Dear family, brethren, and friends,
As I make last minute preparations to leave for another preaching trip to the Philippines, I will ask for your prayers for a safe trip and for God to open doors to save the lost and to edify the saved. Including the roundtrip, I will travel November 29-December 20. Here is the schedule for travel and preaching:
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November 5, 2022nd Year of Our Lord
Dear brethren,
By God’s merciful providence my 80th preaching trip to the Philippine Islands is scheduled for November 29-December 20. Jim McDonald first took me in 1995. What a great privilege it is to preach among souls who are so earnestly seeking for God and the truth of His plan for our salvation! But there is another great blessing in this work: While preaching the gospel in cooperation with Filipino saints, I have learned many lessons about faith, hope, love, sacrifice, and service from their examples!
When there is such a great harvest of souls, two things are vitally needed. There must be an abundance of teaching about the first principles of the gospel which sustains the harvest and there must be much teaching to strengthen and solidify the faith of new converts. When the church at Antioch harvested Greeks as well as Jews, “the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord” (Acts 11:21). The church at Jerusalem sent Barnabas to help “who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord” (vs. 23). My trip will focus both on first principles and on exhorting saints to cleave to the Lord.
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Dear brethren,
By God’s good providence, I hope to fulfill the following appointments to preach along with Mark Mayberry and Trey Torno. This work will consume so much time, I will not be able to respond to all email in a timely manner. Thank you for your patience and understanding if I fail to respond to your messages. Please pray for our safety and success in these endeavors.
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July 2, 2022nd Year of Our Lord
Dear brethren,
God’s good providence has opened the door for my 79th trip to the Philippines August 2-31. Jim McDonald first took me in 1995. Mark Mayberry, faithful evangelist for the Adoue Street Church of Christ in Alvin, TX, will be my co-laborer, arriving on the 10th. Trey Torno from College Station, TX will join us August 10-22 for the Mindanao trip. (Aug. 2-30 Keith Greer will work with Rody Gumpad on Luzon.)
A great harvest of souls brings growing pains, the need for edification, preparing preachers, and even new benevolence cases. When thousands were converted in Jerusalem, extraordinary sacrifices were made to meet benevolence needs: “And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need” (Acts 2:44-45). This was not socialism requiring people to divest themselves of all possessions but was sacrificial love and fellowship expressed to destitute saints through the church’s treasury.
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Dear brethren,
Greetings to all in our sovereign Savior’s royal name.
The itinerary I recently circulated included this: “We plan to preach on Friday, April 1, at Kapitbahayan, Navotas City, Metro Manila in the morning. In the afternoon we will transfer to the church at Lapu-Lapu, San Antonio, Parañaque, Metro Manila with Jerry Toreja.” The new congregation is located at Lapu Lapu in Malabon not in Parañaque.
I had planned to preach on April 1 and the next day fly to Tuguegarao, but the airline cancelled the Saturday flight. This forces me to cancel my plan to preach in Manila in order to fly to Tuguegarao on Friday. I will try to reschedule preaching in Manila on a future trip, God willing.
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Dear brethren,
Greetings to all of you in our sovereign Savior’s royal name.
Two years ago at this time I had completed 77 Philippine trips and was planning to make the next trip in April, concentrating on appointments on the island of Luzon. That trip was cancelled due to the rise of coronavirus and related travel restrictions. By the grace of God, I am now moving forward to fulfill the commitments made two years ago. I planned this trip for March 29-May 6, only to learn from the Philippine embassy there is a protocol after the covid pandemic which limits my visit to 30 days. Unfortunately, I was forced to cancel several days of preaching already promised in order to squeeze my trip into the 30 day limit.
God willing, Craig Thomas, evangelist for the Westside church of Christ in Bloomington, IN, and I will leave Louisville, Kentucky on March 29. We plan to preach on Friday, April 1, at Kapitbahayan, Navotas City, Metro Manila in the morning. In the afternoon we will transfer to the church at Lapu-Lapu, San Antonio, Parañaque, Metro Manila with Jerry Toreja.
