Church Ozamis and at a missionaries' prayer vigil following that meeting).

I am so blessed. After the Thursday night service at SBBC Ozamis, my future mother-in-law told her daughter (and my fiancee) she wanted to be baptized. She had prayed to receive Christ about two years ago, and she decided after the Thursday service she wanted to be baptized. When my fiancee told their pastor (he traveled with us to this meeting), Pastor Mario Montero commissioned me to baptize Mrs. Javier. So, after I preach at Sindangan on Sunday, we will travel back to Punta, Dipolog City, where my mother-in-law will be baptized.

I have met so many Godly men these nine days. It has truly been a blessing. Pastor Mario gave us some wonderful, God-given advice about our ministry, and we will accept the advice. The future of our ministry will be to support the churches in their attempt to get property/buildings and to have monthly support. These pastor missionaries begin their ministries with no support at all. Sometimes, the cost is very high when they perform their ministry. These are the greatest needs.

As per Pastor Mario's advice, we will no longer try to raise funds for the anniversary services. Pastor Mario has been in ministry for 12 years, and he advised us that the anniversary services and other church projects are designed to let the people pray and see God raise the funds. His fear (and we agree) is these pastors and their flocks may learn to rely on Americans instead of God, so we will limit our fundraising to helping with church lots and buildings and monthly support for pastors.

As one of our pastors, Pastor Greg Begafria shared with us, often times, the need for a building and lot take up so much of the pastor's time, the ministry can suffer. So, our call from God is to assist these men with these needs so they can do the work God has called them to do.

We will be updating with prayer needs and building information in the coming weeks. Some needs are urgent, and we want to help these pastors as soon as possible.

Please keep us in your prayers. We look forward to what God will do.