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well it's a privilege for me to be here tonight I'm sorry that you have to listen to my croaking voice I don't or I don't ordinarily sound like this but uh coming off of a a sore throat and a cold and then speaking the last two nights and again tonight I'm afraid you're stuck with my voice like this so if you can bear it I'll try to endure it as well uh now we're going to take a look tonight at the ministry in the Philippines we've been there as Pastor Butler said for the last 30 years uh coming up in November so I'm going to try to take you back also 30 years ago and uh how we got there some some of the background of the country as well and uh hopefully then you'll be able to ask more questions at the end and uh you'll be able to pray for us better I understand that you have been praying for us and we'd like to express our appreciation for that this is our first time in British Colombia and here's a uh a church people of God praying for us that we've never met before and uh that's humbling for us and we greatly appreciate all of your prayers continue to pray for us now before I actually dig into the Philippines I want to just read from the scriptures in the Book of Revelation something of a a uh an idea why we're doing what we're doing in Revelation chapter let me get there first chapter five where uh the Apostle John is shown a vision of this uh the one who sits on the throne who has a a book and he's asked the question who is worthy to open the book and break its seals and it seems there's no one worthy but then we find in verse six and I saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders a lamb standing as if slain having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the Earth and he came and he took it out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne and when he had taken the book the four living creatur creers and the 24 Elders fell down before the lamb each one having a harp and golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the Saints and they sang a new song saying worthy are you to take the book and to open its seals for you were slain and you purchase for God with your blood men from every tribe and Nation excuse me and tongue and people and nation and you have made them to be a kingdom and priest to our God and they will reign upon the Earth so Christ has purchased a people for God with his blood out of every nation now how are these people from every nation every tribe every tongue how are they going to come to know the Savior and join the chorus of those who say Worthy is the Lamb to receive blessing and honor and Glory we know from Romans 10 how will they hear without a preacher how will they preach unless they are sent and it is those who are sent messengers of the Gospel who bring the good news of Christ so that this multitude that no man can number will fall before the lamb and worship him and that's why we were sent to the Philippines 30 years ago and I want to give you some background about that now and by the way thanks guys for the mic I think I need it all right now Philippines uh if you look at our map you can see off the coast of China and Vietnam these are the Philippine islands and there are some 7,17 islands here in this nation that's a lot of islands but most of them are just little tiny bits and most of the people live on the larger maybe dozen or so Islands here and we live near in Metro Manila that's on the island of Luzon uh that's where that's the largest island now there are over a hundred languages spoken in these islands maybe a a 10 or a dozen would be large language groups and then a lot of tribal language groups in smaller areas the official languages including English are the other is Filipino which is close to the dialect we speak it's kind of a conglomerate language mostly to gallog that's the language I usually preach in uh main religion it's a Roman Catholic country colonized by Spain back in the 16th century so the Spaniards brought Roman Catholicism Metro Manila the capital region here is more than 20 million people in population lot of folks there in that area now just to give you some statistics here in Metro chiliwack all right you got 101 square miles population now this is uh Wikipedia 2010 statistics 77,000 almost 78,000 people now I don't know if you have updates you can tell me later is the best I got 772 people per square mile now in urban Manila that's all of Metro Manila we've got 569 square miles 21 22 million so more than about 40,000 in one square mile that's a lot of folks so that means it's crowded it's polluted there's bad traffic uh terrible traffic bad is not bad enough uh why go there because there's so many people in one place to bring the message of the Gospel too now it's a beautiful country um I went SC uh scuba diving with my daughter we fed the fish you can see all kinds of beautiful fish uh these are Hills they're called The Chocolate Hills can you guess why what do they look like Hershey's Kisses that's right Chocolate Hills uh this is the American cemetery where a lot of the those who died in World War II fighting the Japanese are buried here uh beautiful mountains I actually climbed this volcano it wasn't active right then thankfully now we do have uh food uh now McDonald's in the Philippines is a little different we have chicken mdo which is fried chicken and spaghetti mixed spaghetti uh probably not on the menu here but they try to cater their menu to the culture and these are snack foods in the Philippines so uh popular and you put them together my daughter found this mcdl bee so uh Filipinos love to play with words we have our International uh food selection too Dunkin Donuts Starbucks uh CH too that's Australian uh you can go to the market open air markets fish fruits and vegetables uh then you get a basket to take it home in now in the provinces life's very different because it's an island nation often you travel on one of these Outrigger boats like this F FES and the on land travel you can take a bus and a lot of stuff goes on the roof sometimes people or you can ride a carabell now these are not really for riding they're for pulling your plow or uh pulling a sledge of whatever you're carrying I've actually sat on the back of one I can't really say I rode it uh now this is a home we visited in the Philippines in Southern mindo and the provinces a tree had fallen on one side of their house so there's a tree right here big mango tree and they hadn't fixed it yet uh so unless the rain is driving from this side you're you're okay in there but um you know this would be typical Construction in the Pro provincial areas now I recently preached in a church in the a mountain region very remote no electricity no cell phone signal it's probably the most remote place I've ever been in the world uh but here's a church and you can see they just packed the place this was a week night meeting and they got kids on the floor in the the center aisle uh the kids after you after you're preaching a while the kids just conk out there's a dog chewing a bone right in the front of the church so uh because it's all open a very different situation in the provinces uh we had monkey meat you can see part of the monkey there monkey by the way tastes like beef so