Activities from May 23- June 21, 2015

May 23, we were invited to the Gospel Meeting at Lanna, Solana where brother Jimmy Domingo is locally preaching.

Here are the speakers and the topics they discussed:

1.   Brother Jerome preached about “The Gospel: Our Salvation”

2.   Brother Joeben Jaccobo preached  “Giving our best”

3.   Brother Virgilio Bocarile preached “A man after God’s own heart”

4.   Brother Edgar Licodini preached “Pattern of Christian Family”

5.   Brother Rody Gumpad preached “Things that please God”

Brother Jimmy asked me lead us in our opening prayer in the morning and led several spiritual songs in the afternoon.

We extended the invitation but no response from the audience. The Gospel meeting helped again a lot of brethren to be strengthened in the faith.

May 24, in our Sunday worship here at Metro Tuguegarao, brother Jun taught in our bible study about “There are no dogs in heaven” stating that those who individuals who act like dogs are not going to heaven because of the bad attitudes they have. In the sermon, brother Rody preached to us “What means these stones?” that he got from the story of Elijah.

In the afternoon, at Palca, brother Denis and his wife attended in our service because they just arrived from Baguio and will have no other place to worship at that time so they decided to be with us. I then asked him to preach in the congregation. He preached about “What will they say over our grave?”

May 26, we had again our preachers’ bible study wherein brother Rody continued to share to us the books of the bible and now we are on the book of “1 Kings”. He gave to us again the summary of the book and the outline of the chapters.

May 27, in our midweek bible study, brother Rody discussed to us “John 15” about the vine and the branches and the works of the Holy Spirit.

May 29, we were invited to attend at the Gospel Meeting at Illuru, Rizal, about two hours travel from here in Tuguegarao. The local preachers were brother Jayson Tanguilan and brother Mario Garma.

In the gospel meeting, this is the order of the speakers:

1.   brother Virgilio Bocarile preached about “The 3 loves of a disciple”

2.   brother Florendo Respicio preached about “To live is Christ”

3.   (morning)brother Rody preached about “Searching the Scriptures”

4.   (afternoon) brother Rody preached about What is the biggest sin?”

I helped in the leading of song times and was also asked to introduce brother Rody as the speaker.

After the lessons discussed, we extended the invitation and we are happy that three (3) precious souls went in front to confess their faith. We baptized them in the near river.

May 31, in our Sunday worship here at Metro Tuguegarao, brother Jerome taught in our bible study with the second part of his lesson on “Examples worth sharing” and in the sermon brother Rody preached “Why God added the saved to the church?”

In the afternoon, brother Jay asked me to come with him in Minagbag while brother Rody will go the my preaching place at Palca.

In Minagbag, brother July lead the singing and they asked me to lead the prayers while brother Jay preached about “How to follow Christ?” After the service, a benevolence (sacks of rice) was given to the brethren. It was given by the brethren at Hebron Lane in Kentucky. It was divided among them and they were very happy because many of them cannot afford to buy even a kilogram of it. I hope and pray that many of our brethren from the US will also share to the needs our brethren here in Cagayan. From all the congregations here in our area, many of them a less fortunate. I think in other countries, being a farmer gives you a good life but here in the Philippines, being a farmer means a very hard job and you will only be paid Php 200.00 or $4.00 a day.

June 3, in our midweek service bible study, I discussed to them “John 16” about the words of Jesus Christ when the time of his arrest is coming near and also tells them about the Holy Spirit that will come.

June 5, I visited our brother Jun from Palca because he was again hospitalized with her health problem of diabetes. For the last three months, he already went four times in the hospital because his feet gets the effect of his diabetes. I don’t know how to explain it, but when you look at it, the other one is normal while the other one is getting bigger. Together with her grand-mother (sister Pacita) who is taking care of him, we prayed to the Lord that He will helped in the needs of our brother. They cannot pay all the medicines that’s why even in small amounts, the church at Palca is sharing in his needs.

June 7, in our Sunday worship here at Tuguegarao, brother Jun taught in our bible study about “Salvation and Saul”. In the sermon, brother Jerome preached to us about the third part of his lesson “Examples worth sharing”.

In the afternoon, at Palca, I preached to them the lesson regarding our relationship as a family “No place like home”. We hear this idiom every time someone comes home because even though we travel a lot, having a happy vacations from here and there, there is still no place like the comfort of our family at home and that’s what God wants us to have in our family. Nowadays, here in the Philippines, in every day in the news, we see father raping his child, mother mistreating his kids, father killing his whole family because of drug addiction and many more crimes regarding the family. We as Christians who knows the bible should not act like them, we need to have a patient, love and care for our family.

