Wednesday: The final day of the All4Christ conference

Preaching the word

Today we held our final meetings for the All4Christ conference. I spoke in the morning out of Luke 14:25-35 on the "Cost of Discipleship." We shared a great lunchtime meal with these pastors and Christian workers followed by the final session of the day.

Meeting up with CBS Bible Institute
and Seminary Graduates

Lunchtime

The attendees received books and other resources to assist them with their ministry. The people were appreciative of our teaching and were anxious to find out when we were going to return. That is always the hard part because there are so many places with needs in this country, that we could move on without returning and not run out of ministry opportunities. Just while I was here a pastor was urging us to come up into the tribal mountain area to teach because the men pastoring have absolutely no training. He said, "Even a two-day conference such as this would be a great help to them."

Book and resources distribution

Another pastor thanked me for my two messages and showed me the notes that he took. He told me he was going to preach my messages to his congregation for the next two weeks. He said, "they need to hear this from the word." In a way, it is satisfying that a need has been filled and of course I want him to use anything I deliver to help the church. However, it is burdensome realizing there is some much work and so little time to do it.

Manny Pacquiao Hotel

We left Koronadal this afternoon and headed back to Gensan (General Santos). We fly out tomorrow back to Manila. My heart is full from making new friends and feeding the church. We are staying at the Manny Pacquiao Hotel. He seemingly owns half of Gensan. Nothing like sleeping on a Manny Pacquiao pillow for the night! Hope I don't end up with a black eye in the morning.

The All4Christ team plus me and Dan Ebert

Tuesday: First day of All4Christ

Roadside fruit stand on
the way to Koronadal

Pineapples and Durin (stinky fruit)

Monday we traveled to Koronadal. We flew into Gensan which is short for General Santos. Upon arrival, we took an hour van ride to Koronadal. This area is known as the fruit basket of the Philippines. On the way, we stopped at a large fruit stand and I understood why it is called this. There are several Dole farms in the area, producing many pineapples. There are many other kinds of fruit here and you will find few of them in any American produce departments. All of the ones I tasted were delicious.

Rambutam

I tasted lazones and rambutam as well as pineapple when we stopped at the stand.

We arrived at Koronadal just before supper. After a short rest, the All4Christ team met for supper and planning for the next day. The supper consisted of several kinds of seafood including fish, calamari, shrimp salad, and seafood corn chowder (food is definitely the theme of this post!).

Tuesday, we went to the venue and set up. We had about 120 pastors, wives, and Christian workers attend the event.

Preaching from Luke 14:1-25

The first day went well with four messages and a question and answer at the end of the day. Tonight we will meet for dinner and debrief on the first day. I got a ride back to the hotel from the event in a motorcycle sidecar taxi which is always a bit exciting.

About 120 attendees for the conference

Walk-up registration

Tomorrow is our final day in Koronadal and the conference. We will return to Gensan to spend the night before our return flight to Manila. We hope to be able to spend some extended time tomorrow night with our CBSIS graduates that are ministering in the area. Please continue to pray for these pastors as some of them have requested that we return and come to their towns. Many of these pastors are from or around the Muslim autonomous region and in some cases, their continued ministry is at the goodwill of the local Muslim cleric. Of course, we know God turns the heart of men, so we pray that He will continue to do so.

The Motorcycle taxi,
always an exciting ride

Graduates of the Center for Biblical Studies that came
to the conference that are ministering around Koronadal

Monday travel to Koronadal

I'm up early this morning because today is our travel and set up day for the All4Christ conference. We are leaving at 5am for the airport. It could take up to 4 hours to reach the airport because of traffic congestion. Welcome to Manila traffic!

Yesterday we had a great time worshipping the Lord with our brothers and sisters at Mount Holy Christian Bible Church. As always with the Filipino people, they were warm and welcoming. I have provided a few pictures of our time there and the wonderful lunch afterward. Please pray for our travels today and that the resources for the pastors made to Koronadal. They had a Typhoon off the Northern coast that has prohibited some of the packages from making to places around the country.

Preaching the Word

Dan Ebert and I at Rustic Morning for Lunch

Me with Pastor Leo, Dan Ebert, and Elder Wilbur

Elder Wilbur and his wife

My lunch at an unbelievable place called Rustic Morning

It's Sunday, come worship the Lord!

Sunday Praise!

Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;
you are exalted as head over all. - 1 Chron. 29:11

• Acknowledge the things are present around you that reflect His greatness and power, His glory, majesty and splendor, and His sovereign control of the heaven and earth.
  
• Rejoice that His kingdom reigns supreme in spite of all the fallenness we see around us. The just and righteous King is coming to restore all things new!

