February 28, 2025^th Year of Our Lord
HALBROOK REPORT: 89^th PHILIPPINE TRIP FEBRUARY 3-28, 2025                             

Dear brethren,                               

The loving providence of God made it possible to complete my 89^th preaching trip to the Philippines and 8^th Australian trip, all of which began in 1995 when Jim McDonald brought me to the Philippines.  This trip concentrated on edifying saints and equipping preachers.  49 lessons were presented and 15 souls exercised their faith in Christ by repenting of their sins, confessing his name, and submitting to him in baptism for the remission of their sins.

Knowing that we are in a never-ending battle for our salvation, Paul admonished the Philippians,  “Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Phil. 1:27).  In the same spirit, a lot of teaching was done on this trip admonishing Christians to stand back-to-back and side-by-side as we battle for our salvation!
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

By the grace of God, I have now completed the 89^th Philippine trip and returned to my beloved Donna and the saints here at the Hebron Lane church of Christ in Shepherdsville, Kentucky.  I arrived home shortly before midnight Friday after safely traveling from Manila to Soule, South Korea and then to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the final flight to Louisville, Kentucky, about 24 hours in total.

My heart is always overflows with joy and thanksgiving when God opens doors for our labors together in the Philippine Islands, and also in Australia again.  I thank God for the saints in those places who are willing to work with me and the many saints in many places who make it possible by prayers and financial support.  It was a privilege to preach for the first time at Bundaberg in Queensland, Australia, and to meet brethren there who have been proclaiming the gospel and worshiping our Lord for many years.

By God’s merciful provision through the power of the gospel and through His saints on both sides of the ocean, another 15 precious souls submitted to Christ by faith, repentance, and baptism, and another 756 Bibles in various Filipino dialects were purchased to be shipped to brethren throughout the Philippines.   Thank you, thank you, thank you to all brethren who have helped in any way!

May God be glorified as we together press forward serving Him on our journeys to heaven!

In Christian love,
Ron Halbrook

Dear family, brethren, and friends,

On the Lord’s Day James Paet drove me about an hour to the Taytay church in the Province of Rizal to worship with Sammy Medrano.  My first sermon was on “The Prison of Sin” during the Bible study period, followed by “When Peter Confessed Christ” during the worship service.  Out of our audience of 51 people, a man and a woman stepped forward to confess Christ and to be buried in water baptism for the remission of their sins.  This was not their first time to visit the church, and they were fully convinced they needed to obey the original gospel of Christ and leave their sins and false religions behind.

After lunch we drove an hour and a half in Rizal to reach the fledgling church at Binangonan where Jhun Abueva labors in the gospel.  Twenty-three people heard the sermon “When Peter Confessed Christ” and there were several questions during the open forum.

Why do Catholic priest ask money to baptize people, to offer prayers, and to do other services?  This practice is not taught in the Bible but results from men making their own rules to conduct their false religions.  Next, will people be lost who sincerely practice false religions?  Many passages such as Matthew 7:21-23, Mark 16:15-16, and 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 teach they will be lost, and this is why we must zealously spread the gospel to everyone we know.  Someone asked if we obey the gospel and continue participating in false religious practices passed down by traditions of men, do we commit sin?  Yes, Jesus teaches that such practices violate God’s authority and God’s Word and are vain and futile.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Daryl and Rosalie Johnson brought me to the Rockhampton airport Wednesday where I flew at 1:15 PM to Brisbane and caught the next flight to Manila, arriving about 1:00 AM Thursday.  James Paet kindly met me and brought me to the hotel where I had a reservation.

When I made that reservation last month, I paid attention to the date of my arrival but not to the time.  I needed a reservation for the 19^th in order to have the room ready at 2:00 AM on the 20^th.  And, the hotel was fully booked.  They let me sleep on a padded bench in the arrival area, even providing a pillow and a blanket, until a room was available about 5:00 AM.  So, this time, I created my own adventure which allowed a trifold sleeping experience in one night:  sleeping on the plane, on the bench, and on the bed!  Definitely, the last was the best!  Otherwise, I believe this is called shooting myself in the foot.

James took me to the airport Thursday about noon to meet Professor (that is his name, not a title) Mashoko from Zimbabwe, Africa who was finishing his third preaching trip to the Philippines, made possible by the help of U.S. brethren.  As often happens when Christian first meet, we learned we know a lot of the same brethren.  Having heard good things about his preaching from Filipino saints, I was thankful we could finally get acquainted.  Filipinos appreciate his good work teaching God’s Word.  He was to fly home within a few hours of our meeting.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

I left Manila on a Qantas flight at 2:45 AM Tuesday, arrived in Brisbane in the State of Queensland, Australia, and soon flew on to Rockhampton in Queensland.  My suitcase and the box of Bibles and books for distribution did not arrive in Rockhampton.  Qantas representatives assured me they would follow on another plane, so I stayed at the airport for several hours doing work on my laptop.  Alas, the next flights were no better.

Daryl Johnson brought me to my motel after we had an adventure at a fast food restaurant. After waiting at our table 30 minutes visiting, we returned to the counter looking for our order, only to learn they did not call us because they gave it to another customer!  Oh, well, we finally ate and enjoyed our visit.  I got to the hotel about 9:00 PM after a very long day.  A gorgeous full moon greeted us.

