Park Road Church Blog

1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

    We are a royal priesthood AMEN!  Let us live our lives knowing that we are a royal priesthood and we have to behave as those called out of darkness into God's marvelous light!  We must proclaim the mighty acts of God who has empowered us to share the Gospel!  Have courage and boldness my brothers and sisters as we shine bright for our Creator and honor and glory his Son Jesus Christ who's Blood alone can cover our sins!

Josiah's 1st Birthday Party Aug.30:
    Josiah's 1st birthday party went very well we had around 50 kids come to our house and friends from Agdao and Toril to celebrate with us!  Abegail and her grandmother also came and they enjoyed the food and fun.  We hired a Christian Gospel clown to entertain the children and he shared the Gospel through magic tricks and games, our friend Ian from YWAM also helped facilitate the activities. Please check our photos on facebook of the party.

Asseblies of God Ministerial Fellowship Meeting Sept. 7:
    On September 7 we hosted the Assemblies of God monthly Ministerial Fellowship meeting at our church in Toril.  This meeting was attended by over 70 pastors who are overseeing churches in Davao City.  I was invited by the leadership to share the message for 45 mins. about the "Community Health Evangelism" ministry we are doing and how we can use this strategy for church planting.  We had wonderful fellowship and ate lunch together afterward.  Pray the pastors will start CHE in their churches and we can train their training teams!
   
Cebu Trip Sept. 8-15:
    The Canadian Government requires children born outside Canada to a Canadian parent to obtain a Canadian Citizen Certificate in order to become a Canadian citizen, and apply for Canadian passport.  One of the requirements is to bring the child to the Canadian Consulate, we have one located in Cebu so we went there for one week.  The process will take up to a year.  Josiah will be dual citizen and currently is a Filipino citizen holding a Filipino passport. 

    While in Cebu we stayed with our friends from YWAM Fe and Peter Raddatz.  We had good fellowship with them and their daughter Kathy, and visited some historical sites.  Lydia enjoyed meeting her other friend who is also working with YWAM. 

    Josiah got a bad cough while there and we had to take him to the hospital, praise God the cough is getting better.

    We were able to meet up with the National CHE coordinator Dr. Rhodora Mendoza who is also leading "Holistic Community Development Initiatives Inc."  Dr. Rhodora and her family took us for a lovely visit to Camp Gilead where CHE internships take place for this side of the world. 

    On the last day we visited "Harvest Family Fellowship AG Church" and conducted a "CHE Visioning Seminar" for the day with the ministerial team and pastors.  They have a heart for community development, we hope to do a TOT1 with their church next time if they invite us.

    My camera broke in Davao and they only have an olypus repair center in Cebu and Manila so I was hoping to repair it but to repair would cost more than a new camera...so currently I'm without a camera that made me sad!

Gideons State Convention Sept.18-19:
    I had the privilege to attend the "Annual Mindanao State Convention" held in Tagum City once I returned from Cebu.  I'm a member of the "Davao South Camp of the Gideons International" so it was nice to meet the other 400 Gideons along with their wives from the southern Philippines.  How great it is for Christian brothers to dwell in unity!  I was the youngest there probably as they are mostly older businessmen and professionals.  We visit a friends farm and ate lots of durian and papaya fruits!  We stayed there for 2 days.  One of the speakers was from the USA so there was 2 foreigners only.  Our camp sang a special number "Find us Faithful".  In the evening we had a special Pastor's Appreciation Baquet hosted by the Gideons and the pastors with their wives were our guests.  The place was full of people and the food was great!  I enjoyed meeting and talking to some of the Pastors from Tagum, I greeted them all at the door.  Lydia and Josiah stayed home due to colds.
   
    On Monday September 21, five of us Gideons from the Davao South Camp did a Bible distribution to the hotels in the Matina area giving around 500+ Bibles to be placed in the hotels and to staff.  Please LORD use those Bibles to win souls!

Pastor's Appreciation Sunday Sept. 27:
    Our church New Life AG held our annual Pastor's Appreciation Service.  David Martin who is staying with us shared his testimony which touched our hearts.  I was asked to share the Word and spoke about Aaron and Moses.  I organized the young people and brother David to do the same special number as we did in Tagum so we sang "Find Us Faithful" around 20 of us.  Then the young people did a drama presentation and the other departments gave speech and gifts to our pastor.  Pastor Nanca was happy all day the youth reported!

