Ministry in Talisay. Oning is doing a great job leading it every week. I am honored to teach there once a month.
It really seems like our church is transitioning to focusing on various smaller neighborhood groups rather than only the big weekly gathering. Of course I’ve been asking the Lord about this for many months, but now it seems to really be happening.

 

Ministry in New Valencia. We are still new there, since our plans for NV were put on hold months ago due to the pandemic. The people eagerly hang on every word we teach.
The community still has no electricity, no running water, and mostly nonexistent cell phone service.
The men all work during the day. We’re trying to figure out the best time to meet there when the men are available.
I’ll tell you at the end of this update about another new harvest field for us!

 

Gina hosted her Bible study group for the first time face-to-face in July (they had been communicating online). Most are new or somewhat new converts, so she taught the ladies how to meet with the Lord every morning through the Word and prayer. They had lunch together, too. Then Gina gave them devotional notebooks to take home…plus plenty of malunggay (AKA moringa), since our malunggay trees are so big and healthy. (I eat malunggay every day.)

 

This guy was guarding the restroom at our church building.
I asked him if he knew of any ducks in the Bible.
He said, “No, but there should be at least one. Goliath should have ducked.”

Because of where he is, I’m glad he’s not a Peking duck.

 

For about six weeks there were eight of us living in our house. Eight is enough, right? But the two youngest missed their mommies and went back home a week ago. Now I hear that they’re bored at home and want to come back. 🙂

 

We’ve been seeing 20 or more (not counting kids) every week in Catalunan Pequeño. It’s very hot under that low tarp, but the people don’t mind. We had a problem with the roosters crowing during our meetings, so I bought a small PA/speaker to keep there.
The big papers hanging down in the front are song lyrics.

 

Street preaching for the first time in months! Ebi has the ‘bullhorn,’ while Bee has the better-quality mini-PA for translating, since she’s the one speaking in their ‘heart language.’
Tom and I were also there, so we represented India, the Philippines, Australia, and the USA.

 

Years ago, Marites felt far from God. When our friend Prescy started ministering to her, she began joining Bible studies. Marites fell in love with Jesus and began doing ministry. For years she has been Prescy’s assistant leader for the women’s group in Pequeño.  Because of her prayers and faithfulness in the Lord, her husband Jerry has been attending the Sunday services lately.

Recently an impoverished pregnant mom asked Marites if she would take her baby when she gave birth (and also pay the expenses from pregnancy to delivery). Marites’ coworker had persuaded the mom not to abort* the baby girl, and he introduced the birth mom to the adopting mom.
Of course Jerry and Marites love little Jemari dearly. 🙂
Informal adoption is common in the Philippines; my wife Gina has a younger sister via informal adoption.
*abortion is illegal here, but many abortions happen anyway

 

I had a two-week missions mobilizing class with these good people a few weeks ago.
I’ve been studying that topic for years, but I still want to learn more. Especially because…

 

Bangladesh is the most densely-populated large country on Earth. Only 3/10 of 1% of its 164 million people are Christians. 

We have a young lady in our church who believes God wants to send her as a long-term missionary to a SE Asian country within the next several months. She plans on going with another young lady whom she befriended on a short-term mission to Myanmar.
Which country? They believe it will be either Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, or Cambodia.
Our friend is asking to be anonymous for now—she’s very humble—but when everything becomes clearer, we’ll introduce you to her and her companion. Please pray, and then pray, and then pray more for guidance and provision.
This is the number one reason why Gina and I are here! For more about that, please click on “WHAT IS DCO?” at the top of the page. 

Gina and I would love to talk with your fellowship group, Bible study, or church via Skype or Facebook chat. 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:

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.

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!