Murrell Family ReportCebu City, PhilippinesVolume 5 - #11 – May 22, 2006Web site: www.BibleStudyCenter.netHowdy from the Philippines!
As we languished in disbelief over the “Pizza Hut” place we were made aware of a place just a little further down the road that was a former bank branch. There are actually TWO large vaults in the back portion of the space! When we went to see it, we were pleasantly surprised to find the place to be as big as our old place but with a monthly rent that is about a third less than the Pizza Hut property! Our first tour of the building was a bit strange because there was no electricity in the place. The owners of the building require their tenants to secure their own utility connections and since it is vacant there is neither water nor electricity. We initially toured the place by the light of my cell phone! We were immediately struck by the potential for the place! It has plenty of room for our classroom needs and more than enough room for storage! We also found the price to be reasonable, and THAT was real nice!
We have much work to do before the place will be ready for use. We must construct partition walls for classrooms, redo the flooring, fix the ceiling, rewire the place to fit our needs, install air conditioning, fix the plumbing, and then paint every inch of the place! We plan to work six days a week until the job is done! With a little help from the Lord, the seven of us, with some help from any of the local brethren who have the time, we hope to be finished and ready to resume classes by early July.
In the meantime, as soon as we get a good start on the construction we plan to start mapping out the surrounding area. This will entail learning the local transportation routes and the locations of all the major population areas. Then we plan to start distributing invitations for our correspondence course about a month before completion of the renovation so that we can have a better chance of getting students to come in for study when we are finally ready. In addition, the kids are looking into the idea of relocating their residences to this area of town so they will be closer to the Center and the people. We have seen signs indicating that there are numerous places for rent in this part of the city! Please continue to pray for our success in these efforts, and especially at this time for our efforts to secure our utility connections.
On the family front, we are doing pretty well. The girls were able to help in a summer Bible camp for the youth that was hosted by the Talamban congregation. They were both counselors! Although they BOTH enjoyed the experience they contracted a strong virus that really took hold of them for about a week! (They are BOTH back to normal now.) Sara celebrated her 17th birthday during this week so didn’t have too much fun on it. Shari and I are trying to get more in shape. We have been changing our eating habits – eliminating a lot of the sugar in our diet – and the results have been truly amazing! I have lost over twenty pounds and Shari has lost ten – in a little over two months! It feels great to be wearing clothes we have not used in ten years!
As always, we thank all of you who sacrifice and pray for us so that we can be here. Please pray that God will direct us as we work to move into our new place and begin our efforts to take the Gospel to this part of the city! Peace to all,  Barry, Shari, Sara & Amy PS - Here is a MENSA puzzle for you. (grin) You never know what you will find when you open up an electrical box here in the Philippines. There are at LEAST 4 basic code violations in this one. Can you spot them?
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