Looking back.....Looking ahead!

Looking back over 2010, we’ve learned that..........

There’s always a way to get the job done....

There’s always a way around even the

worst situations..... 

Sharing meals with enemies can eventually

lead to a good friendship...... 

 Don’t let hard situations get you down......

 

Highlights of 2010:

 January – arrived back in the Philippines!

§  God provided Barb Bjerking to teach Jubab grade 6.

 February – Gabril Sulatan ordained as an elder at the Lapoc Church!

March – 175 new believers baptized!

April - Book of Luke checked by Translation Consultant and approved for printing!

June – 162 ladies go on a Ladies’ Retreat and studied 1 John 1-2.

§  Kaluwingon Church extended due to rapid expansion of believers numbers.

July – New church building built for the believers in Tinaytayan!

September – Jomar Mahognay, Totò Landong and Ruel Lacdagan ordained as elders at Tumpagon!

§  Our Co-worker Josh began teaching Romans in the Lapoc church.

October – Romans 1-6 checked by Translation Consultant and ready to print!

God provided Ben and Leonie to teach Jubab for 2011 and 
possibly even for longer.

§  November – Profile of the church being lifted over a wide-spread area!

§  1 More missionary family sent out from Lapoc church to Buyungon making it 2 families sent to that area.

December – more doors are opening to the Gospel!

§   Bible teachers from the Lapoc Church are now outreaching to

15 different villages with 513 people being taught 
weekly in these places!

§  Evangelism and discipleship continue in Lapoc with 300 – 400 being taught here.

§  Schools are still wide open and thousands

of children are being taught weekly in the schools! 
Many have been saved!

Looking Ahead into 2011.....

Our plans and hopes and dreams are to:

1.    Finish translating the book of Romans and having it checked.

2.   Finish building the church buildings in Pigtaw, Limondà and Kalamalamahan (over in the Dulangan area.)

3.   Finish building the new church building in San Acquino (which starts tomorrow!)

4.   Send out two more missionary families from the churches in the Dulangan area.

(the elders from Tumpagon and Cauyunan are coming here on Jan 3 to discuss their plans to send and support two more

missionary families! They want to send them

to the village of Kalamalamahan.)

5.   Start teaching in the high school at Tikilaan! (Within a week

of God laying this on our hearts, we were invited to teach there!

Maybe God will open the doors for us to put a full time family there
to work with the 400 high school kids there permanently)

6.   Continue to facilitate the spreading of the Gospel
through providing Bible lessons, teaching materials,

and anything needed to expedite this work while the doors are open.

7.   Continue to disciple and to encourage the eldership, 
and leaders in the churches.

8.   Enjoy our growing team of workers in God’s fields 
and all our co-workers.

9.   To do what God requires of us: “to act justly and to love mercy and

to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 5:8.

Please Pray Us Through the Year of 2011!!!

Christmas in Lapoc!

Christmas in Lapoc!!

Let’s see......Christmas starts here in the Ber months (September – December)

Which means:

*Lots of bangs from fire crackers being let off.

* Christmas trees of all kinds – some made from paper, sticks, or plastic bags even!

*Christmas carollers.

*Kids on the sides of the roads with their hands raised, calling out “Pasko” (Christmas) hoping for a peso.

*Lots and lots of parties!!!

So far this month this has been the Christmas party schedule:

Dec. 6 – Christmas party with all our language helpers, translation helpers and others who help us.

Here they all are below – we don’t know what we would do without them!!!

Dec. 11 – Party with all the School Teachers from the 7 schools that we teach scripture in.

That involved a pig on a spit, lots of good food and lots of speeches and photos!!

Dec. 12 – Christmas Family Day celebration at the Lapoc Church.

This started at 9:00am with Prayer Groups, then the Sunday meeting and

continued with a meal of pork and rice, games, singing, another meal and fun that went until 2:00am!!

Dec. 16 – Our missionary team Christmas Party!!

This involved the Duwangs, Sinan-a’s, Moffits and Ourselves. (Most recent group photo is at the top

of this post – good looking group we are!!)

This party involved a 2 hour drive both ways, 52 hotdogs, roast chicken, ice-cream,

swimming, pressies for the kids and lots of fun!

