January 31 – February 6 Philippine-New Zealand Preaching
Dear family, brethren, and friends,
By God’s good grace, my 85th trip got off to a smooth start after hitting one big bump. A day before leaving, I learned the first flight was scheduled on a small commuter plane which would not allow me to bring seven pieces of luggage – i.e., the boxes of Bibles and teaching materials. To solve this issue, Delta Air Lines rebooked me on a flight leaving Louisville 12 hours later, which meant leaving Wednesday evening and getting to Manila Friday about noon.
This means I lost the day devoted to errands such as repacking and shipping the boxes to upcoming venues, and adjusting to the 12 hour time change. Instead, as soon as arriving, I met three Filipinos who help with the boxes and other errands and I must start preaching tomorrow after less than 24 hours for the transition.
But, all the flights were safe with the longest leg lasting 15 hours. If I can get to bed by 10:30 PM and get up by 7:00 AM, we can start preaching on time Saturday, God willing.
After getting to bed at 11:00 PM last night, I got up at 7:00 AM, worked on email, ate, and got out the door in time for today’s plan. All-day preaching was scheduled for Saturday at Santa Maria in the Province of Bulacan where Alex Estoy and Dominador Guevarra labor in the gospel. Fifty souls attended including many young people to hear the series on “Moral Truth in an Amoral Age.” Four presentations addressed the truth about abortion, about homosexuality, about transgender, and about social media.
The open forum included good questions about how to approach immoral people with the gospel, how fathers should lead the family in love in a manner that will protect his children from these dangerous temptations of our amoral age, and how cell phones should be used so as not to distract when we assemble for worship.
What could have been a 2½ hour commute was only an hour because we paid a toll to drive on the skyway, and traffic is lighter on Saturday. James Paet got me back to the hotel by 6:00 PM where I ate supper, prepared for tomorrow’s lessons, exercised, worked on email, and got to bed early because I am still getting adjusted to the 12 hour time change.
After getting to bed at 11:30 last night (early for me), I left the hotel before 8:00 AM on the Lord’s Day with James Paet to travel to a church on Pavia St. in Tondo , Metro Manila. Rey Tacbad is an evangelist for this church meeting in his house. The room was filled to capacity with 30 souls as we studied the lesson entitled “From Wretched Man to More Than Conquerors.”
One of the questions raised in the open forum was what will God do with people who die ignorant of the gospel. First, consider that men are without excuse for not knowing there is a true God because the universe proclaims His glory (Ps. 19; Rom. 1:20). Second, when men who are ignorant seek God, He opens the way for them to find Him – He is not hiding from us (Acts 17:27). The book of Acts abundantly illustrates that fact. Third, the Bible explicitly teaches that men who know not God and obey not the gospel will be lost (2 Thess. 1:7-9). They are not lost because they are ignorant – they are lost because they are in sin.
In the afternoon our appointment was in Bacoor City in the Province of Cavite where a church was planted in 2008 but died in recent years. An American who married a Filipina had a nice if small church building constructed, but it has been sitting empty. James Paet contacted the owners and the caretakers of the property and arranged to renew the work there.
Today was the first meeting with 20-25 present including brethren from surrounding congregations who came to help and encourage. After studying “From Wretched Man to More Than Conquerors,” we studied “Finish the Race.” During the open forum, a question was asked about 1 Peter 3:18-19 where Jesus preached to the spirits in prison. Does it mean he preached to the sinners in torment in hades to allow them to repent and escape their punishment? No, it means he preached through Noah to the sinners in his time, pleading for them to repent, but they refused and are held in torment awaiting the Judgment Day when they will be cast into hell.
I thank God for the sacrifice and service rendered by James Paet who drove about six hours round trip so that I could preach for the Cambio church of Christ in San Miguel, Bulacan Province on Monday where Jimmy Lacambra labors in the gospel. Like many Filipino evangelists, he preaches without support but is steady, humble, and devoted in his work for Christ. The church meets in a room of his little house adapted for this purpose and our audience of 40 spilled out at the front of the house with about as many listening outside as inside. We were in a rural area surrounded by rice fields.
Our first sermon was “the Gospel Makes Us Right with God” (Rom. 1:16-17), which was then summarized by James in the local dialect. The next sermon was “When Peter Confessed Christ” (Matt. 16:16), translated by Elias Cruz, and the last one was “Death, What Then?” (Eccl. 12:7), translated by Vicente Cay. Five preachers from Metro Manila rode their motorcycles five hours one way to support this gospel meeting, including these two who translated.
The last sermon generated several good questions in the open forum such as do animals have a soul? They have life which can be identified by the word soul, but they do not have a soul made in God’s image which survives the death of the body as we have. Does the soul fall into unconscious sleep when we die? No, Luke 16 and other passages show we are fully conscious after death. Will we experience love for husband and wife in heaven? Yes, we will be the same persons there as here and will continue to love each other but not in the marriage relationship. Will we carry anger for wrongs we suffered from this life to heaven? No, the presence of God will be so joyous as to overshadow past wounds, and He will wipe away every tear.
We had many visitors, but no one obeyed the gospel. It was obvious they were very attentive and the seed was sown. God will give the increase in His own time according to His own will.
This report is being prepared Tuesday morning. It should have been finished last night, but after returning to the hotel exhausted, then eating and taking a short exercise, I fell sound asleep on the bed unintentionally at 10:00 PM and did not get up until 7:15 this morning. So, I am playing catch up this morning. After completing this report, I hope to work on some email and take some exercise to boost my stamina for the next leg of travel. I must prepare to fly six hours tonight to Sydney, Australia where I will change planes and fly on to Auckland, New Zealand to labor with saints in “the land of the long white cloud” (Aotearoa). Thousands of Filipinos live and work there and many are willing to hear the gospel, and they invite their Kiwi friends as well.
I have not been able to see the moon since arriving in the Philippines, but it is in its Wanning Crescent phase and there will not be much to see for the next couple of nights. Still, I will keep my eyes open until I catch up with it sooner or later. When I see it, I will remember you are watching, too!
In Christian love,
Ron Halbrook
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