I wanted to share what has been happening in the Philippines since I left. The group has enthusiastically continued in the Lord, meeting nightly to share together. The 37 new believers in Jordan are taking active roles in their worship times. The district pastor and family visits frequently and the helpers from my time there have stayed on awhile to strengthen the new church. Plans have commenced to provide a place of worship and livelihood programs have begun.

I prayed a great deal about what to leave at my departure and decided on serveral priorities.

SWORDS - Bibles for each newly baptized. Between my site and where the two others of “my” team went, our home church provided 70 Bibles.

SHEPHERD - Since the pastor has at least seven churches over a wide area, I am paying a small stipend for a dedicated layman who had moved temporarily to the village before my arrival and was willing to stay. He is trained in NEWSTART and gardening and is a humble man of God.

SHEEPFOLD or SHELTER - Since there was no nearby church to incorporate these new believers into and because an offshoot movement had also targeted the village, I feel that it is very important to have a place to meet temporarily until a church is built. Land has been rented and a small amount of money for a roof is needed to build a temporary shelter on a piece of land we hope can be purchased at $10 a square meter/square yard, for the future church.

SUPPORT - A livelihood program has commenced under the direction of the district pastor and ADRA Philippines to assist these very poor peaple to make a living. Most of these village fold make their living from a dump, “scavengers” as they call themselves. Some make their living with coconuts, 1 peso a peice. Bare cost of liveing between 4000 to 6000 pesos a month.

SUSTENANCE - I am encouraging the lay leader and others to teach and demonstrate good gardening techniques and to assist with tools and seeds to begin family gardens and/or a community garden near the church for those who have no land.

SCHOOL - In the future my dream is to also provide a school to grow the children up on Christ centered education and also for practical skills as suggesed by the district pastor.

Please continue to remember them in your prayers.

I asked Pastor Jimmy Ramirez how many brothers and sisters he had. He said there were nine of them but three died as young children.

“My father was an alcoholic and my mother didn’t have an education. We had no money for medical care or for transportation. when my little brothers and sisters became sick there we just had to watch them die. It nearly drove my mother crazy. But all that changed when I was twelve.”

“What happened when you were twelve?”

“The Adventist message came to our village. There was no nearby Adventist church but somehow church leaders decided to start Adventist work in our area. A lot of people, including my family, were baptized. We started learning new ways of living that helped our families and our health.”

“Before that time all the boys would start gambling and drinking at about age thirteen. They would then pick up smoking and drop out of school. But when the Adventist message came to our village all that changed for those of us who accepted it.”

“That was twenty two years ago. There are now at least thirty of us for our village that have graduated from Adventist University of the Philippines (AUP). Two of us are pastors, three are school teachers and two are even professors at AUP where they graduated.”

“I am so thankful someone came to our village with the Adventist message.”

Today Jimmy Ramirez pastors the Lucena, Laguna Seventh-day Adventist district with 1,100 members in seven churches and four companies, including one in the Lucena Prison with more than 100 members. (Click here to read “12 Inmates Baptized in Lucena Prison”)

Ramon Canals preached in Lucban. The local church newsletter has more information on his meetings. Click on the following pictures to view (you may need to click on the picture twice to get it to full size):   

Expect the unexpected. That was the counsel I, Carl Cosaert, was given while planning to head off to the Philippines for our families first mission trip. Since I don’t like to be taken by surprise, I thought I would get a better idea of what to actually “expect” by talking with people who had traveled to the Philippines before. So before we even packed our luggage, we learned so much about the Philippines that I was positive nothing would really take us by surprise. While I was right in many ways, the one thing I had under estimated was the full extent of the spiritual blessing God had planned for our family in the Philippines.

Once we arrived in the Philippines, everything at first seemed to be roughly what I had expected though I have to admit that traveling by car in the highly congested and under-regulated driving conditions in the Philippines was far more unnerving than I could have ever imagined. While everyone on the mission trip would eat lunch together, we learned that supper was to be provided by one of the families at the local church where each of us were assigned to work. So as we headed off to our church for the first time, I envisioned that the home where we would eat every night would probably resemble the extremely poor homes we saw scattered along the sides of the road. While that did turn out to be a reality for most everyone else on the mission trip, our situation was not what I had expected. It turned out that our church’s head elder and his wife were medical doctors. Their house while certainly more spacious than the average Filipino home, was very simple and plain. Their living room, however, was different. It was wonderfully decorated with ornate vases, elegantly handcrafted furniture, and beautiful curtains. This was definitely not the tiny, run down home with dirt floors I had expected.

