Preaching activities for the month of October 2020

 October 4, 2020 (Sunday worships)

Our situation in our town is getting worse again and so our Mayor proclaimed that we will be on a two weeks lockdown which they call MECQ (Modified enhance community quarantine). Limited people are only allowed to go out and those who want to go out needs to secure Covid Pass in their own village halls. Our worship is affected here in Tuguegarao and only our family attended the worship. We are about 20+ only. We also have another problem, the whole town have no electricity but we managed to have the live streaming by using the phone of brother Jun and using his data as our internet. He preached about "The destiny of man". All our live streams are posted in the page of the congregation in facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/212295806642969). Only me, Jun Gumpad, Jay Gumpad and James Attaban are the man in the congregation who helped together to make the worship be done. Sorry for the picture posted below, I only took a photo of our live stream in facebook. 

In the afternoon, brother James and Jay joined me in the work at Palca and Dagupan. We also have no electricity and so we used a tarpaulin printed outline in Palca that James used to preached. He preached about Death-When-Then? Jay helped in the song leading while I did the rest of the works.

In Dagupan, brother Jay's turn also to preach. He shared Luke 10:25-26. I also added some points after his preaching that will direct our lesson to those visitors who are with us. 

October 7 (Midweek bible study)

  The lockdown protocol is still there and so we cannot have the bible study on evenings. We again had our bible study in the house of brother Rody. We studied Acts 24. 

October 11 (Sunday worships)

We are still under the MECQ protocols and thankfully the total lockdown which they announced earlier of the week that supposedly be October 10-12 is revoked. We can still have our worship, but then again, only our family is in attendance. Live streaming continues. I am the one who preached and I shared the lesson "What if we treat sin like the virus?" In my powerpoint presentation, it is in our language so that our brethren here can easily understand even if they are watching the live stream in poor connection. 

In the afternoon, at Palca, brother's Jay, James and also Macky Miguel joined me. When I heard about the total lockdown in our town, Tuguegarao, I called brother Macky if he can go to Palca and be the one to preach because we cannot get out of town. But because it was not push through, we still went to Palca and brother Macky insist if he can also come. He was the one who preached in Palca and he shared "Know what you need to do".  A lot of brethren are sick and asking for our prayers. Sister Emy told me that his father just got a stroke and very weak and according to the doctor, he might not recover. Thankfully, up to this day of writing this blog (October 29), he is still fighting for his life but with improvements already.

In Dagupan, I am the one who preached and I also shared the lesson "What if we treat sin like the virus?". All my outlines and pictures of the preaching in Palca and Dagupan are posted in our page in facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/639178010206711). You can visit it also view those english outlines. 

October 14 (Midweek bible study)

We again had our bible study at the house of brother Rody. This is the last week of the MECQ and we will return to MGCQ (Modified General Community Quarantine) wherein anyone except those below 15 and above 65 are allowed to go out. Those who have fever, cough, flu and any symptoms of sickness are not allowed to enter any establishments.  I do not know when we can have the bible study in the chapel again. For this time, we studied Acts 25.

October 18 (Sunday Worship)

We are hoping that many of our brethren will already join us in worship because the protocol is lightened but only a few joined us because there are villages under total lockdown in the town. The authorities chooses to have a total lockdown on villages where there are a lot of covid cases. Thankfully, our village is clear of any case. I led our singing and brother Jun preached the sermon about "Examples of Samuel".  I again took the pictures on the live stream.

In the afternoon, I alone went to Palca. It is very hard for me again because I needed to work on three different congregations for a single day but I know everything is very fulfilling because it is for the glory of God. I preached in Palca and Dagupan about "How are we saved?" It is the similarities on the days of Noah with the way we are saved today. I am using my phone to project the presentation in Palca and also to view my outlines that's why the pictures taken are a bit late or not good. And I only got the picture of brother Lino Quines while he is leading our worship songs in Palca. I also do not have the picture in Dagupan because while I am preaching, my phones battery died and I need to continue preaching until the end without my outline.

October 21 (Midweek bible study)

It is the birthday of the daughter of brother Jerome and as we celebrate her birthday, we still had our bible study. We studied Acts 26.

October 25 (Sunday worships)

Our situation here in Tuguegarao is again getting better. Our brethren came to join us in worship. Brother Rody is with us right now and he preached about "What to pray?". 

In the afternoon, at Palca, I preached the lesson "What are the things happy people do?". In Palca, I viewed to them in my outline the one in our language, but in Dagupan, I gave them the copy which is in English. I first made the outline in English and printed them, but then, I decided to translate it in our language when I made the presentation. 

To end my report, I also want to include the days where I wanted to visit the brethren at Palca and Dagupan (October ,13,15,19, 22 & 26). Sad to say that when I reached the checkpoints, they stopped me from going. I tried different days of the week hoping that I can pass the checkpoints, but always fail. Thankfully, I can go to that town on Sunday because there are no checkpoints on the way. Towns in the Philippines right now have different protocols to follow. There are towns that you cannot enter without getting Travel pass first from the town where you live like here in Tuguegarao. In Palca and Dagupan (Town of Tuao), they also have other protocols.

My online study with brethren at Palca and Dagupan everyday still continues except those who have already started their online classes(students). Many still cannot go out in their area and it is still hard to earn money for a living. The authorities are strictly reinforcing the law by giving fines to those who violate the protocols.