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

Activities from March 19-25

March 19, we are invited by the newly baptized sister, Celia Lim, to have a bible study in her house. Brother Jimmy Battung and Elijah Sikat, as their cousins, help them understand the truth and they decided to be baptized last March 16. She and her daughter is now attending the services here at Metro Tuguegarao and we are happy to be with them in worship. Her family was known in the whole city because of how materially bless they are. Her husband already died and was a friend of bro. Rody before. Sister Celia invited many of her friends in her house to listen also to the studies. Brother Rody shared  two topics, first was  "Get Ready for the judgment" and "The original Members of the Church of Christ". The reaction from the listeners are very good because of good reactions when they hear something they know and also to the things they thought is right but in the bible it is not like the denomination where they are member of. Some questions where raise after the study and that only shows they listen very well and is interested in the topics discussed. Hope and pray that all of them will one day be our brethren also.

March 20, in our preachers bible study, we now moved to the next part of our lesson in Revelation which is "The Seven Personages" in Rev. 12:1-14:20. We focus on the Radiant Woman in 12:1-6, the War in heaven in 12:7-12, The Sea and Land Beasts in 13:1-8, The Lamb in Zion in 12:1-5 and The Proclamations of Judgment in 14:6-20.

March 21, in our midweek service, a wonderful and encouraging lesson from Psalm 138 was taught by brother Jerome. The main focus of the lesson is on how thankful and how God hears the prayers of all the faithful.

March 22, I preached in the radio program in the morning and it is entitled "You are not the judge". I choose to preached this because man choose to find their own ways of salvation and are not listening to what Jesus is telling us. 

In the afternoon, brother Jay invited me to go to Minagbag and visit the brethren. We first met bro. John and sister Janice. John was fixing his hand tractor that he is using in the field. We talk to him about those brethren whom we might visit. He is the trusted brother whom you can count when in comes to the church growth just like brother Lino whom I am with in Palca. I am very thankful that we have those kinds of brethren in the church. We tried to visit brother Sonny in his house but unluckily, he is not their and we just heard from the neighbor that he is in the field. The bad thing is, even on Sunday, he is working in the field and really scheduled a whole day work there but not on other days. Hope and pray that he will realized what he is doing is all a mistake and will come back to the church. The next place we visit was in brother Rene's house, but again, we failed to see him, we have no idea why he is no longer attending the worship because no one is around even in the neighborhood. We went home with prayers on our head and hope someday they will realized that without Christ, we are nothing even when we gain every material things in these world.

March 23, Gospel Meeting at Toran, Aparri. Please click on the link for the information: Toran Gospel Meeting

March 25, in our Lord's day here in Tuguegarao, bro. Jun taught in our bible study with the topic " Sin of Man Playing God", we are not like God but we are only a man that have a lot of limitations while God is all powerful. In the sermon, brother Rody preached to us about "Remember Lord Jesus", that we gave everything, even His life, for us all to have salvation from our sins.

In the afternoon, at Palca, I preached to them about "What should we choose?" because today, many choose to live in darkness than in the light. We need to choose whom we want to serve, how we live, and where we want to go for eternity.

Activities from March 8-18

March 8, I preached in the radio program about "Right Gospel and Right Church". It is a continuation of the lesson I also preached in the radio before about "The Right Savior and the Right God". I first heard of this topic that was preached by brother Ron Halbrook during our lectureships the last time he was here. It is a good topic because it will really awaken those who are following the things they thought they knew the truth.

March 10, I should be going to Palca for home visitation again but friday night, brother Lino Quines, a brother at Palca calls on the phone and told me that many of them are working in the field right now because it is already time of harvest and if we will go to houses, we will not see anyone home. It is the only work of the people on that village that's why they will take the opportunity to do it before rain comes again.

March 11, in our service here at Metro Tuguegarao, I taught in the young peoples class that brother Jerome is doing when he is with us. Brother Rody, Jun and Jerome are in Mindoro at that time so I take his position in teaching them. I shared to them about "Marriage as a Big step". A good lesson that talks about what to look for a partner in life and the problems that may occur in marriage. Brother Jay taught in the bible study but it is the same time as the young peoples class so I didn't attend that part. In the sermon, brother Robert Rances, one of our elder, preached about "Blessings behind every condition". The lessons shows that in every conditions that God asked us to do, there is always a reward behind it.

