Activities from February 20 - March 5, 2013

February 20, in our midweek service, brother Jun shared to us the lessons we could learn from "Proverbs 26".

February 23, we went to the burial of brother Jesus Pader. He is the reason why there is a church in Maguirig and also the first christian there. Brother Geronimo Ganela preached a sermon about "Life and Death". 

February 24, in our Lord's day service here at Tuguegarao, I taught in our bible study about "A Few Things" (Few are saved, Few Laborers, and faithful over few things). In the sermon, brother Jerome preached about "Learning from death" (The Value of our life, brevity of life, vanity of earthly things, death is not the end of life, certainty of death, and each has his own spiritual responsibility).

In the afternoon, at Palca, I preached to them about "Proverbs 27:1-17". I am encouraging them to not think always of themselves but also look for the others and also about the reason why we are living and why we needed to work today and not always think of what to do tomorrow because we do not know if tomorrow will still come.

February 26, in our preachers' bible study, brother July taught in the morning about "Proverbs 31" then followed by brother Rody wherein he shared about the "Timeline of the Old and New Testament". 

In the afternoon, I shared to them "Acts 20" the continuation of Paul's Third Missionary Journey. I pointed out about the reason why Paul told the brethren that he might not see his face anymore because of the danger ahead of him and that tells us that if we needed to die for the gospel, then so be it, our reward is in heaven. From this chapter, it also tells us to preach the whole counsel of God because of the sacrifices Jesus did just for us to have salvation and to share it to everyone.

February 27, in our midweek service, I taught on "Proverbs 27". This time, I shared to them every detail on the whole chapter. Solomon intended this proverb for his son to not forsake God and the people around him but it is written in the bible so that we can also think on this things as a guidance for us to have a righteous life.

February 28, I should be going for a home bible study at Palca but early in the morning, they sent me a text message saying that we will re-schedule the study for next time because they have an emergency to attend to.

March 1-4, brother Jun, Teddy and I went to Manila to work in the newly opened congregation in Pasay. We traveled by night on the Friday and hoping to arrived there early Saturday but unluckily, when we are near Bulacan area, the bus got a problem and that we needed to transfer to another bus but the bus arrived about 30 minutes later. We arrived in Manila about 8 in the morning but we are still far from the Pasay area. We traveled by train but again the train's destination will not reach Pasay because of some technical problems also. We again ride a bus to reach the area and so finally, at 10 in the morning, we arrived safely at Pasay. Thanks to God's guidance for all the help he gave us on this trip. 

Saturday, we prepared the meeting place (clean, prepare the projector, making copies of our outlines,etc). 
Sunday, in our Lord's day service, brother Teddy led the singing and I taught in our bible study. We are still few when I started to teach because the brethren came from different areas around Manila and some are really from far places. I again taught the lesson about "A Few Things". I already preached this lesson from many places and I wanted to share also to them that there is a warning in the bible "Many are called but few are chosen". Even though we are a christian already, still there is Satan trying to get us back into darkness and wanting us to go with him in hell. In the sermon, brother Jun preached about "Did Christ's died in vain?" Many of the denominations today preach about neglecting Mark 16:16, Matthew 16:18 and other verses pertaining to Christ, the church and how to enter the church. If we say that it is not important to obey the gospel or the church, we are also saying that Christ's sacrifice on the cross is useless because without it we will be save as our friends from denominations teach. We have five visitors who attended the worship and four them are already christian who are looking for worship place here in Manila because they are members of the Lord's church in their provinces. Here are the list of names:
1. Jackson Edwas
2. Garry Laurencio
3. Judy Ann Matias (Non-christian)
4. Eric de Guzman
5. Sydney Sabiniano
We have a total attendance of 30 wherein two are kids.

Monday, we traveled back to Tuguegarao and arrived Tuesday morning.

March 5, in our preachers' bible study. Brother Gemiano Pader shared to us the lessons on "Acts 21" the end of Paul's third missionary Journey until his imprisonment. After the question and answer, brother Rody also shared to us the timeline of the whole bible.