Park Road Church Blog

Greetings from the Philippines,

Praise the LORD for He is good and His mercy endures forever AMEN! 

I got my Philippine permanent residency 13(A) visa yesterday!  It's been a long and expensive process but thankfully I now have it, and it is good for life no need to renew it.  I just have to renew my ACR-I Card every 5 years and pay a very minimal fee at the beginning of each year for the ACR - I Card.  Thanks to all who helped me pay for this over the last year.

We received 50 sasso chickens 35 female and 15 male last week thanks to David Martin's investment while he stayed with us.  We originally purchased chicks and had my veterinarian friend Dr. Gonzales take care of them while we were away and now they are ready to eat.  We will keep the females to breed them with a Basilan native chicken in 4 months when they start laying eggs.  We were also given a turkey for Josiah from our friends in the mountain, Dr. Gonzales will give us a male turkey soon.  We have 2 ducks and will buy a male hopefully soon also.  Thanks David it was so nice to see Josiah's face light up when he was meeting the chickens!

Josiah is now walking!  He started walking in Singapore and is getting faster everyday.  What a treasure from God!  Lydia is well and gorgeous!
I am busy now redeeming our garden as it was neglected while we were away and is now overgrown with orange cosmos, weeds and ransoni, a lot of work to do but praise God for He has made me strong and physically able to do it!  I get sad when I work so hard in the garden preparing my garden plots and the neighbors chickens come along right when I finish laying the mulch and scratch my beds apart...I need $100 to buy a mesh to go along the whole garden and save myself some huge headaches!  LORD please provide!

Singapore Trip October 1-15:
Our family had the wonderful opportunity to go to Singapore to visit Lydia's Aunt Fely and my friend Dr. Lim Su Min.  This was a very nice treat for us to get away and relax while enjoying good fellowship and fine foods.  Dr. Lim and his wife were very kind to adopt us for 2 weeks and allow us to stay in their beautiful apartment, they were wonderful hosts who took us to nature parks, botanical garden, restaurants, dance class lesson (Lydia and I did a swing dance lesson with Dr. Lim's sister), we went to the bird park in Jarong and many other exciting places! 

Singapore is clean developed, streets lined with beautifully pruned trees which stretch over the road, lots of air-conditioned malls and many fine cars.  The parking lots are like car shows as the rule is you have to get a new car after 10 years...no pollution in the air is great.  Dr. Lim invited us to go to his church which has a membership of 6,000 people the MCS Wesley Methodist Church the oldest church in Singapore, while there we visited Fort Canning which is next to the church.  I also joined the men's fellowship and Dr. Lim shared on how to fireproof your marriage. 

We visited the office of OMF, Trans World Radio, Counselling & Care Center, had a delicious breakfast and meeting with Dr. Analise Weilder Smith, went on the Doulos book ship for a special meeting with pastors, I was privileged to share about CHE at Ate Fely's Filipino Neighborhood church, and shared about our CHE work at a CHE informational meeting put on by Dr. Lim.  Praise God we met a lot of people and gained weight haha!  Lydia and I enjoyed walking down the busy streets drinking a Slurpee from 7 11...oh the luxuries!   

Malaysia October 5-6:
Mark Lim arranged a 2day 1night home-stay visit in Malaysia for us in Negri Sembilan, a Muslim community.  Dr. Lim his wife Dr. Ling Sing Yu, Lydia, Josiah and I very much enjoyed staying in the house of Charlie and his family.  We drove there and it was a very nice trip I must say.  We swam in Charlies little pool, went to the river and looked at the mini water fall and had a free fish spa, Josiah slept, and Dr. Lim painted a picture (he's an good artist), then we had a Muslim woman teach us basket weaving which was a lot of fun, a visit to a goat farm and a river trek.  I stayed up until 2:30am with Charlie talking about different religious beliefs and tried to lead him back to the LORD, Charlie is a former Catholic converted to Islam as it's a rule because he married a Muslim.  He claims to be a free thinker but deep down he knows Jesus is the true God!  Pray he and his family would be saved and worship the Living God of all the earth!

3 Day CHE TOT2 (A) Training Camp w/YWAM October 26-28:
We made it back home in time to prepare for our training camp which we held during the school students semester break.  It was a privilege to have 7 people from YWAM Davao DTS school come do their first mini outreach with us as they had an impression to help our ministry and join us in the mountain.  Our team and their team did well working together as one and it was really nice to have this big power group of young people ministering for the LORD.  There was 4 Filipinos and 3 Germans on the YWAM team. 

We had about 25 people attend the training camp which focused on problem solving and project planning in the community, ways of identifying important information by mapping, calendering, scoring and trend analysis.  YWAM taught our young people a dance to present in the mountain and we sent everyone out to the community to practice home visitations using picture book pamphlets.  We taught the importance of teaching oral learners and practiced chronological Bible storying using the Bible Storying Scarf which was introduced to me by Dr. Lim Su Min in Singapore.  The youth really enjoyed putting the Bible story picture in order (thanks brother Lim!). 

I made up a game called "Secret Acts of Kindness" where the participants were to do acts of kindness without the recipient knowing who did it and they would get points for their team.  I was a bit disappointed to find out at the end of the 3 days that nobody except the YWAM team leader even tried to do anything nice to someone on another team.  I guess this is really a hard thing for us as Christians to do...but shouldn't be.  At the end of the camp the participants presented their dance to their parents and YWAM team shared a message to our Sunday school extension members.  Everyone enjoyed! 

