THIS IS THE PHOTO OF A YOUNG PREACHER CHRIS AND I ARE TRYING TO HELP GET HIS TREAMENT FOR PSORIASIS. HE HAS A NEW BABY AND WIFE AND IS A FAITHFUL GOSPEL PREACHER WHO CANT AFFORD HIS MEDICINE. THE FOUR IV TREATMENTS COST ABOUT $825 US. IF YOU CAN AND WILL HELP, MESSAGE ME OR SEND ME AN E-MAIL AND I WILL GIVE YOU THE DETAILS. THANKS, DON TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2011
Woke up at about 2:30 AM and watched TV and read my Bible for about an hour and went back to sleep, realizing that I had no idea who had won the NCAA basketball tourney finals and the world had kept turning! Woke back up at about 7 AM PST and after a little time for prayer and study got dressed and headed to breakfast. Eggs and crispy bacon with toast were quite good and the restaurant is very nice and a covered open porch overlooking the HUGE swimming pools. Susan joined us and left instructions for our plans, but could not eat as her youngest son, graduated from high school that morning.
We were picked up by Carlos, a college student, who will be our regular driver in Benny and Celine’s late model Toyota and we were off to our meeting with the area church leaders at the Urdaneta church building. When we arrived there were about a dozen preachers and church leaders from 5 different congregations in the Pangisinan province to meet with us. Butch Boniel, Susan’s husband, opened the session and gave a quick introduction and then Arnold began to make the main presentation. Arnold is, I would guess in his mid to late 30’s and a very successful business man. He owns a beauty salon, barber shop and spa along with an optical shop and a pharmacy. He outlined in his very good presentation that lasted a little over an hour and ½ the history of the Lord’s church in Pangisinan going back to 1942 and the current situation. There were 18 towns in Pangisinan without churches of Christ a year ago and 11 congregations met together to try and establish one in each town in the next 20 years.
They have a very good program of placing two men in each town as preachers and supporting them for 2 years fully in then over the next 5 years weaning the support down to when the congregation can be fully autonomous in 7 years and have a program to build a permanent building in 10-12 years. They have begun the first church planting in Bayanbang last September and it appears to be going good. Their goal is to plant a church in every town in Pangisinan over the next 20 years. Currently there are 1605 members of the church of Christ in Pangisinan. The province has a total population of 2.8 million and is increasing by 2.4% each year. They aim to have a 2.8% rate of conversion in 20 years, which will mean there will be almost 75,000 Christians. It is a lofty goal but it is one that they are committed to achieving. As with many good works the number of congregations involved dwindled to just 5 but they all appear to be good churches. Tuesday afternoon we continued meeting with the local church leaders and returned to the hotel about 6:30 PM and hosted the Boniel family for dinner at the hotel restaurant. After that at about 11:00 PM we headed to the cabanas for a night of rest.
WEDNESDAY, April 6, 2011
This morning when we got up at 6 AM and had breakfast in the hotel. I was able to get to talk with Jamie, Laurie, Leigh, Louise and of course, Ellie on Skype! It was wonderful to get to see and visit with them. At 9 AM bro. Arnold picked us up and we had planned to go visiting members of the Urdaneta congregation who were older, sick or weak spiritually. Before we went, I had lost my sunglasses, so I asked Arnold to let me go to his shop and get some. That will be an important fact as the day goes on! We went to the Magic Mall and to his Optical Shoppe. After looking at cheap sunglasses, he suggested I get the Ray-Bans. I looked at a pair that were way to expensive but he went and looked at the invoice and said “1000 pesos” (US$23.17) They were marked 500% more but with the usual negotiation he gave them to me at his cost! After getting the glasses he gave Chris the free “Sr. Citizen” eye exam.
Then he shared with us something he had not spoken with any one else about. He took us upstairs above his Beauty Salon and showed us an area that is over 300 sq/meters (which is a big area) with on open area that would be wonderful for opening a Bible Study Center. The area has unlimited potential as it has over 20,000 people that walk by the mall store every day. This is a great opportunity that has wonderful potential to reach souls. There are 7 universities in this city with 18-20 K students out of a total population of over 100,000 people. After about 3 ½ hours of meeting and planning, we had lunch at Jolibee’s.
After lunch, starting at about 2:30 PM we made 3 visits. One of them was a 94 year brother who was baptized when he was 86. We visited another brother who had been less faithful but said he would be at the Central Pangisnan Fellowship that Chris and I will be speaking at on Saturday at Urdaneta.
We then went to the home of a Muslim family. The one young sister brought her 67 year old aunt and we studied with her for over an hour. She was hung up on “Mother Maria” . Chris led the study for about 45 minutes and then I tried to reason with her. But she could not give up that yet. But she left us with the promise that she would be thinking about it.
We then had dinner at Max’s and then went to Arnold and Donna’s home and had two Bible studies. Chris studied with Donna’s sister in law who is waiting on a VISA to go the US to join her husband and children in Evansville, IN. He is a member of the church but she is not. Chris had a good study and she said she would continue to study and pray. We hope to have another study with her before we leave.
