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Davao City, Philippines: December 14, 2012

Present need: $24 for a 6x9 ft. banner for the side of our BCA school to label it as the distribution/repacking center of donated aid, given by various organizations for the local Typhoon Pablo relief efforts.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. for God to provide the needed $56,000 for BCA’s new 2.2-acre campus, required by the Philippine Department of education before 2017. Total received so far: $4,400.
2. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events:   December 17-18 Third Periodical Exams, December 19 Christmas Program/School-wide Party.
3. for Joe, our Kiwanis Club President for 2012-13. Elvie, Imelda and I began our meeting this week, since Joe was in a motorcycle accident resulting in some broken ribs and damaged kidney. Joe is a diabetic in his mid-sixties. He was having difficulty breathing when he arrived at the hospital.
4. for the relief efforts for the homeless, starving survivors of recent Typhoon Pablo. Some aid trucks have been ambushed and the drivers murdered so that the hungry could hoard/sell food. Military escort/protection is now common. Please pray for Elvie as she rides the 3 hrs to the typhoon area, with the military. They do not think I should go, since I am an American and would endanger local residents by being a target for the surviving communist rebels.
5. for the elementary and high school BCA kids who will be the next ones to accompany us to the malls for their new shoes and socks with funds received from OCS (Operation Christmas Socks & Shoes).

Praise God:

1. that Elvie was able to donate five of the twenty large boxes of used clothes that we have received from generous friends in the USA. These recent five boxes will be distributed with the rice, soap and food items to the typhoon survivors.
2. hat in their soccer and basketball games this past Saturday, PJ and Abby won in soccer and tied against the opposing school in basketball.
3. that although we are still not moved back into the house (due to mustiness from the flood), nevertheless, the place is beginning to get back to normal. Plus a friend gave funds so that we could paint the floor. Previously, we’d used linoleum, but it was torn up when removed in the cleanup after the deluge.
4. that when the local homeowners president wanted to sue the other officers (including Elvie) for claiming that the election would have to be re-held due to an error in the balloting, Elvie convinced the temporary president that we need to work together for the betterment of our community.
5. that PJ And Abby successfully finished the calendar year at Faith Academy. They will begin again on the day we return ferom renewing our visas in Guam, January 8. Please pray that in January or February, we will be able to renew PJ’s passport, as it will expire later in the year.
6. that there are two new sponsors this week! Yay!
7. that I have been chosen as the authorized agent to host the Kiwanis distribution and repacking of aid to the Typhoon Pablo survivors.
8. that at our weekly DCL prayer meeting, all present enjoyed (and understood) my message on the three “Marys” of Christmas in Luke 2: vs. 1-8:  MARY Christmas: she bore Jesus, and we bear Christ in our hearts// vs. 9-20: MERRY Christmas: the angels and shepherds were joyful during this festive celebration of the nativity of Christ. We too are to be joyful and enjoy the Christmas season// vs. 21-38: MARRY Christmas: even as a bride and groom anticipate joyful unity over the years, Simeon and Anna in the temple were ecstatic whent hey finally saw Jesus, and were willing to serve him the rest of their lives.
9. during their Sunday afternoon Christmas party for 300 poor Davao children, PJ and other Faith Academy students/faculty entertained, fed and evangelized all the children who attended.
10. Elvie hosted 30 ladies after church on Sunday, with a grand Christmas party. Their games were focused on their Bible knowledge.
11. that most of the Kiwanis, church, business and government agencies of Davao cancelled their Christmas parties so that they could give the money they otherwise would’ve spent on aid relief for the typhoon,  burial of the victims, and removal of the animal carcasses.
12. that since the trees on the mountains surrounding much of the typhoon area were destroyed, the NPA (New People’s Communist Rebel Army) have no place to hide, and also many died. However, nobody knows how many died, as the corpses are buried under hundreds of acres of felled lumber. OSme have estimated that, although the official death toll is 1,000, with 700 still missing, that 5,000 rebels and miners (who were eithe rin the jungle or underground when the typhoon hit) perished.
13. that once again Elvie and I were able to buy food for the Father’s House home for street girls. Friends in the USA gave funds so that we could buy these groceries. Thank you!
14. That a church in California, USA had a special dessert evening and raised over $700 for OCS (Operation Christmas Shoes) at BCA.
15. that the 37 destitute preschoolers who tried on their new OCS shoes at the mall this week did not break the rules of the mall by trying to beg from other customers.
16. that last week at church was Youth Sunday, and the young people did a fantastic job of hosting our worship service.
17. that we are presently making plans at DCL to distribute slippers and soap at the local mental hospital. Please pray for Ray, the leader of this outreach, to have discernment on how best to share the Gospel with these mental patients.
18. that a businessman donated a generator to Kiwanis so that they could set-up soup kitchens in various locations in the hardest-hit areas affected by the typhoon.
19. that during our Monday family night, we were able to open two more large boxes of aid from the USA. These clothes, school supplies, stuffed animals and other items will be quite helpful during the Christmas party distribution of goods this next week.
20. that a young friend from California arrived in Davao a few days ago, and she is involved with assisting a local family in their needs.
    Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $3,200 received, $26,800 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 14.

