January and February 2016

PCL Happenings

We are only a few weeks away from the end of the school year, and things at PCL have been as busy as ever. After the mid-term exams were completed in late January, our students had an exciting program to look forward to. Saturday, February 13^th was our first ever fun run, which was called ‘Pray Pa More, Takbo Pa More’. (Takbo is Tagalog for run.) The event was held at Quezon City Memorial Circle, a very popular circular park. Participants gathered at 5am (although, not surprisingly, some were late) with the opening prayer and welcome happening at 5:30, followed by some warm up dance aerobics. At 6:00, the race began, with participants running around the outside of the park, on a few lanes which had been sectioned off for the event. We had more than 200 runners, including students, members of the Gethsemane churches and other churches or friends who had been invited. We were so thankful for the staff members and 4^th year students who put in such a huge effort, including some who stayed at the park overnight, sacrificing their sleep for the event. The school raised 30,000PHP (almost $1,000) and were able to buy more chairs for the classrooms.

At the end of February, the students held elections for the new student council, to be composed of a male and female batch representative for each year level, plus a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and public relations officer. We are so thankful for the current Student Council and all they have done over the past year. We are excited for our new batch of leaders who will serve PCL in their new roles in the next academic year, and we pray that God will always guide and strengthen them.

 

Student Council Elections

Gethsemane Dweller Church – San Mateo

For the past year, Juls and I have been doing ministry in Divine Mercy, San Mateo, through an initial month of outreach events, weekly Bible studies and informal Sunday meetings. On January 12, we were very excited to have our official Church Dedication. Members of the Korean church who sponsored the building came to The Philippines to participate in the program. Before the program began, the 3^rd and 4^th year PCL students walked through the subdivision, inviting members of the community. Many people, especially children, came. We had games, songs and balloons for the children downstairs, while the praise and worship, special numbers and message were given in the main area upstairs. After the service, every guest was given a wonderful meal and some gifts including lovely clothes for the children and travel mugs for the adults. It was so wonderful to have the installation of Pastor Francis, who graduated from PCL last year and who has, together with his wife, been ministering in this community with Juls I since we began. We are confident that he is the right person to pastor our new little church, and we believe that God will do great things in this community through this ministry.

Since the dedication, we have been praying that our regular attendees will grow. We are so encouraged by the youth, as we started with about 5 young people gathering every Saturday afternoon with Julius, and we now have about 15, showing a desire to learn more about God and grow in their faith. Every Sunday morning, about 40 children attend our service, with about 25 of those children coming without an adult companion (supervision of children is different here). While it can be quite difficult to handle so many children, because the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few, when I see them listening to stories about Jesus and joining in prayer, my heart is touched. I pray that these precious children will grow in the knowledge of God, and experience the love of Jesus. I pray that their growing faith will guide them throughout the coming years. Perhaps the future leaders of our church are the little children who currently enjoy colouring in pictures from Bible stories and playing with the other kids. 

Some of the children who come to our Sunday services

A Wonderful Ministry Opportunity

Since focusing on church planting in San Mateo, Juls and I haven’t visited as many churches as we used to. However, on Sunday, February 28^th, we were asked to visit the church of Pastor Fred, one of the professors at PCL. His church was having a special evening called ‘Love is Forever’, aimed at helping young people make wise choices about love, dating and marriage. It has been a while since I have given an exhortation, but I was really happy to share our story and give a message to the young people about such an important and relevant topic.

Moving to Perth

As many of you know, Juls and I have been praying seriously about moving to Australia. There are many reasons why really feel that our time in The Philippines is coming to an end.  In May last year, Juls applied for a partner visa and in February, his visa was granted. Pastor Lee has known about our decision since early last year, so the school is already aware that this will be my final semester at PCL. It is also the reason why we began our ministry in San Mateo with another couple, and why Pastor Francis, instead of Juls, was installed as the pastor.  

We are looking forward to being with our Perth family again

We have a lot happening in our final two months here including graduation and a very exciting mission trip. One of our third year students, Bro Assis, is from a province called Aklan, where the only nearby church has been abandoned for years, and was also damaged in the 2013 Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan). Three years ago, he enrolled at PCL with the intention of pastoring the church after his graduation. Our graduating students will be joining him in April for evangelism and preparation for his future ministry there. We are praying for our students, who are trying to raise the $300 each needed for this wonderful mission opportunity. 

With Bro Assis (3rd from the left) and our four graduating Verzosa Scholarship students

 We will be heading for Perth a few days after the mission trip, on April 26^th.  We pray that we will finish our final months here well, and that our preparations for the big move will come together. 

We really appreciate your prayers. We are particularly praying for:

• Our graduating students, that God will meet their financial needs for graduation and mission trip
• Spiritual and numerical growth of our little church, Gethsemane Dweller Church - San Mateo
• Juls and I as we prepare to move to Australia within the next two month

Thank you so much.