In the afternoon at Palca, I preached to them about "Time to love and a time to hate". We should love God will everything and hate every false way.

March 13, we are still in the part of the "Seven Trumphets". It is really hard to study everything in the book of Revelation but with the unity of all of us, slowly, we are getting the point and the things we need to use to answer the doctrines of denominations.

March 14, in our midweek service, brother Reneboy taught to us about "Search the Truth". He started from the creation of man in God's image, followed by the devil's work in the world and the church that Jesus built.

March 13-17, I am working with all the videos that bro. Rody and his group recorded when they are in there preaching trip in Mindoro and Bulacan. It is about six videos and I need to edit everything that we could use in our TV program. It took me lot of working hours just to finished it and I am happy that when they played it in TV, it really looks nice and hopefully help many viewers understand the lessons.

March 18, in our service, brother Jun taught in our bible study about "The Rock and the Sand" on Matthew 7:21-27. A lesson showing that we need to build our foundation upon the rock which is Christ and not on the sand as the foolish man did with building his house. In the sermon, bro. Rody preached about "The Mosaical Period". He is showing that we are no longer living in that period and we are in the Christian age. In the audience was the presence also of the newly baptized brethren, they are Sister Celia Lim who is very well known here in Tuguegarao because of how wealthy they are together with her family and friends. Thanks to the effort of bro. Jimmy Battung who shared the gospel to them. Hopefully they will be worshiping with us every Sunday and please pray also for them.

In the afternoon, I preached the last part of the series of lesson on Different Seasons in Palca. The last was "Time of war and a time of peace". We, as christians are always at war with the invisible enemy which is the devil and we need to take the whole armor of God to have a good defense against his attacks. And we have peace after the battle in the nest life that God will give to all those who successfully fought the good fight of faith.

February 29 to March 7 activities

February 29, in our midweek service, we continued on studying the book of Psalm wherein we are now on the 135th. We have no electricity for the whole day and even when we started the Bible Study there are no lights. We started early while the sun is still there and we stayed in front of the house of bro. Rody. We arranged some chairs and continued on the midweek service. The focus of the psalm where bro. Florendo Respicio taught is all about the gods of man and made good points on focusing on the right God.

March 1 & 2, I worked on the videos that will be played in our TV program here in Tuguegarao. I thanked God that He gave me the ability to work with these things. I finished Information Technology and I am using it for the glory of God.

March 3, I went again to Palca to visit the brethren who are seldom attending the worships. I first encounter Melvin Lamigo when I arrived. We had a little talk, and he told me that he wanted to go back to the church but he is ashamed. I read to him passages that would help him realized that their is nothing to be ashamed of if you want to return to God. If we will be ashamed, Jesus will do the same for us. He admitted that he have many vices and that is a good thing, showing repentance. The next was the family of sister Fermina and her daughter Hazel with bro. Junior(they are all very faithful brethren). We have a good sharing of God's word and also offered prayers for those brethren who are lukewarm and are sick at the moment.

March 4, in our Lord's day here at Tuguegarao, bro. Jun taught in our Bible Study about "What are you worth?" that we all have a value and especially to God, that He gave His only begotten Son to pay our debts on the cross and we have the remission of sins. In the sermon, bro. Rody preached "God has spoken" speaking to us about the dispensations in the Bible, where we are and what we need to follow.

In the afternoon, I invited bro. Denis Yuson to come with me in Palca. He preached to us about "Children of God" sharing the first three verses of the book of Jude. After his preaching, I also shared some good thoughts in the bible explaining to all of christians that we can do all things with Christ with us.

March 6, we continued on studying the book of Revelation. We again examined the Seven trumpets that can be read in Revelation 8:6-11:19. We didn't finish it the last time so we continued with it. The trumpets means warning and many things pertaining the provision of God to His people.

March 7, in our midweek service, we studied "Psalm 136" that bro. Efren Respicio shared. The main theme of the psalm is "The Lord's mercy endures forever" that we can read over and over in the whole part of the psalm. The love of God cannot me measured because of its greatness.

