Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Saturday morning, April 16, Robin Pulveras from the Pamplona region of Cagayan picked Craig and I up at the hotel in Tuguegarao and drove us westward in the Cagayan Province to reach the church at Cabuluan East, Ballesteros.  I had worked until 1:30 A.M. and was exhausted but manage to catnap as we traveled.

We arrived about 10:30 and 80-100 saints were singing while waiting for us.  Fidelfin Miranda has been doing effective work in the community and congregation.  Craig preached about five basic facts of life and I preached “Work While It Is Day.”  The 24 year old sister of two students at Tuguegarao obeyed the gospel and was baptized in the baptistry behind the church building.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

The Thursday, April 14, session of our preacher training program was productive as we observed the good progress of our participants.  I have been briefly reviewing the books of the Old Testament and their divisions before each class, and now I simply start them with Genesis and they name the books in unison on their own.

The segment on the preacher’s life and work concentrated on an evangelist’s duty to provide for his material needs.  This may include laboring to support himself, receiving individual donations, or being supported by churches – or a combination of these.  The Catholic priest and the denominational “pastor” often consider it beneath their dignity to do secular work to support themselves.  I spent about 40 minutes on the theme of the nobility of work as reflected in God’s perfect work of creation, Jesus’ training as a carpenter, and Paul’s occupation of tent making.  No preacher should be ashamed to sustain himself by engaging in honest labor if necessary.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Monday, April 11, started our second week of classes for preachers.  The students are enduring hardness as good soldiers of Christ as the all-day studies continue.  My first period dealt with outlining passages for textual sermons.  As a starter we outlined Genesis 1 on the creation.  I noted the chapter is not consistent with evolution’s theory of the earth’s origin because each day consisted of 12 hours of darkness and 12 hour of light, not millions of years.  Millions of years of darkness followed by millions of years of daylight would kill every form of life twice over!  We noted how the often perfection of God’s work is emphasized by repeated statements that what He made was “good” and “very good.”  This chapter is the foundation for everything else taught in the Bible.  After outlining the chapter, we discussed some applications which could be made – such as, conformity to God’s laws brings great blessings while defying His will results in self-destruction.  This is true both in the physical and the spiritual realms.

In the basic Bible doctrine study we observed the names or designations of God’s people both individually and collectively, and the importance of avoiding denominational names and organizations which divide professed followers of Christ.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

The preacher training classes on Thursday, April 7, ran like clockwork.  My class on the preacher’s life and work included a discussion of 2 Timothy 4:1-5 and also the challenges of working with congregations without elders.  The basic Bible doctrine session covered “How Sinners Receive Salvation,” i.e., what must I do to be saved?

The study of issues dividing brethren addressed the sponsoring church arrangement which elevates a local eldership to a brotherhood eldership by centralizing funds and oversight into the hands of one eldership.  I explained that I actually came from that background and had to gradually learn this practice is not authorized by Christ.

In the session working with the concordance and Bible dictionary, we investigated the difference between the Bible doctrine of imputation (our faith is counted for righteousness) and the Calvinist doctrine (transfer Adam’s sin to all men, transfer sins of the world to Christ, and transfer Christ’s personal righteousness to Christians).  The Bible word “impute” does not include the concept of transfer.  This period closed with many of the men giving reports of what they learned from the Bible dictionary about various books, persons, and places found in Scripture.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Exactly two years ago a preachers’ training class was supposed to be held here at Tuguegarao, but covid struck, foreigners were forbidden to enter, and the nation was soon put on lockdown.  Finally, by God’s good grace the month-long classes are underway as of Monday, April 4.  Thirty men are enrolled with 3 sit-in students and fluctuating numbers of visitors because anyone is welcome to hear lessons of their choice.

Classes are in session from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM with a lunch break, and after supper additional sessions give the men experience in presenting short sermons and in leading songs and prayers.  Our oldest member is 54 and the youngest 12 – everyone was very attentive and cooperative on our first day.

Subjects include the New Testament church, how to study the Bible, surveys of the Old and New Testaments, basic Bible doctrines, and issues that divided brethren in past years, as well as sessions on how to use a reference Bible, a Bible concordance and a Bible dictionary.  Rody, Craig, and I share the teaching duties.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

March 29-31 initiated my 78th preaching trip to the Philippines – a blessing made possible by God’s grace and providence.  Craig Thomas and I left Louisville, KY early Tuesday morning expecting to arrive in Manila at 10:00 PM Wednesday.  In Detroit we learned a schedule change would prevent us from catching our flight from South Korea to Manila – we could be delayed 24 hours.  Delta Airlines flew us to San Francisco instead, where we waited 8 hours to transfer to Plhilippine Airlines to catch a 15 hour flight to Manila.   All is well that ends well, thought it meant arriving at 5:30 AM Thursday.

When we stepped off the plane wearing masks, the extreme humidity mixing with my breathe immediately covered my glasses in a dense fog, blinding me!  We finally got to the hotel about 7:30 AM after jumping through hoops with the health and immigration departments.  I was filled with joy and thanksgiving because God has reopened the door to the Philippines.
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Help  A  Neighbor,  Inc.
3505 Horse Run Ct.
Shepherdsville, KY 40165
(halbrook@twc.com / 502-955-1748)

November 3, 2021^st Year of Our Lord

Dear brethren and friends,

Help A Neighbor began in July of 2007 to provide for others what they cannot provide for themselves in the spirit of Matthew 22:39: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”  Help A Neighbor (H.A.N.) exists for humanitarian and charitable purposes as defined by section 501(C)3 of the IRS Code.  All donations are legally tax deductible.  This is simply a legal means for individuals to extend aid to individuals.  No church donations are accepted – H.A.N. is not an ecclesiastical organization.

This annual report covering November 1, 2020-November 1, 2021 is made in the interest of integrity and transparency.  Our main focus is helping Christians in the Philippine Islands, but occasional help is extended to Christians in other parts of the world including the U.S.  Our aim is to help people who demonstrate their willingness to help themselves.  During this time period donations amounted to $876,575.00.  Most donations are modest amounts with occasional larger gifts.  Including funds from other accounts used for the Philippine work, a total of $1,017,973.00 passed through the H.A.N. account.
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Dear brethren,

God poured out His blessings again by sending me to preach the gospel of Christ in the Philippines for the 77^th time since 1995 when He used Jim McDonald to introduce me to this work.  Kevin Stilts on his first trip took to the work like a duck to water.  He is a deacon in the Lord’s church at Elizabethtown, KY.  I taught 45 lessons and 26 precious souls confessed Christ and were baptized to wash away their sins in his blood.  Many other lessons were presented as well by Kevin, Jonathan Carino, and Jack Jaco.

Luke described Paul’s audience at the synagogue in Thessalonica as “more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11).  Many Fillipinos manifest that same noble character.
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