Halbrook Philippine Report April 9-19, 2013
Friday, April 19, 2013th Year of Our Lord
Dear family, brethren, and friends,
I think I have seen the moon every night since I got here, so greetings to all via the moon beams! When I got to the airport April 9 to fly to the Philippines, I was forced to go back home and rebook the flight because a five-hour delay would make it impossible to make my connections. So, after the day’s delay, I flew to Manila safely and then went on to Laoag City, Ilocos Norte in northwestern Luzon.
Vic Domingo was conducting training classes for young preachers at Escoda, Marcos, I.N. and I joined the sessions for April 13-15, teaching a series of six lessons on “The Authority of Christ.” This material was published in booklet form by the Guardian of Truth Foundation and each student received a copy. The students were mostly teenagers but there were a few in the 8-10 year old bracket. To my surprise, these youngest men were quite attentive and did well reading passages. About 50 attended including a Catholic priest converted in December. The first day it was 95 degrees and there is no air conditioning just hot, hot, hot!
Vic turned 82 years old on the 13th but is still very sharp and active. Vic told about the 10 year old son of Jensen Pascua who attended the classes. When he was 5 he was looking at Vic’c Bible. To motivate the young man, Vic told him when he learned the books of the Bible he could have his Bible. The young fellow proceeded immediately reciting all the books and collected his prize! He had been reading Truth Magazine and learning everything he could and Vic had underestimated him.
On Sunday, the 14th, about 200 souls attended the 9:00 AM-12:30 PM service of the Escoda church. With so many young people present, I presented two lessons on “How Shall the Young Secure Their Hearts?” We went to a shallow river about 1/4 mile from the building to baptize a pregnant lady-her husband came to witness the event and is also interested in the truth.
Sister Lingling was present visiting from the mountains which can be seen in the distance. I met her on my first trip in 1995. She had been a soldier with the communist New People’s Army. Her life had barely been spared when a government soldier saved her at the last moment because he had seen her attending the services of the church. She was later baptized and has developed a special talent for teaching children. She always reminds me she needs materials. And the mountain saints are in need of clothes, shoes, towels, and other necessities.
Sunday evening we visited an independent Catholic church at Pasuquin, I.N. where Cris Basa preaches. As a recent convert he has been teaching the people little by little as he himself learns more. They were in the process of removing their images and idols, and the last one came down to make room for a sheet I used to show the PowerPoint charts with my lesson. After I preached for 50 minutes on “The Gospel Makes Us Right with God,” the floor was opened for questions-most of which reflected their Catholic background. They asked about paying a priest to pray for the dead. I explained this practiced came from the false doctrine of purgatory and that money given for such prayers was wasted. I suggested that good hearted people who wanted to help others should put their money into the church treasury to support the spread of the gospel to the lost. At the invitation, the preacher’s wife came forward to be baptized. Others said they understood and appreciated the lesson and would continue to study.
Sherwin and Mary Gin Vizcarra are from this same area but have been faithful Christians for years. Sherwin is a gospel preacher and his young son was enrolled in the training class. Mary Gin suffers from chronic myelogenous leukemia but is not able to have regular examinations or take needed medicines consistently because all this would cost about $100 per month, well out of their reach. I left a small amount to help her but feel ashamed I could not do more.
Aly Savilla along with Randy and Elipdio Tiene came a great distance from the remote mountains of Cagayan Valley to join the classes. The church building at Pureg, Sanchez Mira, Cagayan Province where Aly preaches was burned down by enemies of the cross of Christ. Vic Domingo went to the place and reports the building was totally destroyed. The brethren plan to rebuild at a location easier to protect, which will cost about $500.
On Tuesday the 16th about 200 people of all ages but especially young people attended the Laoag City church of Christ where Mat Sibayan, Sr. has preached for many years. Laoag City is the capital of the Ilocos Norte Province and the brethren have a nice building in the downtown area. Targeting the young people, my lessons were entitled “How Shall the Young Secure Their Hearts?” and “The Purpose of Our Lives.”
The next day, Wednesday, was spent working with Egdon Sabio, preacher for the Cabugao, Ilocos Sur church . Over time he has worked his way up to a high level managerial position in the electric cooperative where has worked for many years. He is striving to create a culture of honesty in this business in spite of the Philippine reputation for corruption on every hand. He took me to a main office where the work force of forty people were gathered at 8:00 AM to preach a lesson on “Christ Teaches Total Honesty.” They were attentive and appreciative.
We immediately rushed back to Egdon’s house where about 40 preachers and other brethren had gathered for a morning of study. I presented the lesson on honesty again and another one entitled “Walk in the Spirit, Not in the Flesh.” During the open forum, the questions centered on how to work for reconciliation when brethren are alienated.
After a late lunch, we left the house at 2:30 PM to drive to Egdon’s main office, arriving at 4:00 PM just in time to repeat the topic on honesty to a work force of about 50 people. Again, the lesson was warmly received. We stopped along the way for supper returning home and got back about 8:30 PM. At 9:00 we took a 30 minute walk at a nearby park. After a shower, I was able to study for a time before falling into the bed exhausted-but what a wonderful productive day we had! When I was a child businesses sometimes gathered employees for Bible study, and I spoke at one of these studies when I began preaching in my teenage years. It has been a long time since I have heard of this practice in my homeland-how sad!
On Thursday the 18th Warner Macusi brought me to the small rural church at Pacifico, Marcos, I.N. He has a civil service job as an engineer with the local city government. Elections in the Philippines are little short of wars with numerous candidates being shot or assassinated. Someone wounded the current mayor several weeks ago because he is running for re-election. An engineer with a job similar to Warner’s was assassinated perhaps to intimidate the incumbent mayor. Therefore, Warner was warned to keep a low profile and not expose himself in plain public view. He thought about cancelling today’s preaching as the better part of prudence but decided we should go ahead and dismiss at noon to limit his exposure.
The church at Pacifico meets under a tarpaulin stretched between two houses. Normal attendance is 15-20 but over 50 attended today. I spoke on “The Purpose of Our Lives” and Warner translated for the benefit of the older people. This process doubles the time it takes to present a lesson. After two hours of preaching and translating, we ended the lesson without fully completing it in order not to prolong our stay under the circumstances.
Today, Friday, was spent with Efren Ramos at the Binacag Banna church of Christ, Nueva Era, I.N. This is another rural church I have visited several times through the years and seen it grow. They now have a nice concrete block building with a G.I. sheet roof-hot but durable. The building was completely full with at least 100 people who heard lessons on “God Created All Things,” “The Purpose of Our Lives,” and “The Resurrection of Jesus.” By 3:30 PM we were exhausted because of the translating process and the heat, so we went to a canal which brethren partly stopped up to create a baptismal pool for the five precious souls who confess their faith in Christ.
I usually help brethren with expenses created by these meetings, but Efren refused any help explaining that they wanted to do this for themselves. It is a joy helping brethren who are determined to help themselves.
Tomorrow, God willing, I fly from Laoag City to Manila and on to Cebu City to work with Jonathan Carino and other brethren on Cebu Island. Meanwhile, I constantly am praying for all of my brethren back home and I thank all of you for your prayers, encouragement, and support.
And keep watching the moon-it’s about half there-like some of the rest of us :-).
In Christian love, Ron
To see good Bible study material, go to: