Balintad Temporary Church Building

Have a blessed Christmas and New Year!!

Our God is a mighty God…..His name is Emmanuel!

More than the sounds of many waters,

Than the mighty breakers of the sea,

 The LORD on high is Mighty!

Psalm 93:4

We are so thankful to have our son with us for Christmas break and thankful too for safety during the recent typhoon which brought heavy rains, flooding and landslides.

Wishing you a very blessed Christmas and New Year!!  Much love from us three!!!

Amazing News!

We have just been at an amazing Church Family Conference weekend in Lapoc!! Almost unbelievable and ourheads are still reeling as we try to get our minds around what just happened. Our God is truly an AWESOME God!!!!

There were 1350 believers who gathered for the conference from our churches, some of these churches are over 100 km away from Lapoc. They arrived on trucks, jeepneys, motorbikes and on foot from Ricodo, Man-ay, Limonda, Pigtaw, Ginitan, Sungay, Balintad, Pinatagan, Pigsag-an, Colawingon, San Aquino, Tagbak, Tumpagon, Cauyunan, Anlagan, Awang, Tinaytayan, Lapoc, Linawlawan, Migpait, Overlooking, San Abel, Limunsud, Lantod, Bisigan, Kilometro Disisayis, Indulang…… (The believers from the Tikalaan, Salimbal, San Doneseo, Kibanug, Dungguan, Malumpayad, Palalan and Gawgawon churches were not able to make it due to various reasons including distance, health and finances but hopefully next time they will be able to attend.)

The greatest challenges apart from their travel to get to Lapoc, were toilets and water! Amazingly, we got through the three days without running out of water and with everyone being able to take baths and use the amenities when they were needed but it took a lot of work behind the scenes to make this work and I think God was multiplying our water as it should have run out.

Above are pictures of the baptisms which took place last Saturday morning (Dec 2^nd) in the river of Sagayan, which is about two kilometers from Lapoc. Most of us walked there and it was an incredible scene to the unbelievers as they saw the huge crowds of people walking down to the river. There were 187 people baptized that morning and we celebrated this wonderful day with a special meal together of 10 roast pigs and lots of rice eaten down by the river!

The theme of the Conference was “The Great Commission” and we had a wonderful guest speaker from Birmingham, Alabama who spoke on Acts 1 in four sessions while Paul interpreted for him. The believers were very blessed and challenged by his messages as well as Paul’s message to them on the last day. Thanks so much Rick for coming and to SMC for sending him. You were all used of the Lord.

We had over 100 people staying in our house alone, hundreds staying in the church building, and we couldn’t keep count of how many were staying in our team member’s houses. The praise, the worship, the fellowship, the meals together….it was all so, so wonderful! Thank you so much for PRAYING!