Recent reports from the field mention some exciting things coming up soon, which we can be praying about:
.
* The Bulan church is planning a baptism of several people on Oct. 16th. Pastor Virgilio Fulo says: There are nine candidates we’re going to baptise. Please pray because our weather is not good at this time. There is a coming typhoon. (It’s headed for Northern Luzon Island, so shouldn’t hit our area directly, but can cause a lot of rain and waves.)
.
* In preparation for an upcoming Will Graham Crusade (grandson of Billy Graham) called BICOL CELEBRATION OF HOPE, a local kick-off rally will be held on Oct. 19th in the Sorsogon Gymnasium. Our field director, Pastor Chito Mendizabal, was voted as chairman of this rally. This is what Ptr Chito says about it:
Kick-off rally is mobilizing pastors and leaders to commit to preparing the people for the event BICOL CELEBRATION OF HOPE (Will Graham), which will be on Apr 28-May 1 at Pili Stadium in Camarines Sur Province. So kick-off is choosing leaders as operation andrew, intercessors, women’s, youth and children leaders. Course/training will be made for all leaders, like LIFE AND WITNESS COURSE. As chair of kick off, I’ll help form committees and delegation of works.
Note: The Bicol Region is one of the 17 regions of the Philippines. It occupies the Bicol Peninsula at the southeastern end of Luzon island and some other islands. It consists of six provinces–namely Albay, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Catanduanes, Masbate, and Sorsogon.
.
* Week-long visit/training by a YWAM team of Filipinos from Manila is to be hosted at EBI at the end of October (during the EBI semester break). Pastor Chito describes it as follows:
They are Filipino youths who have been trained in Manila by Youth With A Mission training groups. EBI could have an exposure to other training like of the YWAM who are best trained in area of ways of presenting the Gospel like miming, street preaching and others…this may serve as encouragement to our Bible students and vise versa; YWAM could learn too from our distinctives like small groups, in-depth Bible training and work program or the bakery.
.
* YWAM may set up a Christian Literature center for use by pastors throughout Sorsogon Province, and is considering locating it at EBI. Pastor Chito says: About Resource Learning Materials, EBI is a nice prospect of having a christian library for pastors and workers because it’s a Bible school. We have many people to assist in proper handling of the books, they say. Anyway, this isn’t final yet, as they’re considering too having the library in the city proper.