Dear family, brethren, and friends,

By the good grace of God, I arrived home shortly before time for the Wednesday night Bible study at the Hebron Lane church this evening.  It is good to be back with my beloved wife Donna and all the saints here.

Meanwhile, my heart is filled with joy and thanksgiving for another safe trip working for Christ in the Philippines with many dear saints there.  I hope and pray all the lessons taught from God’s Holy Word will continue to bear fruit to the glory of God.  I hope to see the 15 souls converted to Christ in heaven some day with all of God’s faithful saints from the Philippines and around the world.  

Dear family, brethren, and friends,

The lectures in General Santos City on the home and family life continued on Wednesday with a full room as on the previous two days.  As I teach, I am calling on men scattered in the room to read passages out loud relating to the lesson and they are participating well.  

Today, having finished my lessons from the workbook on “Family Life,” I proceeded with 4 lessons on “Man’s Leadership in the Home,” whereas Jonathan and Jack finished teaching their lessons from the workbook.  The husband is responsible to set the tone and the direction of his family’s life, which is exactly why Joshua said, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Josh. 24:15).  These lessons covered the imperative of personal spiritual growth as a foundation for effective leadership in the home.  We then studied how to grow personally, grow in leading a wife, grow in leading our children, and grow in leading the family as a unit.  Some of the men expressed that they were inspired to be better leaders when they go home by implementing what we studied.

Dear family, brethren, and friends,

On February 13, I woke up before 5:30 AM to go to the Tuguegarao airport and fly to Manila, wait about 3 hours, then catch a plane with James Paet to General Santos City in the Province of South Cotabato in southern Mindanao.  This city is considered “The Tuna Capital of the World.”  Jack Jaco from Victorias City on Negros had arrived ahead of us.  It was 3:30 PM when I got checked into my hotel.  The last several days left me exhausted in body, voice, and mind, so I took an hour-long nap before taking my daily walk to rebuild my stamina.  Fortunately, Saturday was already scheduled as a day for rest and study. 

I was not prepared for the weather to be 89 degrees Fahrenheit with high humidity in the winter, but we are only 400 miles north of the equator.  I am just thankful we are not immersed in the summer heat!  The stark change of atmosphere gave James Paet and me miserable head colds, but we are surviving by the grace of God.

Dear family, brethren, and friends,

A Saturday morning flight brought me from Manila to Tuguegarao in the Province of Cagayan where Rody, Tessie, and Jay Gumpad with Jimmy Domingo and his wife were waiting at the airport.  After our lunch, I unpacked, rested, and worked on email.  In the evening, I walked for an hour but was not able to see the moon.  After supper, I reviewed my sermon and answered a few emails before sleeping shortly before midnight.

On the Lord’s Day it was a privilege to worship with the saints at the Metro Tuguegarao church of Christ as I have done dozens of times through the years since my first trip in 1995 with Jim McDonald.  Rody Gumpad pioneered this church January 1, 1984 and has been steadily evangelizing this region so that 148 churches are active now, and, of course, many other good men have been laboring as well as he.  

Dear family, brethren, and friends,

I got 2 hours sleep the last night at home, February 2, and had safe flights from Louisville to Manila as I napped and worked on a sermon.  By the time I got to my hotel and got to bed in Manila, it was 3:00 AM on Wednesday.  This morning four Filipino preachers met me here and repacked the boxes of Bibles and study materials to ship ahead to the venues where I will be teaching.  When I went to the moneychanger, the employees said they opened 13 years ago and I was among their first customers, and they wonder why I always look the same, no older!  Of course, I do not know when they last had their glasses checked because I will be 80 on May 7, God willing!  

In addition to jetlag and the 12-hour time change, I am adjusting to the winter weather change.  I left snow, sleet, and ice with temperatures plummeting to single digits and zero.  Now, daytime temperatures are in the mid-80’s, plummeting to mid-70’s at night, and I failed to bring a heavy coat.  I know you all pity me (smile, if you can).  A bright beautiful moon overlooks Manila tonight in a clear sky – can you see it there where you are?

