Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Our work in Iloilo City being concluded, I flew Tuesday to Manila without incident.  Upon arriving in the afternoon, I received a message from Teresa Toreja requesting that we meet to discuss something.  Jerry and Teresa joined me for supper about 7:00 P.M. and then we came to my room.  In past years when there was spare time Teresa would open her notepad filled with Bible questions she encountered in her study and in the process of teaching God’s Word, and we would study and discuss these questions, but in recent years we have not had the opportunity to do so.  Tonight she opened her notepad as before and began to offer her questions, some regarding key passages in Romans 7, others regarding Luke 17:1-10, others regarding heavy burdens carried by the service of a Christian doctor, etc.  Our study continued for at least an hour and then we turned to God in fervent prayers, knowing that His eyes and ears are always open to His people.  It is always a joy to be with Jerry and Teresa.

After they left, I went to exercise, worked in preparing for tomorrow, talked with Donna, and got to bed by midnight.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Travel days feel like lost time, but Thursday got off to a good start.  After exercising, eating supper, and doing a little work in the hotel at Naga, I was tired and went to bed early last night.  I slept over 7 hours and felt much better Thursday morning.  After breakfast at the hotel, I caught a plane to Manila where I had to change terminals.  Believe it or not, there is a Wendy’s Hamburgers in terminal 3 where I enjoyed for lunch a hamburger with fries and a Frosty (not as good as Blue Bell Ice Cream, but it will do in a squeeze).  The flight from Manila landed in Iloilo City on Panay Island about 5:30 P.M. where I was met by Jack Jaco and Bob Senining, a brother I had not seen for many years.  As we left the airport, a gorgeous lightly tanned moon was appearing on the horizon, reminding me again of all my loved ones at home – so maybe this was not a wasted day after all!

Our two days of Bible lectures began Friday at the function room of a hotel here in Iloilo City.  Jack Jaco came ahead to contact brethren and make arrangements.  The attendance today was 50 including denominational preachers, some of whom are leaders in their denominational organizations.  It is hard to realize we have not returned here for the past 6-7 years, but it seems the timing is right for this visit by God’s providence.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Two days of classes for preachers began Monday on the theme “United to Proclaim Christ” in Daet, Camarines Norte.  The series was introduced by a study of “Attitudes Essential in God’s Kingdom,” a textual examination of Matthew 5.  Christ introduced his new kingdom by contrasting the civil nature of the old Israel and the spiritual nature of the new kingdom.  Preachers must teach and exemplify the attitudes essential to citizenship in this new kingdom of God.  Sharing these attitudes unites us in Christ.

Next we studied “Preserving Unity in Christ” based on a shared commitment to God, to the truth, and to unselfish love for each other in Christ.  Attitudes and actions which destroy our unity must be avoided at all costs.  One example is being overly zealous for opinions and personal scruples, discussed in Romans 14.  If opinions and scruples are held as personal property, there will be no agenda to spread and enforce them upon other saints – as a consequence, there will be no division over them.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

My 76th Philippine trip started with a bang because there was little time after flying from Louisville to Detroit to catch the plane to Tokyo, Japan, but I made it.  The flight to Tokyo was fine and I completed a lot of study and work along with a nap, but we were stranded in Tokyo 4-5 hours waiting for Typhoon Tisoy (also called Kimmuri) to pass over Luzon.  Finally, our plane took off and passed through heavy rain and turbulence but arrived safely in Manila about 1:00 A.M. Wednesday – it should have been 9:30 P.M. on Tuesday.

