Gospel Meeting at Toran, Aparri - March 23

A great invitation from brother Jun Miranda to have a gospel meeting in his congregation was a great opportunity again to share the gospel. It is about 2 hours travel from here in Tuguegarao. We arrived in the area about nine in the morning.

The first speaker was brother Jerome Forelo who preached to us about "Why I need to be saved now?". We are just a man, and we all have sinned according to the bible, and so we are destined to go to hell. But we are very thankful that God gave His only begotten son. If we want to go to heaven, we need to follow what Jesus said and be obedient to the gospel, and it should be now. We do not know what might happen tomorrow, we need to be ready always.

The Second speaker was brother Jay Gumpad and he preached about "Masters". He showed the relationship between the master and the servant from both our life here on earth and with God.

I(Mark) preached as the third speaker and I am encouraged to share to them a lesson from brother Steven Deaton's sermon on their website. It is entitled "3rd option". I read these before and I made additions that would properly fit our nature here in the Philippines. There is a good place which is called Heaven and a very bad place which is Hell. We are going to hell because of our sins, and we are the one's who are choosing to go there. We are not saying that we want to be there, but if we live in darkness, it is like forcing our self to go to hell, and it is a place where there is severe pain that cannot be cured, it will be day and night and until eternity. But we can go to heaven by the blood of Christ. As christians, we already choose the path that leads to heaven because it is a place where there is real joy. In these world, we might find good pleasures, but it is only temporary, but in heaven, their will be no more pain, nor death, nor sorrow and crying because there will be joy, comfort and health. for all eternity. I choose to go to heaven and I want to be there on the last day, and I pray that all of us will be there. 

The fourth speaker was brother Rody Gumpad who preached about "Why Many will not be saved?". Many are serving God but according to Matthew 7:21-23, God never knew them because they are not doing what the will of the Father is. There is only one church, but they are trying to established churches of their own, Jesus said He is the head of the church, but many are trying to take His place, and so on. Many are called but few will be chosen.

In the afternoon, the first speaker was brother Jun Gumpad who shared about "Satan's Plan". There are many devices Satan is planning for him to destroy our relationship to God and it is working with those who are going back to the world like Demas.

The second speaker was brother Gerald Ganela, who also showed an encouraging lesson like the others. It is about "God wants you to be happy". God wants us to be happy in every ways we can imagine . But with the joys we are experiencing, all should be offered unto Him.

Then finally, the last speaker was brother Rody again. He preached about "The so great salvation". He showed the destination of man. Will it be in heaven of will it be in hell?

We sung the invitation song after the preaching and we are happy to see five(5) precious souls ready to confess their faith. We baptized them after the confession and it might be the first time you see how we did it. We used a large amount of water as the bible says but the tank we use might bother you. The converts were in the tank and was immersed from head to toe and that should not be a problem because it does not contradict to what the bible is saying.

More images in the Gospel Meeting: Pictures in the Gospel Meeting