if you ever offered monkey meat well it's just just don't think of the face we all we it's true I I I couldn't chew it if I was thinking about that face uh we had wild boar like roast wild boar so the these were things that they could catch or kill in the forest around them and that's what we ate as well as chicken now we don't live there we live in Metro Manila life is very very different from what I just showed you uh here in Metro Manila this is again some 22 million people in this area and some people are living in high-rise Apartments very wealthy very uh Posh in fact you can get around in um this is a tricycle maybe takes five passengers and about uh 30 balloons and this is a jeepy that's like a mini bus take maybe 20 passengers in the back of that and these go on routs all over Manila so if you don't have a car you can still get anywhere in town now on the streets you can see vendors you can buy a feather duster or cloth or uh shorts there Beggars on many of the streets and in our car we carry some crackers because we don't like to give out money we don't know what they're going to spend it on we give crackers and maybe a gospel track to these kids post office garbage truck these are some pictures my daughter put together uh wild life of Manila we don't have monkeys in Manila but we do have cockroaches and the best kind of cockroach is the one with his feet up in the air uh these are fly larv coming out of our garbage can because garbage pickup isn't always uh on time lizards uh we have I don't know what you call them here house lizards you probably don't have lizards in your houses in Canada all right but he got in our toaster H which we discovered when he we started smelling him so I had to open it up and peel him out of there yeah you it was really it was It was kind of gross all right that's that's part of life in Manila I've done that maybe three times in that toaster right honey um we we do have big malls it's they crop up like mushrooms rooms nowadays and you can go ice skating in the mall imagine ice skating in the Philippines I don't think we're going to be having a national hockey team anytime soon so you don't have to worry here in Canada uh riding in balloons or bubbles but at the same time with this all this uh money that seems to be floating around there's a lot of poverty that you can see throughout the country and especially in Metro Manila now some people this is right along the pic River main river the close through the city and you see people build their shanties right up on the river so if there's a flood they're in trouble uh some of these homes here uh now some of these pictures were taken where I don't know if you've heard of Pastor Brian Ellis you pray for him as well they have a Christian Compassion Ministry that Miss ministers to some of these poor families and children and my daughter took these pictures from some of the families they ministered to in religious background I mentioned it was colonized by Spain Spain brought romanism uh and ignorance they did not really educate the people but they did catholici the people so if you take the native animism spiritism of the Filipino people belief in spirits and then you put on a veneer of Roman Catholicism and Saints and Idols that's what you get it's called folk Catholicism so if you see these churches all over the country and this is by the way a a cult that's like um Jehovah's Witness in their christology that Jesus is something less than God but uh not God and there those are all over the country too now uh the country is very religious in the domestic airport you can pray to the idol of Mary before you get on your plane now this taxi I don't know if you can read it it says God driven taxi so that's perhaps safer than than otherwise uh you can see these images of Mary uh block Rosary images are here they would pray the rosary going around the neighborhood at different homes uh very people at least historically very deep deeply Roman Catholic Very Superstitious uh here's a picture we took of the Ten Commandments outside of a Roman Catholic Church there uh and and it says you can see the English underneath the Tagalog that's the dialect we speak the Ten Commandments of God but really it's only nine Roman Catholic version so the 10th commandment they split in two you shall not covet your neighbor's wife and you shall not covet your neighbor's Goods but they take out the second command what's that you shall not make a Graven image or any likeness of what is in heaven above where's Mary in heaven where's Jesus in heaven where are the Saints in heaven uh don't make an image of what's in heaven or on the earth or in the water under the Earth You shall not worship them or serve them for I the Lord your God I'm a jealous God but they take that out and when we had a Bible study with one lady and we came to the Ten Commandments that's when the neighborhood Rosary Crusade was in her home I sat down next to an image of Mary and I told her that's the second commandment I read it right out of Exodus 20 she said that's in the Bible I said yes she couldn't believe it but she was devoted to Mary and chose rather to continue to believe in Mary than to follow the Bible now just a couple other variations the Third which is the fourth Commandment says uh in English it says remember thou keep holy the Lord's day but in tagalo it says keep Sunday holy as well as fiestas or days of obligation now Catholics have a day for all the saints and they have other holy days when you're supposed to go to the the Catholic church so they expand that commandment and make legalistic claims about other days which God only says the Sabbath day and at the bottom here it says which means the one who keeps my Commandments will have eternal life now what's wrong with that does anybody keep the Ten Commandments can you keep the ten Commandments no nobody could have eternal life that's not the gospel but that's what Roman Catholics are taught especially in the Philippines keep the Ten Commandments and you have eternal life what's the gospel believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes on him him would not perish but have everlasting life and so we bring the gospel to Blind dead Roman Catholics because they're not saved they have a veneer of religion they have Jesus but not the Jesus of the Bible and they need to be saved they have Idols Superstition see this lady rubbing her fingers on the idol they have earning merits this this is a door of a Catholic Chapel it says donated by Mr and Mrs Ben Sylvester now I have to put their name on it you see to make sure that when God writes out his books they've got the credit uh on their column in the book and that's how you get favor with God it's not the gospel and they need to hear of Jesus Christ now a little bit of history about us going there back in in 1984 our church Trinity Baptist Church in Montville New Jersey sent us uh at the invitation of Pastor Brian Ellis to go work with him in church planting and in training men for the ministry so 1984 there's this young guy with red hair this uh cute young lady with him and U she's still cute but uh we went to the Philippines we loaded up our stuff in three barrels and a couple of my boxes were my books were in a couple of crates loaded them on a truck