Rev. Paul, Elvie, PJ and Abigail Barner
Philippine Missionary Church Planters
Barner Christian Academy of Davao City, Inc.
PO Box 82,224
8000 Davao City, Philippines 011-63

(082) 234-4000
(Philippine Cell) 0917-322-8224
(USA) (518) 449-2105
American tie-in free NY # (for messages) to Philippines: (518) 772-2775
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Home address: 18 Eileen Drive, Rensselaer, NY 12144
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Davao City, Philippines

Present need: BCA BUS REPAIRS (BUS “E”) $24

4 SPARK PLUGS: $22
1 CAN BRAKE FLUID $2

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. for God to provide the needed $56,000 for BCA’s new 2.2-acre campus, required by the Philippine Department of education before 2017. Total received so far: $2,115.
2. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events:   November 9 Annual BCA Foundation Day Celebration and Presentations.
3. for God to replace the sponsor who had to drop their two sponsored children (as of January, 2013), due to financial constraints in this still-not-recovering economy.
4. for Elvie, as she leaves Sunday afternoon (after church) for Hong Kong. Her expenses and tickets have been paid by a missions organization that has elected her to their volunteer governing board.
5. for some friends who are researching for us the most needy recipients of the four horses that we will be giving away to mountain church-planting Filipino missionaries, this Christmas. These will be brought to dangerous areas of Mindanao, so Elvie, being a Filipina, will take my place in the distribution of these animals. The presence of an American would make it very dangerous for the Filipinos who are working in the tribal areas.
6. for Pancilita, the recently-widowed house mother for our street-girls’ home. She delivered her fourth child this week, her first boy.
7. for a missionary friend who wants to help out with our CEFALS evangelistic education program for street kids at night. The supervisors whom I have chosen for this ministry are very busy at this time of year, so have not yet had time to begin the process of getting this ministry off the ground.
8. for our “Centrality of Christ” theme at church this month of November.
   Already the congregation has been very responsive to my challenge that they depend upon Christ’s provision for their every need, “according to their glorious riches in Christ Jesus”, yet not neglecting their responsibility to serve their Great Provider.
9. for the speedy approval of the government engineering permits for the construction of our new boys’ home on the nearby island of Samal.

Praise God:

