I decided to post one more report before we close down for the holidays because we had a really amazing end to the week!
We had a really awesome “Jesus: Lord of Our Lives” final class Thursday evening! All eleven students were present and two students brought a “pastor” friend with them. I was a bit apprehensive at first because I was afraid that he might be here to challenge the material we had studied, but he sat quietly throughout the whole lesson, except for asking a couple of clarifying questions along the way. As we closed I asked the students how they felt about what they had learned and how it compared to their own experiences. Conchita Serohijos, a widowed 60+ year old who has been religious in Protestantism since she was a teen said that she felt deceived by all that she had experienced in her religious group and that she had trusted too much in her leaders instead of taking the time to study the Bible, and that she wanted to be immersed and get right with God! FOUR other students then indicated that they also wanted to join her. One was Renor Lim, who had been a Baptist for over 20 years, but like Conchita had never taken the time to really study the Bible, but instead had simple taken for granted that what he had been told was TRUE! After all, who could doubt the sincerity of the “pastors”?
Two of the others were family members of Christians and the influence and convictions of their family members had already prepared them for what they discovered in their studies. Leandro delos Angeles is the younger brother of Doreen Cajilig and his mother, two sisters, and brother-in-law are already members of the Lord’s church. Jorge Puzon is the cousin of Ronaldo Puzon and he had been staying in their house, observing their conduct for several years! He has been a consistent visitor to the Uptown church’s assembly!
The FIFTH one was a surprise. Joy Puzon, wife of Ronaldo asked to be immersed, even though she had been immersed several years back. I asked her why she wanted this and she replied that when she was baptized the first time she really did not know what baptism was for. She was having it done so that she could be of the same faith as her husband and there would be religious unity in the family! However, having gone through the classes we had, she realized that there is so much more. Her lack of understanding bothered her to the point that she was having trouble concentrating on things and sleeping! I asked Ronaldo to talk to her just to make certain that she was not being harsh with herself because of what she did not know. He contacted me with the news that he agreed that her first immersion was not for the reasons we find in the New Testament. We BOTH were thinking about how similar this was to what we read about in Acts 19:1-5 where we find people who had been immersed but NOT to join with Christ’s death as we know from Romans 6, Colossians 2, and Galatians 3!
We set the baptism for Friday at noon, at the swimming pool of a college close by, because that was when everyone could be together at one time and they all wanted to be immersed together, and, we do not have a baptistry at the Bible Study Center! When the time arrived, we were surprised that Jorge was not present. The tale Joy and Ronaldo reported to us was very sad and tragic. It seems that Jorge was in fact ready and willing to be baptized but he wanted to tell his parents first. When he called them to “ask for permission”, they said “No!” You must understand that his parents are very strong Catholics and are very active as “lay leaders” in their hometown. Not only did they tell him NOT to be immersed, but they insisted that he immediately move out from Ronaldo and Joy’s house to the house of his great aunt and that he cease contact with Ronaldo and Joy! Joy said that she found him crying about the whole situation. In class, we often discussed how Jesus said that it might be possible for a person’s own family to become enemies because of HIM. The tragedy is that instead of Jorge being strong and stepping out on faith, he gave in to the demands of his parents. Wow!
So… We baptized FOUR on Friday at noon!
Conchita was so cute. We discovered that she is afraid of water and so we had to help her gain the confidence to get in the swimming pool. We were so proud of her! Joy Puzon cried after coming out of the water because she was so happy! After everyone who had gotten wet had changed clothes we gathered around in a circle and had a prayer. When we finished we looked up to find that a class of about thirty elementary school girls had come into where we were. They had come there for a class that was due to begin in just a few minutes! They were very quiet and respectful for us.
There are others in the class who were not with us. The two students who brought their “pastor” friend, Gina Yulo and Meljane Chavez, are sisters who had previously been immersed for the purpose of joining with the death of Jesus so that their sins could be forgiven. We know that their baptism was like this because when we started the course, six weeks ago, the first thing we had the students do was fill out a survey questionnaire about their religious salvation experience. Both of these ladies wrote that they had been baptized and that it was by immersion and FOR the forgiveness of their sins. Of course there is no reason for us to say anything about that. They had been visiting our assembly on several occasions and now seem to be wanting to become a part of our family! That is very unique!