got shipped to the Philippines uh the first house we rented there's the three you see the same barrels with some spots on them so we can spot them easily uh unloaded the stuff and uh got got to work and when we got there there was already a Bible study that was held by Pastor Ellis in a subdivision a housing development called Moon moonwalk this has nothing to do with Michael Jackson all right you know Michael Jackson moonwalk I can't do it but uh nothing to do with that it's called moonwalk because this was developed in about 1969 early 70s what was happening the old people were men were walking on the moon so the main street is Armstrong Street and we've lived on Collins and on young I think it was no C uh cernan and we also lived on Gagarin Street who is he first man in space a Russian Yuri Gagarin we lived on his street too anyway we uh we we uh this Bible study was given to me we began to see more and more people coming you can see they're mostly young people there that was uh uh 20 7 years ago 28 years ago and God began to multiply them so it was covenanted together as a church in 1987 there's one of our early prayer meetings uh in 1987 do you know who came over to help us to Covenant the church interview members and so on two Elders from Trinity Baptist Church my father-in-law Don Dixon who's now with the Lord and another Elder of Trinity named Robert Martin so Dr Bob as we affectionately call him has been a a close part of our church life from the beginning he's been over about half a dozen times he still comes over and teaches in our school so we're always happy to see Dr Bob and he and uh Pastor Dixon and other Elders uh from Sister churches in the Philippines were there to Covenant the church and to ordain me as Pastor so this is about uh 1989 so a couple years on the the church began to grow the first 22 members began to multiply uh you can see again they're mostly young I was the oldest male in the church for a number of years and continued to multiply so that now we have a membership of about a 100 we still continue to out to reach out in the community we have a vacation bible school with neighborhood children uh they are not always well trained I'll put it that way so it can be a bit chaotic and you can see the room filled with them that's one of our elders Pastor Alex uh speaking to the children on the graduation at the end of the Vacation Bible School there's Carol in the middle trying trying to keep him under control uh now this has given us recognition in the whole Community uh we had one one young lady who attended our Bible school vacation bible school age 11 she had a heart condition they did surgery on her and she didn't survive the surgery now this little girl 11 years old was one who would go out in her neighborhood and gather neighborhood children to attend a Bible study so after the vacation bible school that she wanted to keep going so we had a Bible School in her neighborhood when she passed away I spoke at the funeral and we walked back in this alley in a congested area and kids were saying hi Pastor Steve hi tea Carol Aunt Carol and we didn't know who these kids were but they knew us from the vacation bible school so we we've gotten inroads we still have a Bible study in this area with kids and with adults because of those contacts now in 2011 so this is after the church uh was already organized 24 years I stepped down as pastor of the church because then we had two Filipino elders and I'll Point them out to you here I don't want to knock over my cup uh Pastor Ry you saw earlier and Pastor Alex you saw in that speaking to the children there's Pastor Bart Carlson I understand he's been here he says hi by the way now those two men we now have two Filipino elders and I stepped down as a pastor so I could continue the work of church plan ing in other areas so they're they're they're on their own they're doing well and I'm also a missionary not only of Trinity but of moonwalk so uh and it's a Cooperative effort it's not a contradictory or conflicting effort now one of my hats is uh one of the main teachers Dean if you want to call it of the Reformed Baptist Institute of pastoral training we have seen a number of men go through the program our most recent graduates just Saturday last Saturday were Mike and Chris now Mike was ordained as one of the Elders of our church just the week before March 9 so we now have three Filipino Elders at moonwalk he's about 32 you can see his wife and their son uh Chris is pastoring on an island uh the last Island you would bump into before you hit Vietnam as you go west out of Manila Bay and he's been pastoring there for about 5 years and attended our school for three years going back and forth from his Island to attend classes for two weeks then go back to his Island so uh he's he's glad that he doesn't have to do that going on one of those pump boats like I showed you earlier one of those Outrigger Canoe boats uh and now he's back on his island with his wife yet they have three kids who weren't able able to join for the graduation uh two two of our men are still continuing we have a year and a half cycle three year program we have a year and a half of Greek a year and a half of Hebrew that's why you have to start at that year and a half break point as the two men going on are Mario and Dennis and Mario is from mind now down South Dennis is from nearby a nearby town now we're hoping to see more men come in those two men are continuing now another year and a half and we have uh some prospective students to start in June there are nine from that I met in subu last year and I hope to interview some of them and there are three that we've already interviewed and accepted uh they're anal that's his name johnelle and Ronnie so we hope to have them start in June I teach Hebrew you can't quite make it out um but that's Hebrew on the screen We're translating we were translating Jonah so we just finished the semester I also teach Systematic Theology pastoral Theology and a couple of other courses some Filipino pastors help teach uh Old Testament intro and uh doctrine of the Holy Spirit apologetics so I have help from Filipino pastors as well and we have men come from the US to teach some things where uh there are gaps that I'm not quite I don't feel quite ready to teach one is Old Testament biblical theology part one Mitch Lush from Pennsylvania is one of my classmates from Trinity ministerial Academy he comes over every three years to teach this class the New Testament biblic of theology taught by Dr Robert Martin so he was just there in January and uh we gave him some you know you you can't leave without getting some gifts of appreciation so here he is that's actually a frog holding an umbrella that you take his head off and you can put whatever you want to put in there so uh he said his his kid snatched up these gifts when he got back home now just to go through some of the graduates Pastor Roy that's one of the elders at moonwalk was one of the first graduates also boy hun now rley is there in Moonwalk but boy is pastoring a church that we help plant down in Naga that's still part of Luzon Southern Luzon the second group of students that graduated 2007 boy dula boy castanos boy is a pastor in uh just outside Metro Manila Molino boy went back to davo