Over the next two weeks, it was a privilege to become better acquainted with my wonderful host and his wife. They were not only extremely kind, generous, and humble, but also deeply committed people spiritually. Toward the end of our stay, my host told me that the vast majority of his siblings were living in the United States. I was curious why he had chosen to stay in the Philippines. His response was simple. “I’m afraid.” I figured he must be referring to violent crimes and the steady flow of violence depicted on television, movies, and the video games kids play in the United States. But I was mistaken; his answer was something I never would have expected. “I like life in the Philippines,” he went on to say. “I have a good job and I’m able to provide a modest living for my family. But I especially like the way church is here. I’m afraid that if I lived in the United States, I would be like many others I know who get so caught up in the riches of the world that they lose their faith in the process.

“His words reminded me of the passage in James 2:5, ” Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom…?” Here was a man who by American standards could have so much more materially, if he only wanted to live in the United States. But instead he chose to live in a very modest home by American standards for a person with his skills and education because his primary goal in life was not material riches, but in the spiritual riches he experienced in being a part of a small poor church in the Philippines. It’s so easy for us living in first world countries like the United States to become complacent in our faith. May God’s Spirit awakened us from our Laodicean slumber and teach us to value what really matters most in this life.

Thanks so much for your prayers and encouragement during our recent Philippines For Christ 2008 mission trip. Below is the most recent update from Pastor Nelson de Chavez, the South Central Luzon Conference President. He indicates baptisms to date for each site (many more are expected in the next two months), financial giving possibilities (Donations can be sent to NPUC Philippines For Christ 2008, 5709 N 20th Street, Ridgefield, WA 98642 with an indication of which worthy causes your donation is for), and special greetings to Jere Patzer.

Dear Pr. Dan:

We, too had been blessed and inspired by our encounters with the members of your group. You have worked tirelessly for the souls in our territory. We will always cherish the precious moments we spent together in the service of the Lord!

Allow me to answer your letter point by point:

BAPTISMAL UPDATE

• Calamba - 31
• Dapdap - 35
• Darasa/Laurel - 43
• Dolores - 18
• Jordan/San Miguel - 37
• Liliw - 6
• Los Banos - 20
• Lucban - 37
• Lucena - 17
• Luisiana - 25
• Lumban - 25
• Lutucan - 22
• Majayjay - 31
• Nagcarlan - 48
• Pagbilao - 11
• Paete - 18
• Pila - 32
• San Juan - 75
• Siniloan - 52
• Sta. Cruz - 38
• Tiaong - 22
• San Pablo City - 244

TOTAL - 887

DONATION POSSIBILITIES

We thank the Lord for the generosity of your your team. Not only have they shared their time, but also their talent, treasure and their lives.

• a. The Bible with the Study Help and 28 Fundamental Beliefs (Tagalog) costs $7.50 each.
• b. Tuition, board & lodging for 1 semester at AUP is about $1,000.
• c. Malamig Church in San Pablo City needs $2,500 to be completed. The churches in Liliw and Dapdap need more.
• d. The congregations that need church buildings are Sta. Monica and San Lucas. A simple concrete church for 100-150 people costs $10,000-12,000. The brethren “donate” the labor while those who have the means contribute cash.
• e. Major crusade like what we had in San Pablo City costs $10,000-15,000; the church-based evangelistic meeting is $2,000-5,000.

Our priority needs–

1. * Bibles for new members. Our yearly baptism is 3,500.
2. * Church-based evangelism budget of $2,000 for 25 sites.
3. * 5 new church buildings for…
   1. - Rizal, Laguna
   2. - San Lucas, San Pablo City
   3. - Laurel, Batangas
   4. - Jordan, Sto. Tomas, Batangas
   5. - Sta. Monica, San Pablo City

I haven’t seen Mark but you can download the “Messenger” from sclcsda.org, click Publishing Department then click the LE SONGS.

Please convey to Pastor Jere that the Lord had greatly blessed the PATZER’S CRUSADE”! We thank you for choosing to work in South-Central Luzon Conference. We hope to work with you again soon.

God bless your leadership!

Your partners in the Lord’s work in this part of the world…

Nelson & Delba de Chavez

Originally the NPUC team was scheduled to go to Cagayan de Oro on the southern island of Mindanao in the Philippines. When that didn’t work out we sent some financial assistance to help with meetings there and refocused on San Pablo City.

