Activities from October 20-November 10

October 20, in our Lord’s day service here at Metro Tuguegarao, the elders decided that only one will teach and  so brother Rody preached about “The Holy Bible” and talked also about thanksgiving because of sister Tessie’s birthday and the graduation of brother Teddy boy at college.

In the afternoon, at Palca, I preached about “The Parable of the ten virgins”. The main point of the lesson is preparation. Christians are like the ten virgins, some a wise wherein they diligently prepare themselves for the Lord’s coming and some are like the fools who knows that the Lord is coming but they are not prepared, they are even like the evil servant who says “my master is delaying his coming, and act accordingly (Mt. 24:48-49).

October 22, in our preachers’ bible study, brother Geronimo Ganela preached to us in the morning about “Studying the  Lord’s record” from the book of Genesis about marriage to Jesus coming. In the afternoon, he taught to us on “1 Corinthians 10” about the warnings from Israel’ history.

October 23, in our midweek service, I taught in our bible study about the lessons on “Matthew 25”, the “Parable of the ten virgins”, the “Parable of the talents” and the “Sheep and goats”.

October 25, I attended the gospel meeting at San Vicente, Tuao where brother Edwin Soriano and Alex Genilba preaches. Here are the speakers with their topics:

In the morning:

Brother Jerome Forelo – Salvation as planned by God

Brother Larry Guillermo – Receiving the good news

In the afternoon:

Brother Geronimo Ganela – New Testament Christianity

The brethren where edified not only of the lessons preached but also for seeing us coming from different places and gathering together in unity to study Gods’ word.

October 27, in our Lord’s day service here at Tuguegarao, brother Jun taught in our bible study about “Answering religious errors: Instrumental Music in worship”, and in the sermon brother Jerome preached about “The beginning of the Lord’s church”. This lessons were suggested by the elders to be studied as were written in the white booklet  entitle “The New testament Church”.

In the afternoon, at Palca, I preached to them about “What we need to show the world?”  We are to show them that they are lost and we want them to be saved. We are to show them the love of Christ as it is written in the holy bible. And we also need to show them the reality of eternity.

October 29, in our preachers’ bible study, brother Robert Pader taught about “1 Corinthians 11".

October 30, in our midweek bible study, brother Robert Rances took the place of brother Efren because he was not aware of his schedule to teach. He taught on “Matthew 27”, the repentance f Judas, Jesus before Pilate, the crucifixion, death and burial of Jesus.

November 3, in our Lord’s Day service here at Tuguegarao, brother Jun taught in our bible study about “Is one church as good as another?” and in the sermon, brother Jay preached “How can one become a Christian?”

In the afternoon, at Palca, I preached to them about “Remember Lot’s wife”. It is a very short verse, but has a powerful meaning. If we are already a Christian, we need not to turned back and look at the things we have left behind like our vices, what we do best, and what we are desiring but instead to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus.

November 5, in our preachers’ bible study, brother Jaymark Ramirez is scheduled to teach the whole day but he is not around and from his text message he said that he forgot. Brother Efren Respicio taught on “1 Corinthians 12” about charity and how to show it.

November 6, in our midweek bible study, brother July Aguinaldo taught on “Matthew 28” about the resurrection of Christ until He preached about the great commission.

November 10, in our Lord’s Day service here at Tuguegarao, brother Jun taught about “What is in the name?” of the church and in the sermon, I preached about “How should we worship God?” This was all taken again from the booklet.

In the afternoon, at Palca, I preached to them the same lesson “How should we worship God?” I am very happy of our attendance because there are only few chairs that are empty. Our attendance is 52 including the children.

Activities from September 25-October 16

September 25, in our midweek service here in Tuguegarao, we studied “Matthew 22” with brother Jerome as our teacher. It talks about the “Wedding Banquet”, “Paying Taxes to Ceasar”, “Marriage at the resurrection”, “The greatest commandment” and “Who is the Messaiah?”

September  28, I went to visit the brethren at Palca who are seldom attending the services. I first went back to the house of sister Lolita. Only her daughter is attending the services (sister Kenneth), while her other two daughter and her is not. She told me that since her husband became an official of the village, they were very busy. I still tried to encourage her to continue with the faith she started and put God first in their lives. Then I went to sister Adelaida wherein I have the chance to talk to her husband who is not a Christian.  Sister Adelaida is at her work so it gave me the chance to share the words of God to her husband.

September 29, in our Lord’s day service here at Metro Tuguegarao, brother Jun taught in our bible study about “Do you imitate Paul?” and in the sermon, brother Jerome preached “Let all things be done decently and in order”.

In the afternoon, at Palca, I preached to them about “Take the Blessed walk”. I us the Eunuch in Acts 8 as an example.

The Eunuch:

A.   He went to Jerusalem to worship

B.   He was reading the book of Isaiah

C.   He was searching and studying

D.  He was humble

E.   He invited the Lord’s anointed to ride with him

F.   He was eager to be baptized

G.  He rejoiced on his way home instead of worrying about Philip’s disappearance

Lesson to all men:

A.   Let us go to worship

B.   Read the Bible

C.   Search and Study

D.  Be Humble

E.   Invite the messenger of God to your “Chariot”

F.   Be eager to be baptized

G.  Rejoice

October 1, in our preachers’ bible study, Rody taught about the “Everlasting God” in the morning. And in the afternoon, brother Gil taught about “1 Corinthians 7” and finally brother Rody preached “Some men of God who drop their guard?”

October 2, in our midweek service, brother Jay taught “Matthew 23”. “The warning against hypocrisy” and “The teaching of the Pharisees”.

