December 20, 2022^nd Year of Our Lord

Dear brethren,
 
God blessed me through Jim McDonald when he took me to the Philippines in 1995 and my 80^th trip was completed November 29-December 20.  It was a great privilege and joy to work with Filipino saints again.  I had 54 opportunities to teach and 19 souls submitted to Christ in baptism to wash away their sins.

When there was a great harvest of both Jews and Gentiles at Antioch in Acts 11, the church at Jerusalem sent Barnabas to help, “who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord” (vs. 23).  Anytime there is a great harvest such as has been happening in the Philippines, Satan works overtime trying to pull young saints back into the darkness of sin.  While I did some teaching on first principles, I concentrated on exhorting saints to cleave to the Lord.  Saints in every place need this constant reminder.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

By the grace of God I arrived home safely from the Philippines about midnight December 20, happy and thankful to be reunited with Donna.  As a result of exhaustion and stomach pain, I spent most of Wednesday in bed and was not able to attend our midweek Bible study.  It is Thursday morning here in the U.S. as I write this notice and I woke up feeling some better.  I expect to recover quickly, God willing.  There is much work waiting to be done here at the Hebron Lane church of Christ and I will do my  best to concentrate on these opportunities to serve the Lord.

It is always uplifting to see the faith, hope, and love of Filipino saints as we labor together in the gospel!  There were 19 baptisms, but the focus of this trip was on edifying the saints and fortifying their faith as we fight to maintain our faith in this wicked world.  I especially emphasized the dangers of pornography which have spread worldwide due to such easy access via the internet and cell phones.  I also had several opportunities to preach to young people on “Selecting a Mate” for marriage.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

We left the hotel before 7:00 A.M. and a three hour trip brought us to Bogo City on Tuesday to work with Rupert Ramirez.  Shortly before arriving, we stopped at the house of Gil Suico along the highway to invite him to join us.  He was a tireless work for God for several years until he got discouraged and fell away.  He was glad to see us and joined us for the whole day of preaching.

My morning lessons were “From Wretched Man to More Than Conquerors” and “The New Testament Church.”  After lunch we studied “The Reformation” including its accomplishments and its failure to restore New Testament Christianity, followed by “Come Out of Her, My People.”

During the open forum, a denominational preacher asked several questions regarding whether baptism is essential for the forgiveness of sin and whether people baptized in denominations need to be baptized again.  Yes, it is essential according to many clear passages such as Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16; Galatians 3:26-27; and 1 Peter 3:21.  Yes, people who have received a baptism which is not for the remission of sins need to be scripturally baptized.  He also asked for more clarification of the difference between the Old and New Testaments, so we studied Galatians 3:24-27 for several minutes.  It was obvious his mind was open and he wants to study with Rupert more.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Jack and I left the hotel in Bacolod City on Friday at 6:30 A.M. to catch our flight to Cebu City on the island of Cebu.  We were met by our dear friends Jonathan and Nanette Carino who live and labor in the Lord here.

The weather blessed us during the past week on Negros because the constant rain they had been having relented.  It resumed last night and is forecast to continue every day.  Daily rain is also forecast here on Cebu for the week ahead, with temperatures in the high 80’s, so we will pray for safety as we travel and teach.

Every night on Negros I worked hard to get to bed at a decent hour, but preparing lessons, reports, and email messages kept me up until about 12:30 virtually every night.  Then we tried to get on the road by 8:00 A.M. each day to travel to our appointments.  Fortunately, no appointments were scheduled for today.  There is work to do, but I am getting a little extra rest as well.  Did someone say we are getting older and we can feel it?  Let’s just count our blessings every day and do whatever we can in serving the Lord.  The night is coming when we can no longer work, as Jesus said in John 9:4.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

The brethren at Victorias City where Jack Jaco preaches hosted a series of classes on “How to Study the Bible” Tuesday and Wednesday.  We used the excellent Truth In Life workbook by that title, written by Cecil Willis.  Our hope was to have 60-70 primarily young people, but over 100 participants joined us the first day, ranging from 11 years old upward.  While we hope this series will help prepare young men to preach, young ladies were also welcomed to improve their study skills and skills in teaching children.

I taught “The Bible: A Book to Study” and “Can We Understand the Bible?” in the first morning sessions.  After lunch Jack addressed “Reasons for Bible Study” and “Preparing the Heart.”  These topics were followed by my lesson on “Improper Attitudes and Methods of Study.”  Jack ended the day with “Rightly Dividing the Word.”  The students gladly participated in reading passages and several of them expressed appreciation for what they had learned after we dismissed.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

I slept about nine hours Friday night, which is not at all typical for me, but maybe it will help my body make the 12 hour time change.  Saturday morning was spent catching up on some email (cannot get it all done), and learning how to use the iCloud to connect pictures on my camera to my laptop (with guidance from Kevin Stilts via a lengthy phone call – thank you, brother!).

After lunch I went to the airport to fly to Bacolod City in the province of Negros Occidental on the island of Negros.  Since there are not enough gates at the Manila airport to accommodate all of the domestic flights, a bus took us out to board the plane on the tarmac.  The covers on one of the jet engines were wide open with technicians working on both sides of it, which was not very reassuring as we boarded!  The travel time from the Manila terminal to the Bacolod terminal was about two hours and the flight was late, but it was a delight to finally Jack Jaco’s smiling face again at last.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

The Philippine preaching trip scheduled for November 29-December 20 is now in progress.  By God’s grace my flights on Tuesday-Wednesday from Louisville to Manila were safe in spite of 120 mph headwinds from Detroit to South Korea which caused turbulence and delay.  As often happens, a Catholic Filipino sitting next to me became interested in my comments about the church of Christ going back to the basics of the original teaching of Christ and he asked for my contact number.  I was glad to finally fall into bed at 2:00 A.M. Thursday.

By the way, the temperature was 85 degrees when the plane landed at almost midnight – and I forgot to bring my overcoat and snowshoes  for this freeezing winter weather! 🙂
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