We hope that things are going well in your part of the world. It has been a while since we last checked in with you. It seems that every time I sat down to start writing we were on the verge of something really neat and so I decided to wait a little longer to see how things would work out so I could include it in my report. Things are quiet now as we are in the weekend before starting our second session of classes for the year and so I finally have time to write. (grin)
We completed our first session of classes for 2007 at the Bible Study Center with close to 30 graduates! The best part was that we had four students who decided to become Christians – bringing our total to TEN since we opened our doors last September! Bernadeth Vitualla was the first. She has been studying since we started operations in September. She was introduced to us by one of our sisters in the church, Sharyll Ybanez, who wanted her friend to study the Bible. Venancio "Venjie" Lafradez was the second. He has an interesting story in that some years back he was involved in a very serious automobile accident in which he was not expected to live. He had amnesia for the first three months of his recovery period! Needless to say, he DID recover and said that he promised God that if he would let him live that he would search for the truth. At his baptism, he indicated to me that he feels like he has made a major step in that journey! Bernadeth and Venjie were immersed on the same day. Another student, Virginia Kho, decided that her baptism experience was acceptable and that she wants to attend our assembly. Then just today, we watched as our instructor, Ronaldo Puzon, baptized his two eldest children, Gabriel and Georgia. They had been studying at the Center for the past two sessions. All four of these made their decisions after studying our course Jesus: Lord Of Our Lives that was taught this past session by Shari. Please join us in praying for these new members to the family!
This past week, we offered another seminar at the Bible Study Center. This one was on the Book of James and was taught once again by Shari’s Dad – Ken Wilkey. This one was better attended and we averaged over 30 each of the four nights (not counting our family and regular Center staff)! The primary goal was to encourage as many as possible to enroll in some kind of study program with us at the Center and our efforts were rewarded in that almost everyone who attended enrolled in classes for our second session – which is scheduled to begin, Lord willing, this coming Monday! The timing of this seminar was nice because we were able to schedule it during enrollment week. Because things worked out so well, we are going to try to schedule future seminars during the enrollment breaks between classes. Please pray that those who signed up will make good their intentions to study.
The “member courses” I mentioned in our last report are going well. All the students in the Sermon On The Mount class successfully completed Part 1 and are going into Part 2 of 3 next week. We are starting a new batch for this course this session so that the new Christians can start their journey into deeper studies. The students of the Advanced Teaching class also passed through Part 1 with flying colors. They are learning how to teach our Jesus: Lord Of Our Lives course and once they finish we will be able to expand our capabilities of offering this course more often! In addition to these courses, we are also going to start a special training session on organizing and teaching children’s classes so that more of our people can become involved in starting and maintaining children’s Bible classes in their neighborhoods. We are using the effort we have organized at the Center on Saturdays as a model and hope to get satellite classes going by the end of this year. The benefits of such programs are not seen in terms of people being immersed as much as showing the community who we really are and what we stand for. To give you a case in point, we have a young girl attending a special class of high school students Rachael has been handling whose family live very close to Ronaldo and Joy Puzon. For years the girl's family literally shunned Ronaldo and Joy because they had left the Catholic faith. They branded them – as so many of the rest of their Catholic neighbors did – as TRAITORS! However, from the things they heard about “us” from their daughter they realized that they had misjudged us greatly and now they treat Ronaldo and Joy as “good neighbors”! The challenge we face is whether we can find a way to keep these people going in a positive direction. Can we complete the transition from thinking of us as “traitors” to being “good neighbors” to “brothers and sisters IN CHRIST”? Only time will tell! Please continue praying for our efforts to help our brethren mature and become involved in their faith.
On another note, we are so happy to report that we reached the goal for the funds we needed for our new copier, and we did it well before the deadline for payment! You folks are so awesome! You cannot begin to imagine what a true blessing this machine has been to our efforts so far! Thank you so much to all who have helped in this project! THANK YOU!
On the family front, we are doing well. Grandpa Wilkey is with us at present and it has been so neat to be able to work with him again in a formal work project. Sara and Amy continue to work on their schooling and take and teach classes with us at the Center as time allows. Shari is busy teaching with me. She just completed her last installment in the Greek training program and now hands things off to me for the second half (36 weeks) of the material. Rachael and Clint are well. Rachael has been doing much better with her migraine headaches. Clint continues doing well in his training and is working on a way to get our courses online so people can study and take exams through our website! Jon is also doing well and has taken an interest in a certain young lady at church! (That is all I can say for now! – BIG GRIN!!!) I am doing okay. I just wish there were a few more hours in the day. It is not that I am a workaholic or anything like that, (grin) it is just that I always feel like I am a day behind and IF I could ever catch up things would go so much better! However, I find it hard to complain because God has been so good to us. We are healthy, busy, and working as a family for HIM in this place, AND..., we have great folks like you who are interested in what we are doing and sacrifice to keep the work going! Thank you! Please continue to pray for our good health and success in the work.
