Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Monday was another disappointing day for me because the battle to overcome this laryngitis is progressing so slowly.  It was a great day for the work’s sake.  We planned on 50 participants at the rented venue in Iloilo City for 3 days of Bible lectures and 79 showed up for this first day!  Jonathan and Jack know how to plow the corn in teaching the first principles of the gospel to the benefit of these denominational preachers.  I learned there was a good open forum with lots of Bible answers given to their questions.

Meanwhile, I am trying every play in the book to defeat this laryngitis including rest, intermittent exercise, prescribed medications, gargling warm salt water, drinking Salabat Tea (a Filipino term for ginger ea, often with honey or lemon), and drinking warm calamansi juice (a hybrid lemon or lime grown primarily in the Philippines).  Laryngitis typically runs its course in 3-7 days and today is my third day.   I can now talk a little with effort but not well enough to actually carry on a conversation and certainly not well enough to preach. All I can do is to grin and bear it one day at a time. This, too, shall pass, but the sooner the better!
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

No preaching or travel was scheduled for Wednesday because I needed time to work on the transition into the new time zone, look at some of the email backlog, get some vigorous exercise, and review lessons for the next leg of the trip.

Thursday was a travel day which included flying from Manila to Iloilo City on Panay Island, where Jack Jaco picked me up for the long drive to San Juan in the Province of Antique where denominational preachers have invited us to teach.  Jonathan and Nanette Carino are with us, as well as Hernane Equipado from a Christian Church in Iloilo.  Upon our arrival in San Juan, we were welcomed by Richard Panaligan, a preacher for the Koinonia Community Church.  After eating supper and reviewing some sermons for tomorrow, I walked from 10:00 to 10:50 PM.  Though I am exhausted, this will boost my energy and stamina for tomorrow’s work.  After walking, I finished reviewing lessons for tomorrow and got to bed at 1:00 AM.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

It is summertime here in New Zealand and our temperatures are running about 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26.67 degrees Celsius), but with the humidity it can feel quite hot.  My clothes are damp with sweat after I preach.  Reviewing the sermons and trying to catch up on old emails and to keep up with new ones makes for busy days, but it is a privilege and joy to work with these saints who are making new lives in a foreign land.

Our Friday service was attended by 15 souls plus 7 participating via two media platforms from several nations representing about 10-12 more people.  Our topic was “The Truth about Homosexuality” and we started at 6:10 PM as everyone came from work.  The open forum was concluded at 8:15, but some of the discussions carry over during our supper on such occasions.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

The flight from Whakatane to Auckland on Wednesday took about an hour and Ronnie Salunga greeted me at the airport and brought me to his house about 11:00 AM. I reviewed my lesson for tonight, ate lunch, took a short rest, worked on email, walked an hour, and showered and got dressed for our service.

The Meadowood church of Christ gathered in the Salunga’s basement at 6:00 PM with 11 in attendance and another 20 people accessing the study via Zoom from New Zealand, the U.S., the Philippines, Africa, and India.  Most of the members here are Filipinos.  The theme for these five days is “Marriage and Morals” with the first session focusing on “Marriage: God’s Gift to Man and Woman.”
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Saturday was set aside to invite all the young people and their parents to study “Selecting a Mate: The Lord Builds the House” (Ps. 127:1).  Part 1 focused on God’s part and Part 2 on man’s part in the process of selecting a mate for marriage.  Our attendance of 44 filled a large room with several youngsters sitting on the floor, almost half of them ages 9-18 (plus 8-10 people joining via Zoom).  They could not have been more attentive.  They participated in reading Scripture and in asking questions during the open forum.  Some of them approached me to ask follow-up questions after the session dismissed.

Some of them are new converts who did not grow up hearing such Bible lessons, so they are learning a lot of new things.  The study explained that the most crucial step in finding the right person is being the right person, i.e., a faithful Christian who is separated from the world!
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

The second phase of my schedule is to preach in New Zealand, where I arrived in Auckland on Wednesday afternoon after an all-night flight from Manila via Sydney, Australia.  Nothing unusual happened on the flight from Manila covering 5,350 miles, so our prayers were answered for safe travel (thank you for those prayers!).

