The girls in my Sunday school had their practice today for their song number on Sunday. They will sing the Christmas song “Joy To The World.” I thought all of them know this song but to my surprise they don’t know it. I asked them what Christmas songs they know or what Christmas songs they learned from their school teacher and they said none. I was dismayed to hear that nowadays, public school teachers don’t teach their pupils some Christmas songs unlike during my grade school years. My teachers taught us Christmas songs during this season. The kids don’t even know the tune of “Joy To The World” so I have to teach them, sigh! I thought this is a very popular song that even young kids can sing but I was mistaken. Maybe the kids in that village where our church is have no radio or don’t watch tv very often. Maybe they don’t have CDs to listen to. Whatever. Tomorrow It’s the boys turn to practice their song and I hope they are better.

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We will be having a film showing tonight in our church. It was supposed to be last week but since we were busy with all the moving, we postponed it. The kids and the adults thought it was last Friday night and they were all there waiting. It was really a miscommunication. Today, we went to invite people for tonight’s film showing in our church. We will be doing it outside the building since it’s just small house and it won’t accommodate a lot of people. We will be showing the movie, “The Burning Hell.” Hubby will give a message after the film showing. I just hope and pray that people will be convicted and get saved.

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We had a great day yesterday. I taught Sunday school and the kids always inspire me because they are so interested. One 7 year old girl really amazed me because she can recite all the memory verses that I let them memorize since April without any mistake. Also she can recite the Our Father and the Ten Commandments by heart. Some kids can recite the verses too but had some mistakes. I gave chocolates to the kids who memorized the verses but I gave more to the 7 year old girl because she’s the best in the class. She beat the older kids when it comes to memorization. I also taught them a new song with action yesterday and of course I told them Bible stories and gave them coloring pages.

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Last Sunday, we started the rice ministry in our church. A couple who are dear friends of ours from the states who attend our church are the sponsors. They told me that they used to do this in their church when they were in another province and their attendance really increased. So last week, we went to buy one sack of rice and we put in a plastic bag, 2 kilos each. During our service last Sunday, it was announced that we are giving away 1 plastic bag of rice per one household but only to the parent/s who attended our service. Most of the people who attend our church come from a poor family so 2 kilos of rice which is equivalent to 4.4 lbs is a great help to them. So after the service, Pastor George (my hubby) gave the bags of rice to the parents. There were 10 bags of rice which were given away. We hope and pray that next week our church attendance will go up when other parents will learn that our church is giving away rice to parents. By the way, last Sunday, there was one mom who attended our service for the first time. I think she learned about our rice ministry because I told it to 2 mothers when we had a visitation last Saturday. Well, we gotta do what we gotta do just to attract people to come to church. I tried to invite some people many times and they said yes but they didn’t come. We’ll see if our rice ministry will be effective to increase our attendance.

A million thanks to our dear friends who have the heart in helping God’s work and voluntarily sponsored the rice ministry in our church and also donated money in buying some Bibles. Thanks also to one of my Facebook friends in the US who donates money monthly through Paypal for my Sunday school kids’ supplies and snacks. I hope and pray that God will touch more people to help our church so we can buy a lot and later on build our own church building.

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Our order of 40 Bibles arrived last week. We got it at the Bible League at a much lower price than PCBS. We bought 20 Bibles last month from PCBS and gave it to the kids in my Sunday school and the rest we gave it to the adults who were attending our worship service. We mentioned it to one of our pastor friends and he was the one who suggested to us to buy Bibles at the Bible League. So hubby ordered 40 so all in all we bought 60 Bibles already. Hubby has a vision that more and more people will attend our church and we need Bibles to give out to them.

Right now, we are so thankful that our ministry is growing. This past Sunday, we started Sunday school for the adults with my brother-in-law, Jhun as the teacher. There were around 9 adults who attended and there were 20 kids in my Sunday school. During the worship service there were 16 adults who were present plus the kids, praise God! Two young moms whom I’ve been inviting a few times already showed up finally. I was so glad to see them. We gave them a warm welcome. Jhun played his keyboard as we sang worship songs. Then time for the special song. Lat week it was Jhun who sang. Guess who did it this time. Would you believe I rendered a special song for the first time with no practice at all? That was the first time I did it, singing solo in the church. I told the people after wards that I don’t have a good singing voice but I just want to glorify Jesus through a song.

