Changes

I am now back in the United States after spending three very enjoyable months ministering in the Philippines. I know that I have not been very faithful in posting reports of my activities, and for that I apologize. The Lord has been work changing my plans once again, and I was not free to share all the details along the way. If you receive my prayer letter, then you may already have heard all this, but for those of you who only follow me electronically, I wanted to keep you informed as well. Therefore, I am pasting below the text of my most recent prayer letter. Praise the Lord for His perfect plan!

On April 1st, I attended the commencement exercises for Bob Jones Memorial Bible College in the Philippines. As I listened to the testimonies of the graduates, I was struck by the privilege of being involved in this ministry. These students represent an incredible potential to impact the Philippines and other countries in Southeast Asia. Ministries that require a missionary to spend years learning the culture and language can be quickly begun and continued under the leadership of well-trained nationals such as these. I listened to their testimonies of how they had grown in their spiritual walk and biblical knowledge, and was amazed that I was even there at all.

As you know, I spent the last two years in Papua New Guinea. Last fall, health problems forced me to leave the country, and visa problems closed the door for a speedy return. Thus, in January of this year, I went to the Philippines intending to stay for three months while I waited for my PNG visa. I have greatly enjoyed being a part of the ministries in the Philippines, as I worked both in New Song Ministries (seeking to make available affordable, God-honoring sacred music) and Bob Jones Memorial Bible College (training nationals for ministry).

My health problems seemed to stay under better control in the new setting, and I found myself able to use my abilities in computers and technology – abilities that had been of little help in the primitive culture of Papua New Guinea. Due to these factors, I was asked to pray about the possibility of remaining in the Philippines, at least for a couple of years. After talking with my father and pastor, we all recognized the Lord’s leading in the change of direction. Both I and Gospel Fellowship Association, my mission agency, sent out letters informing my financial supporters of the change, and I now want to share with you, my praying friends, as well.

I am excited about the opportunities for service in the Philippines. I will be spending most of my time in New Song and the rest working at BJMBC. There are also plans to use my medical skills in mission trips to the rural areas outside Manila. It is a little scary to start all over learning a new culture and language, but I am confident of the Lord’s direction and leading in this decision.

Since I had planned only to stay in the Philippines for three months, I had purchased a round-trip plane ticket and was not prepared to stay for the long term. Thus, by the time you read this, I will be back in the States for a brief stay. I plan to return to the Philippines on June 7th.

Thanks so much for your prayers during this time of transition.

Concerts

This past week has been busy with various concerts as we near the end of the school year. Thursday was the faculty recital where each of the eight music faculty members performed a number of classical and sacred pieces. Friday was the BJMBC final orchestra and choir concert. It was especially exciting as a number of the pieces were written or arranged by BJMBC students. One of the main goals of the music ministry here is to encourage Filipino musicians to write and arrange their own sacred music so that they are not depend on "imported" music, so it was neat to see progress toward that end.

Then Sunday was the annual BJMBC choir tour. We packed up the entire choir along with a 5 instruments and music stands into a total of 4 vehicles. They gave a sacred concert at two different churches -- one in an another area of Manila and one outside Manila in the province. A BJMBC grad student came along to preach following each concert. The churches used the concerts as a tool to invite visitors to those church services.

Before you ask, no, I wasn't participating in all of these concerts (although I did play a flute obligato with one of the choir numbers). My musical knowledge is nowhere near the caliber of the faculty here. I did however get to video record all of these events, which is much more up my alley:-)

I would appreciate your prayers as I make a short trip to Papua New Guinea this week. I have some business that needs to be dealt with there. I will be leaving the Philippines March 8th and returning to the Philippines March 15th. Please pray for a smooth and profitable trip, especially with the travel connections and visa details.

Please also continue to pray for my computer. It will be a fairly pricey repair, but the part has to come for Singapore. I was told last week that it would take 2 weeks to get the part and make the repair. But then today I found out that their supplier fell through, so it will be another 7 days before they even get the part. Not having my computer really handicaps my usefulness here, so please pray that it will be fixed soon, ideally by when I get back to the Philippines next week.

