It was an honor to preach the gospel at the Obu-Manobo tribe’s women’s civic association in Ladian last month. It was totally unplanned. Our group was passing by, and a friend of a friend got us the opportunity. God is good!
The Obu-Manobo people are largely animist.
In October, we hosted an all-day seminar about ministry to Muslim tribes on our island. Gina fed everyone lunch and dinner, just as she always does. Four churches are represented here. We hosted another training 10 days later, and we just had a two-day seminar in our home this past week. Remember, DCO’s biggest focus is preparing Filipino laborers for the Lord’s harvest. After 2000 years, the harvest is still plentiful, and the laborers are still few.
Of course everything we host is free. Your donations help us so much!
My assistant Oning and I are honored to preach the gospel twice per month to these 80+ men as part of their rehabilitation from drug violations. After the message, we all get into small groups to discuss the message. Some of the groups here were led by Oning, Tom, Donna, Prescy, and me.
Three out of the four strongest quakes in the world during October were within 44 miles of us. We had dozens quakes or aftershocks of 5.0 or higher in October. Experts are saying a much worse quake may happen soon.
…So seven of us volunteered at a disaster relief center, unloading trucks and stacking supplies in the warehouse.
Due to a request from our contact in Mlang–one of the places where an earthquake hit hard–we will delay our relief work there until 11/19. Today we prepared and packed a load of goods to be distributed then.
I was asked to teach the youth at GoTeam recently. GT is an organization that works with churches around the Philippines to light a fire in the youth for missions.
We needed an organizer for folks to grab fliers at our meetings. So I went to a fancy office supply store and bought this expensive display rack. 🙂 Seriously, it’s a recycled Honey Bunches of Oats box.
I had several symptoms that I thought might have been indicating skin cancer on my legs, arms, and face.
My brother Larry died from skin cancer, plus I had some pre-cancerous lesions removed from my face 12 years ago, so Gina and I were concerned.
So I saw a dermatologist about a month ago. She sold me this soap and this lotion…for about $105! That’s over 10% of what Gina and I live on per month.
(Almost all drugs, medications, supplements, and toiletries are much more expensive here.)
Thankfully most of the itching, spots, bumps, lesions, bleeding, and peeling subsided after two weeks of using this stuff. This proved that those spots weren’t cancerous. But there are a couple of places on my face where the bumps and spots didn’t shrink, so I have to keep using the stuff and then report back to the doctor as soon as we can afford it (she said to come back after a month). If they still look the same, I’ll get a biopsy. But she’s confident that there’s nothing to worry about.
They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.
(Jesus, quoted in Luke 12:53)
If you’ve seen my reports of us preaching the gospel in public, you might assume that there is no persecution of Christians in our city. But that’s not true. The persecution here is almost entirely within families. We have had church members physically assaulted, mercilessly taunted, and/or shunned by family members who demand that these saints return to the dead religion they were brought up in.
Lately some dear friends of ours have been harassed by family members in the Quiboloy cult. Even a super-sweet 12 year old girl has been subjected to many verbal attacks from children of the cult members. What makes this kind of persecution worse is that many times, the family members doing the persecuting are next-door neighbors, or even within a household.
Please pray for the family now being harassed by Quiboloy members. If you’d like to pray for them by name, please email me at jgapinoy@gmail.com
Persecution here can also be job-related. We once had a bunch of people quit our church because their employer told them to (though some stayed with us).
God bless Tom and Donna’s weekly ministry to very poor people who live under a highway overpass.
Anything you did for one of the least important of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.
— Jesus, quoted in Matthew 25:40
Gina and I would love to talk with your fellowship group, Bible study, or church via Skype. We could talk about whatever you’d like: the Philippines, our mission, our personal testimonies, or to urge folks to prayerfully consider serving the Lord in another culture. I think it would be encouraging for your group–it would certainly encourage us!–and it might inspire more prayer supporters and financial supporters for Davao City Outreach. And it would be a chance for us to “see” the US again for a while. The time factor should be easy enough to work out–in the US, your evening is our morning.
To those who give, thank you so much!
Here are the ways you can donate:
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.
Please do not write to me here. Your message would get buried in the 1000s of spam messages. Please contact me via jgapinoy@gmail.com. Thank you!