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Ron & Donna Halbrook
3505 Horse Run Ct.
Shepherdsville, KY 40165-6954
PLEASE SHARE THIS LETTER ON GOSPEL PREACHING IN THE PHILIPPINES!
February 19, 2022nd Year of Our Lord
Dear brethren,
By God’s good grace Jim McDonald took me to the Philippines in 1995 and March 29-May 6 is set for my 78th trip to preach the glorious gospel of Christ in that land. It will be a blessing to work with Craig Thomas, evangelist with the Westside church of Christ in Bloomington, IN. Both he and his son Ryan have preached in the Philippines and Ryan is married to Jennifer Gumpad, daughter of Rody and Tessie.
The great harvest of souls continues in the Philippines. Preacher training classes are crucial as new men are converted and as young men aspire to preach. Paul urged Timothy, “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Tim. 2:1-3, NKJV). We will concentrate on the pressing need to train preachers in the truth and challenge them to endure hardness in this great work.
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Dear family, brethren, and friends,
Greetings to all in our sovereign Savior’s holy name.
I regret to say that reports from the Philippines make it inadvisable for me to make my August preaching trip. The pandemic is not yet under full control in spite of some progress and various regulations are uneven from one area to another. Domestic airlines do not yet have regular and dependable schedules. It would be tragic for me to get to Manila and then be trapped and unable to follow the itinerary. If a spike in coronavirus cases occurred, I might be quarantined and unable to travel in the Philippines or even to return home.
My plan was to visit Mindanao and to present lessons of encouragement to our brethren who have suffered a double dose of massive natural disasters. Southern Mindanao suffered widespread devastation from a series of 13 earthquakes with thousands of aftershocks beginning in mid-October, and then the whole nation suffered the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic beginning in mid-March. In a third-world economy, many of our brethren can barely manage to feed their families in the best of times. Now many in southern Mindanao are living in dilapidated tents and saints throughout the Philippines can hardly find sufficient food. I have been doing my best to relay funds to them to build small houses in southern Mindanao and buy food in scattered areas throughout the Philippines. Similar efforts are being made by other brethren such as Michael & Donna Glaesemann (michael@butw.org). Many brethren have already sacrificed to help meet these needs, but there is still much to be done and resources are limited as donations arrive little by little.
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Dear brethren,
Greetings in the sovereign name of Jesus Christ, Lord of lords and King of kings.
I want to express deep appreciation to the churches and individuals who donated funds for my Philippine preaching trip planned for April 7-May 5. The main focus was a preacher training class in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan on Luzon. Craig Thomas and I were ready to go, but for obvious reasons, this trip is postponed. Our plane tickets can still be used when international travel opens back up. Also, the funds donated made it possible to buy Bibles, Bible dictionaries, Bible concordances, and other teaching materials. All of these resources will be kept in reserve until the class can be conducted.
Some benevolence work is typically done on these trips. I squeezed this budget to direct as much as possible for two pressing benevolence needs: Filipino saints who are victims of earthquakes and saints desperate for food because of the coronavirus pandemic. Additional donated funds were also used for these emergencies.
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March 7, 2020th Year of Our Lord
Dear brethren,
By God’s good grace Jim McDonald took me to the Philippines in 1995 and April 7-May 5 is set for my 78th trip to preach the glorious gospel of Christ in that land. It will be a blessing to work with Craig Thomas, evangelist with the Westside church of Christ in Bloomington, IN. Both he and his son Ryan have preached in the Philippines and Ryan is married to Jennifer Gumpad, daughter of Rody and Tessie.
The great harvest of souls continues in the Philippines. Preacher training classes are crucial as new men are converted and as young men aspire to preach. Paul urged Timothy, “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Tim. 2:1-3, NKJV). We will concentrate on the pressing need to train preachers in the truth and challenge them to endure hardness in this great work.
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