Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Tuesday night I bid farewell to Nick and Justina Rowe and flew to Brunei.  After spending the night in the airport, I safely reached Manila Wednesday afternoon, where Mark had arrived from Tuguegarao, Cagayan ahead of me.  Thursday, Mark with James Paet joined me on a flight to Davao City in southern Mindanao. Salvador Parbo and a contingent of preachers from General Santos City met us about 2:00 P.M. to drive us about 3 hours to reach Kidapawan City, Cotabato to work with Danny Angeles.

We hit the ground running because we drove straight to the house of Danny’s doctor friend who is a 7^th Day Adventist for a first-time Bible study.  I presented an overview of God’s plan for our salvation entitled “The Gospel Makes Us Right with God (Rom. 1:16-17),” including changes in the plan made by false religions and denominations.  I let the doctor himself read most of the passages and he acknowledged that he understood what we studied.  Mark took a few minutes to explain Jeremiah 31:31-34 to clarify the distinction between the Old and New Testaments.  Dr. Edwin made a weak attempt to explain how his denominational baptism might be the same as Bible baptism, but he acknowledged that he needed to give this more study and thought.  He thanked us for providing the bread of life from God’s Word and invited us to his table to share a feast of physical food.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

First, I apologize for being so late in getting the first report out.  This trip has involved a string of complications more than any time I can remember and I have been getting to bed past midnight almost every night.  The delay will make this report longer than usual.

Mark Mayberry (from Alvin, Texas) and I arrived safely from Louisville, Kentucky in Manila in the Philippines after passing through Atlanta, Georgia and Inchon, South Korea.  We arrived shortly after midnight Tuesday morning after almost 30 hours of travel.  It was a long, tiring trip but nothing like Paul’s travels which left him floating in the sea after his ship wrecked!  We count it a blessing to travel this way.  Chris Reeves (from Clarksville, Tennessee) arrived from Nashville, Tennessee Tuesday about noon by God’s good providence.
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Dear family, brethren, & friends,

By the mercies of God, I arrived home about an hour ago (almost midnight on Tuesday, U.S. time) with much thanksgiving.

I am thankful to God for the opportunities to serve His saints and our brethren in the U.K., France, and the Philippines.

I am thankful to Donna for all of her patient help without which this trip would have been impossible.  I am thankful to be home with her again!
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Wednesday was used as a day of rest in Davao City – this was my first full day without preaching appointments other than travel days since I left home July 25.  We visited some houses of our brethren which are under construction after they were forced to move by their landowner.  They are making good progress, partly due to funds donated by U.S. saints.

Next, we visited the grave of Juanito Balbin who died February 6 of this year.  He has been my dear friend and co-worker for 20 years or more.  His sons Dudley, Sonni, and Connie faithfully continue the Lord’s work in the Davao City area and beyond, wherever they find open doors.  In fact, during last year they have received invitations to preach and to teach singing classes in other parts of the Philippines.  They along with James Paet recently labored with Shamar Cajigas at the Seaside church near Toledo City on the island of Cebu, which was very successful.

It was interesting to learn in email that some parents are reading these reports to their children to open their eyes to the spread of the gospel around the world.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

A 2-day Bible lectureship on “The Authority of Christ” began Friday in Kidapawan City, capital of North Cotabato where Danny Angeles preaches.  He has friends and contacts who are denominational preachers and he worked very hard inviting them.  He used to be a preacher in the Missionary Alliance Church and he has a burden to help these friends and contacts learn the true and original gospel of Christ.  No less than 140 souls gathered today in a facility rented for these lectures.  This is in a screened meeting hall, so we enjoyed Philippine summer heat, but no one complained and our audience was very attentive as they were hearing many new things.

Four lessons took them through a study of the authority of Christ’s teaching in the New Testament, how it can be understood like any other message, how men drifted away from it in the gradual formation of the Roman Catholic religion, and how the Protestant reformation occurred as men broke away from Catholicism and searched for the true gospel.  Falling short of the true gospel, the denominational system emerged from this process.

The open forum was very fruitful with questions about how to convert Catholics, baptism and grace, how to seek pardon of sins committed after baptism, the difference between water baptism and Holy Spirit baptism, how the thief on the cross was saved, and other typical questions from our denominational friends hearing the true gospel for the first time.  Yes, I admit to being a little tired after teaching for at least 5 hours, but what a wonderful privilege to spend that time with people willing to study God’s Holy Word!
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

On Monday we left the hotel early to drive an hour to the airport, then caught a plane to Cebu City and another one to General Santos City in southern Mindanao, arriving about 3:30 P.M.  Salvador Parbo met us and brought us to our hotel.  I ate super in my room because I was working on my report, tomorrow’s sermons, and email.   This has been a long day with a lot of travel and my body forced me to go to bed before 11:00 P.M., which does not happen often.

