Witnessing Opportunity

I just wanted to briefly share with you about an unexpected witnessing opportunity that happened tonight. Following our regular Friday prayer service, we attended a wake for the mother of one of our church members. Rina, myself, and around 15 other church members came to show our support and offer comfort. While we were there I was unexpectedly asked to speak to the people who were gathered for the wake. There were close to 200 people attending. I didn't have a microphone and some of the people were further away or too busy playing cards. Nevertheless, I spoke as loud as I could and shared with them the wonderful good news of the Gospel.

Araw ng mga Patay (Day of the Dead)

This past Sunday, November 1st, was All Saint's Day. In the Philippines it is a traditional holiday in which the vast majority of people visit the graves of their loved ones. They bring food, light candles, leave flowers, and offer up prayers for the souls of the deceased. Since most of the people go to the cemetery that day we decided that it would be a good time to pass out tracts. So, around 15 members of our youth group split up and in around 25 minutes passed out close to 1000 tracts. It was really crowded. In fact, all of the tracts were passed out without even making it into the actual cemetery. The road to the cemetery was pretty narrow and on top of that you had the vendors on the sides of the road selling food, candles, and other trinkets to the stream of people that were constantly making there way to and from the cemetery. There were rows of tricycles waiting to give people rides and in addition, you had people who decided that they would rather drive than walk so at times it felt like we were in the middle of a slow moving game of frogger. As much as I wanted to bring my camera and take pictures I wasn't able to (the 20D isn't really pocket sized). It was an interesting cultural experience, but more than that it was a great blessing to be able to pass out all of those tracts and we are excited to see what God is going to do.

-Ptr. Matt & Rina-

Mission Conference

Last Thursday I was given the honor to be guest speaker in a mission conference at the Bible Baptist Mission of San Simon, a neighboring church about 45 minutes away. Ptr. Ramen Caliwag and his church hosted the event less then a week after their church was flooded due to complications from the typhoons. He told me that around five church families were still stranded due to the flooding, and one of the families that was able to attend had to find a boat to use in order to come to the conference.

The conference verse and the topic for my message was Matthew 6:33. The theme for the conference was "First things First". Several of our church members rode with Rina and I to attend the conference. Afterward we had some great food and fellowship. I was able to talk with some other missionaries that were attending the conference who were going to Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Please keep Ptr. Ramen and his church in your prayers.

Typhoon Update

Thank you everyone for your prayers. The main body of typhoon 'Pepeng' shifted to the north of us at the last minute so we were spared from the full force of the typhoon. We just had some moderate rain and wind, but it was very tame compared to 'Ondoy' last week.

-Ptr. Matt & Rina-

Here we go with Typhoon #2

Please keep us in your prayers as we are expecting another typhoon here in the Philippines. Please pray that God will keep all of our church members safe and protected as well as their houses and the church building. I will update everyone again once the storm has past.

-Ptr. Matt & Rina-

Typhoon Ondoy

On Saturday, Typhoon Ondoy (international name Ketsana) swept through the Philippines. Although this has not been our first experience with a typhoon, this was by far the closest typhoon and most severe. We lost power for a couple of hours, our Internet for almost 24 hours, and our water pressure diminished to barely over a trickle. There were winds of 50-60 mph and constant rain. The news outlets said a months worth of rain was dumped in just 12 hours. The reports at the time of this post say that there are 52 dead and over 300,000 displaced. The area where we are at, the province of Bulacan/Pampanga, has been placed under a "state of calamity." Thankfully, our home and the church did not receive much damage. There were some leaks in the roof but no flooding. However, there were many of our church members whose homes suffered flooding. The damage ranges from ankle to waist deep in water. Please be sure to keep them in your prayers. In spite of this, many of them still managed to make it to church on Sunday. With a smile on our faces, the first song we sang Sunday morning was "A Shelter in the Time of Storm." As Christians, we know that our joy does not depend on our circumstances. We have Jesus as our rock in a weary land.

-Ptr. Matt & Rina-

Prayer Request - Town Fiesta

This Thursday is the fiesta of Bahay Pare. There will be a lot of people celebrating. It is basically a tribute to the patron saint of Bahay Pare - Virgen de la Merced (seen in the above pictures). In the weeks leading up to the fiesta day, there have been processionals and extra mass being held. We had an interesting experience a couple of Sunday nights ago. While I was in the middle of our communion service, we could hear Ave Maria coming from down the street in the tent where the idol was, but when the service was over and we were heading home we saw people dancing as they were now playing Achy Breaky Heart.

Please pray that there will be many opportunities to share our faith and pass out tracts during the town fiesta of Bahay Pare.

-Ptr. Matt & Rina-