May God continue to give us the strength and wisdom to carry on!
We completed our first session of classes for 2007 at the Bible Study Center with close to 30 graduates! The best part was that we had four students who decided to become Christians – bringing our total to TEN since we opened our doors last September! Bernadeth Vitualla was the first. She has been studying since we started operations in September. She was introduced to us by one of our sisters in the church, Sharyll Ybanez, who wanted her friend to study the Bible. Venancio "Venjie" Lafradez was the second. He has an interesting story in that some years back he was involved in a very serious automobile accident in which he was not expected to live. He had amnesia for the first three months of his recovery period! Needless to say, he DID recover and said that he promised God that if he would let him live that he would search for the truth. At his baptism, he indicated to me that he feels like he has made a major step in that journey! Bernadeth and Venjie were immersed on the same day. Another student, Virginia Kho, decided that her baptism experience was acceptable and that she wants to attend our assembly. Then just today, we watched as our instructor, Ronaldo Puzon, baptized his two eldest children, Gabriel and Georgia. They had been studying at the Center for the past two sessions. All four of these made their decisions after studying our course Jesus: Lord Of Our Lives that was taught this past session by Shari. Please join us in praying for these new members to the family! 
This past week, we offered another seminar at the Bible Study Center. This one was on the Book of James and was taught once again by Shari’s Dad – Ken Wilkey. This one was better attended and we averaged over 30 each of the four nights (not counting our family and regular Center staff)! The primary goal was to encourage as many as possible to enroll in some kind of study program with us at the Center and our efforts were rewarded in that almost everyone who attended enrolled in classes for our second session – which is scheduled to begin, Lord willing, this coming Monday! The timing of this seminar was nice because we were able to schedule it during enrollment week. Because things worked out so well, we are going to try to schedule future seminars during the enrollment breaks between classes. Please pray that those who signed up will make good their intentions to study. 
The “member courses” I mentioned in our last report are going well. All the students in the Sermon On The Mount class successfully completed Part 1 and are going into Part 2 of 3 next week. We are starting a new batch for this course this session so that the new Christians can start their journey into deeper studies. The students of the Advanced Teaching class also passed through Part 1 with flying colors. They are learning how to teach our Jesus: Lord Of Our Lives course and once they finish we will be able to expand our capabilities of offering this course more often! In addition to these courses, we are also going to start a special training session on organizing and teaching children’s classes so that more of our people can become involved in starting and maintaining children’s Bible classes in their neighborhoods. We are using the effort we have organized at the Center on Saturdays as a model and hope to get satellite classes going by the end of this year. The benefits of such programs are not seen in terms of people being immersed as much as showing the community who we really are and what we stand for. To give you a case in point, we have a young girl attending a special class of high school students Rachael has been handling whose family live very close to Ronaldo and Joy Puzon. For years the girl's family literally shunned Ronaldo and Joy because they had left the Catholic faith. They branded them – as so many of the rest of their Catholic neighbors did – as TRAITORS! However, from the things they heard about “us” from their daughter they realized that they had misjudged us greatly and now they treat Ronaldo and Joy as “good neighbors”! The challenge we face is whether we can find a way to keep these people going in a positive direction. Can we complete the transition from thinking of us as “traitors” to being “good neighbors” to “brothers and sisters IN CHRIST”? Only time will tell! Please continue praying for our efforts to help our brethren mature and become involved in their faith. 
On another note, we are so happy to report that we reached the goal for the funds we needed for our new copier, and we did it well before the deadline for payment! You folks are so awesome! You cannot begin to imagine what a true blessing this machine has been to our efforts so far! Thank you so much to all who have helped in this project! THANK YOU! 
On the family front, we are doing well. Grandpa Wilkey is with us at present and it has been so neat to be able to work with him again in a formal work project. Sara and Amy continue to work on their schooling and take and teach classes with us at the Center as time allows. Shari is busy teaching with me. She just completed her last installment in the Greek training program and now hands things off to me for the second half (36 weeks) of the material. Rachael and Clint are well. Rachael has been doing much better with her migraine headaches. Clint continues doing well in his training and is working on a way to get our courses online so people can study and take exams through our website! Jon is also doing well and has taken an interest in a certain young lady at church! (That is all I can say for now! – BIG GRIN!!!) I am doing okay. I just wish there were a few more hours in the day. It is not that I am a workaholic or anything like that, (grin) it is just that I always feel like I am a day behind and IF I could ever catch up things would go so much better! However, I find it hard to complain because God has been so good to us. We are healthy, busy, and working as a family for HIM in this place, AND..., we have great folks like you who are interested in what we are doing and sacrifice to keep the work going! Thank you! Please continue to pray for our good health and success in the work. 