The airport had been closed until 11:00 P.M. Tuesday because of the typhoon, so many delayed flights were arriving and hundreds and hundreds of people were jammed into immigration lines and at the baggage carousels like I’ve never seen.  To add to the excitement, five of the six boxes of Bibles and study materials I brought as checked luggage arrived while one traveled to Atlanta and on to Amsterdam!  Say what???  That required paper work and more lost time.  By the time I got to my hotel room, it was about 3:00 A.M.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,

On October 16 a major earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter scale hit the vicinity of Koronadal City in the Philippine province of South Cotabato in the southern part of the island of Mindanao.  Its effects were felt far and wide, bringing great devastation and suffering especially to rural and mountain areas heavily populated by the poor including our brethren in Christ.  Several smaller quakes occurred and several hundred aftershocks have occurred.

Numerous reports and appeals for help  are coming in from our brethren.  Pictures show areas which literally dropped down, open gap lines in the earth, destroyed homes and church buildings, and other marks of destruction.  Landslides were triggered.  A sister in Christ and her infant were killed when a landslide demolished their small dwelling.  Forced evacuations have resulted in tent cities and people living in gyms which have no side walls. The population of one of these tent cities is about 70% our brethren.  It is not safe for people to return to their farms and dwelling places.  In many cases, if the house did not totally collapse, it is unsafe for the inhabitants to go inside and so they sleep outside the house.

The government sent shipments of rice, but much of it was not edible.  Local governments have assigned citizens small lots to rebuild their homes and start a new life, but there is no money with which to rebuild.  Christians are suffering dire need of food, clothing, and shelter.

Here is a report from brother Frank Isla who has been visiting some of our brethren to assess their needs and to comfort them:
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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.
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October 1, 2019th Year of our Lord

Dear family, brethren, and friends,

The first Philippine trip this year included side trips to London, England and Paris, France (Jan. 28-Feb. 7).  I left home September 26 to visit those same congregations again and plan to return home October 7. The Thursday afternoon flight out of Louisville took me to Atlanta where I caught an overnight flight which brought me to London Friday morning.

By God’s good providence, Kyle Campbell had introduced me via email to Constant Coulibaly, an evangelist serving the Brighton church of Christ in England. Brighton is on the English Channel, an hour and a half south of London’s Heathrow Airport.  The church has been meeting there since at least 1890 when the building was constructed.  The United Kingdom like Europe has been secularized to the point that churches of Christ struggle to say alive in a spiritual wasteland (and the U.S. is rapidly going down this same road).
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A warm welcome is extended by Constant Coulibaly and all the saints meeting at the Brighton Church of Christ Sept. 28-29 when I will speak on the following topics:

Saturday
10:20 AM Evidence God Exists
11:45 AM The Moral Glory of Jesus
2:30 PM When Peter Confessed Christ
3:30 PM Open forum

Sunday
9:30 AM Back to the Bible
11:00  AM The Prison of Sin
1:45 PM Lord, To Whom Shall We Go?
3:00 PM Open forum
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By God’s good grace the trip scheduled for July 30-September 6 to preach Christ in the Philippines (75^th trip), New Zealand (9^th trip), and Australia (8^th trip) has been safely and successfully completed.  I owe Jim McDonald a great debt of gratitude for opening these doors by inviting me to accompany him to the Philippines in 1995.  The focus of this trip was to edify the saints although some first principle lessons were preached also in the 70 presentations made – 23 souls submitted to Christ by faith in his blood by being baptized for the remission of their sins.  It is always edifying to work and worship with these saints who shine as lights along the shore guiding souls to Christ, the beacon light of eternal salvation (Phil. 2:14-16).

Elias Cruz, James Paet, and Junior Gumpad helped me in Manila on August 1 to repack boxes of study material to be distributed along the way.  The next day James Paet drove Lordy Salunga, Jerry Moral, Archie Alarcon, and me to western Luzon.  Rey Siene and his father preach for a congregation at Beddeng, San Narciso in the province of Zambales where we labored Saturday and Sunday.  It was a delight to meet Rey after corresponding with him.  The next two days were devoted to working with Leonito Torreliza at Candon City, Ilocos Sur.  Lordy, James, Archie, and myself preached to 47 people and two were baptized.
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