to plant a church in his hometown so he went all the way back back down to Southern mindal the next group Leo poo and Jepson so they're scattered over the Philippines too we got PO is with boy in Naga Leo is pastoring in a little town in SIU mingia Jepson all the way down outside of Dava about two hours in deos church planting now this is the group of Jepson so you can see there he's Gathering some people and we hope to see this group become a church uh maybe in the next couple of years the next group Jeremiah Tony I know there's a lot of names you won't remember them all but just to give you an idea how these graduates are going out bringing the gospel to different parts of the country Jeremiah Tony George and Lazaro now three of these are concentrated near Metro Manila uh north of Manila Metro Manila and then south of Manila and Lazaro went back home to sual and he is um actually in a reforming Southern Baptist Church down there and jonard Joel and Alvin uh two of these men are down in mind now also church planting now these are as it were missionaries of our church being supported by moonwalk so when we get people graduated it's it's like an additional uh opportunity for our people to give towards mission so the more we graduate in a way the more we have to support but it's a great opportunity to see more churches scattered throughout these islands so Alvin in a place called Valencia uh jonard in tagum these are southern men now also but Joel is helping in a church in Metro Manila now tagum where jonard is again this is in about a year and a half he's gathered this group of people and a number are converted not all but we're hoping to see this group also become a church now I'm laboring personally going back to Manila in helping several groups get established as churches so that's again the next hat I wear after ministerial training next hat is church planting so I helped this group where Tony Reyes one of our graduates there he is back here uh so I helped them get established as a church teaching on what is the church uh what's the church to do what are the Privileges responsibilities of church membership and so they've been established now for about a year and a half solitron about a year ago there's Jeremiah with his extended family and uh this is their their group The solitron Covenant Bible Church so you can see it's you know there's three groups of chairs in this fairly Wide building so it'd be like maybe that deep but about twice as wide as this room and they get about 60 70 people on a Sunday morning but only 12 constituted as a church gave a a credible profession of Faith so when we formed the church just last year 12 became members now this is that meeting place I showed you that wider room is there's a property dispute they rent the property and the gar the um junk shop recycling might be a one of those euphemisms is a junk shop started throwing their junk in front of where the church meets so they have actually bought a lot and they're hoping to build a small church building there so that they can move out of the situation that's just to give you an idea of some of the circumstan es that churches have to deal with now I go still go down there every other week to teach and to preach and to help Jeremiah because the church is still getting established and uh it's still a great Evangelistic opportunity as you can see with so many people so few converted on the other Sundays alternate Sundays I go up north to kaloka in this area called bong and George one of the other graduates has gathered this group and they're not a church yet so I'm right now teaching about the church to with a view to organizing this Fellowship into a church maybe later this year so um they actually he's he went to work with his in-laws his sister and brother-in-law they have a little business they were able to buy this unit of a kind of a roow house they met downstairs Quint crant and then the in-laws with were able with some other help from our church we able to buy the next door property so they knocked down the wall between them and now they have this whole area they can fit another 30 40 people in so the prayer is that God will bring in the people and we'll see a church established there alaga became a church in 2011 that's way down south uh in lison so that's one of my hats church planting helping see other work get established but then I have another hat and that's going to teach in the provinces a number of pastors can't come to our courses in Manila so I've been going to churches in the provinces to teach courses and get pastors there uh more equipped to preach the word so uh I've gone through Systematic Theology now I'm going through pastoral theology down in Naga there's again boy and poo I've been going there for oh about 10 10 years now going through this uh curriculum I hear the pastors that attended that module there every April there's a pastor's conference in SIU and you can see there were 170 Men last April so I go back to Manila in uh mid April the next week I go down to Sabu for the next year's this year's conference and uh we have P pastors excuse me coming out of charismatic background health wealth gospel easy believism fundamentalism and they're becoming fed up with all of this hype that just doesn't doesn't work and the easy believism where your converts Sprout legs and and walk off and leave you after a couple weeks and they're saying if this is a convert what good is it and so they're starting to to ask questions and come under reformed teaching so this conference in SIU Pastor Ellis has a conference up in Kuba in Metro Manila and these are being greatly used to call pastors and then churches to a deeper understanding of God's word of who God is what his gospel is what a church is and in this conference this year the topic is church membership what is it what are the Privileges what are the responsib abilities so that's what we I'll be doing with Pastor nny Martinez and here's um that's Pastor nny on the left that's his twin brother uh there's a Reformed Baptist Church with twin pastors and the other Pastor is this man Paul quas here uh I've gone down to Elan this is Northern mindal they had a conference on uh he wanted me to speak on some something with systematic theology so I thought if I start with doctrine of God in one day what can you cover so I deigned it to call it the Forgotten attributes of God now which attributes of God would you say are neglected in many churches today impossibility oh wow well uhra God's Wrath was one I took up I didn't deal with impossibility that was impossible what else Justice another closely related attribute of God God is just God is Holy the Holiness of God not given much attention and much of evangelicalism what else wrath we we mentioned Grace needs to be taught well that maybe next time sovereignty the sovereignty of God so those were the three topics I took on that Saturday now I I mentioned I was up in the mountains of ausan now that's where that congregation was with the dog and the monkey meat and all of that well I had a pastor's conference up there about 20 or so pastors from the mountain areas these are remote these are pastors up in the hills and they gathered together riding on motorcycles to get there now getting there is half the fun I