June 10, in our midweek bible study here at Tuguegarao, brother Jay discussed to us “John 17” about the example of Jesus when we pray. We need to pray for our brethren like when Jesus prayed for his disciples and His believers.

June 12, I visited sister Hazel Cosain who was diagnosed with a kidney problems. She told me the name of sickness she have but because of the medical term, I always forgot it. Right now, she is having a dialysis for twice a week that will take two months to totally cure it. She needs our prayers because it is the only way we can help her.

June 14, in our Sunday worship, brother Jun taught the second part of his lesson regarding “Salvation and Saul”. In the sermon, brother Jerome preached to us about “Who does you think you are?” He intentionally put a wrong grammar on the title because he is emphasizing that we should not be like Judas who forsake his friendship with Jesus and sold him just to have money.

June 17, in our midweek bible study, brother Jerome discussed to us “John 18” about Jesus’ arrest and Peter’s denial of Jesus.

June 18-20, we are already busy here working in our church building here at Metro Tuguegarao preparing for our near Gospel Meeting that will be held on June 26-28 with our speakers brother Lordy Salunga, brother Bryan Termulo and brother Raul Leynes.

One of the preparations I helped in what to edit the pictures of the brethren here at Metro Tuguegarao that we wanted to post in our bulletin board and also outside the church building. There are still lot of brethren not included because I do not have any picture of them.

June 21, in our Sunday worship here at Metro Tuguegarao, brother Jay taught “How to follow Christ?” and in the sermon brother Jerome preached “Gospel Meeting: Why should we attend?” He prepared this lesson because he wanted that every member here in Tuguegarao must attend our gospel meeting because in our previous gospel meetings, about ¾ of the attendance are from other congregations and not even half of the member here in Tuguegarao attended. We pray that God will give them the chance to be with us in our coming gospel meeting.

In the afternoon, at Palca, I preached to them about “The True worshipper”. I first showed them the kind of worshipper that God will not accept then in the second part, I showed them the kind of worshipped God accepts and the kind of heart a worshipper musty have to be well pleasing to the Lord.

Activities from April 19 to May 20

On April 19, we had our worship service here at Metro Tuguegarao in the morning. In our bible study, brother Jerome presented a wonderful lesson entitled “If someone notice you today, would they see me in you?” In the sermon, brother Rody preached “Why we need Jesus and His church?”

In the afternoon, at Palca, I should be presenting a lesson entitled ”Love your neighbor as yourself” but because of the lesson presented by brother Jerome in the morning, I made another lesson out of his outline and I entitled it “Does your neighbor know you are a Christian?” because sometimes even when we say to ourselves that we are Christians, our actions and words do not show it. We are living in a sinful world and only, we, as Christians should be the light to them by showing them what a disciple of Christ should act and speak. We should be a good example to everyone around us.

April 20 and 21, our whole family went to Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte where the sister of my wife Joy treated us and paid all expenses for a vacation. They are from Chicago and just came here for vacation. They are attending worship at brother Steve Wolfgang’s congregation. During our stay there, brother Jun Macusi together with his wife came and they brought a couple who is also from Batac, Ilocos Norte. With the effort of brother Rody to share to them the gospel, they decided to be baptize. We baptized them in the beach.

April 22, in our midweek service here at Metro Tuguegarao, brother Rody taught “John 10” and made a good explanation of the whole chapter in which everyone is exhorted again.

April 24, I went to Palca to visit the family of brother Enzo Simangan. They have a problem because their daughter (Rowena) who is just 18 and still studying in college got pregnant by her boyfriend. Rowena is not around when they told me about it, and so I gave them comforting words from the bible and to pray to God that even though this had happened, everything will be ok. That they will get married and will live a godly life after this sin they have done. I will try my best to preach to her husband and hopefully he will also obey the gospel.

April 26, in our worship service here at Metro Tuguegarao, brother Rody preached in both our bible study and sermon on the topic of “Sin”.

In the afternoon, at Palca, I preached to them the lesson “Love your neighbor as yourself”.

April 29, in our midweek service here at Metro Tuguegarao, I discussed to them “John 11”. About the death of Lazarus and the miracle that Jesus did to show the glory of God, and the plot of Caiaphas and his group to kill Jesus.

May 3, in our worship service here at Metro Tuguegarao, brother Jun taught in our bible study about “Doing Religion” and in the sermon, brother Jerome preached “How does the bible view wealth?”

In the afternoon, at Palca, I preached to them “Words of God planted in the minds of every Christian”. We are always studying, always reading our bible and always praying to God, and this lesson is to remind everyone that the seed that God planted in our hearts and mind should also be the voice and action that we show. We should always remember that these words are our weapon against every wiles of the devil like Jesus did when Satan tempted Him.

