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 13th 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 4th 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.
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| 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 3rd and
4th 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.
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| 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 28th, 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.
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| 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.
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| 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 26th. 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.
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| Our Indoor Games class is lots of fun |
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| With some of my 1st year students |
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| 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! |