The church at Marikina

Saturday I met up with a Clearwater Christian College student for coffee. He has a professional job in Manila, but looking forward to being able to minister full time in the future. It was an encouraging time talking about ministry and our experience at CCC.

I am headed to Marikina, part of Metro-Manila, Mount Holy Christian Bible Church. I will be preaching James 3:13-18. I gave you the basic theme in another blog post. However, would you commit to reading the passage and praying over it for the Holy Spirit to apply the message to the hearts of these dear people? After the morning service, I will join a panel of individuals that will be discussing apologetics topics during the Bible training hour. Please pray that the Lord would provide wisdom for my responses to the questions.

Men's Bible study and All4Christ final preparations

Saturday morning I led a men's Bible study. It was a good mix of laymen and pastors from the campus church as well as students from the Center for Biblical Studies. We had a good time around God’s word and pandesal (bread). Of course, we had coffee too. Most of the students present are in their second or third year at the institute.

Men's Morning Bible Study

After the Bible study, I finished my final message out of Luke 14:25-35 to be given at the All4Christ conference. In this passage, Jesus provides three conditions for becoming a disciple. First, following Jesus demands absolute loyalty to him (vss 25-26). In comparison to one's loyalty to him, they must hate their close family members and even themselves. Of course, he is not calling us to hate anyone. He calls us to love our enemies (Luke 6:27). However, our loyalty to him must far surpass our love or loyalty to others, even those closest to us. Second, following Jesus demands an absolute commitment to him (vs 27). Here we have two actions. One, we must take up our cross. This implies that following Jesus is a journey, it takes place throughout our life. It also implies self-denial. We don't get to choose our path, it is chosen for us and we submit to it. Two, we must come after him. This implies that we must move toward Christ. We should always be growing in our Christlikeness. The third condition of following Jesus requires counting the cost (vss 28-33). Here Jesus provides two illustrations. One is about a person that sets out to build a tower. In doing so, he should sit down and count the cost. This means he should consider the matter carefully and determine the affordability. The second illustration is about the king with a numerically inferior army going to war. He too should sit down and contemplate if he can tactically win. If he determines victory is not possible, he should go out and entreat the superior king for peace. Both of these illustrations provide a different view of the cost of discipleship. The first illustration asks "can you afford to follow Jesus?" while the second illustration asks "can you afford not to follow Jesus?" In the end, Jesus provides reasons for these conditions: A disciple must clearly reflect the teachings of the master (vss 34-35). Here Jesus uses the analogy of salt to make his point. If salt cannot fulfill its function which is to flavor food, then it is worthless. In the same way, if a disciple cannot fulfill their function, they are worthless. If salt cannot fulfill its function men throw it away. In the same way, our lives, when tainted by our incompatible choices of lifestyle, desires, and motivations, is not seen as useful to others and discarded.

Finally, I am excited that this afternoon I get to meet up with a former student from Clearwater Christian College. It will be great to catch up with him to see what God is doing through his ministry in Manila. He found out through social media that I was in Manila and reached out to meet up.

It's Friday! Mangosteen Fruit Day (Just kidding about the fruit)

Mangosteen Fruit

Thank you to everyone who prayed for my struggling computer. I reinstalled the operating system software and along with your prayers, it is healed!! It continues to rain heavily here as a monsoon is still off the northeast coast of the island which is providing plenty of wet weather. I guess Florida living prepared me for this.

Today I am putting together my Powerpoint for next week's All4Christ conference and finishing up to two messages from Luke 14:15-35. The first message is found in verses 15-24 which I titled invitation to discipleship. Here we are looking at the types of people representative of people invited to dine at the banquet in the kingdom of God. In other words, those invited to become disciples of Christ. In this passage, Jesus tells a parable that describes three groups of people that are invited to a banquet. The first group had previously committed to coming but when the banquet was ready, declined to come, each making shallow excuses. Sometimes the seemingly most obvious groups of people to evangelize are not the most receptive. Upon hearing the response of the invited guests, the master commanded the servant to go to the poor, lame, and blind. This second group of people reminds us that people around us that need Christ many times have deep physical needs that accompany their spiritual needs. Just as Jesus, we need to address these physical needs too. We need to remember that Jesus isn't looking for the perfect one to follow Him, He is looking for the needy, messy ones that realize only Christ can restore them physically and spiritually. After the needy came to the banquet, the servant informed the master that there is still room. As needy of some people are, there is room in the kingdom of God for them and more! The servant is commanded the third time to go out and find people. This time he is to go to the highways and hedges, or out beyond the land of the master. The third group is culturally and perhaps religiously different from the master. However, upon accepting the invitation, they too are welcome in the kingdom of God. This reminds us of the mission of the church to the world beyond their own lands. We are called to go to unreached no matter their culture, religion, or ethnicity. The kingdom of God is open to all kinds of people no matter their socio-economic position, physical condition, or cultural background.

