Philippines-Malaysia Report December 16-21, 2023
Dear family, brethren, and friends,
Our Saturday flights from Bacolod City on Negros to Cebu City on Cebu and on to Tacloban City on Leyte were uneventful and I napped both times. Nilo Zabala met us about 4:00 P.M. and took us to visit a couple of brethren on our way to the hotel. We visited a faithful preacher named Renato Fabi who supports himself by fishing and lives in a shabby shanty near the sea where the water bothers them at high tide often. Holes in the tin roof let rain water drip into the little shack, but a congregation gladly meets here every Sunday. How little we as Americans know about real sacrifice in serving our Savior!
I saw a thin sliver of a beautiful moon tonight when we left Renato’s house.
On the Lord’s Day, Nilo Zabala drove Jack and me 2 ½ hours to reach the church at San Vicente in Ormoc City where Willie Pelino has served as an evangelist for many years. As often happens in the Philippines, he made an extension to his house which can serve as a garage and as a meeting place for the saints. Close to 100 people were gathered when we arrived and I immediately taught the material on “Christmas Observance: From Heaven, or Of Men?”
The fruit of the vine for the Lord’s Supper was distributed on four homemade trays provided by Laymon Byers at the Hebron Lane church of Christ in Shepherdsville, Kentucky (those simple trays have been a great blessing in many places throughout the Philippines!).
After we completed the service and ate lunch, we reassembled for a sermon entitled “Work While It Is Day,” followed by Jack’s good study of “God’s Two Laws of Pardon,” i.e., the terms of pardon for an alien sinner (faith, repentance, and baptism) and the terms for an erring saint (repentance, confession, and prayer).
When we dismissed about 3:30 P.M., Willie distributed the packages of Bibles, books, workbooks, and tracts I had sent ahead from Manila. As usual, the brethren were excited for this opportunity to have study materials.
Through his serving as a school teacher, Willie has converted many teenagers and their parents, and it was exciting to see 1/3 or more of the audience was made up of young people who were very attentive during the lessons. Actually, Willie has desired for years to resign from teaching school to give his full time and efforts to evangelism, and he is well equipped for such work. As with so many other worthy Filipino preachers, the issue has been lack of financial support. My efforts to help him (and many others) to find support have not succeeded. Because of his great burden to spread the gospel and to save the lost, Willie announced today that he is resigning his teaching job and will soon engage in full time preaching, with or without support. This is the degree of commitment shown by so many dear Filipino preachers!
Monday we conducted an all-day gospel meeting at the Scandinavian Village church of Christ in Tacloban City where Nilo Zabala labors in the gospel. Sixty-eight souls heard lessons entitled “Lord, To Whom shall We Go?,” “Christmas Observance: From Heaven, or Of Men?,” and “Two Attitudes Toward God’s Word: Conservative and Liberal” (in two parts). Jack also preached, which gave my voice a rest since I am beginning to struggle as the trip nears its end.
The open forum generated a wide range of questions seeking clarification on valid biblical baptism (it must be for the right purpose: remission of sins), to the use of instrumental music in worship (not authorized by Christ in the Gospel Age), to the pattern for benevolence from the church treasury (distributed to faithful saints for emergency needs), to whether church funds should be used to provide meals and snacks to people assembled for gospel preaching (no, because the church’s work is limited to evangelism, worship, and benevolence; individual funds should be used for meals and snacks), and other topics. This session lasted an hour and proved to be very profitable.
It was good to have Sotero Carpon and Jun Espinosa present because I have not seen them for many years, and both of them affirmed their commitment to stand against liberalism in the church in spite of mistakes in the past.
In addition to the warm weather, we had heavy humidity with rain generated by a typhoon which went south of us crossing Mindanao and moving toward Palawan. I realized when I returned to the hotel that my clothes were soaking wet from sweat, but these are minor inconveniences in contrast to the great joy and privilege of studying with precious souls who hunger to learn more about God’s Holy Word. The last time I preached here was 2006 and Nilo’s daughter was three years old, so it was another joy to see her as a grown lady. She took time from her college classes to join us today.
We left the hotel at 8:30 A.M. this morning and returned at 6:30 P.M. These long busy days are beginning to take a toll on me, but now that all of the preaching schedules are finished I will get more rest. Somehow the blowing rain caused water to leak into my hotel room, so I had to pack and move to another room before getting to bed at 11:30.
After 8½ hours of sleep, I woke up Tuesday morning to prepare to return to Manila with Jack. From here he will return to Negros and after purchasing Bibles tomorrow, I will return to my dear wife and loved ones at the Hebron Lane church who are such a vital part of this work.
Though there have been only few baptism on this trip, many good things happened which will result in a future harvest. We are already making plans to follow up for that purpose, God willing.
One of the highlights of every trip is the privilege of buying Bibles in various dialects to be shipped throughout the Philippines as requested by our brethren. James Paet drove me Wednesday to the Philippine Bible Society here in downtown Manila where I ordered 823 Bibles costing almost $8,000. This is made possible by generous donations including widows who give $5.00-$15.00 and others who can give more. I sent notices to 22 brethren that the Bibles they requested to distribute will now be shipped to them. If nothing else is accomplished in this work, we can be sure we are helping precious souls reach heaven by putting God’s Word in their hands and hearts.
Getting some vigorous exercise today will help prepare me for the long and arduous travel back home which takes over 24 hours on three flights. By getting everything packed tonight as much as possible, I hope to get to the airport in the morning in plenty of time to check in for the first flight amidst all of the holiday travelers.
For the 84th time, I am now flying home Thursday from the Philippines after the good providence of God has opened many doors to preach and teach His Holy Word. I always leave a part of my heart here because God has given me so many dear brethren and friends who help and edify me as we work together for Him in this land. And, yet, I am always filled with joy and anticipation in returning home to my dear wife Donna and the saints at the Hebron Lane church who help to make these trips possible as we labor together with Him for His glory!
In Christian love,
Ron Halbrook
To see good Bible study material, go to:
https://www.
https://biblework.
https://truthbooks.com
https://www.truthmagazine.com