Joy Bantolinao is another of the students who is not yet a Christian. She wrote on her survey form that she is a Catholic, baptized by sprinkling when she was a tiny baby. During the last few lessons of the course, she increasingly asked questions about different teachings in the Catholic church. We discovered that her family is very devout. Her younger sister is a nun! Joy is struggling with her newly acquired understanding of the TRUTH! We are not so worried about her because she has already enrolled in the next session. Shari has some make-up classes with her before then and plans to try to use them as an opportunity to see what she is thinking. Joy has been attending our assembly for several weeks now and her daughter has also been attending our Saturday Kids’ Class.
The last student is my very good friend Gerry Segarra, whom I have known for over 20 years! I reported about a year ago that I started studying with him and we were interrupted by the passing of his father. He resumed his studies in our first session and was in this class with the others. He is a very intelligent man and knows what the situation is, but I am not certain he will have the courage to step out on faith! It was interesting that Gerry missed our next to last class meeting because he had to attend a death anniversary activity for his father! I was so worried that dealing with all of those feelings would cause him to give up his studies but he was in class for the final meeting! Unfortunately, he had to leave the city early Friday morning for another island and so was not in town when we baptized the others. However, Jon has a meeting scheduled with Gerry – Lord willing - on Tuesday and plans to talk to him about his studies.
Please thank God for the immersion of Conchita, Joy Puzon, Renor and Leandro and for the addition of Meljane and Gina, and please continue praying for Jorge, Joy Bantolinao, and Gerry!
We had our BSC Graduation yesterday and gave out over 50 certificates! We also enrolled 14 students in our next session in a total of 31 course slots! We have some major activities planned to find more students before we start back in early January. Please continue to ask God to be with us as we try our best to serve him!
Aside from the BSC Graduation, we also had our first recognition party for the children attending our Saturday Kids’ Classes. We had hoped that the parents would come, but were a little disappointed when only three parents came, out of more than forty children who attended the classes! The kids loved it! We had games and activities to let them show what they had learned. The older ones put on a short play about the Unforgiving Servant. One of the neatest things about the play is that TWO of the boys that vandalized our sign were in it!
We offered a special prize for any kid who could recite the books of the New Testament. During the classes we taught them that little song we teach the kids. You know... “Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Acts and the letter to the Romans…” Some of the younger ones got a little confused and thought the book names were, “Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and Little Romans.” Shari and I were walking to Clint and Rachael’s house last Wednesday after class and we passed a house along the way and inside there were children singing their songs from Saturday Kids’ Class, and we just looked at each other and smiled!
We had “Outing” today with Uptown and it was wonderful. The new Christians were being welcomed into the group and by the middle of the afternoon you could see groups of people playing games together, reading newspapers together, eating together, discussing problems and Bible passages. One of our BSC students visited for the first time and we found out that she was accompanied by her boyfriend but that he was embarrassed to come inside with her. We found him sitting alone outside on a bench waiting for her. We almost had to drag him in, but it was not fifteen minutes before the young men had him with them and they were off in a corner with a guitar playing folk songs from the 1980’s! At one point I stood in the middle of the whole lot and had to just look up and thank God for the blessing of that moment, thinking to myself, “This is surely what heaven must be like!”
We are planning to be out of the office until the first week of January. A few hours from now Shari, the girls and I plan to drive over to our small place in Negros to see how everyone is doing and take care of some repairs. It will also give us a chance to check in with the brethren there and see how things are going.
Oh! We are happy to report that we are starting to get some responses to our appeal for help with a new copier. As I write, we have received pledges for $550.00! Please consider this need and contact us if you can help. We still need $4,150.00!
We thank all of you for your continued support for our work here in Cebu. May God be with you all during these final days of 2006 and bring us safely into another year of service for him!
We had a really awesome “Jesus: Lord of Our Lives” final class Thursday evening! All eleven students were present and two students brought a “pastor” friend with them. I was a bit apprehensive at first because I was afraid that he might be here to challenge the material we had studied, but he sat quietly throughout the whole lesson, except for asking a couple of clarifying questions along the way. As we closed I asked the students how they felt about what they had learned and how it compared to their own experiences. Conchita Serohijos, a widowed 60+ year old who has been religious in Protestantism since she was a teen said that she felt deceived by all that she had experienced in her religious group and that she had trusted too much in her leaders instead of taking the time to study the Bible, and that she wanted to be immersed and get right with God! FOUR other students then indicated that they also wanted to join her. One was Renor Lim, who had been a Baptist for over 20 years, but like Conchita had never taken the time to really study the Bible, but instead had simple taken for granted that what he had been told was TRUE! After all, who could doubt the sincerity of the “pastors”? 