to get there I took a plane to uh Northern mindo took a a bus to another town took a tricycle 30 minutes to another town crossed the river on a boat then took a motorcycle up the mountain about 3 hours now this this motorcycle is unique it's got Outriggers so you you've got uh Planks on either side of the the seat of the motorcycle you load your luggage on there and there are passengers also sitting on these ples now they have to sit down at the same time otherwise it's going to tip over so and we're going up a mountain rough kind of narrow Trail like this Rocky some places muddy 40 50 kmet an hour I was praying I mean honestly and and part of me was saying Lord what am I doing here and after a while I started enjoying it you know CU I was thinking Some people would pay a lot of money to go on an amusement ride like this and and I get three hours of it but uh anyway we got there safely for which I was very thankful and then I saw and I really was wondering Lord what am I doing here I'm taking my neck in my hands is this wise at my age you know well got there I saw that church you saw the congregation up on the mountain and the pastors gathered and the people of God who welcomed us with open arms and great Hospitality uh it was well worth the trip so that's another of my task but I not don't only do it in the Philippines I've been invited outside the country I taught with uh Pastor Mark chany uh I taught on evangelism and missions and he taught on the Christian family to these men I've taught in the Far East uh some pastors and wife of one of the pastors sat in but this was a course on preaching I've uh preached at a camp in malasia uh got getting fellowship with other brethren in Southeast Asia it's it's uh important we've uh seen more and more close ties with Reformed Baptist Brethren there and preaching at some of the churches there in Malaysia some dear Brethren Christian leaders conference in Singapore now these aren't just pastors but Sunday school teachers as well and uh that was last April 2012 and I hope to go back there in October so many opportunities of teaching and training uh We've continue to to be uh seek to be part of the Evangelistic Outreach of our church in Manila we had a Bible study with this family the L's converted but out of a confused charismatic background and we we hope she's gotten more solid U grounding in the scripture but the family is not converted they listen though for more than a year Wednesday nights as we had a Bible study with them Pastor relly also has Bible studies in homes in the Manila area and uh some of our students help in this out Outreach oh you want to know our family well you've met Carol we have a son Andrew who's a what 28 yes Becky's 206 yeah check my memory glad Carol's here uh Andrew's working on the East Coast works as a civilian employee of the US Army as a computer engineer Becky's a teacher Becky teaches English in a Chinese Christian School in the Philippines so um we're glad she lives near us and she's home on the weekends her school is oh good commute away so she got an apartment near the school as you can tell she's Filipina we adopted her when she was just a few months old and she's she's ours and we love her very deeply now that's our house you have to imagine a mango tree covering the front of it now cuz that was a few years ago and uh we were were able some some people brethren in the states contributed we were able to buy a new car because our old car was pretty much on its last legs requiring a lot of work uh we held on to it as an alternative transportation but we were very thankful this is probably the last car we Lo in the Philippines uh keep it going and we're very thankful for God's provision now some prayer requests let let me just stop here and ask if there are questions before we go to the prayer request is that good okay yeah yeah let me let me try to go back if I can to a map all right let's see it's not showing up where the what the slides are I don't know why all right MTI why is it working there go oh there's the map and I think it's shift F5 yeah all right so here's a map now mind now the eastern part is largely Roman Catholic but and the but the center part Center and Western is Muslim around the coast a lot of people from the north settled here especially uh back in the 1920s 1930s so there's a lot of there are a lot of Catholics in the in many parts of mindal but the Muslims are focused here these islands would be almost totally Muslim down in this area and if you remember the kidnapping of the Burnham family uh they were taken from palawa which is here to uh one of these islands in this area when they were kidnapped so the Muslim presence is especially strong down south and there are areas of minda now that I watch my back whenever I go there I mean you you just have to be on guard and don't be careless um I attended a seminar about kidnapping from the US Embassy and they said kidnappers are looking for soft targets somebody who's easy so don't be easy be on guard be wary be ready to run and If You Smell Trouble get out of there so anyway uh when I go to mind now I'm careful in Metro Manila a lot of Muslims have migrated and now there's a strong Muslim presence in Metro Manila which we didn't really feel when we went there in 1984 so wherever you are you need to to be careful but still it's a Muslim minority maybe 5 to 7% are Muslim but they're very vocal very strong very militant some of them now how do you how do you deal with that well some some Christians like here in Elan that's about this area they they tend to be frightened because there's a strong and violent Muslim base in that area so they avoid Muslims but wait these people need the gospel too you have to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves uh and you don't really get anywhere talking to a Muslim by trying to argue the Trinity with them right off the bat they'll just shut you off they'll say that's nonsense that's uh in fact that's blasphemy uh to say that God would become a man so you have with a Muslim and in fact with the Catholic and with anybody you you start with the conscience you start with sin what do you do when you sin and Muslims know that they sin their conscience has been watered down it's been uh tampered with by Islam but they still know that they sin what do you do when you sin Allah is a just God how can he forgive you well he's for he's merciful yeah well how can he be merciful they can't answer how can Allah forgive you no answer so you speak to them of Christ because you need a savior it's Christ the lord and that's why Jesus had to come why he had to be MN a man why a human where you had to die on a cross why you had to pay for sin to bring in the gospel so yeah there are Muslims and some are militant but we're in Manila I don't watch my back so closely in Manila but uh I suppose we should be more and more careful as years go by I don't know if I answered your question but okay yes perhaps you mention Paulina everybody knows all right now Paulina is from Santa Rosa which is it's not very easily seen on the map there's a lake here just outside Manila Santa Rosa is coming um not Sant yeah it is Santa Rosa just on the south side of that lake so it's about an 45 minutes from where we are and I've known that church I've