It’s 11:20 PM on Wednesday night in Dumaguete City and time for bed after another long and fruitful day.
At least ten adults made professions of faith in Christ today during house to house evangelism activities our team conducted in Upper Batinguel today. Many Bibles and Gospel tracts were distributed during this activity today. I was able to spend two and a half hours of quality face to face time with Pastor and Mrs. Valdez this morning. We had opportunity to speak about future strategy (both short term and long term) for the New Life Christian Church.
It appears that the land deed title work is now almost completed after nearly six months of bureaucratic red tape. When completed, the land title will be in the name of the New Life Christian Church rather than in the name of Pastor Valdez’ wife, Villa.
The church has completed it’s process of being incorporated and properly registered with the government of the Republic of the Philippines. I have received copies of the deed work and the new Church Constitution and By Laws. It looks as though the church has done an excellent job in ratifying it’s constitution which includes the procedure that will be used to call a Pastor, on that occasion when Church Planter Pastor Valdez will eventually step down. I am gratified to see the quality of the document.
Another good sign at NLCC is the larger number of male members that seem to be stepping up in faithfulness and taking on leadership roles. Men like Judge Elmaco, Brother Tata, Giovannie Valdez and others are joining faithful men like Dario Dales, Joseph Zerna, and Pastor Valdez in taking their place as spiritual leaders of their homes and in the Church. The church has long had a number of faithful ladies who are actively involved in the various ministries of the church. The youth group seems to be strong and growing, which bodes well for the future of the congregation.
We had lunch at McDonalds in Dumaguete today. Almost felt like home, although most McDonalds back home don’t offer chicken and rice dinners, or McSpaghetti. They do here! Also, Robby Pearson, if you are reading this, please note that NO ONE touched my Sprite today! They know better now. J
We began our four night Revival Spiritual Emphasis Campaign tonight at 6:00 PM with 37 adults and children in attendance. Rick Gunnell and Joan Ugdoc provided special music and Juvy Zerna and Weng Gantalao led in worship as Dario Dales accompanied on electric guitar. I began a series of messages entitled, “What of Us”. Jesus Does For Us”. Tonight’s text came from 1 Peter 5: 6-11 and the message was “Jesus Takes Care
I was allowed to preach without an interpreter tonight as most of the congregation spoke English, then Mrs. Valdez summed up the message in Cebuano for the few non English speaking congregants. Six women and one man responded to the invitation given by Pastor Valdez at the end of the message. Each of these individuals were Christians who wanted to “cast their cares upon Jesus” as the message challenged them to do.
Joan Ugdoc (whose newborn daughter still remains in ICU at Silliman University Medical Center) was able to come to our service tonight. She needed the break and her husband, Pastor Jonathan, encouraged her to get out while he stayed with the baby. We learned that the child needed some type of special injection that would cost over 5,000 pesos. This amounts to just over $100 and might as well have been $100,000 for this poor family. By God’s grace, we were able to share the needed funds with Joan, and she wept uncontrollably with gratitude when we presented her with the 5,000 pesos. The needs here are just overwhelming and heart breaking.
The recent flash flooding has left many families in worse shape than before. Please pray fervently for the people of Oriental Negros, and for the faithful Christians who minister among them in the name of the Lord. There is one Southern Baptist Missionary in this Visayan portion of the Islands with more than two million people to reach. Therefore the work of native pastors and church planters, like Pastors Valdez and Zerna is most important.
Activities will continue tomorrow morning. I am still feeling pretty rough and I am not sure how much of the day time activities I will be involved in at this point. I am scheduled to preach again tomorrow night in the second night of the Revival. Joey and Rick will be doing activities with the children and youth an hour before the evening service.
I am sharing a few photos here, and others may be viewed by visiting my Facebook profile page at Facebook.com.
Thanks for your prayers and for your financial support. The task is overwhelming, but we are helping make a difference, one family at a time.
God bless,
C.J. and the team.
At least ten adults made professions of faith in Christ today during house to house evangelism activities our team conducted in Upper Batinguel today. Many Bibles and Gospel tracts were distributed during this activity today. I was able to spend two and a half hours of quality face to face time with Pastor and Mrs. Valdez this morning. We had opportunity to speak about future strategy (both short term and long term) for the New Life Christian Church.
It appears that the land deed title work is now almost completed after nearly six months of bureaucratic red tape. When completed, the land title will be in the name of the New Life Christian Church rather than in the name of Pastor Valdez’ wife, Villa.
The church has completed it’s process of being incorporated and properly registered with the government of the Republic of the Philippines. I have received copies of the deed work and the new Church Constitution and By Laws. It looks as though the church has done an excellent job in ratifying it’s constitution which includes the procedure that will be used to call a Pastor, on that occasion when Church Planter Pastor Valdez will eventually step down. I am gratified to see the quality of the document.
Another good sign at NLCC is the larger number of male members that seem to be stepping up in faithfulness and taking on leadership roles. Men like Judge Elmaco, Brother Tata, Giovannie Valdez and others are joining faithful men like Dario Dales, Joseph Zerna, and Pastor Valdez in taking their place as spiritual leaders of their homes and in the Church. The church has long had a number of faithful ladies who are actively involved in the various ministries of the church. The youth group seems to be strong and growing, which bodes well for the future of the congregation.
We had lunch at McDonalds in Dumaguete today. Almost felt like home, although most McDonalds back home don’t offer chicken and rice dinners, or McSpaghetti. They do here! Also, Robby Pearson, if you are reading this, please note that NO ONE touched my Sprite today! They know better now. J
We began our four night Revival Spiritual Emphasis Campaign tonight at 6:00 PM with 37 adults and children in attendance. Rick Gunnell and Joan Ugdoc provided special music and Juvy Zerna and Weng Gantalao led in worship as Dario Dales accompanied on electric guitar. I began a series of messages entitled, “What of Us”. Jesus Does For Us”. Tonight’s text came from 1 Peter 5: 6-11 and the message was “Jesus Takes Care
I was allowed to preach without an interpreter tonight as most of the congregation spoke English, then Mrs. Valdez summed up the message in Cebuano for the few non English speaking congregants. Six women and one man responded to the invitation given by Pastor Valdez at the end of the message. Each of these individuals were Christians who wanted to “cast their cares upon Jesus” as the message challenged them to do.
Joan Ugdoc (whose newborn daughter still remains in ICU at Silliman University Medical Center) was able to come to our service tonight. She needed the break and her husband, Pastor Jonathan, encouraged her to get out while he stayed with the baby. We learned that the child needed some type of special injection that would cost over 5,000 pesos. This amounts to just over $100 and might as well have been $100,000 for this poor family. By God’s grace, we were able to share the needed funds with Joan, and she wept uncontrollably with gratitude when we presented her with the 5,000 pesos. The needs here are just overwhelming and heart breaking.
The recent flash flooding has left many families in worse shape than before. Please pray fervently for the people of Oriental Negros, and for the faithful Christians who minister among them in the name of the Lord. There is one Southern Baptist Missionary in this Visayan portion of the Islands with more than two million people to reach. Therefore the work of native pastors and church planters, like Pastors Valdez and Zerna is most important.
Activities will continue tomorrow morning. I am still feeling pretty rough and I am not sure how much of the day time activities I will be involved in at this point. I am scheduled to preach again tomorrow night in the second night of the Revival. Joey and Rick will be doing activities with the children and youth an hour before the evening service.
I am sharing a few photos here, and others may be viewed by visiting my Facebook profile page at Facebook.com.
Thanks for your prayers and for your financial support. The task is overwhelming, but we are helping make a difference, one family at a time.
God bless,
C.J. and the team.
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