Two of the others were family members of Christians and the influence and convictions of their family members had already prepared them for what they discovered in their studies. Leandro delos Angeles is the younger brother of Doreen Cajilig and his mother, two sisters, and brother-in-law are already members of the Lord’s church. Jorge Puzon is the cousin of Ronaldo Puzon and he had been staying in their house, observing their conduct for several years! He has been a consistent visitor to the Uptown church’s assembly! 
The FIFTH one was a surprise. Joy Puzon, wife of Ronaldo asked to be immersed, even though she had been immersed several years back. I asked her why she wanted this and she replied that when she was baptized the first time she really did not know what baptism was for. She was having it done so that she could be of the same faith as her husband and there would be religious unity in the family! However, having gone through the classes we had, she realized that there is so much more. Her lack of understanding bothered her to the point that she was having trouble concentrating on things and sleeping! I asked Ronaldo to talk to her just to make certain that she was not being harsh with herself because of what she did not know. He contacted me with the news that he agreed that her first immersion was not for the reasons we find in the New Testament. We BOTH were thinking about how similar this was to what we read about in Acts 19:1-5 where we find people who had been immersed but NOT to join with Christ’s death as we know from Romans 6, Colossians 2, and Galatians 3! 
We set the baptism for Friday at noon, at the swimming pool of a college close by, because that was when everyone could be together at one time and they all wanted to be immersed together, and, we do not have a baptistry at the Bible Study Center! When the time arrived, we were surprised that Jorge was not present. The tale Joy and Ronaldo reported to us was very sad and tragic. It seems that Jorge was in fact ready and willing to be baptized but he wanted to tell his parents first. When he called them to “ask for permission”, they said “No!” You must understand that his parents are very strong Catholics and are very active as “lay leaders” in their hometown. Not only did they tell him NOT to be immersed, but they insisted that he immediately move out from Ronaldo and Joy’s house to the house of his great aunt and that he cease contact with Ronaldo and Joy! Joy said that she found him crying about the whole situation. In class, we often discussed how Jesus said that it might be possible for a person’s own family to become enemies because of HIM. The tragedy is that instead of Jorge being strong and stepping out on faith, he gave in to the demands of his parents. Wow! 
So… We baptized FOUR on Friday at noon! 
Joy Bantolinao is another of the students who is not yet a Christian. She wrote on her survey form that she is a Catholic, baptized by sprinkling when she was a tiny baby. During the last few lessons of the course, she increasingly asked questions about different teachings in the Catholic church. We discovered that her family is very devout. Her younger sister is a nun! Joy is struggling with her newly acquired understanding of the TRUTH! We are not so worried about her because she has already enrolled in the next session. Shari has some make-up classes with her before then and plans to try to use them as an opportunity to see what she is thinking. Joy has been attending our assembly for several weeks now and her daughter has also been attending our Saturday Kids’ Class. 
Please thank God for the immersion of Conchita, Joy Puzon, Renor and Leandro and for the addition of Meljane and Gina, and please continue praying for Jorge, Joy Bantolinao, and Gerry! 
We offered a special prize for any kid who could recite the books of the New Testament. During the classes we taught them that little song we teach the kids. You know... “Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Acts and the letter to the Romans…” Some of the younger ones got a little confused and thought the book names were, “Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and Little Romans.” Shari and I were walking to Clint and Rachael’s house last Wednesday after class and we passed a house along the way and inside there were children singing their songs from Saturday Kids’ Class, and we just looked at each other and smiled! 
We had “Outing” today with Uptown and it was wonderful. The new Christians were being welcomed into the group and by the middle of the afternoon you could see groups of people playing games together, reading newspapers together, eating together, discussing problems and Bible passages. One of our BSC students visited for the first time and we found out that she was accompanied by her boyfriend but that he was embarrassed to come inside with her. We found him sitting alone outside on a bench waiting for her. We almost had to drag him in, but it was not fifteen minutes before the young men had him with them and they were off in a corner with a guitar playing folk songs from the 1980’s! At one point I stood in the middle of the whole lot and had to just look up and thank God for the blessing of that moment, thinking to myself, “This is surely what heaven must be like!” 