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!

Contrasts

This week has been a study in contrasts. I spent most of the time working on my assigned projects -- inputting the violin curriculum into Finale, organizing the data from a survey on cross-cultural evaluations of various kinds of music, and assisting in the college office. That has been mostly a 9-5 kind of job. I've also had fun getting to know some of the Filipino girls and learning a bit of their language.

The church here is fairly large -- about 300 on a Sunday morning -- and is under the leadership of a national pastor. The Filipinos themselves are filling most ministry roles, but I've been able to help with the children's class on Wednesday nights and join the choir and orchestra.

This weekend, some of us missionaries along with about 22 music students from BJMBC attended a concert by the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra. The traffic on the way there was distinctly Filipino. The congestion on the streets here can only be described as organized chaos. A mixture of cars, motorcycles, tricycles (a motorcycle or large bicycle with a side car for carrying passengers), jeepneys (short in height buses for carrying passengers), and even semis fight their way down the streets, changing lanes with only inches of clearance and basically each a law unto himself. But, after our arrival, we entered a very nice auditorium and had a very classical experience (for the reasonable price of ~$2.50 for second balcony seats). After negotiating the traffic to return home, three of us single girls took a tricycle to McDonald's for a late dinner. As I said, a study in contrasts.

Ruth Potter, one of the short termers, has her parents visiting for the next couple of weeks. They are Baptist World missionaries to Hungary, and her dad is teaching an extension class for national pastors while they are here. We took advantage of their presence for a sightseeing trip on Saturday. We went first to the American cemetery here in Manila. It is the burial site of many American and Filipino military who were killed during World War II. It is quite beautiful, similar to Arlington in the U.S. After that, we went to one of the many malls here and got lunch, did some window shopping, and got doughnuts at Krispy Kreme. Yet another study in contrasts.

I am definitely enjoying my time here and glad that I can be a help to the ministry for a short period. Please pray for our national pastor, Gilbert Castillo (pronounced Castilio). His father passed away last Wednesday and will be buried on Tuesday in the village where he lived. Pray for the strengthening of the family, safety in traveling, and an effective Gospel witness in the funeral.

In the Philippines

I have now officially arrived in the Philippines. I touched down in the Manila airport just before midnight on Sunday, January 2nd, after a 25 hour trip. I have spent the week getting settled in and discovering the similarities and differences between the Philippines and Papua New Guinea.

I am staying with another single girl in a 4th floor apartment in Metro Manila -- quite a change from the rural mountainscape of PNG. Just down the street is the building that houses Gospel Light Baptist Church, Bob Jones Memorial Bible College, Gospel Light Christian Academy, and New Song Ministries. So that is where I spend most of my time during the day.

I am working on a variety of projects for both New Song Ministries (a ministry that publishes and distributes sacred music throughout the Philippines) and BJMBC (a Bible college for Bible and music students to prepare them for ministry throughout Southeast Asia).

The Filipino people have been friendly and welcoming. Most speak English, although they generally prefer to speak their own language of Tagalog. Classes at BJMBC are mostly in English with a smattering of Tagalog, but the Wednesday church service at Gospel Light was more Tagalog than English. I studied Tagalog some before I arrived and am continuing to study since I have arrived. It is more difficult than Pidgin was in PNG, so I am making some progress but doubt I'll be fluent before I leave:-)

Due to the size and number of the ministries, there is a rather large missionary team here. It includes four career missionary families -- the Kamibiyashiyamas, the Bachoriks, and the Berreys teach at BJMBC; and the Potts led Gospel Light Baptist Church (although it is now under the leadership of a Filipino pastor). Then there is one career single girl, Jolea Jensen, who is my apartment mate. And last, but definitely not least, are the short term girls who teach at BJMBC -- Rachel Dahlhausen, Ruth Potter, and Bethany and Rachel Uhler. It's a fun group and they've all been very kind and welcoming.

Please pray that I would be a significant help to the ministry here, despite the short length of my stay (until April 10). I'll try to get regular about posting again and keep you up to date on the ministry here and the fun things I discover about living in the Philippines.