Calendar of Activities for February 2012

Update of activities from February 21-28

February 21, we continued on our study on the book of Revelation and we discuss about the Seven Seals in chapter 6:1-8:5. It is all about the Four Horseman in the first four seals then the fifth which is the souls under the altar and the sixth seal which depicts judgments for the Roman Empire. And on the seventh chapter was an interlude on which purpose is to permit the sealing of the saints in order that they will be able to endure the trials and tribulations set for in chapter six. And finally the seventh seal which serves as a transition of things to follow in the next vision. We got a lot of discussions about this seals because of the different use of denominations and good thing that we have a study like this for us to be ready whenever someone ask us about this.

February 22, in our midweek service, we studied two chapters of psalms. The first one was taught by brother Rody and he entitled Psalm 133 as "Blessings in Unity" and bro. Robert taught Psalm 134 which he entitled "The Will of God".

February 23, I preached in the radio program about "Right God and Right Savior". This lesson discusses about the need to follow the true God and not the idols that man created and we have the right Savior and that is not Buddha or Allah or anyone who claims to be the savior like we have here in the Philippines who is saying that he is the appointed Son of God and he is the savior name Apollo Quiboloy. You can find his name in the internet and you can see how foolish of him to take the position of Jesus.


February 25, I went to Palca to visit the brethren. The purpose of the visitation is to go to the brethren who are no longer attending the worships and studies. Together with me is a faithful brother at Palca which is bro. Lino. We first visited the house of bro. Mac and Milton Lamigo. They are still young aging 22 and 18 respectively. We tried to encourage them to continue on serving the Lord. The reason of bro. Mac that he is not attending the services is because he was very discourage that he even went to Manila to find a job, but unluckily haven't found anything and went back home empty handed. We shared to him God's word as source of encouragement. Next is the house of sister Pacing Quines, who is a faithful sister but his grandsons who are also baptized in the Lord's church is her problem. They went back to the works of the world and really hard for our dear sister to discipline them. We talk to her grandsons to give them the effects of what they are doing, not just physically but also spiritually.

The third house we went to was the house of bro. Mark and Vincent Quines who were both baptized in 2007. They are brothers and really sincere in serving the Lord when they first started to be christians but after few months, never saw them again. They told me that for the last 3 months, Mark was working in Manila and Vincent was at Palca but busy in the field. I reminded them about the teaching of Christ that we need to seek first His kingdom and also that we might gain that whole world but lost our own soul, it is all useless.

And finally, we went to the house of sister Krizzele who was once a student of my wife Joy in the children class. She was baptized last 2009, but also not as faithful as her mother and sister. Together with his family, we tried to encourage her to come to the church and read to her passages about staying faithful.

February 26, in our Lord's day here at Tuguegarao, bro. Jun taught in our bible study about "Satan's plan for you" and bro. Rody preached about "When Calamity and Disaster Strikes". Two good lessons and very encouraging that whatever happens we need to hold on to our faith and never surrender to the works of the tempter.

In the afternoon, at Palca, I preached to them about "Bad things". I focus on sharing to them why bad things happen to good people like Job, the sick man in John 5, the blind man at John 9 and Lazarus at John 11.

From those brethren whom we visited, only one of them came and that was sister Krizzele. It is really hard to invite young people especially when are are man. Next Saturday, I will again visit other brethren who are often attending services. Hope and pray that my labor will be helpful to them and someday they will realized what is more important in this world.

February 28, in our bible study, we discuss about Revelation 8:6-11:19 which are the "Seven Trumpets". We didn't finish it all because we got many discussion about to what it really means. And we all concluded that the trumpets symbolize warning. Lord willing, next Tuesday, we will continue on it.

Bible Lectureships and other Activities

Those who attended the ladies class

February 14, we held a Bible Lectureship here at Tuguegarao together with bro. Ron and sister Donna Halbrook and bro. David and Starla Halbrook. The ladies have their own class in the second floor of the church building led by sister Donna and Starla. My wife attended their class and I am happy to hear from her that they enjoyed and learned a lot from them. This is the first time that they have a Bible Studies as group of ladies. In the first floor of the church building, we also held our Bible Lectureship and all are man. Bro. Ron was the first one who preached and he shared about "The Rapture: Is it Now?Near? or Never?". He discusses about the Theory of the Premillenialist about this so called Rapture that Christ will return to reign for 1,000 years on earth.And this theory have many consequences if it is true like "Kingdom prophecies in the Bible made void" Daniel 2:31-45, "God's power is limited" Mark 9:1, "Christ Dethroned" Acts 2:30, 36, "Seek Earthly Kingdom" John 18:36, "The church reduced to temporary substitute status" Ephesians 3:10-11, " "Denies present reality of the kingdom" Colossians 1:13-14, and "Ignore God's plan for Christ's death" Acts 2:23.  This only shows that the bible is true and not the Theory of Premillenialism. He also add the lesson about "Will Israel be restored to its land?". In Galatians 3:26-29, the blessings promised to Abraham is fulfilled in Christ and not in the Land. 

