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.  

A young man 19 years old taught the adult Bible class on John 11 and did a superb job.  This church constantly trains men to participate in the work.  My sermon was on “Modest Dress through the Ages,” which was well received.  

The attendance was 146.  The church desperately needs more auditorium space.  They plan to tear out the baptistry at the front and move it outside in order to gain a little extra space, but even that will be expensive and finding the necessary funds is a challenge.  Among the new converts are two families from a well-known Pentecostal church in the area.  Both men were very active and did some preaching.  They have been under pressure from their extended families to return to the Pentecostals but are steadfast in their faith.

This afternoon we traveled 30 minutes to reach the church at Baliuag where Alfonso Danao labors in the gospel.  I have been there a number of times in the past and the work continues to progress.  I preached on “Modest Dress through the Ages” and Rody summarized it in the Tagalog dialect.  Over 50 attended including people outside the building.  

When the invitation song was sung, precious souls stepped forward little by little  to obey the gospel, with a total of 15.  Their ages were mixed.  Rody spent about 15 minutes discussing this decision with five as young as 9.  He then encouraged those younger ones to wait, study, and grow more before being baptized.  The 10 confessed Christ and were baptized in a baptistry outside the building.  They were very happy and we all shared in their joy as the angels rejoiced with us!

February 9-12 (Mon.-Thur.) was scheduled for classes on “The Home & Family” at the Metro Tuguegarao church of Christ.  Rody Gumpad and I divided the 13 lessons in “Family Life: A Biblical Perspective” by L.A. Stauffer, an excellent workbook covering everything from the Bible as a foundation for marriage, the role of love, God’s design for marriage, the husband’s love for his wife, the wife’s subjection to his leadership, training children, honoring parents, God joining us in marriage, the danger of adultery, and guidelines for choosing a mate.  I have taught this material many times in the U.S. and the Philippines through the years and highly recommend it.

I did not get the exact attendance, but it was 150-170 easily.  Both single and married people joined us, some traveling great distances from around the island of Luzon.  Unfortunately, a stomach bug bit me Monday morning and I spent the whole day resting, mostly sleeping, and finally was hospitalized for 4 hours to receive IV treatment upon the recommendation of Dr. Cathy Forelo.  Meanwhile, Rody taught all the sessions on this first day.  I slept well during the night and was able to teach 5 lessons Tuesday and another 4 lessons Wednesday.  

In addition to the workbook classes, I presented lessons on “Modest Dress through the Ages,” “Selecting a Mate: The Lord Builds the House,” and “Man’s Leadership in the Home.”  At the church’s mid-week Bible study, I was asked to speak and preached from Psalm 23, “The Lord Is Our Shepherd-King,” connecting the passage to Ezekiel 34 and John 10. 

Instead of having open forums with these lessons, after each study I asked the audience to offer suggestions on how to implement what we had learned from God’s Word on each topic.  There was good participation.

After the last classes on man’s leadership Thursday, it was picture-taking time and certificates were presented to the brethren who attended all 4 days, both of which are customary in the Philippines for such events.  Rody also invited men from different regions to stand and relate something they learned from the 19 lessons presented this week regarding our home and family life. 

I first met Mike and Elsie Darby several years ago at North Pole, Alaska.  He is an American retired from the U.S. Air Force and she is a Filipina.  When they are at their house here in the Philippines, they worship at the Metro Tuguegarao church of Christ.  They attended our lectures and invited Rody, Tessie, and me to their house for supper tonight.  We ate salmon from Alaska and cornbread made with corn meal from the U.S., along with plenty of other good Filipino food.  They will soon go back to Alaska to continue his ongoing medical treatments.   

The weather is quite comfortable this time of year for traveling and teaching in the Philippines.  I have been taking my nightly walks for an hour (with the exception of Monday) and there is a good breeze.  The sky has been very clear and the stars bright, but I cannot find the moon.  About a third of the moon should be showing because it is in its Waning Crescent phase.  

Sometimes Filipinos walk with me the first night but not the next night because, they say, “When you walk, we run.”  Jhun Bassig walked with me for 2 nights, and we enjoyed it, but he could hardly keep up.  Tonight, he made a solution:  He just followed me on his motorbike – that is the first time I have walked with such a large portable light all the way!

In Christian love,
Ron Halbrook