Blessed Week

This last week has been incredibly busy, but also a real blessing. All the services of the conference were well attended, probably around 400 people each evening. The preaching was excellent and many public decisions were made. I was able to help with the kids' ministry on the first night of the conference and then joined in the music ministry the other evenings through flute and choir.

Today (Feb 27) is the 31st anniversary of the church here. The church was planted by a GFA missionary, Dennis Potts, and is now under the leadership of a national pastor. We had a great morning service, a time of fellowship and food afterwards, and then the actual annIversary service at 2pm. At least 5-6 other churches attended, many contributing special music. It was neat to see how the training at Bob Jones Memorial Bible College is bearing fruit through the work of its graduates as pastors and music leaders in churches throughout the area.

Thank you so much for your prayers for these special services. I know they were a blessing to my own heart, and I'm sure they will continue to bear fruit in the lives of those who attended.

On a different note, I have a rather unusual request. Please pray for my computer. It completely quit working early this week. Since most of my work here is computer-based, it is a rather urgent need. It is presently in the repair shop. Please pray that it can be fixed, or at the least, that the data can be recovered from it. (I backed it up before coming to the Philippines, but have not backed up the work I've done while I've been here.) What a blessing to know that the Lord is in control, even of technology:-)

Special Conference

Things continue to move along on a fairly normal cycle here. Work is progressing well on the various projects in which I am involved. The first three books of the violin curriculum are entered into Finale (the music writing program) and the data from nearly 700 survey respondents has been entered into the database that I created. I have shooting a good bit of video of footage and taking a lot of pictures of the ministries here. I just completed an updated DVD presentation for Jolea Jensen, a missionary here who will be returning to the States in April to hopefully quickly complete her deputation. This week, I plan to start working on another DVD for a missionary family that will be returning to the States soon for furlough. It has been neat to see the Lord put my computer skills to good use.

This week promises to be a busy one at church. Wednesday through Friday, my church here is hosting a special conference on holiness. Churches from a wide area have been invited. There will be two services each night with a lot of special music. Dr. Bob Jones III is the keynote speaker and so will be preaching each evening. Then Sunday is our church anniversary, so there will be special services that day as well. Please pray for much spiritual fruit to be produced in the hearts of all those that attend, as well as strength and wisdom for all those involved, especially Dr. Bob.

Thanks so much for your continued prayers and interest in the ministry here.

Getaway

I must apologize for my sporadic blog posting. I have the best of intentions, but they don't always translate into reality:-)

So at any rate, to bring you up to date with recent events. I am still in the Philippines (in case you were wondering), and enjoying very much the variety of ministries here. I spend most of my days working on my computer, which I really enjoy. We are in the process of developing a curriculum for teaching a number of musical instruments. The curriculum is in a form at present that is usable for the faculty at BJMBC (the Bible college here), but it needs to be laid out professionally in such a way that teachers throughout the Philippines can use it to train their students for musical ministry in their teachers. I am tasked with laying out the musical pieces in a computer program called Finale. So far I have completed the first three books of the Violin curriculum. I am working on the 4th book, then will move on to the Viola curriculum, and perhaps even the Piano curriculum if time allows.

Last weekend, I had the privilege of joining the other single girls on a weekend getaway. They had been planning for some time to visit another island south of us and enjoy a couple days of relaxation. And I got to tag along:-) The U.S. dollar is very strong here, so the cost of the weekend was incredibly reasonable. I had the experience of snorkeling for the first time and absolutely loved it. I had no idea what an amazing world exists right under those waves. The trip seemed to me to be a special gift from the Lord, as I had originally planned to make a similar trip in Papua New Guinea but lost the opportunity when I had to leave in September. Isn't God good to give us things that we never even thought of asking for???

The most recent word from Papua New Guinea is that my work permit has been approved, and my visa application has been submitted. So that's one hurdle down and several to go. Please continue to pray for the granting of my paperwork in the Lord's timing and also for His direction for the future. It seems that I will likely not be headed back to Kiari (the village where I had been ministering), but it is not entirely clear what new ministry the Lord has in store. But isn't it great to know that "His way is perfect," and He never makes mistakes. I recently saw a post from a friend where she quoted the Bible verse "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord", and said "Notice that it says his steps not just his ways." What an encouragement!