1. that our school guard has been feeding the school’s chickens and fish.
2. that this week, the parents of our BCA students have been coming to school to practice with their children for the 15th Annual Foundation Day (11/9) ceremonies. They’ve also been helping to decorate the school classrooms and gym for Christmas. This is done with colorful paper and foil Philippine “lanterns” which hang from the ceiling.
3. that one of BCA’s janitors brought her babies and children on Wednesday evening to prayer meeting, so that the kids could watch a Christian movie which PJ and Abby have been showing them each week.
4. that our bus drivers have been making special errands for the school office to purchase chalk and school supplies.
5. that this year’s Foundation Day theme is “Abiding in God’s Perseverance”. The school’s former themes have been: 1998-Exalting God’s Faithfulness/1999-Growing in God’s Grace/2000-Celebrating God’s Endless Love/2001-Extending in God’s Peace/2002-Sharing God’s Kindness/2003-Sharing God’s Love/2004-Rejoicing in God’s Love/2005-Trusting God’s Providence/2006-Winning God’s Prize/2007-Living in God’s Patience/2008-Imitating God’s Mercy/2009-11-(no theme)/2012-Abiding in God’s Perseverance.
6. that the teachers are leading the BCA students in Worship music choreography and dance, set to Christian music for Friday’s ceremony.
7. that our BCA nurse has also assisted as “conductor” for our school busses, to be sure that all the children get off and on at their correct stops. She also prepared and washed the large backdrop curtain for the school stage. Also the nurse was the one to teach the Bible study for our students at this week’s Wednesday morning chapel time. She spoke about being proper stewards of their time and money (as well as of their parents’ money)
8. that although many Filipinos have expressed their discouragement in the unfavorable outcome of the USA elections, yet they are amazed that there were no killings nor violent reactions as a result of the event.
9. That our I, and other members of a local Kiwanis Club, were involved with the feeding program for poor sea gypsy students in a local public school. Elvie and I were chosen to lead the opening and closing prayers. The children, though they speak the Badjao language, were able to repeat after us the words of our prayers, and also had an interpreter present to help the kids understand.
10. that, since last week had a few days-off as holiday, our family brought our associate pastor’s family ot to a public pool for some fun. Filipinos do not like direct sunlight, and the day was pleasantly overcast. The rain only lasted a few minutes.
11. that the middle school students at Faith Academy (Abby’s schoolmates) were wonderfully and positively responsive to my Bible message (from 1 Timothy 6:6-12…”Fight the Good Fight”) during their school chapel time this week.
12. that my associate minister, Callem, gave an inspiring message during Sunday School last week, on Christian Nurture and Discipleship.
13. that one of our pastors-in-training, Jairus, had the opportunity to preach at our jungle church planti n Panantongan this past Sunday. Our church plants will be combined for worship this Sunday to celebrate my birthday (Elvie’s idea, not mine).
14. that this week, the Philippine Bible Society had a full-day celebration to commemorate and dedicate their finally-completed newest translation of the entire Bible.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $3,180 received, $26,820 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 12.

Davao City, Philippines HAPPY 14TH BIRTHDAY, BARNER CHRISTIAN ACADEMY! (11/9) HAPPY TWELFTH BIRTHDAY, ABIGAIL! (11/9) HAPPY 51ST BIRTHDAY, PAUL! (11/9)

“Pastor Paul, please pray for our field trip.”

As the BCA buses and other borrowed vehicles carried many BCA students and some parents as well, we headed out for the day-long field trip to the “Rain Forest Malagos Philippine Eagle Pag-Asa Zoo,” an hour’s drive away.

“Lord,” I began, “Please keep us safe as we travel. This is more than a field trip. Please teach our students about your creation, animals, and the wild regions of Mindanao. But more than that, there will be other schools present. Please use the students in this Christian school, to show to those from schools of unbelievers, the joyful attitude of Christians. Guide them to exemplify the Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.” Then, all the students and their parents in the vehicles echoed a resounding, “AMEN!”

“Self-Control” was seen in the students very soon afterward, for when we stopped at a service-station to gas up, one of the buses broke down. For a hour the kids sat in the hot buses waiting for our backup-vehicle to get to the station. Then, when it arrived, the driver suggested that the brakes on it didn’t work, so went back to get another one of our busses.

But that one had a problem overheating. “Why don’t you just keep using the one you have?” he asked.

After fiddling with a few things under the hood, the bus we’d begun with started right up. But then, awhile down the road, the whole bus started shaking like an exercise machine. Everybody in the bus started praying for God to intervene. Then, after climbing up a mountain and rattling down the other side, the bus started running smoothly again. Praise God!
Once we arrived at the zoo, since we were late anyway, we had a picnic before entering in. Many other schools were present, and some parents and teachers from them were smoking, yelling and playing loud music. Yet our tables had no alcohol, no cigarettes, and I stood next to my chair and in a loud voice opened our snack time with prayer: prayer for our kids, for the zoo personnel, and even for those from other schools.

After our kids watched the eagles, turtles, fish, petting zoo animals, crocodiles (NOT in the petting zoo area) birds of all shapes and sizes (including Pag-Asa monkey-eating eagle, the national bird of the Philippines), and a variety of huge exotic plants and trees, they were treated to a free “Trained Bird Show”. It was fun and exciting. But then it started to rain. “Looks like we’ll have to cancel the rest of the show,” cautioned the trainer, “unless the rain goes away.”

Hundreds of children chanted, “Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day.” For a while, the rain did hold up. But then, it started to pour. While our kids and parents huddled under their umbrellas and prayed, the other school kids quickly picked up their things and left.

Since we’d arrived late, we were scrunched in the back row, the only place where there had still been cement seats available. But once all the other kids left, the sun came out and we got front-row seats. “Did you stay for more of the show?” asked the trainer. When our kids all nodded their heads excitedly, they laughed together as the birds came back out and did their tricks. “Let’s give these die-hard kids from Barner Academy a treat they won’t forget!”