Hubby gave the message and I was the translator. I’m so amazed how God gave me the courage, wisdom and confidence to do all those things, witnessing to people and inviting them to church, teaching Sunday school, message translator and singing solo. Wow! Truly the Lord is amazing. If He will use you, He will equip you as long as you are obedient to His calling. “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” Isaiah 6:8

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…and I’m still awake. I’ve been busy preparing my lessons for tomorrow for Sunday school. I also printed memory verse for the kids to memorize. On top of that I also read my hubby’s message for tomorrow because I am the translator from English to Tagalog. Most people who are attending our worship service are from the village and they can’t fully understand English preaching especially from an American preacher because they said it’s too slang. I have no choice but to translate it so they will understand hubby’s message. I’ve been doing this for more than a month already. I just pray to God to give me wisdom because I’m not really very good in Tagalog translation. I’m just doing this to further God’s kingdom and for His glory.

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I’ve been meaning to write an update about our ministry a few weeks ago but l’ve been too preoccupied with some other things. The enemy is attacking one of my loved ones and we were down on our knees asking God to intervene. We entrust everything to Him. Now, I’m here in front of my computer and so I might as well write about our ministry updates. My Sunday school class is still on-going every Sunday. Hubby and I drive there as early as 8:15 AM and Sunday school begins at 8:30 AM. I have 15 kids who attend regularly in our outreach ministry and sometimes the attendance go up as high as 22. I love teaching those kids and they really inspire me because they are so interested in learning the lessons I teach every Sunday. I have taught them Christian songs, gave them Bible verses to memorize, told them Bible stories, taught them how to pray and talk to God, taught them not to speak bad words and not to quarrel to their fellow kids and lately I taught them to give offerings to God. Those kids started at my VBS class last summer and until now they continue attending my Sunday school class. Ten of them got saved and accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. They enjoy doing the coloring pages that I give to each of them on Sundays. Our church bought crayons for each of them to use in their coloring. I gave incentive to those who did a good job in coloring. I also told them before that if they will attend Sunday school for 4 consecutive Sundays, I will give each of them a reward.

The Lord has blessed our effort in doing His work. One of my co-blogger and friend in Facebook had read my post about my VBS class and she had seen the photos of the kids that I posted. The Lord had touched her heart to help the kids in my Sunday school and she promised to give financial help every month. She started sending her help last May through my Paypal. I was so amazed how the good Lord provide what we need by using other people. Imagine, I didn’t even ask my FB friend nor solicit her, she gave voluntarily. It’s not that much but every little bit helps. Then, a couple who are friends of ours based in the US were talking with us online the day before we started VBS. I mentioned to them that we will be starting VBS the next day and I told them I was so excited. The next day I got a text from her telling me that she sent money to me through Xoom as their help for my VBS. Oh my, that was really an unexpected blessing from the Lord! He blessed the work that we’re doing for Him. Then the next couple of months, the couple had sent us financial support for our Sunday school kids. I didn’t ask for their help, they just sent it out of love for the work of the Lord. I was so amazed and touched by God’s faithfulness! If He will send you to do His work, He will equip you. We were able to buy a total of 120 notebooks, ballpens and pencils for my Sunday school kids before the school started and it helped their parents a lot. Thanks to our faithful friends who have the heart to help the work of the Lord.

Now, our next project is to buy Bibles for my Sunday school kids. None of them have Bibles yet. We went to PCBS in Urdaneta and inquire the prices but they ran out of stocks as of last week. We are still waiting for the arrival of the Bibles that I ordered. We also want to buy Bibles for the adults in our Bible study class next time when we have enough funds. None of them have Bibles too. We are trusting God that He will provide what we need to further His kingdom. He touches and uses people as instruments in a way I never imagined. To God be the glory!

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I praise God for His unending blessings and provisions. As I mentioned before, we have an outreach and I’m teaching Sunday school. The kids that I taught at VBS are now my Sunday school pupils and ten of them got saved and accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. They were baptized by George at the beach last month, praise God! We invited their parents to come and witnessed the water baptism of their kids, There were three parents of the kids who came. My 2 siblings and there families went with us too. We hired a jeepney, cooked some foods, went to picked up the kids and off we went to the beach. It was a hot morning and the beach was full of people. Most of the cottages were occupied and the rate had skyrocketed. It’s a good thing that we found a vacant cottage and though the rent was pricey, we took it. That was Sunday morning of May 16 and we held our service there.

After the service, I gathered the kids and talked to them that we will go there at the water at the same time. So hubby baptized each of the 10 kids at the beach. Most of them were so excited. We took some photos as souvenir of that wonderful day in their lives. Then it flashed in my mind when I had my water baptism at the same beach 22 years ago. The thing is I didn’t have a photo as a souvenir of my water baptism. Di pa uso no’n ang digicam. It’s such a joy to see people get saved especially those young kids. After the water baptism, everybody went back to our cottage and savored the foods that we prepared. Then all the kids went swimming.