Followed by bro. David, he shared to us about the topic on "A lesson from a Tassel".  Among the many statutes of Moses' law, we find somewhat obscure instruction in Numbers 15:37-41. He shows the purpose of these tassels that we may remember and do all the commandments and be holy for God. Another lesson was followed by bro. Ron and he speak about "Does Christ now reign as King?". According to the prophecy, His rule begins in the Roman Empire and it was fulfilled on the gospel age. He completed all His work and now seating on His throne.

In the afternoon, bro. David spoke to us concerning "What will I preached about?". He gave us ideas on how we can easily make outlines and bible lessons that we can use to preach every Sunday. Then the last lesson was discussed by bro. Ron and it was entitled "When is the 1,000 years reign of Christ?". To summarized the lesson he shared, the 1,000 years reign of Christ shows His perfect victory over the Roman Empire.

More pictures: Tuguegarao Bible Lectureship

February 15, we went to Manaring, Ilagan to attend also their Bible Lectureship together with the American brethren. Upon arriving, we saw 10 souls already confessing their faith. The lectureship started Feb. 14 and maybe they attended the class before this day, but we never saw them baptized in water because after the confession they went their own ways. The attendance is very good because we are more than 200 coming from different places. Many of the audience are brethren from the whole Ilagan province.

The lectureship I attended started with bro. David preaching about "Continue in the things which you have learned". We need to continue what we started as Christians and share the good news to everyone. Bro. Ron preached next and he shared about "Walk in spirit, not the flesh!". This is how people live today: Walking in the flesh(Selfish, Sinful Conduct) and Walking in Spirit(Follow God's word).

In the afternoon, the number of audience went down because they need to travel back home. They will have none to ride when they will be there until we finished the studies. But we still have more than 100 attendance left. Bro. David again preached to us about "Ephesians 4:1-3" which is walking worthy of the calling with which we are called in all lowliness, gentleness, long suffering, bearing one another in live, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And the last lesson was preached by bro. Ron about "Resurrection of Christ" discussing to us the whole chapter of Mark 16.

After the lesson, we extended again the invitation and 12 precious souls went in front to confess their faith. We baptized them in the near river but the first 10 who confess in the morning was not there. Hope and pray that they will be baptized soon.

More pictures: Manaring Bible Lectureship

In the evening, we have our midweek service here at Tuguegarao. Bro. Ron spoke to us regarding the song in our hymnbook which is "Holy, holy, holy" on Isaiah 6:1-8.

My family and the Halbrook's

February 16, it was the time when the Halbrook's left Tuguegarao and fly going to Manila and directly to Cebu. They will be here in the Philippines until the last week of February. Please continue to pray for their safe travels and on their way back to their homes.

February 18, we went to a Thanksgiving at bro. Florencio Constantino, one of the elders here at Tuguegarao who is having his birthday. We sing together with them with spiritual songs, read a part of 3 John and prayed together to the Lord to thank Him for another year of many blessings for bro. Flor and his family.

February 19, in our Sunday Service here at Tuguegarao, we studied about "Know your Enemy" that was taught by bro. Jun. We need to recognize Satan and his tactics and resist him everyday. In the sermon, bro. Rody shared to us about "Burial or Cremation". We looked into the points about whether cremation is scriptural and whether cremation is sinful. I have many questions to ask about this lesson because we cannot read anything about cremating bodies in the bible and we cannot also say that it is sinful because the one's who are cremated are the dead and not those who are alive. 

In the afternoon, my wife continues to teach the children at Palca while I preached in the church about "Time to speak and Time to be silent". We always say that "Speak where the bible speak and be silent if the bible is silent". We need to speak about the good news and we need to be silent before God because He must be the only one who is commanding us what to do.

More pictures: Palca Lord's Day