The picnic lunch which followed was uncrowded, since many of the school kids had hopped into their huge busses and left early, due to the rain. Plus they had been there all morning already anyway.

It was a fun day at the zoo. And God truly answered our prayers that our BCA kids would be a testimony of God’s Fruit of the Spirit to all present…at the gas station, at the zoo, and all along the journey, as we sang Christian kids’ songs together on the trip home.

(NOTE: THIS WEEK’S DIARY IS GOING OUT A FEW DAYS EARLY, SINCE ELVIE IS THE GUEST SPEAKER AT A CITYWIDE WOMEN’S CONFERENCE FOR HUNDREDS OF WOMEN, IN A NEARBY JUNGLE AREA)

Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

PRAYER REQUEST: That our busses would stop breaking down. They are over a decade old, and have served us well since the late 1990’s.

PRAISE: that our students are not only blessing their neighbors and friends with the joy of Jesus, but also their families. We have seen many families transformed out of the vices of drunkenness, drug abuse, gambling, gender confusion, adultery and tobacco addictions. Now many of their family members (parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, grandparents, etc.) have accepted Christ as their Savior and have started attending Bible-believing churches!

BUILDING FUND: $2,105 (Total savings for BCA’s new, government-required, by 2017, $56,000 campus)

Davao City, Philippines DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME (11/4), USA ELECTION DAY (11/6)

“Huh? Is that a merry-go-round in a graveyard?”

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Among the "sky-scrapers" of grave poncions (rectangular, above-ground cement boxes, stacked two or three high, to hold full caskets), there were many unique sights. But a colorful merry-go-round carousel, with painted horses on brass poles, in a graveyard? NOW I’d seen everything!

While many of our neighbors have protested why we would bring poor, dirty street children into the neighborhood and educate them, one of our next-door neighbors had been a true blessing over the past decade and a half. As we have been gradually building-onto the campus, since Dionesio (“Manong”) and his four sons are carpenters, we hired them to help us build our four-story buildings.

We have even educated some of Manong’s grandchildren here on the BCA campus. Due to the outreach we have with the families of these kids, we also started a Bible study in their home. Yet this year, just a few days after his 74th birthday, Manong stepped into eternity. I spoke at his funeral (with his coffin in his living room), this week. Some visitors prayed to become believers after the message, too!

Since the burial was on the same day as our school field trip to the zoo, Elvie and I “escaped” early from the field trip (an hour away) to join the entourage to the cemetery. With headlights on and hazard lights flashing, we also lent one of our BCA buses for Manong’s relatives to ride in. None of them own cars.

When we got to the cemetery, we avoided the goat droppings on the poncions, and pushed aside the cows, chickens, goats and dogs, climbing over graves and squeezing between other cement structures.

After the casket was cemented-into the poncion, Elvie brought out a hundred small juice packets to share with the relatives. Suddenly, out of nowhere came fifty shirtless, barefoot, dirty boys, all between the ages of six and ten. They live in a village of shacks between the graveyard and a banana/coconut orchard.

Due to the high infant mortality rate in these squatter villages (from malnutrition, dysentery, dengue, violence, child trafficking and malaria), we’d seen many small poncions, as deceased children take less space when they are buried.

Since Philippine burials always end with the bereaved family (all dressed in white) feeding the visitors, many starving people “squat” on property next to graveyards to beg for some of the free snacks.

Since All Saints Day (Nov. 1) is a holiday in the Philippines, 90% of Filipinos travel to the cemeteries of their loved ones on that day as a "Memorial Day" for their dearly departed. Often, they will stay a few days at the graveyard and camp in tents.

Taking advantage of this captive audience, vendors prepare their stock for this day to make an income. So, in the orchard next to the graveyard, construction carnival troupes were building a carousel and also a makeshift rollercoaster.

Only in the Philippines. A graveyard with a merry-go-round!

Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

Present need:

BCA BUS REPAIRS (BUS “E”) $24:
4 SPARK PLUGS: $22
1 CAN BRAKE FLUID $2
TOTAL $24.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. That we will be able to renew the Bible study that we’d started in Manong’s home, while he was still alive. Also that during this Bible study, we’ll teach needed Bible knowledge to those who’ve accepted Jesus as their Savior during the funeral this week in Manong’s home.
2. for God to provide the needed $56,000 for BCA’s new 2.2-acre campus, required by the Philippine Department of education before 2017. Total received so far: $2,100.
3. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events:   October 30-November 5 Semester Break, November 9 Annual BCA Foundation Day Celebration and Presentations.
4. for the students who missed their monthly school wide exams this week, due to sickness, as their tests will be rescheduled.
5. for Eunalyn, one of our BCA teachers. She resigned this week, due to family problems.
6. for USA election Day in two weeks. That the Holy Spirit will challenge all Americans to register and vote appropriately on November 6.
7. for Cherry, a local Filipina pastor’s wife. In her thirties, she has agreed to my suggestion that she be our representative for “Vitamin Angels” to distribute Vitamin A pills to 1,000 children each month, to keep them from going blind.
8. for our two new sponsors this week. One is a couple from Iowa, and the other is a widow from Texas. They will both be sponsoring one child at Barner Christian Academy. Only ten students at BCA are now without sponsors!
9. that Kristy, a woman in Massachusetts, is starting a coffee-house (“Neighborhood Café”) with the purpose of giving to charities, including a local orphanage and also  Barner Christian Academy! Yay, Kristy! Their specialty will be crepes.

Praise God:

1. that a family in Colorado has given $200 for the BCA’s new government-required property!
2. that our two kids, PJ and Abigail, are both involved with intramural sports at Faith Academy. PJ is in soccer (called football here) and Abby is in basketball.
3. that the new gym at Faith Academy, which was finished and dedicated to God this week. It is very nice, and likely the most well-built school gym for any educational institution of this size in Davao.
4. that during our Kiwanis Club meeting this week, my fellow board members approved unanimously my motion that we continue the food supplement program for another year. This program feeds Badjao Sea Gypsies in a local public school each month.
5. that Callem, my associate pastor, celebrated his 46th birthday last Sunday by inviting the men of the church to his house for a Bible study.
6. that although one of our two-month-old puppies died this week of dysentery, the other five are healthy and fine.
7. that a family that lives a distance away has decided to spend their two-week holiday with us. They join our family devotions in mornings and/or evenings, and sleep on the floor of our living room.
8. that during a funeral this week, the people were very receptive as I paralleled the sting of death (1 Cor. 15) with a “sin-stinger” which nailed Jesus to the cross.
9. that our school cook volunteered her time for free after school this week to cook a meal for our evening weekly pastors’ meeting.
10. that many were blessed in church Sunday as I challenged them with a missions message about when Saul and Barnabas were sent out as missionaries in Acts 13.
11. that Elvie, after she spoke last Sunday for a group of ladies in the jungle area near where she grew up, really touched their hearts with her biblical, ladies-only message of encouragement.
12. that BCA’s field trip to the zoo this week was enjoyed by all the students and parents who attended.
13. that John, the founder of Destiny Family Ministries in Missouri, came out to the Philippines last week to assist with distribution of goats to mountain pastors who have agreed to participate in an ongoing discipleship program, training for church planting. I am volunteer secretary of the organization.
14. that a church in the USA has agreed to pay the bill for Elvie’s recent stay in the hospital.
15. that a young family in Colorado has donated $200 to put toward the $56,000 needed for our new BCA campus.
16. that a missionary teacher at Faith Academy has agreed to assist our new CEFALS ministry of educating, feeding and evangelizing street children on late Saturday evenings and early mornings.
    

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $3,170 received, $26,830 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BUILDING FUND: $2,100 (Total savings for BCA’s new, government-required, by 2017, $56,000 campus)

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 10.

Davao City, Philippines UNITED NATIONS DAY (10/24)

“Here, have a Gospel tract.” Our youth group and children were giving out small pamphlets with the plan of salvation explained. But often the response was, “Sorry, I do not know how to read!”

“Street children are illiterate.” The statement was not an insult, but rather, a statement of fact. It was also a challenge to see what we could do to combat this dismal truth. After my first visit to Child Evangelism Fellowship’s (CEF) District #2 meeting, they had elected me as their chairman. During my next visit, I invited a guest speaker, and he did a fine job. The speaker was Ben.

Ben is the administrator of the two homes that we started for street children, to rescue them from sleeping on the sidewalks of Davao City. During the Q&A (Question and Answer) time, an “Alternative Learning System” (ALS) government representative present asked, “Does your ministry cater to any “out-of-school youth?”

