Dear family, brethren, and friends,

ALERT: Preaching is never dull work, including reports, and we get plenty of advice.  Some brethren like reports cut to the bone, short, with only the most essential information (I understand: you have other things to do than read long reports).  Others tell me the most interesting parts of these reports are the details of what is taught including the open forum discussions.  So, short, or elaborated?  This one includes elaboration on the open forum discussions because so many interesting questions were submitted.  Therefore, some of you may need to delete this report before wading into it. You can please some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time, as the saying goes!  Feel free to smile here, if you like!

Salvador Parbo took Mark and me from Kidapawan City to Davao City early Monday morning to catch our flights about 1:00 P.M. – Mark to Cebu City to work with Chris Reeves, but James Paet and me flew to Manila.  Jaime, James’ daughter, was kind enough to meet James and me at the Manila airport with James’ vehicle.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

The Kidapawan lectures on “How to Study the Bible” continued Saturday with another full house.  The corrected attendance Friday was 138 including 47 denominational preachers and today we had 108 with 34 denominational preachers.  Mark’s topics were study by context, take all the Bible says, and the silence of Scripture.  My lessons focused on translations and word studies, the historical context of passages, and the Bible’s use of figurative language.

The open forum was very productive again.  One denominational preacher who returned today explained he was taught that Ephesians 4:8-11 means Jesus went into hades to save people who died during the Old Testament times.  The passage is not discussing what Jesus did to save certain people but how he conquered sin and death, then ascended to heaven to equip his saints to serve him in different roles.  Hebrews 9:15 shows the perfect sacrifice of Christ saved Old Testament people who lived and died by faith in God and His promises to send the Savior.  Sinners in hades cannot change their status (Lk. 16:26).
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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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