December 8, 2014^th Year of Our Lord

Dear family, friends, & brethren,

God blessed the flights on December 1-2 from Louisville to Manila to be smoother than normal with arrival before 10:00 PM, which is very unusual. The first night of sleep is always very welcome because I work all night before leaving home, then work on charts and take naps during the 24 hour trip.

 

I was busy Wednesday reviewing and preparing to teach for the next several days. When I return from New Zealand, I will make a large order of Bibles in various dialects at the Philippine Bible Society to be shipped throughout the country. Today I submitted a list of the various recipients and translations so that the whole day will not be consumed finalizing the order when I return. This is an excellent opportunity to get Bibles into waiting hands! Thank you for all who have donated toward this effort!

A new typhoon was approaching from the east on a trajectory reaching the central Visayan Islands by Sunday. This typhoon named Ruby was building up strength nearly as strong and deadly as the record-breaking Yolanda which hit the same area November 8, 2013 killing 6,000-7,000 people. We prayed it might weaken or turn back out to sea.

It was a joy to return to the church at Kapitbahayan in Navotas, Metro Manila on Thursday, December 4. When Jim McDonald first brought me to the Philippines in 1995, I became acquainted with these good brethren and their work. Ben Cruz was the longtime evangelist here who died October 27, 2011 . His son Elias continues laboring with this church as an evangelist. Ben’s daughter Teresa is a medical doctor who has a clinic here in Navotas serving the very poor, especially brethren. Her husband, Jerry Toreja, serves as an elder alongside Fred Gonzales.

Before returning home last August, I was requested to visit Kapitbahayan to teach on leadership in the church because they want to appoint more elders, and deacons as well. Coincidentally, I was preparing a study of “Leadership in the Church” to be published as a workbook by the Guardian of Truth Foundation this fall. The appointment was made and I brought the very first copies of the workbook off the press. Sixty attended the first day, Thursday, as we began three full days of study. Many preachers were present including some from other provinces and islands.

The workbook is formatted to generate class participation. I called on the participants to read the passages and drew them into discussing various applications. The participation was excellent.

On this first day we started by covering two lessons on “Leadership in the Home.” I began by pointing out that personal spiritual growth is the foundation of true leadership. A man who wants to be a good husband and a good father must grow spiritually to succeed. Next we studied two lessons on how leaders establish and exert leadership by first becoming good examples, thus gaining the moral character and capital to lead. We covered a lot of ground and the participants made excellent contributions by their comments and questions.

Friday we resumed our class by emphasizing the necessity of leaders having a holy character as set forth in 1 Timothy 2:8. The next lessons deal with such specific roles as leading in public worship, teaching and preaching, and duties of elders. Again, the participants contributed much with thoughtful observations and questions.

Saturday was another full and productive day covering qualifications of elders, duties and qualifications of deacons, various problems in applying certain qualifications, the importance of the woman’s role, and difficult challenges faced by leaders. The participation could not have been better.

The Sunday A.M. service at Kapitbahayan starts at 7:30. We arrived shortly after 7:00 and I was able to greet many of the brethren as they entered the church building. My first lesson focused on “Deacons in God’s Plan for the Church” followed by “Elders Guide and Guard Souls” during the worship hour. The church building was full with over 100 in attendance.

I had hoped to do some additional work including a report upon my return to the hotel, but these four days left me utterly exhausted. I had worked on preparing to teach until 1:00-2:00 A.M. each night, so my body demanded some rest for some strange reason. The first week is hard anyway because the body is adjusting to the twelve hour time change (12 noon in the U.S. is 12 midnight in the Philippines). Also, I was watching the weather reports and gathering information on typhoon Ruby which hit the Visayan Islands in the eastern Philippines and was headed toward Manila.

Fortunately, my 10:30 P.M. flight to Australia made it out of Manila just ahead of the typhoon. Jerry Toreja works for an airline and had inside information that the airport might be shut down because of the approaching typhoon. There was considerable turbulence in our exit from Manila but afterward the flight was smooth. Although sitting in an airplane seat is not the most comfortable way to sleep, I was so tired I managed to sleep the whole way, waking up only occasionally to shift positions. After eight hours coveing almost 4,000 miles, we landed in Sydney, Australia on Monday, December 8. While changing planes I found a breakfast of an omelet, Danish, and hot chocolate for $35.00! Australia is not cheap.

Sydney had been having storms including hail and the airport had been shut down Sunday, so outbound flights were full. I was in row 59 of the huge Boeing 777 New Zealand Airlines aircraft which seats 450 people. The flight covered 1,350 miles in three hours, bringing us to Auckland, New Zealand about 5:00 P.M. The time zone here is five hours ahead of the Philippines, so I began another adjustment in my body clock – a small price to pay for the great privilege of proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ! I look forward to the next several days of work here in New Zealand.

Later, I received information that typhoon Ruby had slowed and weakened before hitting Samar and by the time it reached Manila it was more of a tropical depression producing a lot of rain rather than a dangerous typhoon. The rain without the destructive features of the typhoon is a blessing to agriculture and to the water table. There are brethren in the Visayas who need food, shelter, and medicine, but only about 21 people died whereas in typhoon Yolanda last year 6,000-7,000 died. I saw a message that our brethren in Bogo City on the island of Cebu were hit again by Ruby and need help as soon as possible. Here are the names of some brethren who have contacts in the affected regions and who could help to get funds to those who are suffering: Jonathan Carino (jrcarino@yahoo.com), Jack Jaco (sigualdo@yahoo.com), Lordy Salunga (lordys2005@hotmail.com), and Rody Gumpad (rodyc.gumpad@gmail.com).

I hope everyone is noticing the moon – it is still there – and it is our high tech communication device!

In Christian love, Ron Halbrook