Our Indoor Games class is lots of fun

With some of my 1st year students

When you see a dog with pink ears wearing sunglasses and riding on the front of a motorcycle, you just have to take a photo!

November and December 2015

Semester Two, 2015/2016

Semester Two began in November. I have two subjects with our first year students, Biology and Indoor Games. I’m enjoying both of these subjects and continuing to work with our delightful first year students. I’m also teaching English Communication to our third year students. We are having a lot of fun with this subject and I am really enjoying spending time with the third years, as I haven’t taught them since they were in first year.

My Biology Class

Enjoying Fellowship with the 3rd Year Students

In December, we had our annual Sportsfest. It was another fantastic week, with such an encouraging, positive vibe. The third year students organized the event, and even cooked for all the students. I was really impressed by their organization, effort and communication with the whole school and reflected on how much they have grown in leadership over the past few years. We played basketball, volleyball, chess, table tennis, and team building games. There was the always entertaining cheering competition, with each team’s cheer going for 10 minutes, which I found hard to judge. Another highlight was the talents night, which I again judged. Every year, I tell myself that I won’t play because of my dodgy knee, but when our team was down in the basketball and the students requested that I play, what could I do but put on my sneakers and join in. I’m no athlete, but years of childhood netball taught me how to plant my feet when I catch a basketball (most of the girls have trouble with travelling), and while I’m not good at dribbling, I am quite proud to say that I scored within a few minutes and helped our team come from behind to grab the win. Unfortunately, I didn’t play so well in the grand final, which we lost. I was quite happy that I didn’t experience much knee pain in the next few days, as I had in previous years.

The last week of class in December was disrupted by another typhoon, but that didn’t stop the students from having their Christmas party. Unfortunately, I was quite sick and didn’t get to join in the celebration and see their hilarious presentations, but the students had a wonderful time. 

San Mateo Ministry

We are so excited about our ministry in San Mateo. The building is really close to completion now, with the dedication set for January. Juls continues to work hard, communicating with the builders, the members, the neighbors and Pastor Lee, and doing a lot of cleaning and organizing the last bits and pieces.

Before Christmas, Juls and I felt to do something practical to help our Bible Study members, who have very little money and often struggle to buy the simplest things.  We bought each family a package of food, to make sure that they would have at least something to put on the table on Christmas Day.  It was a simple gift, but we were happy that we could do something for them.

Pastor Francis and his wife (the couple who are church planting with us) and Juls and I decided to organize a ‘simple’ Christmas party for our ministry.  I still manage to be surprised by what Filipinos call ‘simple’, as we began planning games, gifts, raffles and food. We planned the party for December 20, but we had to postpone it due to a typhoon. So we rescheduled the party for December 27, and the delay worked out well because we were able to use our new church building for the first time. The building wasn’t complete, but the second floor was usable. It was such a crazy, noisy, somewhat out of control, but fantastic day. Attendance was good, with quite a few visitors coming and most of our regular and semi-regular attendees coming. They loved participating in the games. We were relieved that we had cooked enough food, although we ran out of plates so Juls and I shared a large saucepan lid to use as a plate.  We felt that this was such a positive step in our ministry and we continue to pray that God guides us all in this. 

Playing games 

Juls with some of the kids from our ministry

There was plenty of fo

No plate? No problem! We'll just use a saucepan lid instead.

A Very Verzosa Christmas

Our original plan for this Christmas was to go to Samar province to visit Juls’s family. However, Juls didn’t feel peace about going, and so we decided to stay home. It ended up being a good decision, as the typhoons I’ve already mentioned affected his parents’ home. There was also terrible crowding and waiting at the bus terminals that we would have used, and I just don’t think I would have handled the crowd so well. 

Juls and I celebrated Christmas in our house, and invited a few friends to a pre-Christmas celebration. I couldn’t find any Christmas bon-bons – it’s not a ‘thing’ here – but I refused to have a Christmas celebration without them, so I made paper crowns, found corny jokes, bought some little toys and made non-banging bon-bons. Guests were informed that they were not allowed to eat until they told their joke (even if they didn't get it due to language differences). I warned them to take off their crowns quickly after discovering that when they are wet (from sweat) they can stain your skin. It was nice to do something that our Medling family does every Christmas. Our Christmas Day was quiet, but God really touched my heart again as I reflected on the enormity of the love and grace of God, in the gift of Jesus. 

I love our little tree, with the faces of our dear Aussie nieces and nephews

Welcome 2016

As I reflect on 2015, I thank God for the way He carried us, strengthened us and guided us. Through every challenge, He provided the way. I found myself struggling with some emotional issues, and I’m so thankful for His Word, which encouraged me, the holidays and refreshing breaks He gave us, and the little reminders that we are loved. I received some  encouraging messages and gifts from Aussie friends which touched my heart so much. I’m so thankful for 2015.

 We look forward to 2016, believing that it will hold many new adventures for us. As long as God is with us, then who can be against us? We are believing for a great 2016. 

With Ethan Gabriel, our inaanak (kind of like a godson, but with many godparents)