Dear family, brethren, and friends,

On Saturday, August 20, I bade Jonathan Carino and Jack Jaco goodbye in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental.  As they returned to their homes after a job well done, I flew to Manila for the last phase of my trip.  After getting to the hotel in Manila, I caught up on some email, exercised, and reviewed lessons for Sunday.

It was a joy to join with the saints on the Lord’s Day at the Edsa-Pasay church in Manila with Rody and Tessie Gumpad, Sammy Paet, and the other brethren.  Rody and Tessie just arrived from the U.S. on Thursday, so it was an extra treat to see Junior and Jay here to welcome their parents home and to help with services.  Seventy attended the morning service, which set a new record.

My first sermon was on “God Made Us Male and Female (Gen. 1:27),” showing the clarity of the Bible on gender identity and roles.  Facebook offers subscribers 58 gender options!  Our world is sinking into the darkness, confusion, and perversion of rampant sin, but God’s Word is the power to defeat the cancer of sin.  The second lesson presented “God’s Weather Forecast (Gen. 8:22),” showing that God will sustain the universe and the weather cycles until the end of time in spite of the claims of arrogant men that humans will end it by causing a new ice age or global warming – both predictions have been made.

The wife of Larry Bunch, a retired gospel preacher living in TX, has been seriously sick and near death, so I requested she be included in our closing prayer. At the last report she was showing some small improvement.

After lunch I had an appointment for a home Bible study with the widow, daughter, sisters, and nephew of Atoy Franco who passed away in April.  I urged them to follow his example by asking, seeking, and knocking in order to find the true kingdom of God.  We studied “The Gospel Makes Us Right with God (Rom. 1:16-17)” reviewing the right God, the right Savior, the right gospel, the right baptism, the right church, and the right life.  Most of their questions and objections centered on baptism, which is to be expected from people from denominational backgrounds.  No one was angry or offended, but as we clarified the points they made one by one, they obviously began to understand better.  I left them some CD’s and reading materials, and they expressed great appreciation for our two hours of study.  Rody, Tessie, and Sammy accompanied me and we hope they will have opportunities to follow up.

We hurried to the home of Jaime Battung where a church service had been concluded earlier, but serveral members were still present.  Brother Battung, one of his daughters, and some of his grandchildren studied with me for at least an hour to examine some points he encountered on instrumental music. Finally, there were no more questions – Jaime is now better equipped to answer false teachers. This whole family continues to learn and grow.

My day had lasted almost exactly 12 hours.  Though a long exhausting day, it was also an encouraging and fruitful day in serving the Lord and sowing the seed of His kingdom.  The small air conditioning unit at the Edsay-Pasay church was not working, so I was soaking wet with sweat after the morning service.  During the lunch hour I came to the hotel and changed my clothes, but the two afternoon engagements left me wet also.  I did not know I was becoming seriously dehydrated.

When Jim McDonald first brought me to the Philippines, we visited the church at Kapitbahayan in Navotas, part of Metro Manila.  This is the port area and it is overflowing with squatters and very poor people living in makeshift shanties of all descriptions.  No pictures can capture the sights, sounds, and smells of this area, but I have grown to love it for the Lord’s work being done there.  Ben Cruz continued preaching here for many years until his death, and his family with other saints have vigorously and sacrificially continued the work. It seems this family and these saints have adopted me as one of their own, and it is always uplifting to visit them again.

Monday at the Kapitbahayan church I presented three studies to show the Bible is God’s inspired Word in contrast to the Apocrypha (9 books included in the Catholic Old Testament), pseudepigrapha (dozens of books fraudulently using the names of Bible characters to give the appearance of credibility), and an assortment of phony “lost books” of the Bible.  Many preachers always attend such gatherings at Kapitbahayan along with other members, and we had a typically interesting open forum with a wide variety of questions about such things as amulets, who can baptize, descriptions of the church, how to instruct visitors, and distinguishing saints who are simply growing in knowledge from false teachers.

At the day’s end I noticed my voice weakening, but it did not seem so serious.  When we arrived at the hotel, I could barely whisper.  I was also feeling unusually weak and tired but thought it would pass with rest.  When I awoke Tuesday morning to prepare to preach at Bicas in North Caloocan City with Ely Ebuenga, I still had no voice and could hardly whisper.  By God’s providence Ely was able to quickly arrange for Jimmy Bobis to preach and two precious souls were baptized.

Meanwhile, I texted Dr. Teresa Toreja about the situation and she insisted I come to the clinic after learning my symptoms.  Upon examination she found I was suffering from laryngitis complicated by being seriously dehydrated.  The latter surprised me because I have been drinking copious amounts of water while preaching to avoid that very problem, but heavy sweating causes the loss of electrolytes which water does not replace and which I was not replacing quickly enough in my diet.  She put me on an IV for 7 hours and had me consume enough medicine to open a pharmacy, some of which induced deep sleep.  When I would periodically awake, the quiet time in a corner of her clinic passed rapidly in seasons of prayer and thanksgiving.

I have lost count of the times Teresa has bailed me out of trouble here in the Philippines.  Only God knows how many other saints she has helped including gospel preachers visiting from the U.S.

Today, Wednesday, I am taking five medicines on a strict schedule and slowly gaining strength, yet my voice is barely a whisper.  Sammy Paet took me to the Philippine Bible Society this morning where I concluded an order for 1,301 Bibles for brethren in various parts of the Philippines because of the love shown by many people reading this report!  Thank you on my behalf but most especially on  behalf of the Philippine brethren who will use these Bibles.  God will not forget your generous sacrifices and service.

God willing, tomorrow I begin the 24 hours travel to reach home and to be reunited with Donna and all of my loved ones there.  I just hope I can muster my voice to talk to her, but, if not, I guess we can both look at the moon.

It should be crystal clear to everyone that the real heroes of faith in the Philippine work are our Filipino brethren!  We can encourage and edify them, but they are the ones who bear the burdens and fight the good fight of faith day in and day out without adequate financial resources and without study tools we take for granted.  My association with saints throughout the Philippines makes me a better Christian and a better preacher.  I thank God for each and everyone of them, and for all the saints in other countries who hold up their hands in proclaiming the everlasting gospel.

In Christian love,
Ron Halbrook

To see good Bible study material, go to:
http://www.HebronChurchOfChrist.com
http://www.biblework.com
http://www.truthmagazine.com
http://www.CEIbooks.com