2 Day Lower & Upper Sabang & Valencia, Marilog Mountain Outreach October 29-30:
Our team was a determined bunch and ready for an unforgettable hike in the mountains.  It was 2 of our German friends first time to go to the mountains and the one guy Daniel's knees were shaking as he started going down the mountain, good old fun!  going down the was no problem but going back up seemed to be a challenge, I got a leg cramp and limped back to camp but we all made it alive praise God!

The team ministered to the children, some to the youth and others to the older people it was sweet to see the young men and woman of God sharing their faith with burden for the lost!  They did one big dance and several short dramas.  I was given $75 worth of school supplies free from a christian owned office depot store, the children were happy to get pencils, notebooks, crayons, pens etc., our church gather used clothes donations, I got some seeds to give from the Department of Agriculture and one of the politicians gave a box of noodles to help with our feeding program.  It all came together nicely answered prayers!  We visited 3 communities and it was tiring, but highly worth the sacrifice! 

We identified a boy who I've seen before who has severe cleft lip, we asked if we can help him get free surgery and his mom agreed.  This community does not allow it's members to go to the doctor or take medicines or they will be disfellowshipped from their place of worship, they are some religion of the 12 tribes of Israel.  Hope he can avail of the surgery from Operation Smile in February as he is not going to school as all the other kids make fun of him, I told him he's still handsome and he smiled.

I really missed Lydia and Josiah as Josiah is too small for the mountain trips still.  I love when I come home and Josiah drops what he is doing to come give dad his full attention!  I had a sweet revelation of how our Father in Heaven misses and longs for us...I had a  glimpse of how God feels when His children whom He loves very much turn their backs on Him and go their own way following the lusts and desires of the world, it hurt as my heart broke for those who have left the faith.  I realized the true feeling of the story of the prodigal son...I hope I can be used by the LORD to bring back some prodigal sons or backsliders, after all I've been there like the prodigal son and God welcomed me back with open arms and is still showing me favor which I don't deserve!  hallelujah!

Abegail & Ate Fely Update:
Abegail is going to get a custom made wheel chair we hope by next month.  I went to my friends Foundation the Davao Jubilee Foundation for the handicapped and Disabled, they will do a home visit to Abegail and Ate Fely this week along with a person to fit the wheelchair.  The family will be endorsed to the Department of Social Welfare and Development and to the office of the City Mayor for any assistance they can provide.  Davao Jubilee will pay a percentage of the fee for the chair and also I approached the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office and they will coordinate with us to provide funding for the wheelchair and some of the medicines for Ate Fely's toxic goiter.  Ate Fely says she is doing good but doesn't look so well.  She is taking a few different medicines right now thanks to a friend who generously gave us a donation for Ate Fely. 

My friend in California decided to get a cheap haircut from a low budget hair salon and donated the money she saved to Ate Fely I cried as I read the sweet email of a woman who usually spends hundreds of dollars on a haircut as she explained getting an $18 haircut and her hair didn't turn green or fall out and looked just as good as the expensive place would do.  Her friends also tried the cheaper place and were satisfied with the cut, imagine if more people would do this how many more precious lives could be saved!  Thanks Ally!

Upcoming Hygiene TOT for Health Educators of Hugpong November 11-13:
An NGO named Hugpong has asked us to conduct a 3 day TOT "Training of Trainers" focusing on hygiene.  Hugpong has supported our programs in the past and it's our honor to train about 20 of their volunteers from 12 different Barangays (sub communities) this week.  We are gearing up for the training and excited for another round of fun!  Lydia will have some teaching topics this time and we have a good schedule prepared for them. 

Alternative Learning System School Plans January 2010:
A dear friend named Ate Remy and her team mate Ate Vergie from Baguio were in Davao for a conference and came to stay with us for a few days.  They gave me all the modules to do a ALS school for out of school youth and school drop outs.  This curriculum is designed and accredited with the Department of Education, after completion of their exam held every October they will receive a diploma.  this school is designed to last 10 months only.  We will target all ages as elementary and high school diplomas can be given.  We're planning to incorporate agriculture and livelihood training in our school.  One student is already committed to doing this program with us we need to find some more committed students now.  I will do some coordinating with the DepEd concerning this project in the coming weeks. 

Prayer Requests:

1. Pray to the LORD of the Harvest to send us some labourers!  We need people to come help us reach out to lost souls.

2. We need over $400 to get to the end of this month, phone fees, church fees, transportation fees, Gideons Pastor's Banquet fees, staff fees, feeds fees, groceries, passport renewal fees, board meeting lunch fees...I can't wait to enjoy Heaven where there is no fees!!! 

3. Pray the seeds we planted in the mountain will take root and germinate.

4. Pray for YWAM Davao DTS school, 6 of the members visited our church.

5. Pray for the 3 day Hygiene TOT, that we'd witness to the participants.

6. Pray for the WELLOFLIFE Team to get closer, stronger and bigger.

7. Pray for the Smith Family to grow and blossom as a river of life.

8. Pray for Abegail and Ate Fely to get well, healing is very needed.

9. Pray for the ALS school and for safe travels of Ate Remy & Ate Virgie.

10. Pray for the community of Lubogan to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

11. Pray for God's Kingdom to come on earth as it is in Heaven!

We love you all and look forward to hearing from you!  Please drop us a line, it's encouraging to know people actually make it through my long emails.  I hope I don't bore you but this is what is going on here and I wish you were here to work for the LORD with us!  Thanks for working hard to support our mission you who faithfully give to this ministry share in the crowns to be reaped in Heaven!  Please check facebook for our pictures.

Bless the LORD Jesus!
Love, Jeffrey, Lydia & Josiah Smith