Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Let me start by correcting the first report which said 200 attended at Allistitan – the correct number was 50.  I was in the hospital and did not get the correct information until much later (thank you, Daniel). 

Our Tuesday appointment was with Leonito Torreliza and the other saints at Candon City, Ilocos Sur.  Leonito has labored for over 40 years in the gospel here in this area.  The meeting place is a large room at the front of his house, and it was filled with 46 people today.  Mark Wallace started the morning with a study of Noah’s life, character, and work.  Then, I preached on “The Prison of Sin” (1 Pet. 3:19).  Rody Gumpad summarized the lessons in the dialect.

After lunch Mark discussed preparing for eternity and I preached “After Death, What Then?”  As nearly always happens after I preach this sermon, additional discussion is generated by good questions which are raised.  This is because the unseen world is so far different from our world that God can give only pictures of things we know to represent the things we cannot see and cannot fully understand in our present state.   The sum of it all is this.  God is preparing us to spend eternity with Him in heaven and the fullness of heaven is being with God, while the fullness of hell is the miserable experience of being without God forever.

Dear family, brethren, and friends,

By the grace of God, I have the assistance of Mark Wallace on this trip.  He is an elder at the  Oldham Woods church in La Grange, Kentucky.  Our flight from Louisville to Detroit was delayed Monday morning because the extremely cold air forced them to de-ice the plane, i.e., to spray it with chemicals to remove any ice and to prevent ice forming which might cause the plane to crash.  There was time in Detroit to grab a short breakfast and board our next flight to Seoul, South Korea, from where we flew straight to Manila. Because of weather and wind, the flight to Seoul required 14½ hours.  After arriving in Manila at 10:30 PM on Tuesday, we immediately knew we were no longer in the land of ice and snow but in the land of heat and humidity.  After checking in at the hotel, I went to the exercise room for 45 minutes in order to gain more strength and stamina for the next day.  

Dear family, brethren, and friends,

While traveling and preaching in the Philippines, I suffered an attack of acute gastroenteritis with dehydration and was hospitalized Friday. By God’s grace, I was released from the hospital Sunday about noon after receiving medicines and nourishment via IV.

As the news has spread, several of you have sent kind messages of encouragement. Thank you for your prayers. I apologize for not having time to respond to your messages as we now continue traveling and preaching.

In Christian love,
Ron Halbrook

To see good Bible study material, go to:

https://www.hebronlanechurchofchrist.com

https://biblework.congregateclients.com

https://truthbooks.com

https://www.truthmagazine.com

Dear brethren, 

Please keep brother Mark Wallace and myself in your prayers as we travel and teach God’s Word.

PHILIPPINE TRIP ITINERARY Dec. 1-20, 2025

Dec 1-2 (Mon-Tues) Fly from Louisville, Kentucky to Manila, Philippines

Dec 3 (Wed) Repack boxes, run errands

Dec 4 (Thur) Preach at Pasig in Villa Regina Events Venue, Brgy. Bambang  with Jhun Abueva

Dec 5 (Fri) Fly to Ilocos Norte

Dec 6 (Sat) Preach with Daniel & Dante Tiongson

PLEASE SHARE THIS LETTER ON GOSPEL PREACHING IN THE PHILIPPINES!

October 22, 2025^th Year of Our Lord

Dear brethren,

As I prepare to preach December 1-20 on the 92^nd Philippine trip, I am indebted to Jim McDonald for taking me there for the first time in 1995.  The harvest of souls coming to Christ in that land confirms the power of the gospel to save a lost world.  By God’s grace, I will be joined by Mark Wallace, an elder at the Oldham Woods church of Christ in La Grange, Kentucky.  This will be his first trip and we hope not the last.  

Like Abraham, Filipinos embrace God’s promise to bring His faithful saints to the eternal city He prepared for us to worship and serve Him forever.  “By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:  For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:9-10).

Dear family, brethren, and friends,

By the grace of God, I have arrived safely home tonight about 10:30 and it was a great joy to see Donna again!  God has blessed both of us with safe travels (she visited our daughter, Deborah, and Jamie Williams in Texas while I was overseas).  Sunday I will be reunited with all of the saints at the Hebron Lane church of Christ who are so vital to the work just completed in the Philippines and Malaysia.  

I thank God for all of the Filipino and Malaysian saints who helped and labored with me.  May God bless and reward all of you for your sacrifices and service in His kingdom.  Your faith, hope, and love are an inspiration to me to strive to be a better Christian and a better evangelist in serving our Savior.

Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Salvador Parbo drove for two hard hours from Digos City Friday morning for us to reach President Roxas, Capiz where I began preaching to 157 souls just after 10:00 A.M.  Joel Neniel has been doing a good work as an evangelist with this congregation while supporting himself as a public school teacher.  I worked with his father 30 year ago when I first came to southern Mindanao.

The first lesson was “The Prison of Sin,” followed by “Back to the Bible.”  After lunch we studied “When Peter Confessed Christ,” which emphasizes that Christ built his church on the solid foundation that he is the rock of our salvation because he is the Christ, the Son of the living God.  Among our denominational visitors were members of the Iglesia ni Cristo (1914) sect, founded by a Filipino named Felix Manalo.  This religion like the Jehovah’s Witnesses insists that Jesus Christ did not come as God in the flesh – he is not deity but was only human.  

Dear family, brethren, and friends,

My first work in Digos City, Davao del Sur was back in 1997 with Jim McDonald.  Julie Notarte has concentrated in this area and reached out to remote tribal and mountain regions of southern Mindanao.  His father established a congregation here in Digos City and a church building was constructed in 1973.  Julie’s sons (Joshua, Joseph, Jonathan, and CB) have matured and share in the tremendous workload this successful work has created. Literally thousands of people have obeyed the gospel through the years in these surrounding areas and mountains.  

Tuesday, 97 souls joined us here in Digos City to begin exploring the theme “Life, Death, and Beyond.”  In the morning two sessions covered the subject “Why We Live” and in the afternoon “Man as Body, Soul, and Spirit” and “The Gospel Makes Us Right with God.”  

Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Thursday-Friday (Aug. 21-22), a lot of saints must have been praying for me as I tried to manage the cancellation of a flight from Cagayan de Oro City which was replaced by a flight requiring an all-night stay in the Manila airport to wait for a connection at 4:00 A.M.  Stephen Carpentero faithfully drove me to the airport in CDO in a rainstorm.  When I checked in for my flight, I was told I could not check my suitcase through to General Santos City but would have to pick it up in Manila and check it in again there, but they could not give me a reason.  

When I got to Manila, retrieved my suitcase, and tried to check it in again, I had a long wait and finally they said my 4:00 A.M. flight was cancelled, and I was booked to fly at 10:45 A.M. Meanwhile, the airline would pay for my overnight stay in a hotel about 20-30 minutes from the airport.  After getting 6 ½ hours of sleep, Friday morning I was in a van in another torrential downpour headed for the airport where I finally made the flight to General Santos City in southern Mindanao together with James Paet who graciously came as a helper.

Dear family, brethren, and friends,

On Monday, the 18^th, I reluctantly said goodbye to Alvin Miguel and his sweet wife when they dropped me at the airport in Zamboanga City.  I flew to Cebu City where I had a very productive four-hour layover, which gave me time to work vigorously to catch up on some emails (although many still remain unanswered).  The next plane brought me to Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental where 19-year-old Stephen Carpentero met me and brought me to the hotel.  He is the son of Jhun (Cipriano, Jr.) and grandson of Cipriano Carpentero, both of whom were dear friends and co-laborers in the gospel for many years.  They would be proud of Stephen for continuing to hold high the torch of truth.