Dec. 18 – Christmas Family Day celebration at the Tinaytayan Church.

This was a wonderful day of thanksgiving for their beautiful new church building,

which took 3 - 4 years to get permission to  build because the village leaders believed

that a church would reduce the power of their witchcraft.

Now more and more of the Tinaytayan people are wanting to be taught about our Lord Jesus!!

Dec. 22 – We are heading for a Believer’s conference and Christmas Celebration at one of the

furthest outreaches that this work spans – Kalamalamahan!!

The work in Kalamalamahan started in Oct, 1992,

and this year, after being a struggling church for about 17 years,

they are suddenly ‘on fire’ and more and more believers are now being added to their numbers.

There are about 75 believers in Kalamalamahan now!!

Dec. 26 – My Ladies’ Fellowship Christmas party in the afternoon.

Each of us will bring something to contribute to a special afternoon tea, like sticky rice cakes (bico),

or cassava cakes (binggala ha suman), or some cooked sweet potato. Everyone

has to bring a gift worth 50 pesos (about a $1.20) and this may be the only Christmas

gift that the ladies in my fellowship group get, so it is very important to them.

In the discussion about what could go in the gift, everyone agreed that it had to be something

that is neither eatable or that disappears (like soap)!

And each of us is going to share a testimony of what Jesus’ Birth has meant to us personally.

Parties we were invited to but turned down:

Dec 10 – the Women Scripture Teachers’ Christmas trip to town. I’m glad I declined attending

that party – they left at 2:30am and didn’t get home until nearly 11:00pm and spent 8 hours of that time

travelling on rough roads – but they had a ball!

Dec. 14 – Christmas Celebration at the local Lapoc School. (We had to try and get caught up on

all the work we have been missing!)

Dec. 17 – The Youth Group Party. (They didn’t need us to have fun and their singing and instruments

were turned up soooooooo loud we would have been deafened if we went!!)

And just to sum up this busy Lapoc Christmas we want to close with a

Christmas photo of us – taken just a few minutes ago – and we want to send

a big Christmas hug from us to you!!

Babies and Christmas!

This is Andy, named so because he was born on Tala-Andig day here in Lapoc.

(Andy, short for Andig)

He is the first grandson of Ronnie and Aling who are on the church leadership team here in Lapoc.

Four and a half years ago they lost their youngest son (who was 14 years old) during a severe asthma attack and 

Andy has come into their lives at a time when they really needed this precious little one!

On the day of his birth though, they had many weary hours of waiting through his

very difficult delivery.

From 3 am the previous morning until 7 am the following morning, two ladies trained in attending

births (one of them our lovely co-worker Elsa) had stayed with Malyn, the young first-time Mum,

attending her and coaching her. Finally at 7 am the very top of the baby’s head could be seen and they

thought the toil of labour was almost over.

Five hours later the baby still had not arrived and the attendants were almost at their wits end.

Ronnie and Aling and many other family members were agonizing in the next room, praying and wondering

if this baby was going to make it and if he was indeed still alive.

I joined the birth attendant team at this point and 1 ½ hours later had the wonderful privilege of

co-delivering a live baby boy!!!!!

Hearing Andy’s first little newborn wails had an electric effect on the family waiting outside and the atmosphere

immediately changed from heavy and agonizing to one of celebration and praise!!!! 

This picture is of the happy new parents  - Ronnie and Aling’s second son, Tonton, and his wife Malyn – taken

about a week after the ordeal of little Andy’s birth.

Every baby is a gift, but to their family, this baby is a VERY SPECIAL gift in more ways than one!!

And now Andy’s first Christmas is nearly here and he is about to start learning all about what happens

in Lapoc at Christmas time, which we want to share with you as well but for now we’ll say goodbye,

leave you with some prayer points and save the Lapoc Christmas story for our next update!

Prayer Points

·         For the next stage of translating the book of Romans from Ch 7-16.

·         For our team here as we move into a very busy time of the year with a lot of church fellowship meetings.

·         For Ben and Leonie as they go through the many preparations to join the team next month!

·         For us as a family that we will keep close to the our Lord.

·         For the church at Cauyunan as they are going through a time of sifting and weakness due to election related turmoil.

Lots of Love,

Paul, Deb and Jubab