A 2-day lectureship on “God’s Truth Defeats Satan’s Lies” was planned for the Lanton church in General Santos City where Jolly Julom serves as an evangelist, and we started Tuesday.  Well over 100 souls heard 2 morning lessons on “God’s Truth VS Satan’s Lies” and 2 afternoon sermons on “Overcoming Sin.”  This was a very attentive audience in spite of the summer heat.  My clothes were soaked with sweat again today, but the heat was more bearable because a light cloud cover shielded the church building from the sun’s direct heat.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

On Friday we traveled by van 6 hours from Pagadian City in the Province of Zamboanga del Sur to Cagayan de Oro City in the Province of Misamis Oriental.  Our driver was safe but pushed hard to get us here as soon as possible.  On one stop we lost 45 minutes in the drive-through lane of a KFC.  I have never been a fan of drive-through service because 99% of the time I can be in-and-out before the cars in the drive-through lane can give their orders!  There is a time to keep quiet, though, so I kept quiet.  By God’s grace we arrived before dark, giving me time to prepare for tomorrow and work on the backlog of emails, plus take exercise.  I got to bed at 12:30 AM after talking with Donna to be sure she is doing well – she continue to make progress.

57 souls gathered at the Box 1 church in Cagayan de Oro City for all-day preaching Saturday where Stephen Carpentero and Nonoy Andallon labor in the gospel.  A large number of young people attended and paid close attention to the 2 morning sermons on “God’s Truth VS Satan’s Lies” and the 2 afternoon lessons on “Overcoming Sin.”  This was a rare occasion because no questions were raised in the open forum – everyone said they were satisfied with our studies.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Our flight from Zamboanga City to Cebu City on Monday was delayed several times so that we missed our connection to Pagadian City.  Cebu Pacific Airlines put us in a hotel in Cebu City and rescheduled us to get our connecting flight the next day.  Meanwhile, this made it possible for Jack, Adel, and me to visit Jonathan Carino in the hospital where he had surgery Saturday to remove a bone in his big toe because of serious infection complicated by diabetes.  His recovery is going well and he can return home tomorrow but cannot travel for a month.  He must use a wheelchair to get around.

To catch our Tuesday plane to Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur on Mindanao required getting up at 6:00 A.M.  Arriving in Pagadian City mid-morning, we checked into our hotel, took a short rest, ate a light lunch, then started the lectures at the Bogo church on the theme “God’s Truth Defeats Satan’s Lies” at 2:00 P.M.  Without the morning session, all 4 of today’s sermons had to be preached this afternoon.

Starting with 2 lessons on “God’s Truth VS Satan’s Lies,” I then followed with another 2 sermons on “Overcoming Sin,” finishing just before 7:00 P.M.  Because of the late start, there was no open forum.  After getting to my room after supper, I worked some, exercised, reviewed tomorrow’s sermons, and fell into bed at 12:30 A.M.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

On the 9^th of August I flew from Manila to Zamboanga City located on the far western edge of the island of Mindanao where there are many Muslims.  I was here over 20 years ago with Ramon Carino.  He showed me the Catholic Church where as a young man he helped the priest gather Bibles from the community to burn them oin the church!  He later became a true Christian and a dedicated gospel preacher who died in 2018.  Subsequently, it became unsafe to visit here because of Muslim tenstions, but last year it was safe and I returned, and again this year.  Jack and Adel Jaco met me to work with Alvin Miguel and other saints of the Canelar church.

A function room was rented near our hotel for 2 days of Bible preaching on the theme “The Authority of Christ,” beginning Saturday.   About 60 of us gathered, starting the lessons at 8:30 A.M. with local visitors and with preachers who traveled as far as 185 miles.  In the morning session we studied Christ’s authority is expressed in Scripture, his authority as our Savior and head of the church, then in the afternoon gradual departures from the true gospel resulting in the formation of Roman Catholicism.  Next came the reaction against the corruptions of Catholicism resulting in the Protestant Reformation which produced a multitude of denominations.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

On Monday, August 5, Edwin Cortez guided me to the Paris airport and helped me check in with my suitcase and 2 large boxes of Bibles and books to distribute in the Philippines.  A Qatar Airways flight flew about 7 hours to a luxurious airport in Doha, Qatar (oil money on display!), where I caught a 9-hour flight to Manila, arriving at 8:15 A.M. on Tuesday.

This has been a busy but good day after arriving here.  Elias Cruz with several other brethren met me at the hotel to unpack the boxes and organize the packages according to their labels so they can be shipped ahead by plane and bus to the various venues where I will preach, God willing.  After running typical first-day errands, reviewing the 4 sermons for tomorrow, and exercising, I got to bed by midnight – a little earlier than last week – hoping to boost my stamina.

God has given me the privilege to preach at the Kapitbahayan church of Christ in Navotas, Metro Manila many time since Jim McDonald first brought me to the Philippines in 1995.  Ben Cruz was an evangelist with this church for many years, but he passed away and now his son Elias continues the work.  It was my privilege to preach there again Wednesday to about 50 souls as we began a 2-day Bible lectureship on “God’s Truth Defeats Satan’s Lies.”
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