Yesterday we had a very productive meeting with the administration of the Center for Biblical Studies. We discussed new curriculum changes and enrollment strategies. The curriculum changes are necessary because of the new CHED accreditation they received that requires certain general education courses as part of their degree. Enrollment strategies and marketing are becoming more important here as technology and social media gain prominence in this culture. We took some time to discuss kinds of strategies used in the U.S. and how they may be implemented here in the Philippines. The community is large of the culture here. Filipinos are very relational and this must be a part of any strategy implemented.

When I travel to the Philippines I always enjoy trying new food. Yesterday I was introduced to a fruit

called mangosteen (the non-furry fruit in the picture). It has a sweet followed by a tart taste similar to cranberry juice. The white part peels apart similar to an orange and it has a large seed in it (that you don't eat!).

Finishing touches

Today I am putting the finishing touches on my sermon for Sunday. Itineraries are fluid when doing missions. In my newsletter, (if you are not signed up for my newsletter, you can here) I wrote that I would be participating in an apologetics panel on Sunday. While that is true, I also get to preach on Sunday morning (bonus for me!). I will be preaching out of James 3:13-18, which contrasts the wisdom of God and the wisdom of man. James contrasts the two sources of wisdom, highlighting that wisdom from above cultivates an atmosphere of peace. So one that follows God's wisdom lives out virtues that produce a peaceable surrounding because they are peaceable, gentle, listen well, merciful, impartial, and sincere. This is a tall order for us to do in our fallen world, but through the power of the gospel and the work of the Spirit in us, it is possible. Please pray for the delivery of this message to Pastor Leo's church in Marikina, part of Metro-Manila.

I am also meeting with the administrative committee for the Center for Biblical Studies to discuss enrollment strategies among other things. While working at a Trinity College of Florida, I have been exposed to enrollment strategies that hopefully will help over here. We will be discussing the accumulation of enrollment data and how to leverage it for better use of resources.

As a side note, I’m having some computer issues. It is pressing in on my atmosphere of peace :) Please pray that I can figure it out. Thankfully all my files are in the cloud, so I can access them from other devices. However my Bible software is on this computer so I would really like it back up and running.

Morning at the Hilltop

I made it to the Hilltop campus at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday night local time. After a good night's sleep, I woke to the sound of roosters. Hearing them reminded me I made it to the right place. The Lord provided me a conversation partner while flying over here. Two men from Washington D.C. sat next to me, they were believers attending churches in the D.C. area. We had a great conversation about what the Lord is doing in the Philippines as they are also frequent travelers here.

Today I am preparing for a Bible study happening tonight for the church that meets here on campus. We will be looking at Psalm 15 answering the question in verse 1, who can abide in the tabernacle of the Lord, who can dwell on his Holy Hil? Preparing for a life of worship before the Lord calls us to live according to his virtues toward him and others.

Plenty of time to study

This is my study room for the next 14 hours. I just boarded my flight to Narita Japan on my way to Manila. There will be plenty of time to prepare for the upcoming opportunities to share God’s Word. I am preaching two times in the All4Christ conference on discipleship. I plan to preach on being a disciple and making disciples. This coming Sunday I will be preaching in Pastor Leo’s church. I will be preaching out of James 3:13-18, the virtues of wisdom from above and the folly of wisdom from below.

August Philippines Trip

On August 5, I will be traveling from Tampa to the Philippines. It has been six months since I was there and I am excited to return. I am asking for your prayers for safe travels and a profitable time spent there. The schedule is set for the most part. I will arrive on Tuesday night in Manilla. Wednesday through Friday, I will be working with the Center for Biblical Studies administration on enrollment strategies that can work in their context. On Sunday (8/11), I will be participating in an apologetics panel discussion at Pastor Leo's church in Marikina, part of Metro-Manila. One specific topic for the day will be why Christian leaders leave the faith. Please pray for the young people in Pastor Leo's church as they have many questions about this topic.

On Monday of the following week, we will travel south from Manila to Mindanao to participate in another All for Christ conference in Koronodal City. The conference theme is "Doing theology for the sake of the church and the world." I will be speaking on the topics of disciple-making and disciple training during the conference. Please pray for this conference that the local pastors will be encouraged by the Bible teaching, the fellowship with other pastors, and the free study resources provided to them.