October 6, 2019th Year of our Lord

Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Wednesday was a difficult day because it was largely devoted to preparing an open letter to a Filipino brother who has fallen into sin.  Benji Tacis in the province of Abra on Luzon had stolen over $3,000 in benevolence funds entrusted to him by Mark Mayberry and me almost a year ago.  I knew there was a problem about six months ago, but it has been a long and tortuous process to document the facts because the intended recipients live in remote areas (which is why we asked Ben to deliver aid to them).  Difficulties in travel and communication required great patience and persistence.  Once all the information was gathered and confirmed from the six churches, I urgently needed to confront and admonish Ben to repent while also warning brethren not to entrust funds to him.  Mark’s input was also included in this letter.

I hated to leave the saints at Brighton on Thursday as I flew to Paris.  To learn more about the church in Brighton, go to their web site at churchofchristinbrighton.com (be sure to include the letters “in” as shown to avoid going to the web site of an institutional group involved in the social gospel and centralized projects).  They occupied the present church building in 1890 but began meeting in 1868 (and no, I was not there at that time! 🙂 ).  The address is Brighton Church of Christ, 11 Oxford St., Brighton, UK (contact Constant Coulibaly at 44-798-485-9904).  There are five Brits in the congregation rather than one as I reported, but I met only the one.

God granted me a safe flight with a good nap and I arrived at the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris about 6:00 P.M.  It was uplifting to see the smiling face of brother Edwin Cortez as I emerged from the terminal.  Our taxi drive to the hotel took over an hour in the rush-hour traffic.  I ate supper, went to the exercise room, worked till about 1:30 A.M., called Donna before going to bed, and slept well through the night.

The brethren were at their jobs on Friday and it was a full day of work for me as well.  In addition to reading and responding to as many email messages as possible, I reviewed sermons for Paris and completed the painful task which had begun on Wednesday in preparing the message to Ben Tacis.  After communicating with Mark Mayberry and revising the message several times to insure its accuracy, I finally sent it today in the form of an open letter from Mark and myself.  While we hope Ben will repent, actually brethren have not been able to locate him for several months.

Dealing with this matter has been intense and exhausting as well as deeply disappointing, but it was necessary in the interest of the integrity of our work in the Philippines. I dealt with some of the tension of this task with prayer and with exercise several times today.  I was able to get to bed by 12:30 A.M.

Saturday was another full but rewarding day!  After a good night of rest I reviewed PowerPoint lessons over breakfast in preparing for tonight.  Shortly after 10:00 Edwin arrived for a period of Bible study here in the hotel.  He is geographically isolated and rarely has an opportunity to discuss the preacher’s work and challenges with sound brethren, so we started with a range of questions about how to better edify our brethren, deal with internal problems which arise, and prevent error from penetrating the church.  Next, we studied a textual lesson on “The Heart of the Preacher” from Philippians 1 to encourage Edwin to press on.  He certainly has the heart of a preacher as he has been holding forth the gospel here for 17 years without reinforcements!

We parted about 1:45 P.M. as he went ahead to complete some arrangements and I grabbed a quick lunch while working on this report, rested, and prepared to meet him again.  Edwin returned at 5:00 P.M. and led me through Paris on the rail service running above and below ground to reach the apartment of Lorenzo and Bonnie Mora (she is Edwin’s sister).  Some of the brethren who planned to attend sent messages that their employers required them to work. Most Filipino brethren here have jobs at the lower end of the economic system and their bosses are not flexible when they ask time off.  Seven of us gathered and I urged them to not be discouraged because we can have a profitable study with few or many.  We know more of them will be able to come to Sunday worship.

I am providing lesson outlines in booklet form on the theme “What It Means to be a Christian” as I did in Brighton.  About 7:15 Edwin led some songs using a digital songbook obtained from Truth Publications and the singing was excellent!  This was followed by a study of “Evidence God Exists” and “The Moral Glory of Christ.”  We dismissed at 9:00 and ate a delicious supper.  At 9:45 we turned our attention to the lesson entitled “When Peter Confessed Christ” in Matthew 16:13-19.  The floor was opened at 10:30 for questions, but everyone said the teaching was very clear.

They were greatly thankful for the Bibles, books, workbooks, CD’s, and tracts provided.  They want to cultivate more evangelistic efforts in the community but were recently stunned at a printer’s proposed charge to print a few simple announcements.  They plan to stamp contact information on the backs of the dozens of tracts I brought to distribute in the community wherever possible.

I was back in my room by about midnight, worked on some email correspondence, visited Donna on the phone, and fell into the bed at 1:30 A.M.

The weather in Paris has been rainy and cool (50’s F), but the Lord’s Day is a clear and beautiful day.  While eating breakfast I reviewed the three sermons I will preach when the saint meet this afternoon.

Edwin met me at the hotel about 1:45 P.M. and we traveled by rail again to a restaurant where the saints rent a small room for worship.  Filipinos live in apartment buildings here and do not have automobiles.  Therefore, they must travel by bus and rail far and wide to gather for Bible studies and for worship.  Every such gathering involves out-of-pocket expenses for travel to and from the meeting place.

The small room in the restaurant was filled with 15-20 people including our visitors and it was quite warm.  I told them it seems we are back in the Philippines, but no one complained.  In the past songbooks had to be carried back and forth to the services, but that heavy burden was removed by the digital songbook.  The brethren put their hearts into the singing when we started at 3:00 P.M.  My first sermon was “Back to the Bible.”  After the Lord’s Supper and the collection, we studied “The Prison of Sin” and “Lord, To Whom Shall We Go?”  In spite of the heat, everyone was very attentive.

After we dismissed at 6:00, we enjoyed sharing our supper at this Chinese restaurant.   When I finally left for the hotel, they implored me to return and to teach them more.  One sister has relatives in the Philippines on Panay Island at Iloilo City – next time I visit that area, she wants to urge them to come and listen.  Her father spearheaded the project to build a Catholic chapel in their village, but she wants him to hear the pure and original gospel of Christ.

What an honor and a privilege it is to encourage saints who are not ashamed to fight the good fight of faith in spite of their small number in this spiritual wasteland of materialism and secularism.  I thank God and the brethren who make these trips possible for this high and holy privilege.  May God bless their efforts to spread and to defend the gospel of Christ until our Savior returns.

Please pray for the saints in Paris!  If you come to Paris, contact Edwin Cortez via email at edwincortez0930@gmail.com or by cell phone at 0033-62-307-6863 to join the worship at the Gourmet Grill, 9 Boulevard Ornano, 93200 Saint-Denis, France.

And pray for me as I begin the long trip home early tomorrow morning.

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.truthbooks.com