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I’ve been busy preparing gospel tracts that we gonna give out to people when we go out soul-winning on Saturday. I spent the whole day cutting, folding and stapling it. We reproduce our gospel tracts by having it xeroxed. We save money that way. I pray that people would be moved and convicted once they will read the gospel tracts that we will give out. It is titled “Ito Ang Naging Buhay Mo.”

By the way, the kids that I taught at DVBS are now attending Sunday school. I am still their teacher and I enjoy being with the kids and teaching them songs, telling them Bible stories, giving them coloring pages and asking them to memorize Bible verses. Tomorrow, hubby and I will be buying more stuffs needed for my Sunday school class like crayons, notebooks and ball pens. We already bought a white board last time.

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When I was I kid I used to attend DVBS (Daily Vacation Bible School) during summer. I enjoyed listening to Bible stories and doing some activites like coloring and game competitions. That was many moon years back but I still remember the stories I heard and the songs we sang at VBS. Many years had passed and now I’m a VBS teacher. Yesiree!!! I taught VBS this past week and I tell you I had fun. I am a licensed secondary school teacher major in Math but I never dreamed that I would be a VBS teacher. I believe that it’s all part of God’s plan that instead of teaching Math, I would be teaching the Word of God to the kids. Who would have thought that I would become a missionary’s wife and start a ministry here in my homeland? But God chose me and I would have to be obedient to His calling.

Last week I went house to house in one of the barangays here in our town about 2 miles away from our house. Most of the people there are my kinfolks and most of them are not yet saved. So hubby and I decided to hold a DVBS for the kids in that area. There were 22 kids who signed up but only 19 completed the course and received certificates. On our 1st day I asked the class if they had attended VBs before but all of them said NO. All of them were first timers. Hubby and I were the only ones available to handle VBS but we managed anyway. It would have been better if there were other teachers so I could have divided the class according to their age level. We started our class at 8:30 AM until 11:30 AM. Every morning when we arrived there, the kids were already out there waiting on us. They were so interested and it made me glad. Our VBS theme was Champions For God and our theme song was of the same title. I told stories of characters from the Bible who were considered as Champions of God like David who defeated Goliath, the apostle Paul, Noah of Noah’s Ark, etc Hubby was my assistant in handling the kids. He helped during game competitions and he assisted me during snack time in giving snack to the kids. For one week I stayed up late at night preparing the lessons and the materials for their crafts. I had to learn some Christian songs for the kids and taught it to them. They love the song “Ang Mga Ibon” which I taught them with matching actions. Some of them volunteered to sing it in front of the class. When hubby started to take some photos, almost everybody raised their hands and wanted to sing in front so their photos would be taken too. It really made me smile. I wrote memory verse for the kids to memorize. Hubby gave rewards to those kids who were able to memorize the verse in John 3:16. It’s amazing how kids learn and memorize so fast but there were also slow learners. The oldest in my class was 13 but he’s only in the 4th grade and the youngest was 5.

VBS lasted for a week and the kids graduated yesterday and everybody were so excited. They received a certificate of completion. I thanked them for attending VBS and hopefully next year I would see them again. I asked them to attend Sunday school in the same venue. By the way, we held VBS at a vacant house own by one of my kinfolks. I plan to have a Sunday school there every week as follow-up for the kids who attended DVBS. I pray that God will bless our ministry and that those kids will grow up into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

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We had a film showing of the movie “Jesus” according to the book of Luke the other day. We had shown the same movie last year during the Holy Week in our carport and we invited our neighbors to come and see the movie. We got a good response and lots of people came. They even thanked us for showing the movie because it reminds them to get things straight with God. Then on Good Friday Friday last year, we had shown the same movie in my kinfolks village and lots and lots of people came to watch the movie. At that time we haven’t bought a projector screen yet so just used a plyboard painted white.

We already have a portable projector screen now and that’s what we used last Thursday during our film showing. There were more kids than adults who came to watch the Jesus film. At the middle of the movie something happened. The movie kept stopping, a result of scratches of the DVD. We just burned that copy of the movie and because it’s been shown many times, there were already scratches so we decided to change the movie and showed The Rich Fool instead. Both movies were dubbed in our native language so the people understood it better. Film showing is also our ministry and it’s one way to reach out the lost and share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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