May 6, in our midweek bible study, brother Jay discussed to us “John 12” about the triumphant entry of Jesus in Jerusalem and His prediction of His death.

May 8, I went again to Palca and this time to visit sister Adelaida Fernandez together with her daughter Quennie. I decided to be with them because only Quennie is the one attending the services and the reason why her mother is not coming because of the work she have in the farm. This is the only way they can have the money for living. Her husband is a craftsman, but not always that he have customers. They do not have a farm and so they are only working for the owner of a farm. They have a low state of living and did not finish their studies. They are working hard for their daughter to study. With this in mind, we all prayed together and read bible verses that could lessen their worries and that Jesus said, he will never leave nor forsake us if we trust in Him.

May 10, in our worship service here at Metro Tuguegarao, brother Jun taught in our bible study about “Attitudes toward sin” and brother Jerome preached in the sermon about “Principles of church growth”. They is a typhoon during this day and the wind is really blowing hard that even though the rain drops are small, it makes it look strong but even though this is happening, it didn’t stop us to do our obligation on the Sunday.

In the afternoon, at Palca, I preached to them about “Things to forget”. The things we do before, we do not do them anymore.

May 12, I was asked by my mother to come with her in Calantac, Alcala for the harvesting of her crops. While waiting for her, I have talked to many people regarding the words of God and my uncle is one of them (Peter Tuazon), the older brother of my mother. He is a Jehovah’s Witnesses member and is one time their elder, but he was removed because his two sons married with catholics. He is still active and always reading their papers. I got a discussion with him regarding the true church, but as always, when we talk to a group like them, they will never accept anything you will say. I still did share the truth and he patiently listened. I hope that everything I shared to him remains in his mind and someday, obey the gospel.

May 13, in our midweek service, brother July taught “John 13”. He talked about “Jesus washing His disciples’ feet, His betrayal and Peter’s denial”.

May 17, in our worship service here at Metro Tuguegarao, brother Jun taught in our bible study about “Hiding from God” and brother Jerome preached in the sermon “Examples worth sharing”.

In the afternoon, at Palca, I started the series of lesson I will be presenting them about “Godly Home in an ungodly world”. I started with “The home as God would have it.”

May 19, in our preachers’ bible study, brother Rody shared to us the book of “2 Samuel”. We studied the important events in the book and the summary.

May 20, in our midweek service, brother Rody discussed to us “John 14” about what Jesus told when He will leave His disciples and prepare a place for all the righteous and someday be with Him forever.

Activities from March 15 - April 17, 2015

March 15 – in our Lord’s day service here at Metro Tuguegarao, we studied the topic of “The Good News” that brother Jun prepared. In the sermon, brother Jerome preached about “Why do we seek Jesus?”

In the afternoon, at Palca, I preached to them about “Jesus: the bread that gives life”.

March 18 – in our midweek service here at Tuguegarao, I continued the chapter I started from the last week on John 6. We studied from verses 41-71 about Jesus preaching about Him being the bread of life and that they should eat His flesh and drink His blood that many of them understand it literally while Jesus really meant it in spiritual matters.

March 22 – I have no visitation in the last couple of days in Palca because many of them are again in the field preparing for harvest in the coming days.

In our Lord’s day service here at Tuguegarao, brother Jun taught about “Awaken the Dawn”. And brother Jerome preached the continuation of his sermon from the last two weeks about “A Christian”.

In the afternoon, at Palca, I preached to them about “The Faith of Moses”. An example of looking at the reward from God and not thinking about the material things we can get from this world and the pleasures that will only last for a moment.

March 25 – in our midweek service here at Tuguegarao, brother Jay taught “John 7”.

March 27 – I went to Palca for half a day to distribute bible tracts and invitations with the help of the brethren there. We only found a few people who are in their houses because many are at work.

March 29 – in our Lord’s day service here at Tuguegarao, brother Jun taught about “Kicking against the goads” and in the sermon, brother Jerome preached “In the fullness of time”.

In the afternoon, at Palca, I studied Hebrews 11 and got a good lesson out of it. I preached to them “The heroes of faith” from Abel to Samson. It took as about an hour and a half to finished all of it but the brethren said that they were encourage by the lesson especially when we study about faith.

March 31 - in our preachers’ bible study, brother Rody taught “The book of Ruth” He gave the summary of the book and we studied verses that can give us real help in growing as a Christian and as a preacher.

April 1 – It is the day we had our first Gospel Meeting this year at Palca.

