PHILIPPINE UPDATE JULY, 2013

Greetings to you all, our supporters, in the Name of the Lord.  Thank you all for your continued interest and support for the work in the Philippines.  It is encouraging to know that there are others who bring our brothers and sisters in the Lord before His throne of grace.

Pastor Benjie Ragas

Pastor Benjie Ragas has reported from Calinan, Davao, For the update of our ministry here in Riverside, our Bible study at Calinan district hall every Monday has continued its regular schedule. We have  a new opening Bible study also at the place of one of our brothers near Riverside and we have seven regular attendance. At this moment, God is really moving through the life of our mothers in the church because every day they have their own prayer schedule. I’ve seen God touching their lives through this ministry and also our music team ministry is really moving forward. We have new members and others are becoming converted  to Christianity.  As what I’ve observe, the numbers of church attendance was growing.

Please continue to pray these ministries.

Pastor Roy Rocha

From Manila,Pastor Roy Rocha writes,

“DWELLING IN THE WORD OF CHRIST” The undeniable challenges of our Christian life brought by the media, fashion, lifestyle, philosophies of this world and…etc. these affects our struggle in ‘making disciples’. So, we at NEW LIFE in CHRIST, we are on the series of understanding completely that only the WORD of CHRIST and not the WORD of this WORLD should shape our minds. The more we become RICH in the WORD of CHRIST, the more we DESIRE more of Him that which results to DOING; life Change.

In our drive to this, the NEW LIFE IN CHRIST YOUTH MINISTRY selected the new sets of officers and they are now currently on training for spiritual growth and leadership training.

In line with this, we ask you our dear partners in the ministry to pray for our young people and the series of events:

-YOUTH REBORN-(the phases of Transformation)

‘REPENT, RECEIVE, REACH OUT’

1. July 5-6, Youth Leaders Retreat
2. July 14, Youth Challenge 1 “Encounter’ (RECEIVE phase)
3. July 28, Youth Challenge 2 “Each 1, Bring 1” (REACH OUT phase)

(REPENT phase happened last June)

We are also thankful to our God for our NEW LIFE IN CHRIST CHILD CARE CENTER for the school year 2013-2014. The Lord blessed us with 9 children ages 2-4 years old to care for this year. The training we have from our kiwi friend made us more equipped and ready for this year.

Other prayer Requests:

• Pray for protection from sickness (dengue, measles, cough,…) the community is experiencing it right now.
• Pray that there will be no FLOOD. Last week, we were threatened by flood. It is rainy season here.

 Ranulfo ‘Toto’ Mendoza, Jr

Hi! I’m Ranulfo ‘Toto’ Mendoza, Jr.,

I‘ve worked with the Indahag Christian Fellowship and Learning Center, as Lay Pastor from 2008 to 2011, an outreach of Maranatha Bible Church, Carmen, Cagayan de Oro, member of the Bishop of the Philippine Advent Christian Churches, Inc., Philippines.
I praise the Lord, Jesus Christ, that in three years’ time, God really blessed us that we needed a larger area to worship. We are subject for relocation because the land where we are now is going to be used by the owner. I was given an authorization by the Church Board of Maranatha Bible Church to solicit for the needed lot. We have found a 400 square meters lot cost P600, 000.00. The owner needed a down payment of P300, 000.00 for us to transfer. It is located adjacent to the new relocation site where almost all of our members reside.
We continuously made payment in installment basis from October 2012 of P10,000.00 a month but the owner requires us to pay half of the whole amount.
In this connection, we are appealing to your kind heart if you could share with us your blessings. A new Pastor who is assigned now is Pastor Julie Pallo, who faithfully continues the said ministry. Please see attached pictures of several church activities.
Thank you very much, God Bless you!
Toto Mendoza, Jr.
Any donation should be send thru ACGC, to BPACCI for Maranatha Bible Church

Pastor Jonathan Navacilla

From Cebu Pastor Jonathan Navacilla writes:

Greetings!

We thank you brethren for your partnership with us in prayer. God has been so gracious to us that we are increasing here in Cebu. God has been opening doors of opportunity for the gospel to be preached. Last month we were chosen to represent Cebu to attend a Tchoukball League in Bacolod City, Negros Island. This event strengthened our influence in this sport and we are now using it to share the gospel as we are introducing this new sport to people who were curious and interested in the sport. Tchoukball is now one of the sports we are using in our sports ministry. Since it is not a contact sport, it’s more appealing especially to the women. You can see www.tchoukball.org for more details about the sport. I am also informing you that God has been adding people to our church services. We are now having a problem about space in our present building. It can only accommodate 60 people but our morning services are reaching to 90 people, and about 30 people are attending our afternoon services. In connection with this we are asking you to pray with us for a new site. In this way  we will be more effective in reaching people for The Lord.

Thank you once again for your support in the Advent Christian work in the Philippines.  May the Lord continue to bless, keep and use you all in his service.

Grant Aldridge