Philippines-Australia Trip Report #1 February 3-6, 2025
Dear family, brethren, and friends,
By God’s loving providence, my 89th trip to the Philippines (8th 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.
Wednesday was spent re-packing the 6 boxes I brought on the plane to ship Bibles and study materials to various venues where I will teach and distribute these items. Elias Cruz and James Paet have taken the lead in accomplishing this task for a number of years. I also went to the money changer and ran other errands, making a full day. After a good session of exercise, supper, study, email, and work on this report, I will not need anyone to rock me to sleep tonight.
And, what a beautiful half-moon God has given us tonight – did anyone else notice?
All of Thursday was devoted to the Edsa-Pasay church in Metro Manila, teaching 34 deaf mute brethren and visitors plus 2 who hear and speak. We started with “Bible Authority: Established and Applied,” as a foundation for the other lessons. Next came “The Social Gospel,” a false concept which introduces social welfare and recreational activities into the work of the church.
The afternoon was spent examining “Two Attitudes Toward God’s Word: Conservative and Liberal,” a two-part study. The conservative attitude seeks to strictly adhere to the authority of God’s Word as expressed by Jeremiah 6:16, “Ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein.” The liberal attitude takes liberties with God’s Word in departing from its authority, also expressed in Jeremiah 6:16, “But they said, We will not walk therein.”
These two divergent attitudes were manifested in the institutional division among churches of Christ beginning in the 1950’s. Conservative minded Christians insisted that (1) our faith and practice must be authorized by Scripture, (2) God ordained local churches to function independently and autonomously, (3) the nature and work of the church is spiritual, (4) benevolence from the church treasury is limited to needy saints, and (5) we must preach and apply all of God’s Word including instructions for the church and for godly lives by the members.
Liberal minded Christians asserted that (1) the silence of Scripture allows the church to act, (2) the work of churches may be centralized through large city churches and human institutions such as colleges, retirement homes, orphanages, and hospitals, (3) churches may engage in all sorts of social and recreational activities, (4) benevolence from the church treasury may be distributed to sinners in the world, and (5) preaching should focus on so-called “positive” themes and avoid so-called “negative” teaching which may offend people.
These liberal concepts have impacted Christians and churches in the Philippines. Preachers here have been supported by U.S. churches through a centralized arrangement called the sponsoring church. Colleges here have received donations from U.S. churches. Churches here have been taught to distribute benevolence funds and supplies to sinners in the world, and to sponsor parties, games, common meals, and contests. Deaf mute saints have been affected by these errors at times.
After the 4 lessons, the open forum covered assorted topics leading to clarification about how the baptism commanded by Christ is not the baptism practiced by denominations. Several first-time visitors expressed appreciation for what they learned, and one lady was baptized for the remission of her sins in the blood of the Lamb.
Today was physically exhausting but spiritually uplifting. It is always an inspiration to work with the deaf-mute saints because they try so hard to learn in spite of their handicaps – do I try as hard having far greater advantages? They are human just like the rest of us with all the same problems, challenges, and sins, but they must struggle much harder to learn the truth than the rest of us. May God bless them and bless us so that we all will be together in heaven some day!
In Christian love,
Ron Halbrook
To see good Bible study material, go to:
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https://www.truthmagazine.com