Cool Days

It’s my favorite time in the Philippines. For the past three days, the temperature hasn’t broke above 80 or dipped below 70. I’ve been working outside on some wood building projects and enjoying every moment of it. The cool breezes have been refreshing.

We had a great Christmas with David, Sara, and Hannah. Lot’s of stories, fun, and laughs. Of course, it was so verrrrry hard to see them leave. Jonathan, Martha, and I suffered through some post-holiday blues as the new year began. But we’re OK now, I think.

Ministry with our new CPM (Church Planting Movement – see Sept. 20 entry) strategy continues to be exciting. From August to the end of the year, we saw 47 new believers baptized. This month so far has seen another 7. In Lambunao, a prominent lady who was outspoken in her opposition to the Christian faith suddenly had a change of heart when she heard Jesus tell her in a dream to follow what these Christian people were saying. We baptized her just before Christmas.

In the same area, an entire family had been baptized. The head of the family had a brother who was a priest. When the priest learned his brother and family had been baptized as Christians, he came to their house to ask why. The brother explained, “For twenty years you have been coming to our area but you never explained to us about the message of the Bible. These people come and explained to us about who God is and what the Bible says. So now we’ve decided to follow Jesus.”

Another local religious leader began complaining because few people were now attending his ritualistic ceremonies. He began a verbal attack against our house churches. But the people in the house churches told him, “We don’t need you anymore. We’ve learned that we can worship God on our own anytime and anywhere.”

So, it is a delightful time for me to be here and see God at work. Thank you for your continued support through the Southern Baptist Cooperative Program. I’m almost completely recovered from my surgery. Our homes schooling has started back. And did I tell you how wonderful our weather has been? I think I’ll go outside and work some more.