Community Home Visit Progress:
    While we were in Cebu our staff started baseline surveys in another community Purok 13 (GTH), this is the first community you enter going to our house and many people are living in poverty there.  This is the area Abegail lives in.  Our staff have started home visitations there and people are very responsive to the health and spiritual teaching although some hide and reject them that is normal.  We are excited about this area as it is visible to the rest of the community and we hope to beautify this area by planting vegetables and flowers etc., and when people enter our community they will feel a good vibe physically and spiritually.

    Pray for the strength of our full time workers and for God to stir the hearts of these people to bring them to a place of repentance.  More on that as we progress.  We have been invited to work with the Barangay (community health workers) clinic to do check ups and teaching with them during prenatal and immunizations.  We pray this will establish a good relationship with the BHW's so we can work together on projects in the future.

    The Children's CHE program on Saturday mornings has been poorly attended lately and also the pregnant woman support program.  Please pray that we will get these programs well established and impact our community.

Abegail Update:
Abegail has gained over a kilo (2 1/2 pounds) since we last weighed her due to the milk and foods we have been able to give her.  We were given a donation for her from a friend and will take her to a place called People's Park in Davao, then get her some needed things like clothes etc.  Our friend asked us to make her smile because he saw how sad this case is and how skinny the young 4 year old girl named Abegail is due to cerebral palsy.  Thanks brother!  We planned to take her yesterday but her grandma had fever and canceled.
 
David Leaving:
    On Thursday our dear brother David Martin will be returning home to Canada to go back to work and get reestablished in Vancouver BC.  David has been a blessing to us here and helped us get some projects started for our garden.  We set up 5 vermi cast (earthworm) breeding units and it's successfully producing the finished product which is a very good fertilizer.  He transformed the multi purpose training center outside by building gardens and a nursery and planting sunflowers, mushrooms, tomatoes, cucumbers, radish, cauliflower, herbs and made a beautiful herb spiral.  Thank you David for you contribution to our ministry here God bless you brother, have a safe flight and pray all will work our for David in the future!
 
Singapore Trip Sept.30-Oct.15:
Tomorrow we leave for Singapore.  We are looking forward to this much needed break and hope for some rest, relaxation, good fellowship and making new friends.  We will stay with a friend Dr. Lim Su Min who is a community development consultant and teaching CHE.  We will also visit Lydia's Aunt Fely who is a pastor in Singapore.  On October 5-6 we will go to Malaysia and stay in a village there.  We plan to promote our ministry there and teach others about the CHE strategy for community development.  We will have a CHE information meeting on October 10, and share in a Filipino Church on October 11.  Pray that the LORD's perfect will to be done and His Spirit to guide us!  Our staff will continue the ministry while we are gone, and our pastor and his wife will stay at our house to guard it.
    We are still in financial need for this short trip and if you feel you could bless us in any way please see the bottom for our bank account information and please pray for God's blessings to flow, we trust totally in His provision!  Thank you!

Upcoming TOT2 Training and Mountain Outreach Oct.26-31:
During semesteral break our young people will join another WELLOFLIFE training camp at our compound followed by an outreach to the mountains.  We were contacted by YWAM Davao that they have an impression to work with us in the mountain for an outreach for 4 days.  Pray all will work out with this and we can go do some medical and minister to the tribes physically and spiritually!  Also that I would be able to teach some organic agriculture there.

Prayer Requests:
1. Lydia and Josiah to overcome their colds...Lydia still has a cough.

2. Assemblies of God Pastors will adopt the CHE strategy, and reach more souls.

3. Josiah to be granted Canadian Citizen Certificate God speed.

4. Gideons ministry to successful globally.  Money for Bibles, & more members.

5. Pastor Nanca and his family to be used by the LORD to win souls & disciples.

6. Home visits to have applied impact and lasting change to take place, strength and courage for our staff, effective programs and participation from the community members.  Finances for blood sugar testing strips (accu check) and urinalysis strips.

7. Abegail to gain more weight, be able to smile, healing and love.

8. Traveling mercies for David as he goes back to Canada and gets set back up in Canada.  For a place to live and the right job for him.

9. Singapore trip, traveling mercies, provision, contacts, rest and relaxation.

10.  October TOT2 training and outreach when we get back, provision, work out details, the partnership with YWAM, joy of the LORD and His destination!

Thank you for taking the time to read another one of my novels.  Thank you for your friendship, love and support!  We miss you and hope to be together again someday!  God bless you all!