 Here is what happened in the Cagayan de Oro, Mindanao area as reported by Albert Gulfan, the President of the Southern Asia-Pacific Division of Seventh-day Adventists.

Dear Brethren,

On behalf of the Southern Asia-Pacific Division I wish to thank you for the support you have given for the Evangelistic campaigns in Cagayan de Oro City and other sites in the Northern Mindanao Conference in South Philippines.

Pastor Rick McEdward who preached in Iligan City, Pastor Myron Iseminger in Manticao and myself just finished our meetings last Sabbath, March 22 with a large MASS BAPTISM. I held the meetings at Grand Caprice Restaurant and Convention Center in Cagayan de Oro as we could not afford the Atrium originally planned for Jere’s meetings. We had an average of 1,000 people coming to my meetings each night. It was videotaped and was broadcast over the local Adventist Television station at the Union headquarters one hour later. We had a very good response. Last Sabbath, we had a baptism of 1,672 souls at a Mass baptism at the Pelaez Sports Complex. The conference leadership prepared ten boxes used as baptistery filled with water by the city’s fire department trucks. The baptismal service took more than one hour and I had to repeat the proclamation and prayer 64 times. We ended at about 12:30 and had lunch. More than 10,000 people came to the Sports Complex on Sabbath from all over the Conference to celebrate the mass baptism and hear me preach my last sermon on Sabbath morning. There was another baptism in another place of 225 with a group from Canada but did not join the mass baptism anymore because one of the team members drowned in a river in the village where they constructed a chapel. Including the people who have been baptized before the campaign proper started, Northern Mindanao Conference has already close to 3000 baptism from January up to the time of our series.

Again, thank you very much for helping us with financing the meetings. I collected offerings during my meetings and it was a big help too.

I am praying for the meetings that are now going on in South Central Luzon Conference area. I wish I had time to visit some of the groups there but I came home from Cagayan de Oro on Sabbath evening ad flew to Maryland at 6:20 in the morning.

I am praying for Jere as well. It is our prayer that God will bless and heal.

So long and best regards.

Sincerely,

Pastor Gulfan

Thanks to the faithful ministry of lay, pastoral and conference leaders in the Philippines, as well as guest evangelists, Share Him, The Quiet Hour, ASI and generous donors, there are now about 5,500 new brothers and sisters in the Philippines as a result of five cluster meetings, including our meetings.

Our cluster focused on San Pablo City and surrounding areas, and has resulted in about 1,000 new believers, including 396 who were baptized in a San Pablo City swimming pool on Sabbath afternoon, March 29. The others were baptized during our meetings in March and at several sites in the region on the final Sabbath. Several pastors of other denominations embraced the Adventist message and were baptized. Two new churches were planted in the San Pablo area as well as others which were planted in the other cluster sites.

Other clusters included Don Schneider’s team in Manila, Albert Gulfan’s cluster in Cagayan de Oro on Mindanao, and other clusters on Cebu and other Philippines locations.

ASI provided lay training and DVD materials to prepare people for baptism and to provide strong discipling of the new members. The Quiet Hour funded the evangelistic costs at many of the sites. Share Him provided evangelistic graphics and organizational and financial support. Guest speakers from the North Pacific Union Conference and other parts of the North American Division preached evangelistic meetings and provided health and family talks, music and children’s ministry. And the lay members, pastoral and conference leaders were faithful in looking for those who were most open to the Adventist message, befriending them and sharing Jesus and the Bible truthes with them. They will also be the ones to help them learn how to walk with Jesus each day and share their new found faith with their family and friends.

The San Pablo meetings were recorded by a local cable company and rebroadcast to their 4,000 subscribers.

Today I visited briefly with the chairman of the theology department at Adventist University of the Philippines (AUP), formerly Philippine Union College (third from right). I asked him what he found effective in training pastors to be godly leaders and soul winners. He said “the best way is by example. Every year we target an area for new Adventist work. During the school year we send teams of ministerial students and their friends to that community to work with the local members to prepare the way. Then in the summer I hold a meeting with seventeen ministerial students. Our goal is to baptize 400 and usually we accomplish the goal.” Thrilling and inspiring, and worth consideration on how to adapt back home in the United States.

The last two nights there have been hundreds of decisions for baptism in San Pablo City. Praise the Lord. This includes several hundred that will form two new churches in the city.

This Sabbath the conference leaders have planned a mass baptism. And throughout our various sites there have been many people baptized so far. God is doing a wonderful thing in this region and in our hearts as well.