Ben responded, “Yes. However, they do not stay ‘out-of-school’ for long, as we enroll them in schools and they often become the honor students!” Ben hinged his response with a challenge though. “But it is the street children who are NOT in our “Father’s House” boys’ home and “Shepherd’s House” girls’ home that I am worried about. How will we educate them?”

This ignited a spark in my memory. We’d had a guest speaker from the military in one of the Davao clubs in which I am on the leadership team of. The Major explained, “Over 85% of criminal terrorists are illiterate. Often their delinquency is caused by their sense that society has been unfair to them, in allowing them to “slip through the cracks” and become unschooled.”

CEF’s local administrator piped up. “Illiteracy can be intellectual and also spiritual. How can CEF reach the street kids? We do have Good News Clubs. But they usually take place in someone’s home or church.”

The gears started turning in my mind. “I may have an answer to this,” I prompted. “This very desperate need can be answered by the teamwork of all of the groups we are on the leadership teams of. It is too big a task for one. Instead, let’s use our expertise and connections. First Ben, will the ALS be willing to work together with CEF’s evangelism team? We can call it ‘CEF-ALS’ for Child Evangelism Fellowship Alternative Learning System”.

The ALS representative Florendo, quipped, “We can also feed the kids through the LGU’s (Local government Unit) rice-soup ‘lugaw’ program! But where would we hold these classes?” Now, everybody’s mental gears were turning.

“Ben,” I asked, “Where do most of these street kids hang out?” Ben’s smile suddenly lost his glimmer as he interjected, “That is the problem. While hundreds of street kids hang out from 9pm until past midnight on the sidewalks around City Hall, These kids never stay in one place very long. They float around like the wind. They go wherever they can find an opportunity to beg or eat or sleep.”

“Hmm. Okay, here’s the plan. How about…Every Saturday night, from 10pm-midnight, The LGU reps and ALS and CEF teachers provide food and lessons for the street kids. I am senior pastor of the eight churches we have planted, and each of you are members of your churches. Scout around and try to get volunteers to assist in this outreach.

We can also provide teachers from our own Barner Christian Academy (BCA) to help with the lessons. Then, after each of the kids graduate, they will receive, along with their diploma, a brand new, shiny bicycle!” “All eyes in the group perked up, with the question lingering unsaid as to where these magically-appearing bikes would come from. Anticipating this unasked question, I mentioned, “I am also president of the DCL (Davao Christian Leadership Foundation and a director for the local Kiwanis mother club. We’ll raise the funds for the bikes!”

“I’ll also go over,” said our CEF administrator Ariel, “to your two homes for street kids Ben, and run Good News Clubs there. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the new CEF-ALS street students will want to join your homes for them, having food and clothes and a roof over their heads!”

“Hmmm,” I mentioned tongue-in-cheek, “Perhaps a year from now, the street kids will be competing against our church kids in Bible Quizzing and spelling bees! And maybe they’ll be reading the Gospel tracts to their friends on the street!”

“I sure hope so,” replied Florendo “I sure do hope so, God willing!”

Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

Present need:

BCA BUS REPAIRS (BUS “E”) $24:
4 SPARK PLUGS: $22
1 CAN BRAKE FLUID $2
TOTAL $24.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. That CEFALS will become a reality, and that God’s Holy Spirit will empower and direct Florendo and Ariel to work with Ben in bringing literacy and salvation to the streets of Davao City.
2. for our BCA computer teacher. Since the units we have are third-hand, they often crash. So he is saving much of the information from the hard drives to DVDs.
3. for Filipinos who are bitten by dengue mosquitoes. Research has recently revealed that a new strain of dengue is not only immune to medication, but that it hits a person’s area of weakness first, intensifying it often until death. One of my predecessors as president in the Davao Christian Leadership Foundation (Butch) has a wife who recently recuperated from dengue, and their daughter’s dengue has brought her platelet count dangerously low to only ten.
4. for our new leadership team at our Faith Fellowship Church plant. For the past 15 years since we started this church, we have been training the new believers for Christian leadership. Now, for the first time, we have a leadership team made up of all the heads of committees in the church. They are so excited for the opportunity of leading, that during our very first combined leadership dinner this week, they elected a budget committee to activate the families in the congregation for giving so that the church will be able to move out of the school campus and onto a property of their own within the next few years.
5. for the local Gideons, here in Mindanao. When I requested that they come as speaker during our monthly DCL (Davao Christian Leadership Foundation) fellowship breakfast scheduled for Nov. 2, they not only agreed, but also offered to pay for all the pastors that will attend who are willing to have a Gideon come and speak at their churches. Since the first Friday of November is a holiday in the Philippines, they moved it to the next Friday…my birthday!
6. for Elvie, as she speaks this Sunday for a group of ladies in the jungle area near where she grew up. Also, later next month she is one of the main speakers at an annual Women’s convention, also among jungle ladies from various neighboring tribes. Some of these ladies will be walking for hours (barefoot) to arrive at the convention location in Tamayun.
7. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: October 22-24 Second Periodical exams, October 29 School-wide Field Trip, October 30-November 5 Semester Break.
8. for God to provide the needed $56,000 for BCA’s new 2.2-acre campus, required by the Philippine Department of education before 2017. Total received so far: $1,900.
9. for our PAC (Parent Advisory Committee) at Faith Academy Mindanao. We are determining the best approach to assist the administration by involving parental volunteer assistance.
10. that, during our Parent-Teacher Conference s with PJ and Abby’s teachers, they were very positive with the kids’ performance at Faith Academy. Both our kids got almost perfect scores on their report cards.