preached in that church a number of times the pastor's Marlon dalan he's a friend of mine he comes to our classes sometimes U he's yeah he's a good friend of mine so um that church is going on in fact some Churches in the US help them buy a property and build a building and they finished the building on their own with more their own money and the church is doing well I believe yeah have you met Paulina there I met Paulina in Glenn Cullen and she says hi last night I was in Glen College I you know I met her but she's she left the Philippines 26 years ago I don't remember what I did yesterday so don't ask me about 26 years ago so yeah I knew her family yes in the front here first now now that typhoon came in here and so this is takan that's the city that was hardest hit came across Northern SIU and we know Brethren up in an island just north of suu here they were hard hit hit the north side of Pai Island and we know a church here in calibo and their building was wiped out pretty much or they lost the roof now churches in the US have sent money so they're rescu they're um what am I looking for sorry my English is rusty uh relief efforts yes here in tan late now one of our students andal whom you remember from those pictures earlier he's from right about the center of late he says his church building was destroyed and so they're being helped to rebuild their building as well so there are relief efforts underway to help those brethren we in Manila were spared now that very strong super typhoon had hit manilo the death toll would have been phenomenal with the shanties you can just imagine the shanties and the densely populated areas would have been wiped down yeah okay pastor yeah um not so much a question but a comment it's encouraging for me to how you guys have justen theological train seriously Church churches I find that to be a great encouragement thankful for God's blessing that it's encouraging to see all yeah God's bless us it really didn't strike me uh Pastor Butler until last night when I was in chiliwack and a couple of the men prayed and said Glenn cullin sorry my brain's fraud um but a couple of men prayed that God would help us here in the US as well as here in Canada to see more of a vision for planting churches and spreading the gospel and seeing strong Works established but it it made me think how how I've taken it for granted because God has blessed in the Philippines there's so many opportunities and one difference is we can go to anybody on the street and start talking about Christianity and there is a respect for the Bible there is a respect that uh this is God's word that Jesus is God's son even if they don't really know who he is and why he came uh so we have in a sense a jump start there that makes it somewhat easier but God's the same God's arm is not short and his ear is not deaf and we need to take the gospel here as well is to the ends of the Earth so good point but I I'm greatly thankful for the opportunities God has given us there in the Philippines yes um I always try to think the average daily wage in Metro Manila is something on the order of $7 a day that's us so multiply by whatever and that means and that would be a a working you know that's bare Su sustenance that's not doing very well that's a minimum wage to to keep a family say of five together you'd probably need 20,000 pesos a minimum which would be about say $500 US a month and U so dollar does go far we built our church building initially bought the lot built the building for about 35,000 us now prices property values have shot up in Metro Manila since then so you probably would need more like a 100,000 today to build the same building but money goes farther there than it does here yeah good point yes we do have freedom of religion at least on paper now in communities that are staunchly Roman Catholic you might bump into opposition from the Catholic church when we built our church building initially we had to get uh approval from the homeowners association we had to get Town permits and all of that stuff now we bought the lot we didn't have problem buying the lot but to get those permits I was a little afraid that we might bump into a Roman Catholic wall now God's still Sovereign over all that our deacon at the time was high school buddy with a town engineer so he went to his buddy the Buddy saidwell whatever you need just get bring it to my office and we'll stamp it the president of the homeowners association that needed to approve our plans was a friend of the uncle of Pastor Nanny Martinez in SIU so we visited his uncle his uncle had this guy come over for a couple of coffee and he said oh sure I'll sign the paper so my worries my anxieties to be honest with you were baseless God's in control so you bring it to him and you say God you can make a way and so where where God is going to plant a church nobody's going to stop him so we were able to to get through all those barriers which are potential barriers but God is greater than those now just to to add a little more to that up in calibo here I mentioned there's a church here up in the mountains there's a little church there I visited some years ago now they tried to go further into the mountains to evangelize they got to a certain town and the local Chieftain or leader uh said to them look I can't guarantee your safety in this town you better get down the mountain in other words they were going to face severe persecution maybe get beat up and they said well they felt it was uh Shake the Dust off your feet time and go back down the mountain so there is some so there are some places where you get severe opposition like that yes yeah there there are a lot of groups that have been there since a little bit of History the Philippines became a US Colony at the time of the Spanish American War Admiral dwey beat the Spanish Navy in Manila Bay 1899 or 98 I forget and so in the Treaty of Paris the Philippines were seeded to the US so from 1899 up to 1946 with a little interlude of Japanese Occupation the Philippines was a US Colony so so from 1899 there were Philip Protestant missionaries coming into the country before that it was pretty hard with Spain uh blocking the way so Protestants have been throughout the islands Baptists of all Stripes Bible Baptists fundamental Baptists American Baptists Southern Baptists as well as Presbyterians methodists and a lot of these more liberal groups pres Presbyterians Episcopal methodists have banded together in What's called the United Church of Christ in the Philippines which is basically a liberal Protestant denomination so they're all over the islands and a lot of those PE and charismatics Assemblies of God Pentecostals by the score uh so they're all over the islands too and now some of them we would consider Brethren although of some different understandings but s say among the charismatics we've helped several charismatic churches in Reformation what we've seen is most of them were coming to church for health and wealth and to get God wrapped around their little finger and get God to do what they wanted him to do not because they had any faith in Christ not because they were delivered from their sin not because they were made new creatures and when in fact the Church of boy dula one of our students when he started preaching