PLEASE SHARE THIS LETTER ON GOSPEL PREACHING IN THE PHILIPPINES!

January 8, 2026^th Year of Our Lord

Dear brethren,

God willing, I plan to preach in the Philippines February 2-25 for the 93^rd time, thanks to Jim McDonald who introduced me to this work in 1995 by the grace of God.  This trip will concentrate on the vital work of edifying the saints in regard to marriage and morals, along with opportunities to preach to the lost also.  

The theme for these lessons of edification will be “God, Give Us Christian Homes,” based on Psalm 127, “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.  It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows:  for so he giveth his beloved sleep.  Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD:  and the fruit of the womb is his reward.  As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man;  so are children of the youth.  Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them:  they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.” With the Bible as our textbook, we will use L.A. Stauffer’s study of “Family Life: a Biblical Perspective.”

Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Tuesday I was at the clinic at 7:00 AM for the endoscopy ordered by the doctor and received mostly good news.  My esophagus and stomach are infected with some kind bacteria, but the doctor gave me prescriptions for medicines which should clear it up.  I am even more confident because of your prayers and God’s healing hands.

By the time the test was finished and we had the medicines, it was 11:00 and Rolly Salvador drove fast and furious to get me to the Alzate church in Villasis, Pangasinan where Armenio Olino serves as an evangelist.  Rody Gumpad went ahead of us to preach in the morning to maximize the time and we arrived at 1:00 PM.  I preached two lessons focusing on Acts 2 entitled “The First Gospel Sermon.”  Today’s attendance was 73 and three precious souls submitted to Christ for their salvation by being baptized.  

Dear family, brethren, and friends,

I regret to say that for several nights I have not been able to find the moon, but I know it is there – reminding us of God’s grace and our love for each other when we see it.  

On Saturday morning Rolly Salvador drove us from Rosario in the Province of La Union to Baguio City which is an independent city in the geographical region of the Province of Benguet.  Our journey required climbing to an elevation of 4,900 feet and my body has struggled to adjust to this radical change. 

Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Let me start by correcting the first report which said 200 attended at Allistitan – the correct number was 50.  I was in the hospital and did not get the correct information until much later (thank you, Daniel). 

Our Tuesday appointment was with Leonito Torreliza and the other saints at Candon City, Ilocos Sur.  Leonito has labored for over 40 years in the gospel here in this area.  The meeting place is a large room at the front of his house, and it was filled with 46 people today.  Mark Wallace started the morning with a study of Noah’s life, character, and work.  Then, I preached on “The Prison of Sin” (1 Pet. 3:19).  Rody Gumpad summarized the lessons in the dialect.

After lunch Mark discussed preparing for eternity and I preached “After Death, What Then?”  As nearly always happens after I preach this sermon, additional discussion is generated by good questions which are raised.  This is because the unseen world is so far different from our world that God can give only pictures of things we know to represent the things we cannot see and cannot fully understand in our present state.   The sum of it all is this.  God is preparing us to spend eternity with Him in heaven and the fullness of heaven is being with God, while the fullness of hell is the miserable experience of being without God forever.

Dear family, brethren, and friends,

By the grace of God, I have the assistance of Mark Wallace on this trip.  He is an elder at the  Oldham Woods church in La Grange, Kentucky.  Our flight from Louisville to Detroit was delayed Monday morning because the extremely cold air forced them to de-ice the plane, i.e., to spray it with chemicals to remove any ice and to prevent ice forming which might cause the plane to crash.  There was time in Detroit to grab a short breakfast and board our next flight to Seoul, South Korea, from where we flew straight to Manila. Because of weather and wind, the flight to Seoul required 14½ hours.  After arriving in Manila at 10:30 PM on Tuesday, we immediately knew we were no longer in the land of ice and snow but in the land of heat and humidity.  After checking in at the hotel, I went to the exercise room for 45 minutes in order to gain more strength and stamina for the next day.