Our first speaker was brother Joeben Jacobo and he preached about “Bible Story of Salvation” and the second was brother Rody and he preached about “Needs of the Glorious Church”. They both presented there topics in a way that all attention are in front. They gave interesting examples from the bible and words of encouragements to remain in the Lord no matter what happens in this present life. We have two visitors who are Catholics and are really interested in learning more.

In the evening, we had our midweek service at Tuguegarao. Brother July preached to us on “John 8”.

April 5, in our Lord’s day service here at Tuguegarao, we had our meeting in the congregation to start. We talk about the three works of the church that we need to work on. We all decided that brother Rody, Jerome and Jun will be preaching every Sunday while brother Jay, July and I will be teaching on Wednesday that will start next month (May). We also talk about our coming Gospel Meeting and the speakers we will invite. They are brother Bryan Termulo, Raul ?, and Lordy Salonga. I forgot the last name of brother Raul. This is my first time to hear his name and haven’t seen him yet before nor heard about him but brother Rody met him in Manila.

In the sermon, brother Rody preached “Why did Jesus came on earth?”

At Palca in the afternoon, I invited brother Denis Yuson to come with me. He then preached about “The Death of Jesus Christ” while I led in the singing and prayers.

April 7, in our preachers’ bible study, brother Rody taught “The book of 1 Samuel”.

April 8, in our midweek service, we studied “John 9” that brother Rody shared.

April 12, in our Lord’s day service here at Tuguegarao, brother Jun taught “Baptism: Why not delay?” and in the sermon, brother Rody preached “Things that please God”.

In the afternoon at Palca, I preached to them “Why many fail God?” Sometimes, even as Christians, we do fail in obeying Christ, we sometimes forgot that we are already Christians and do sinful things.

April 14, We had our bible Lectureship here at Tuguegarao with our main speakers brother Mark Mayberry of Adoue and brother Ron Halbrook of Hebron Lane.

In the morning, brother Mark started our study with the lesson “Gracious words” then followed by brother Ron with the lesson “The gospel that makes us right with God”. After the lessons preached, we extended the invitation and three souls were baptized into Christ.

In the afternoon, we continued with our studies with brother Mark again as the first to speak. He preached about “Nature of Marriage” and in the last part of the study, brother Ron speak on “New beginnings in Christ”.

April 15, the second and last day of our lectureship here at Tuguegarao.

Brother Mark started the day with the lesson on “Folly and fear” about the sins of Solomon, Jeroboam and Rehoboam, the followed by brother Ron with the lesson “Come out of her, my people”.

In the afternoon, brother Mark preached about “The young and old prophet” in 1 Kings 13 then brother Ron concluded with speaking on “Solomon’s song of marital love” on the book of Song of Solomon.

In the evening, we had our midweek service. Brother Rody taught “John 10:1-21”.

                                                                                                           

April 16, we went to Anonang, Rizal with brother Mark Mayberry. I brought him there with brother Jun because I went to Palca with brother Jay and brother Robert Pader to Palca to extend our tracts distribution and invitations for our Gospel Meeting there. We distributed a lot this time because harvest time is done. I met with our contacts and they said that they will come. One of them is Mr. Junior Sabado whom I often visit. He got an accident when he slipped near their well that hit his back. He cannot walk at this time but he kept on saying that he will attend our meetings next time when he can already walk.

After the distribution, we went back to Anonang. When we arrived, the meeting is already over but they told us that we will all bring the newly converts to the water to baptized them. There were four of them who confessed their faith. We drive about one kilometer away from the meeting place and also walk about 400-500 meters. It is very hot at that time, that the first place we went to dried up so we need to go farther. After about 100 more meters, we saw water from a creek. We baptized them there and prayed for them.

April 17, in the morning, we had our Gospel Meeting at Palca. Brother Efren Respicio was the first speaker and he preached about “How are we using God’s golden moments?” He preached it very well that all are very attentive and even giving their thoughts on the lesson. Then it was followed by brother Mark Mayberry wherein he preached on “Hebrews 1-4” an exhortation to the brethren. We have one visitor, the husband of sister Nenita who is a drunkard and now very thin and weak because of his vices. Finally, he decided to change his way and with our prayers, he might repent someday and be baptized into Christ.

In the afternoon, we went to Maguirig, Solana where brother Jun is preaching to have a Gospel Meeting also. Brother Virgilio Bocarile spoke first about “Destiny of Man” then followed by brother Mark who preached about “Questions of life for young people”. Brother Jun translated the lessons of brother Mark from both at Palca and Maguirig so that the brethren can understand everything he is trying to share to us.