the gospel re reformed teaching in fact he preached the Five Points of Calvinism you know what point God used to save about five people total depravity so all of those groups there's a lot of easy believism shallow Christianity uh name it and claim it raise your hand and you're born again and so we're seeing people converted even out of that a lot of shallow stuff but there are some true brethren in other churches as well yeah is that answer question okay yeah in the back first and then Rebecca yes come well we're you know whether you whatever your call it we don't necessarily have to have that in the name in fact our church is called the moonwall Community Bible Church just because the name Reformed Baptist doesn't mean anything there so we don't care what you call it but we want a church that's preaching the truth standing for the truth and the true gospel and seeing a church that's ordered according to the scriptures that's what we consider to be important so yeah he rebec I just wondering oh my uh God's given me a gift of tongues that could be misinterpreted but what I mean by that is I have an ability to pick up languages fairly quickly so I I think that's unusual because I've seen people come over there and they just work hard and and spin their wheels and get nowhere so within within a year I was preaching into gallog my first sermon was the shortest sermon I ever preached because I I help my language instructor helped me translate my notes into Tagalog and I had to write it out in full and I don't I don't ordinarily preach from a manuscript in fact I Don't Preach from a manuscript so I that's all I had to say was there when I got to the end I was done and I couldn't add anything so um yeah it it it took really probably a couple years to be more fluent but within the first year and I don't know how many months it was my memory is a little foggy there but uh I think the first sermon was probably after six months and then um more and more I began to be comfortable in it I still made mistakes you want to hear a funny story yeah you love funny stories I do too well I was asked to speak at a government office Department of trade and Industry that had a Bible study uh and it was February 14 so they gave me the topic what is true love so I figured well what are you going to do except expound the love chapter yes so I opened up 1 Corinthians 13 love is patient love is kind uh is not jealous and so on so I was dealing with kindness love is kind and I said well kindness is that attribute that when you see your your brother your friend in need your heart reaches out and you seek the help so I said for example your friend has a heavy heart which in is but what came out of my mouth was instead of I said P well p is cat your friend has a heavy cat and everybody just like you're laughing they all laughed and I oh as because as soon as it came out of my mouth I knew I said it wrong so I laughed too and we laugh for probably I don't know it seemed like forever but it was probably probably over only a minute but um that's just some of the the risks you take when you start speaking in another language so yeah it took a couple years to be more or less FL and I I still make mistakes sometimes okay well I again I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity let me leave you with some prayer requests here then I'll come to the end of my thing there all right now they all came up well that's good I'll just leave them all up there all right now is that clear I don't know if you can read that in the back back it's not clear all right well so let me read them to you please pray for our church the moonwall Community Bible Church Carol what's that I can yeah you're right a here we go is that better okay thank you love all right so pray for pastor Ry Pastor Alex Pastor Mike you saw them in through along the way as they carry on pray for Unity in the eldership that's really important uh pray that God would keep the members faithful just like anywhere there are Temptations and pressures and we have had people leave us along the way some people had to be disciplined and we we hate that and I would say and your pastors aren't paying me for this by the way I so I'll just throw it out there you know what you would want to pray for the people here to continue faithful to the end one of my favorite verses even even as a when I was a boy before I was even saved Romans excuse me Revelation 2:10 see be thou faithful unto death and I will give you the Crown of Life Brethren be faithful be faithful to your savior be faithful to your church it's Christ's Church it's not your pastor's Church be faithful to your church uh pray for our members there light and salt in a dark World we're still trying to bring the gospel to the Roman Catholics the pagans the heathens the those who are lost in sin you know given to Hedonism and sex and and it's just a big problem there too so pray for our members that we will continue to be zealous in evangelism pray for the training we need more students that are qu Godly and qualified you saw those men that I'll be interviewing maybe next month down in SIU uh pray that God would help us be discerned concerning as we bring students into the program pray for the courses the teachers men who travel a long way to come and teach like Pastor Robert Martin pray for the graduates in the ministry you saw those men scattered over the islands I won't give you all their names again because I don't know if if you'd remember them but pray for them pray for the church planning efforts especially the ones I'm involved in which includes this uh well Kal and Bong that's the same bong is a part of K on that's where George santonia is and I I hope to see this constituted later this year but all those other men our students who are in D Deo sural tum Valencia they're church planning we want to see churches established there as well and then uh lastly for these other training opportunities as I have courses in the provinces these guys up in the mountain they want they say when are you coming back November uh well we'll see they want me to come back and continue uh in other parts of the islands in Asia Malaysia Far East Africa as God gives opportunity as you know to be honest here I am as Pastor Andy Hamilton also from the Far East missionary said he's he's just a little bit older than I am I think he's maybe U 60s anyway and he said you know brother he said it to a friend of mine you know brother are we now in the last quarter you what he talking about well if you think about it when you maybe you start your ministry when you're 30 more or less 30 to 40 there's one quarter 40 to 50 second quarter 50 to 60 third quarter 60 and up hey that's the fourth quarter now and uh we got to wrap up this game and what's the best way I can use my time and the the talents and Gifts God's given me but to invest it in training other men who will be able to teach others also so pray that God would bless these efforts uh where our God gives me opportunity and that God would raise up more men to preach the gospel of Christ so those are the requests I would leave with you and what I I neglected to do was to print this out but I can email it to your pastor so you can post it on the board here as well all right so yes okay well it's three