I slept several hours after watching a documentary movie entitled “Beyond Utopia,” which would benefit anyone and especially young people.  It records true startling, shocking stories of what people must suffer and sacrifice trying to escape the oppression of the North Korean regime.  I did not realize people can be executed there just for owning a Bible.  Children are brainwashed in schools there to believe that Americans are vicious animals who want to destroy and devour the people of N.K. They are taught that N.K. is a paradise or utopia in contrast to other nations.  People who criticize the government or seek to escape are commonly banished to gulags or prisons work camps, or even executed in public with children included as witnesses.  We often take religious and political freedoms for granted when we should count our blessings and pray for our fellowmen to share those same blessings!
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

By God’s good grace, my 85^th trip got off to a smooth start after hitting one big bump. A day before leaving, I learned the first flight was scheduled on a small commuter plane which would not allow me to bring seven pieces of luggage – i.e., the boxes of Bibles and teaching materials.  To solve this issue, Delta Air Lines rebooked me on a flight leaving Louisville 12 hours later, which meant leaving Wednesday evening and getting to Manila Friday about noon.

This means I lost the day devoted to errands such as repacking and shipping the boxes to upcoming venues, and adjusting to the 12 hour time change.  Instead, as soon as arriving, I met three Filipinos who help with the boxes and other errands and I must start preaching tomorrow after less than 24 hours for the transition.
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December 21, 2023nd Year of Our Lord

HALBROOK REPORT: 84th PHILIPPINE TRIP NOVEMBER 26-DECEMBER 21, 2023 

Dear brethren,

The 84th Philippine trip scheduled for November 26-December 21 is now history.  I am indebted to Jim McDonald for introducing me to the cause of Christ in the Philippines in 1995, and now to Nick Rowe for introducing me to Malaysia.  I taught 57 lessons.  4 souls submitted to Christ in baptism.  832 Bibles in Filipino dialects were purchased and shipped to the saints.

The gospel transforms sinners of all kinds from all nations and backgrounds into the image of Christ  “where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all” (Col. 3:11). Christ lifts us to this higher ground, leading us to heaven!

Flights on November 26-28 brought me safely to Manila, where I rested and did errands on the 29th  in preparation for preaching appointments.  Thursday James Paet drove me to Meycauayan, Bulacan where Jaime Bobis has labored long and hard (strokes incapacitated him).  Some 50 souls heard lessons on “To Whom Shall We Go? (Jn. 6:68),” “Wait on the Lord (Ps. 27:14),” and “Legalizing Sin: God’s Law or Man’s Law? (Ps. 118:8-9),” followed by a fruitful open forum.  One was baptized into Christ.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Our Saturday flights from Bacolod City on Negros to Cebu City on Cebu and on to Tacloban City on Leyte were uneventful and I napped both times.  Nilo Zabala met us about 4:00 P.M. and took us to visit a couple of brethren on our way to the hotel.  We visited a faithful preacher named Renato Fabi who supports himself by fishing and lives in a shabby shanty near the sea where the water bothers them at high tide often.  Holes in the tin roof let rain water drip into the little shack, but a congregation gladly meets here every Sunday.  How little we as Americans know about real sacrifice in serving our Savior!

I saw a thin sliver of a beautiful moon tonight when we left Renato’s house.

On the Lord’s Day, Nilo Zabala drove Jack and me 2 ½ hours to reach the church at San Vicente in Ormoc City where Willie Pelino has served as an evangelist for many years.  As often happens in the Philippines, he made an extension to his house which can serve as a garage and as a meeting place for the saints.  Close to 100 people were gathered when we arrived and I immediately taught the material on “Christmas Observance: From Heaven, or Of Men?”
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Thursday we began a two-day Bible lectureship on “Marriage and Morals” in Victorias City where Jack Jaco has labored in the gospel for many years.  To accommodate the audience of 61, a function room was rented in a business building.  Five denominational “pastors” joined our study and showed good interest, one taking the front seat right in front of where I stood to teach.

Today’s subjects included “Marriage: God’s Gift to Man and Woman,” “Marriage: Joined by God,” “The Truth about Abortion,” and “The Truth About Homosexuality.”

The open forum was very fruitful.  Several questions related to marriage, divorce, and remarriage.  For instance, when people repent and are baptized who are living in adultery and even polygamy, must they remain in these relationships or do the works of repentance require them to stop these practices?  The sins are forgiven, and the sins must stop, which will require severing these sinful relationships.  Does the father have any obligation to children born into these sinful relationships? Yes, the father who conceived these children is responsible to provide for their needs in every possible way.
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