Philippines Mission Letter: November 2020

Dear Brethren,
May the gracious and merciful Father in heaven continue to watch over you and your loved ones. Our whole province of Pangasinan is placed under modified general community quarantine for

the rest of the year. In our town, those who are 15 to 65 years old are allowed to go out, provided, that the minimum public health standards such as the wearing of masks and the maintenance of social distancing protocols are observed. Public transportation is still limited as well as the number of passengers. Since not everyone can go to the church building for our services yet, we continue to have Sunday afternoon worship in different barangays where our brethren are. We keep on praying and looking forward to the time when all of our children and adults are able to gather again in our church building to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.

We always give thanks to the Lord for our brethren who continue to show their love and care to their relatives, friends, and classmates by helping them with their spiritual needs. They invite them to attend our worship service, and we have been able to study with some of them already. We continue to encourage our brethren to be a blessing to others by pointing them to Jesus. We appreciate a lot what they are doing for the glory of God and for the furtherance of His kingdom. We also comfort our brethren who have lost their loved ones, who are dealing with some health issues, and who are stressed because of the virus and lockdows by visiting and praying with them. Our follow-up Bible studies with the new Christians also continue. We pray that the faith of these new converts will be strengthened and that their walk with the Savior will be blessed.

The planting and watering of the seed of eternal salvation continues to bear fruit. The Lord added to His church two precious souls last month. Our new brother and sister in the family of God are Pedro Benavidez and Juvilyn Tana. Pedro is the husband of a sister in Christ who was baptized a couple of months ago. The constant encouragement of his wife to go with her in serving the Lord and her often reading of the Scriptures to him made him to examine his spiritual life. As we studied the Lord’s word together to nourish his spiritual life, when he understood that he needed     to put on Christ in baptism to become a Christian, he decided to obey the gospel for the remission of his sins. Juvilyn, on the other hand, is the best friend of a sister in Christ. Through the kindness and godly influence of the family of the sister in Christ to her, she has been motivated to consider the ways of the Lord. She has been worshipping with us for several months until she decided to be baptized last month for her salvation.

We really appreciate you all so much for your continued love, prayers, care, and support to help us with the work of the Lord here.

Praying that things continue to go well with you and your loved ones.