I lost part of Wednesday catching up on sleep plus, taking additional exercise in an effort to regain my stamina after another time change – we are 3 hours ahead of the Philippines and 15 hours ahead of the U.S.  I managed to catch up on some email, not all, and did some Bible study and writing.  The suitcase and box of books were belatedly delivered to the motel today.  My last exercise ended at dark and I did not see the moon, but the perfectly clear sky was studded with the bright beautiful light of Venus, which looked as close as an airplane in a landing pattern.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Friday morning, I flew from Manila to Tuguegarao, Cagayan (a province in northeast Luzon) where Jerome Forelo, Mark Daquioag, and Jay Gumpad met me.  We traveled west a few hours to reach Ballesteros on the Pacific Ocean or the Philippine Sea.  About a dozen preachers were waiting for us at the home of Fidelfin Miranda, where his wife served a delicious meal.

After working on lessons for tomorrow and on email, I was blessed to take a power walk for an hour on a new road or boulevard running next to the ocean.  My body complained about this vigorous exercise because I have not been able to walk like this since leaving home, but it gave me a good night of rest and renewed stamina for the next day.

It rained steadily all night with strong and gusting winds, so we had to dodge downed limbs and other debris on the roads Saturday as we went to preach at the Cabaritan West church of Christ where Jun labors.  Well over 155 souls filled the building and extra chairs were brought in. There must have been 50 young people present — what a wonderful opportunity!  After the lessons entitled “Young People, Read the Bible” and “The Prison of Sin” (which were summarized in the dialect by Jerome), two people came forward to confess Christ and submit to him in baptism in the sea.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

By God’s loving providence, my 89^th trip to the Philippines (8^th trip to Australia) is now underway.  Preparing for these trips is somewhat grueling because there are so many details to attend to, while life’s normal duties also continue.  I had 5 hours sleep Saturday and 3 hours Sunday but made up for some of the lost sleep on the Monday-Tuesday flights from Louisville to Tokyo to Manila.

It was good to see the Kevin Stilts family from Elizabethtown, Kentucky at the Louisville airport as they prepared to board a different flight to Manila, which arrived ahead of mine.  They will teach and work with Rody Gumpad in north-central Luzon while my schedule takes me in other directions. Kevin came with me on an earlier trip and I am thankful to see this capable brother introduce the Philippine work to his teenage children.

The flight from Louisville to Atlanta was normal as I slept, but the Atlanta plane sat on the tarmac after backing away from the gate for 2 hours to repair an engine and then flew 15½ hours to Tokyo.  Actually, this gave me some extra time to study and prepare a Power Point lesson, and I slept soundly on the 4½ hour flight on to Manila.  Sad to say, the 6-7 hours spent working on the PP lesson was lost time because the computer did not save the charts, for reasons I do not know.  You could put everything I understand about computers in a thimble and roll it around!  Anyway, the time spent in study was productive.
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December 21, 2024^th Year of Our Lord
HALBROOK REPORT: 88^th PHILIPPINE TRIP DECEMBER 1-21, 2024

Dear brethren,                               

By the mercies of God, Jim McDonald brought me to the Philippines in 1995 and now my 88^th trip is complete, December 1-21. God blessed this trip with the labors of Mark Mayberry and Chris Reeves. In addition to lessons for sinners, classes and lectureships for preachers and other saints, and private studies, 13 souls were baptized during this phase of the war between God and Satan!

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:3-5).  We press forward to victory in Christ!
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

ALERT: Preaching is never dull work, including reports, and we get plenty of advice.  Some brethren like reports cut to the bone, short, with only the most essential information (I understand: you have other things to do than read long reports).  Others tell me the most interesting parts of these reports are the details of what is taught including the open forum discussions.  So, short, or elaborated?  This one includes elaboration on the open forum discussions because so many interesting questions were submitted.  Therefore, some of you may need to delete this report before wading into it. You can please some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time, as the saying goes!  Feel free to smile here, if you like!

Salvador Parbo took Mark and me from Kidapawan City to Davao City early Monday morning to catch our flights about 1:00 P.M. – Mark to Cebu City to work with Chris Reeves, but James Paet and me flew to Manila.  Jaime, James’ daughter, was kind enough to meet James and me at the Manila airport with James’ vehicle.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

The Kidapawan lectures on “How to Study the Bible” continued Saturday with another full house.  The corrected attendance Friday was 138 including 47 denominational preachers and today we had 108 with 34 denominational preachers.  Mark’s topics were study by context, take all the Bible says, and the silence of Scripture.  My lessons focused on translations and word studies, the historical context of passages, and the Bible’s use of figurative language.

The open forum was very productive again.  One denominational preacher who returned today explained he was taught that Ephesians 4:8-11 means Jesus went into hades to save people who died during the Old Testament times.  The passage is not discussing what Jesus did to save certain people but how he conquered sin and death, then ascended to heaven to equip his saints to serve him in different roles.  Hebrews 9:15 shows the perfect sacrifice of Christ saved Old Testament people who lived and died by faith in God and His promises to send the Savior.  Sinners in hades cannot change their status (Lk. 16:26).
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