While Chris had his study in the kitchen, I studied with Irish, a 22 year old friend of their daughter, Dinah. She was able to understand and accept the Lord and at about 11:15 PM we took her to the Lisland Resort and she was baptized. After a very difficult start to the day with the break-in of Susan and Butch’s home, it ended on a wonderful note with the baptism of Irish to close the day on a great note!
Woke up at about 2:30 AM and watched TV and read my Bible for about an hour and went back to sleep, realizing that I had no idea who had won the NCAA basketball tourney finals and the world had kept turning! Woke back up at about 7 AM PST and after a little time for prayer and study got dressed and headed to breakfast. Eggs and crispy bacon with toast were quite good and the restaurant is very nice and a covered open porch overlooking the HUGE swimming pools. Susan joined us and left instructions for our plans, but could not eat as her youngest son, graduated from high school that morning.
We were picked up by Carlos, a college student, who will be our regular driver in Benny and Celine’s late model Toyota and we were off to our meeting with the area church leaders at the Urdaneta church building. When we arrived there were about a dozen preachers and church leaders from 5 different congregations in the Pangisinan province to meet with us. Butch Boniel, Susan’s husband, opened the session and gave a quick introduction and then Arnold began to make the main presentation. Arnold is, I would guess in his mid to late 30’s and a very successful business man. He owns a beauty salon, barber shop and spa along with an optical shop and a pharmacy. He outlined in his very good presentation that lasted a little over an hour and ½ the history of the Lord’s church in Pangisinan going back to 1942 and the current situation. There were 18 towns in Pangisinan without churches of Christ a year ago and 11 congregations met together to try and establish one in each town in the next 20 years.
They have a very good program of placing two men in each town as preachers and supporting them for 2 years fully in then over the next 5 years weaning the support down to when the congregation can be fully autonomous in 7 years and have a program to build a permanent building in 10-12 years. They have begun the first church planting in Bayanbang last September and it appears to be going good. Their goal is to plant a church in every town in Pangisinan over the next 20 years. Currently there are 1605 members of the church of Christ in Pangisinan. The province has a total population of 2.8 million and is increasing by 2.4% each year. They aim to have a 2.8% rate of conversion in 20 years, which will mean there will be almost 75,000 Christians. It is a lofty goal but it is one that they are committed to achieving. As with many good works the number of congregations involved dwindled to just 5 but they all appear to be good churches. Tuesday afternoon we continued meeting with the local church leaders and returned to the hotel about 6:30 PM and hosted the Boniel family for dinner at the hotel restaurant. After that at about 11:00 PM we headed to the cabanas for a night of rest.
WEDNESDAY, April 6, 2011
This morning when we got up at 6 AM and had breakfast in the hotel. I was able to get to talk with Jamie, Laurie, Leigh, Louise and of course, Ellie on Skype! It was wonderful to get to see and visit with them. At 9 AM bro. Arnold picked us up and we had planned to go visiting members of the Urdaneta congregation who were older, sick or weak spiritually. Before we went, I had lost my sunglasses, so I asked Arnold to let me go to his shop and get some. That will be an important fact as the day goes on! We went to the Magic Mall and to his Optical Shoppe. After looking at cheap sunglasses, he suggested I get the Ray-Bans. I looked at a pair that were way to expensive but he went and looked at the invoice and said “1000 pesos” (US$23.17) They were marked 500% more but with the usual negotiation he gave them to me at his cost! After getting the glasses he gave Chris the free “Sr. Citizen” eye exam.
Then he shared with us something he had not spoken with any one else about. He took us upstairs above his Beauty Salon and showed us an area that is over 300 sq/meters (which is a big area) with on open area that would be wonderful for opening a Bible Study Center. The area has unlimited potential as it has over 20,000 people that walk by the mall store every day. This is a great opportunity that has wonderful potential to reach souls. There are 7 universities in this city with 18-20 K students out of a total population of over 100,000 people. After about 3 ½ hours of meeting and planning, we had lunch at Jolibee’s.
After lunch, starting at about 2:30 PM we made 3 visits. One of them was a 94 year brother who was baptized when he was 86. We visited another brother who had been less faithful but said he would be at the Central Pangisnan Fellowship that Chris and I will be speaking at on Saturday at Urdaneta.
We then went to the home of a Muslim family. The one young sister brought her 67 year old aunt and we studied with her for over an hour. She was hung up on “Mother Maria” . Chris led the study for about 45 minutes and then I tried to reason with her. But she could not give up that yet. But she left us with the promise that she would be thinking about it.
We then had dinner at Max’s and then went to Arnold and Donna’s home and had two Bible studies. Chris studied with Donna’s sister in law who is waiting on a VISA to go the US to join her husband and children in Evansville, IN. He is a member of the church but she is not. Chris had a good study and she said she would continue to study and pray. We hope to have another study with her before we leave.
While Chris had his study in the kitchen, I studied with Irish, a 22 year old friend of their daughter, Dinah. She was able to understand and accept the Lord and at about 11:15 PM we took her to the Lisland Resort and she was baptized. After a very difficult start to the day with the break-in of Susan and Butch’s home, it ended on a wonderful note with the baptism of Irish to close the day on a great note!
So glad things are going great!! Love you!!!
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