Update: Friday, June 16

Greetings Praying Friends,

God is good. The Children's Sunday School class has experienced an influx of children since the loosening of the lockdown on March 1 of this year. The children have been in lockdown for 735 days (including no face to face schooling for those varied lockdown level days). In addition to the Children's Sunday School ministry, the workers launched a "Salvation Class" for children that are interested in something more. One girl (Jessica) whom I reported about in our May newsletter has gotten saved, and she is continuing with both classes and has invited other friends to join in. This past Sunday (06/12/22) we had a record number of children both in Sunday School and in the Salvation Class. Bro. RJay has successfully been filling in for me on Sundays. He will also fill in for me next Wed. (06/22/22) for our Wed. Night Bible Study since I will be working at our church's summer youth camp ministry. Bro. RJay has been covering various aspects of Salvation in the AM service and How to Study the Bible in the PM service. I have been teaching/preaching through the book of Psalms for our Wed. Night Bible Study and the brethen and others have access to the study via our Facebook page, SermonAudio webpage, and/or YouTube Channel. The brethren in Tuktukan are doing well. Please pray for safety as they continue to assemble and minister to the city and villages through various outreach ministries. Pray for the new souls to be saved, and for those who are saved to grow spiritually. We are blessed and glad for the visitors that come our way and we continue to ask God for a couple of good, well-discipled families to join us - that would help with the ministry tasks, for sure.

The Metro Manila area has seen a spike of COVID cases but the inter-agency task force has decided to extend the Level 1 lockdown till the end of June (06/30/22). The case for returning the Metro back to a Level 2 lockdown is not out of the picture. Please pray that the pandemic would be classified as an endemic, and that the emergency status may be relaxed.

Marcos Jr.'s inauguration is set for Thursday, June 30th. Please pray that the Philippine Government and local government units would repent and believe the Gospel to the salvation of their souls. True sound mind comes from knowing and serving the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 1:7). We know, from the Scriptures, that world-leaders don't have this sound mind because they don't willfully acknowledge God, His Son, His worship nor His Word. In a sense, we live in this "present evil world" (Galatians 1:4), but the Lord Jesus has not left us to flounder. Instead, He has warned us when He warned His sleepy disciples in the past, and we must take heed to His warning as a guide for us today: "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:41).

Marcia and the boys are doing well. The time for our return is nearing (our return flight is scheduled for Monday, July 25). Please pray that there would be some significant progress by way of re-entry of the country, this would help us tremendously not to waste time, money, and energy. We are trusting in God, no matter what the future holds. Our vision and desire has been to establish (really, almost, replant) the work in Tuktukan, and to see what else the Lord would have us to as far as starting and establishing other missions in Taguig City. Your prayers for a national breakthrough and personal safety is greatly appreciated.

The boys are excited (and so are we) to be able to our church's summer youth camp for the first time, this year. They are both in the Jr. Camp section and this is a dream come true for us. God is good.