For those who haven’t heard, I believe God is urging Gina & me to leave our 2 year old congregation in the hands of our excellent assistant pastor Oning in January, to go west about an hour from here to start a new work. If you want to check out the place on a map of Davao, we’re looking at the area between Ulas & Mintal. Some months ago, when I first told Gina what I thought God was showing me, she said she sensed the same thing. Oning & his wife Nene are very nervous but excited about the possibility of assuming more leadership/responsibility here. Please pray with us about this.
The new church & the current one will work together on the one-day rural missions that we have been doing since we started Davao Bible Fellowship.
Our goal from the beginning has been to multiply. Multiplying by two is our first baby step. God willing, we’ll multiply by four or ten or twenty in the future, including new works in unreached people groups!
Oning & I recently visited Mintal to “spy out the land” (Joshua 2:2).
We’re not sure of the exact dates yet, but Gina & I think we’ll be in the US from 11/1 to 11/25. Please contact us* ASAP if you’d like to meet privately with us and/or have us speak at your church or small group. We very much want to fill up our calendar while we’re there.
We’ll be there from 10/28 to 11/28.
*jgapinoy@gmail.com
Sandra recently wrote this grateful note, & she gave me permission to share it:
“Dear DBF (Davao Bible Fellowship) … I’m very happy that we belong to your church. Salamat (thanks) for your love, kindness and sharing your blessing to the others. Kuya (‘big brother’) John salamat for sharing the word of God. I learned so many things from you and Ate (ah-tay, ‘big sister’) Gina. I learned to read my Bible, pray always, and long patient to my children. Ate Gina salamat for cooking for us. Blessing po (‘respect’) kayo (‘abundant’) for us. Thank you for loving my kids. God bless you po”
Sandra was baptized in August 2016. Prescy, who baptized her, also wanted to share how God has blessed her through Davao City Outreach/Davao Bible Fellowship, & to thank our sponsors. She is very gifted at ministry to women & girls. Prescy has already laid a foundation for the church Gina & I will plant in January, since she has already baptized a number of women & teens in the area we’re going to. Prescy also excels at translation when Oning is unavailable. She writes:
“To all our friends and partners in the ministry who are not tired of supporting Davao City Outreach generously & faithfully in prayer and in finances, I would like to thank you personally…Know that God our Father is pleased with what you are doing when you do it heartily to Him…I am one of those many people who are blessed with DCO with your prayers and financial support.
I’m leading a life-group in Bacalso Compound near where I am living…quite far from our worship meeting place…an hour or more drive. So every time I will bring the Bacalso friends I need help for their fare so DCO through your support is providing us money to rent a jeepney…Again thank you so much. Know that you are all in our prayers….May the Lord give you favor upon favor by your generosity to partner with Him in His work here in Davao, Philippines.”
A recent park outreach. The Good Person Test is a method of evangelism that draws a crowd every time. (16 of the 19 people in the photo are not from our church.) Please ask for details if you’re interested.
We were blessed to hear Danny Hughes, missions pastor at Compass Christian Church (CCC) in Chandler, AZ, preach in the 10AM service recently. Then Brian Jobe, CCC’s senior pastor, shared the Word in the 1PM meeting. In between services, we all had lunch together like we always do. I think our American guests like Filipino food.
The 1PM half of the church, posing after the service.
We took our visiting American friends with us to Digos, which is a couple of hours from our home. We brought food, clothes, other goodies, & the Gospel to over 100 locals. This outreach was on Gina’s & my wedding anniversary, BTW. 🙂
Before we jumped into the rented vehicle. Thank you CCC for the shirts!
These one-day outreaches to rural communities are crucial for growing our disciples’ ministry skills as well as their vision for the world beyond our city.
I have used a lot of different ways to send money from the US to here in the Philippines. The cheapest way I know of is through World Remit. I have used WR dozens of times without any problems. They are running a promotion now: If you want to try WR, let me know (jgapinoy@gmail.com), & I’ll provide you with a special code for your first transaction. They will credit you $20 just for trying it (the money will be credited to you when what you send totals $100 or more). And they’ll credit us $20, too! We have already received one such credit, as did the donor who used WR.
Thank you so much for your gifts. Here are the other ways to donate:
https://nations.ph/donations/
We could never repay you for your generosity to Davao City Outreach, but certainly “you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” (Luke 14:14)
Please forward this website to others who might be interested.
Please pray that God will send more laborers into his harvest field.