years and most of these men you see the the the pro provinces they don't have money I mean they might send you uh a wild pig but they're not going to send you cash if 10,000 pesos is what we try to provide for per month so you multiply that by say 33 months that's 330,000 pesos to get one man through the program now to put it in dollars uh that's a roughly let's see 45 pesos to the dollar so who's got their calculator out 30 330,000 divided by 45 Tony's working on it 7333 $ 7,333 American uh to to get one guy through now our church moonwalk provides a lot of that now some Churches in the US in fact my own dad says Steve do you need any money for your students and he'll he'll write me a check you know he's God's bless him he's retired uh so some people in the US have helped with that but our church in the Philippines Filipino churches have cont contributed to help get these men through the program and 10,000 let me tell you these guys are not getting rich on 10,000 a month they're barely making it so we're not we're not uh giving them a silver spoon but we're trying to get them through okay and there's adequate books in the language no that's a problem and and we're trying in fact I one course I teach is English because the good material is English and I tell the guys if you you want to grow as a pastor you need to know how to read English because there's just not I mean there's a minimal amount in tal but it's usually froth it's all foam no beer know if you forgive the expression um and we want to give them good meat and if that it's in English so we try to sharpen their English abilities and by the way since it was an American colony English is still uh taught in schools up to high school and college in fact colleges are taught in English so if if a student comes to us with a good high school education he can get basic English yeah okay than you all right so I'll leave these up on the screen if you want to have a couple men pray or right father thank you for the service him and his wife over there we do just rejoice in this report that the gospel is going many places we just people heing chist Jesus theel you are saving Sinners and we we know that for a truth that you have saints that you bring forth from from deadness to life from every tribe and T people and Nation we just thank you for this father we thank you for these reports we do pray for for moonwalk Community Church we pray that you would bless the brothers and sisters there that you would bless all those who do Minister there that you would give them uh the endurance and the strength the the continued um the continued ability the continued Grace to to preach the word of God we pray that you would give the that Min all that they need in order to uh to be uh to bring the message of peace and the message of Christ to those in need and we do pray for the people in that church that uh uh first off Lord that the elders would be unified that there would be a Unity among those who do lead that you would just cause them to have their hearts net together that they might uh adequately uh feed the people and feed the sheep that in that church we do pray for the membership there we pray for those who currently are members that you would just continue uh with them daily that you give them that daily strength and endurance that they would have uh uh daily that they would raise their heads with the knowledge of Christ and seek to live in light of that we do pray that you bring many more into the fellowship that you would by uh by spirit and word bring many new members into this church that uh the church might grow and just be above the gospel there we do just rejoice in ministerial training we thank you that men can be raised up to uh to preach and to teach and to to lead churches we do just pray that you would bless uh uh uh that you bless Steve in this and that you would uh just bless the other men that that teach and instruct we pray that many more young men and uh many more old men will be be brought to a uh a place where they have the knowledge of God where they have a grasp of the Gospel where they know Theology and that they might uh teach others and preach the gospel to many we just thank you so much for this ongoing work we do just pray Lord God that you bless the gospel in the Philippines that your message would go forth that you would convert Roman Catholics and Muslims and that you would just uh top topple those false religions and spread your gospel that multitudes of tongues would sing the Praises of our Christ it's in his name that we pray amen Our Father in heaven we give you thanks and PR for the encouraging report from my brother we thank you for the work of the Gospel there in the Philippines we thank you for these various Church plants we pray that you would protect them we pray that you would just bless them and cause them to flourish and thank you Father for what you are doing there what you have done there in these past years and we pray that you would continue to keep the men of God faithful as they preach and teach we pray that you would continue to supply the funds necessary to educate other so that they be sent out we pray that the knowledge of the Gospel would go forth through those many islands and that many TS would come to confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior we pray that you would just be glorified in in workship church planting and ministerial training and in day-to-day churchmanship we pray that they continue to reach out to their communities we thank you for these Vacation Bible schools and the the contact with these young people we pray for them that you would be merciful would reach down that you would save sinners in these places God we also pray for Steve and Carol we pray that you would continue to sustain them on their their trip here in in America we just pray that you bless the conference in Montville may use that to stir up your people here in America and Canada may you cause us God even now to be encouraged and challenged and even in our own church God that we may take up this manle that we may see training and church planting as a primary goal we thank you for the doctrines that you've given to us we thank you for the truth of your gospel help us to cherish it help us to prize it and as our brother admonished and encouraged and reminded us help us to be faithful persevere to the very end God we pray that for all the churches there in the Philippines that they would just continue to flourish and Thrive and that Jesus Christ will be exalted and glorified we thank you for the promise in the scriptures that he shall have from SE to see we know Lord God most high that the word is going forth conquering and to conquer and we know that Christ has secured the salvation of men from every tribe and tongue and people and Nation we pray tonight that you would let your face shine upon the Nations you cause them to be glad that you would turn multitudes unto yourself and do this for your glory sake thank you again for this time for Fellowship thank you for the encouragement to our hearts God thank you filling us and we pray that You' go with us now we ask through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen well thank you very much brother for being with us we really really appreciate you