This
is the most recent photo of our family taken out in town as we were just about
to take a very big step as parents, which was to send Jubab off on a big trip
without us!
Jubab
had been invited by some friends of ours to attend a Youth Camp with them in a
place called Baguio which is a 7 – 8 hour bus ride to the north of Manila.
Jubab had an absolutely wonderful week, he loved the worship and the teaching
he heard from the Word, he made many new friends, he enjoyed the games and the
activities…….and he came back home overflowing with a renewed love for Jesus
who he is now calling his Perfect Friend. We managed to survive the week
without our son, but were more than thrilled to have him safely back home!
Arriving
back home in Lapoc, we had one afternoon to get ourselves organized before the
arrival the next morning of 21 church leaders (including two of the wives) for
this month’s workshop/seminar. They arrived at 7 am and the next two days were
spent in hours of teaching and studying together.
Back
Row from left: Isling and her husband Gabril, Danoy, Roldan, Rodnie, Marlon U.,
Duy-Duy.
Second
Row from left: Samson, Dan-dan, Ratunil, Tò-Tò, Ronnie and Max (standing, wearing
black)
Front
Row from left: Dodong (red jacket), Gagang, Marjon, Marlon and Mark and Rostom
in very front. (Two of them missed the picture taking.)
Just an update on the places where these servants of the Gospel (and many others are teaching): The believers in Talid-Talid who were
scattered after Jerwin was killed and others of their lives were threatened are still scattered but Jerwin's family are all doing well. Another small band of believers in Gahiton were also scattered after a murder
that happened in their village. In Lantod, there was a falling away because of
fear – firstly because of persecutions and also because three of their group
died one after the other and the people outside the church were blaming these
deaths on the believers leaving their old ways. Slowly though, these ones who
fell away are returning and the group is growing strong again.
Special
things to note for prayer and for praise are the churches in Endulang, Tikalaan
and Migpait – they were just small groups of believers but now they are seeing
a sudden interest in the Word happening amongst their neighbours and others in
these villages and as a result they are busy holding quite a few new bible
studies and they are seeing people being added to the faith!
Another
special note for prayer and praise is that in the past few months, two brand
new outreaches have been started in the villages of San Mateo and in Dunggian
(a part of Man-ay where the church here in Lapoc and the church in Cauyunan
would love to set up a joint missionary post and send some full-time missionary
families.) We do not have exact news yet of what is happening in Dunggian but
we just know that each week, the Word is being taught there by Ruel, James and
Inocean.
Other news is that in Mauswagon, where the men live who
stoned us, there are still about 5 people listening to the Word - Rimi and his
wife and Rimi’s father-in-law and some of the children. The other 3 men and
their families eventually dropped off saying things like, “We need to work
today…….we are going to harvest etc.” (cares of this world.) But we praise God
for the truth that they were taught and we know that His Word does not return
void. And we are also thrilled that Rimi and his wife and her father and the
children appear to have trusted Christ and are new believers! The Lord has
revealed that they are the family who He was seeking out using the rock smashed
our windscreen.
Some
of you may be wondering about the village of Kaulayanan that a bunch of us
hiked to some years ago. The Gospel has still not reached there. Some of the
people from this place have relatives who are believers but there has been no
invitation from them to go and teach in their village. We still hope that the
doors there will open one day.