October 4, in the wake of my father, we had a funeral service that brother Rody led. He shared bible passages regarding death. Only few are in attendance because they haven’t heard the news about my father passing away yet.

October 6, in our Lord’s day service, brother Jerome taught “Christians: warned and reminded” while brother Rody preached in the sermon about “Remembering”.

October 8, again in the wake of my father, we had another funeral service. This time brother Denis preached. Many of our fellow preachers came and help with the service. And also, we already have many visitors from the brethren to my father’s friends and relatives.

October 10, we had the last service in the wake of my father. Brother Jerome preached a very good lesson to everyone. The room was almost full because it was the last night. The lesson comforted me much and helps me accept what happened.

October 13, in our Lord’s day service here at Tuguegarao, brother Jun taught “What Jairus’ daughter saw in her father?” and in the sermon, brother Jerome preached about “How safe is your treasure?”

In the afternoon at Palca, I invited brother Robert Pader to come with me. He preached about “Too Strict” wherein it talks about the people in the bible who strictly followed God’s commandments and those who did not obey.

October 15, in our preachers’ bible study, brother Kernel talks on “1 Corinthians 9”. He showed the rights of Paul as an apostle.

October 16, we went to Payagan, Ballesteros for a Gospel Meeting. I was very sleepy while travelling because I was awake all night taking care of my daughters who have a very high fever. But that does not stop me from listening to God’s word. Here are the list of speaker with their lessons:

In the morning:

brother Edgar Licodini – Importance of the Holy Scripture

brother Jerome Forelo – What is a Christian?

Brother Rody Gumpad – The Church of Christ in the bible

We extended the invitation after those lessons and we are very happy that three souls went in front to confess their faith. They are the in-laws of the preacher at Payagan who is brother Johnson Ramil. Everyone was very emotional because for 15 years that they were studying, they decided to obey the gospel now. They came from Iglesia ni Cristo(1914), a church founded here in the Philippines by Felix Manalo. The father-in-law of Johnson is the head deacon of the congregation at Payagan.

In the afternoon brother Rody preached one more lesson about “No matter what”. An attitude that every Christian should have, that no matter what happens, we remain faithful and always trusting in God.

We arrived late in Tuguegarao for our midweek service. I should be the one teaching but because we are already late, brother Robert took my place. He taught on “Matthew 26” while I will be teaching next week if the Lord’s will on “Matthew 25”.

Actvities from September 11-22

September 11, in our midweek service, brother Rody taught on “Matthew 20” about the Parable of the workers in the vineyard, Jesus predicting his death the third time, Request of a mother and the two blind man.

September 12, we went to the thanksgiving of brother Jun Gumpad for the first birthday of their daughter Keisha and also to give thanks to the Lord for their newly built house. Brother Rody shared a lesson about “Thanksgiving”.

September 13, brother Jun and I traveled to Manila. I should not be going this time but brother Rody beg me to go and help brother Jun clean the meeting place because the owner of the building calls, telling brother Rody that the faucet in their room was left open and water from other rooms are already leaking. So I accepted his request and also to help brother Jun because he is still sick at that time.

September 14, we arrived at Manila. It is raining the whole time that it is hard for us to go out. We cleaned the meeting place for just half a day. What the owner told brother Rody is not true, we expected that the room is dirty but when we arrived everything is fine. According to brother Leonard, the one who went to the meeting place who check the room when they called, it was only droplets from the faucet and not even reaches the floor. So after cleaning, I worked on my PowerPoint outline the whole time.

September 15, in our Lord’s Day service at Manila in Edsa-Pasay Congregation, I taught in our bible study about “Overcome sin”, I shared six different ways to overcome sin.

1.   Know and depend completely on God’s word

2.   Believe in God’s goodness and generosity

3.   Trust God’s commands as expression of utmost love.

4.   Do not experiment with sin

5.   Focus your desires on what is godly and acceptable

6.   Follow God’s warnings

In the sermon, brother Jun preached about “What are you willing to give up?” We had a good reaction from the audience because they are really listening intently and are reacting to every examples and questions we asked. It is very encouraging for me to continue to preach when the listeners are like them.

In the evening, we traveled back to Tuguegarao. We are almost late when we arrived at the bus station because of the traffic and continuous rain.

September 17, in our preachers’ bible study, brother Rody preached in the morning about “9 Major problems of the Corinthian Church” and in the afternoon we had an open forum.

September 18, in our midweek service, brother Rody taught on “Matthew 21”. It is about Jesus coming to Jerusalem, Jesus in the temple, Jesus curse the fig tree, The Authority of Jesus questioned, parable of two sons, and parable of the tenants.

September 19-21, typhoon struck Tuguegarao and the entire province of Cagayan. I should be going to Palca on the 21^st but they sent me a text message telling me that we should cancel for now because of the heavy rain.

September 22, after the typhoon came out the sun. Again, it is very hot as usual. In our Lord’s Day service, brother Jun taught “What are you willing to give up?” and in the sermon, brother Jerome preached “The things that are God’s.”

In the afternoon, at Palca, I preached to them about “Uproot Worry.” I again shared to them Six(6) things that give s worries in our lives that we should uproot:

1.   Lies and the Exposure of lies

2.   Greed or Covetousness

3.   Pride

4.   Men-pleasing

5.   Excessive love for the world

6.   Planting bad seeds

We had a good attendance of 42 at that time because all the students who are studying in Tuguegarao came home for the weekend and also we had again Grace who is attending with us already for to months.