Update January 28, 2010

Greetings to you all in the matchless, peerless name, of our wonderful Savior, who provided for us the propitiation for our sins. Now we can approach our Holy God without fear and know that we will always be accepted there because of the propitiation that our Lord Jesus Christ has provided for us.

We finally finished up the final session of bible school for the saints down in Baguio Gold this past Sunday. I was there for three messages this past Sunday. We looked at Exodus chapter 20 and the law, fear and access, in the early morning. Then we shared on 2 Tim 1:13 in the late morning, finishing up with the bible school session on Heb. 12-13 in the mid afternoon. Needless to say I was a bit tired by Sunday evening.

The mid week studies continue to go well. This past Wednesday night we continued in our series on 1 Peter with a reminder to continue to “Gird up the loans of our mind”, and the need to always be prepared. Then on Friday we continued in James and were reminded by the scripture of the sin of favoritism in the local assembly, as well as loving our neighbor as ourselves. The other studies are also moving along well, and we are encouraged.

We will be beginning the next semester of classes on Ecclesiology at Navy Base in a couple of weeks. We had planned to start on the 7th of February but we have encountered a couple of schedule conflicts. On the 7th we will be having our men’s fellowship, women’s fellowship and youth fellowship all at the same time at the chapel. This is something new we are trying with the hope that more will be able to attend. Then on the 14th Joyce and I are hosting a Valentines couples dinner at our house with the couple’s fellowship.

I had my last check-up with my cardiologist on Monday. She has cancelled the stress test that was planned for Saturday instead I will be wearing a holter monitor for 24 hours to check other irregularities that she is noticing with my heart. So please keep these things in your prayers, I so want to have the restrictions, I am under, lifted. But it looks like they will stay in place for the present.

Again, thank you all for your prayers and support of our Lord’s work here in the mountains of Central Luzon. If all things work out, we are planning to take another trip up to Sagada in February or March. Much of this decision rests on being sure the car is in tip top shape for hitting those mountain roads without breaking down in some isolated area.

Update for Jan 8, 2010

The hectic holiday season is over and we are getting settled back into the regular routine once again. We did enjoy a rather relaxing time in Manila with family over Christmas and into the New Year. The Philippines celebrates the New Year with massive amounts of fireworks. From our perch above the city, at the dorm Kim and Larry live in, we could see all the firework displays simultaneously. It was quite a show, everywhere you looked across the entire city of Manila there were fireworks. But being high above it all we faced little of the noise and breathed little of the smoke, which was a blessing.

While in the Manila area I had the opportunity to speak at the assembly in Antipolo, Rizal. The saints there are a wonderful group of believers, always so happy to have you come and share the word with them. This week, back in Baguio, I am back to the regular schedule of meetings and studies. I taught at the Study on Wednesday night, continuing a series in 1 Peter. Friday I will continue to teach the book of James at the home bible study in Fatima, Saturday morning we will have our Men’s early morning fellowship at the chapel beginning at 6 AM. We are continuing our study of Worship, using A.P. Gibbs book “Worship The Christians Highest Occupation.” It continues to be a source of encouragement and challenge. Sunday I will be continuing the mini bible school sessions down in Baguio Gold. Then in a couple of weeks we will begin the next “semester” of classes at Navy Base on the Church. So things are back in full swing again.

It is only a couple more weeks now until my next series of tests on my heart. Please continue to pray that the meds I have been taking now for almost three months, will have the desired effect and that some of the restrictions I am currently under can be lifted so that I can return to the other weekly studies.

Thank you all once again for your continued prayers for us and the Lord’s work here in Baguio. May the Lord richly bless you in this new year. Perhaps this year we will be caught up to meet Him in the air and be always with the Lord. But until that day may we continue to be active in our service for Him.