Praise God:

1. that God has placed us in such a strategic area to reach Davao’s street children with providing for both their physical and spiritual needs.
2. that our biweekly teachers’/staff devotional, led this past Monday by one of our teachers, was an inspiring message on reconciliation.
3. for Lucy, our school nurse. Since she is also a florist, when she has no patients, she arranges and cares for the very colorful flowers and decorative plants in the school garden.
4. that BCA’s vegetable garden is producing very healthy watermelon and pepper plants.
5. that donors have sent us chewable vitamins from the USA, and all the pupils in our school received vitamins this week.
6. that during this week’s reading and writing quizzes, only two students did not receive a totally perfect score!
7. that during English and Math classes for our lower-level students, the kids learned about action words and ordinal numbers.
8. that the six boxes we mailed from New York in July have finally arrived! We plan to open them during our family night this Monday.
9. that some people have already started giving for OCS (Operation Christmas Socks) to provide shiny, new black uniform shoes and socks for poor Filipino students who cannot afford them.
10. that when I spoke in one of our jungle church plants last Sunday, the car did not get stuck in the deep mud, en route.
11. that our Kiwanis Club donated food for an annual joint-tribal presentation, recognizing the various ethnic dances and songs.
    

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $3,165 received, $26,835 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BUILDING FUND: $1,900 (Total savings for BCA’s new government-required, by 2017, $56,000 campus)

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 12.

Davao City, Philippines COLUMBUS DAY (10/8)

“Wow, what a change!” A few years ago, when I joined a local civic club, I was frustrated by the vulgar language and dirty jokes that these professional businessmen were telling. After visiting many other clubs, even some in other countries, I found that the type of respect for morality practiced by members of the club often reflected the community projects of the club.

For instance, if the club was just a social club, they tended to use vulgar language. Yet if they really helped transform their communities in positive ways (feeding the poor, clothing the homeless, etc.)  they tended to be more conscientious about the feelings of others when they spoke during club-time.

When they elected me as president, I presented my findings. “We should respect others’ feelings,” I said. Please do not be selfish by hurting others’ feelings of morality by this crude language”. Within a few weeks, apologies were made by members and the dirty language cleared up. Energies instead were focused on bringing rice to “Sea Gypsy” students, some members sponsored poor children in our own Barner Christian Academy, gave medical help to the children of terrorists in the ComVal mountain communities, and also to get clothing to mountain farm children and city squatters.

Last week the local club which I’ve been a member of for the past five years celebrated their 46th “Induction of Officers” banquet. A video showed the many projects the club had taken-on over the past 12 months. When it was time for the invocation prayer, the member who had previously used the worst language, kindly asked if he could use my LCD projector to play a “video prayer”.

The forty who were in attendance at the banquet were truly touched by the Christian-themed prayer. With scenes of the crucifixion in the background, we sang along to “We Are the Reason that He Gave His Life”.

Isn’t it amazing what vast transformations can occur when we stand up for our faith? The hungry are fed, the orphans are cared for, the poor are clothed and the homeless are housed.

Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. four months ago (June) the BCA students took a government-required exam. A replacement exam will be administered next month for those who did not pass. However, although we have checked their office nearly every day, the results are not yet tabulated. Please pray that the Philippines Government’s Department of Education will release the results soon, so that those who passed will not have to re-take the full-day of exams.
2. for Elvie’s  follow-up visits to doctors’ clinics over the next few weeks. She was in the hospital for tests most of this week, and it looks as if her goiter is in only the nodule stage.
3. for PJ and Abigail, as they get back to school next week. They had a week of mid-semester break. Perfect timing, as we spent the week in the hospital with Elvie.
4. for Chet and Joan Bolen, on their 65th wedding anniversary this week. Before we left for the hospital, we made a video for them (we sang “Amazing Grace” in the local language) and put it on U-Tube. Their son was able to download it and show it for the anniversary celebration.
5. for Callem, our new governing board secretary for our home for street children. May God empower him in his new position.
6. for Panchilita, the pregnant widow running our home for street children. Her mom has arrived from the jungle to assist her in the delivery of her child soon.
7. for the eight street girls who have expressed interest in not sleeping on the city sidewalks anymore, but having our roof over their heads.
8. for the congregation of our church will totally grasp why I prayed AFTER the communion elements were administered Sunday instead of BEFORE. I wanted to be sure that all understood that the prayer does not magically change the bread and juice, but only recognizes the significant of the elements.
9. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: October 22-24 Second Periodical exams, October 29 School-wide Field Trip, October 30-November 5 Semester Break.
10. for God to provide the needed $56,000 for BCA’s new 2.2-acre campus, required by the Philippine Department of education before 2017. Total received so far: $1,888.
11. That the nurses, patients and doctors who listened-in while our family prayed, sang and studied the Bible, will deepen in their walk with Christ.
12. for Elvie and I in our newly-elected 2013 positions in the local Kiwanis Club: Elvie is vice president, and I am club coordinator.
13. for the government to release the test results of our students from four months ago. Almost all the other schools have theirs already. However, we are refusing to bribe the officials, and therefore they are stubbornly refusing to release the grades.

Praise God:

1. that I was able to find almost half a dozen opportunities for Ben, the administrator for our two homes for street children, to give speeches about the this crucial outreach of rescuing street kids. After his very professional presentations, word is getting around Davao that this important ministry is available to house, feed and clothe homeless street children.
2. that the wife of my associate pastor (Inday) was willing to spend most of the week in the hospital with our family as Elvie’s “watcher” to help her when she had needs.
3. for Sergio, a member of our Kiwanis Club. He moved to the USA, yet continues to maintain his membership in our club, and also to pay his annual dues.
4. that Diane, a teenage homeless girl who prefers not to live in our home for street children, has agreed to live with our own family, instead of on the streets.
5. that I have been chosen to preach in each of our church plants each month, alternating in location from week-to-week.
6. that one of Barner Christian Academy’s former janitors now has a job as cook for our wealthy Catholic neighbor who is an engineer.
7. that a friend mentioned to me this week that his days shine brighter when he thinks of the shine on our daughter Abigail’s face whenever she hears people talk positively about Jesus. How cool, huh?
8. that at Faith Academy, the missionary school where our kids PJ and Abby attend, the volleyball team is on a winning streak.
9. That, after I preached this past Sunday on the paralytic who was let down through the roof of a house by friends to be healed by Jesus, Abigail said, “I love your messages, Dad. They are sooo interesting!” Whoa.
10. That during this past week’s Kiwanis Club induction ceremony, even though there were many, many potential glitches (projector not working, sound system malfunctioning, electric piano not plugged in and hooked up incorrectly, musicians with too long a presentation, PowerPoint video too long, microphones silent and/or ringing, etc.), as program coordinator, I was able to solve the problems before they became evident to the adherents and guests at the ceremony. Everything went off almost perfectly. The staff at the hotel that hosted the celebration was extremely helpful and easy to find when I could see a potential problem coming up.
11. that our eleven-year-old daughter Abigail enjoyed a fun-filled day of swimming with her classmates at the birthday party of her friend.
12. That, as acting president during last week’s Davao Christian Leadership Foundation meeting, I invited my assistant pastor Callem to preach and our orphanage administrator Ben to speak. Both presentations were well received and understood by all the members present.
13. That Ben has agreed to be my invited speaker at six different events in Davao City. He is sharing about our street-children’s ministry, and also preaching from the Bible about our responsibility to help the widows and orphans in their distress.
14. That, as Abby and PJ assisted at Awana last week, even though some kids had a tendency to climb on PJ’s rocking chair while he taught, he still has a gift for being able to both discipline and be loved by them.
15. That PJ and Abigail, after months of practice, gave a fantastic, ebnergetic presentation of choreography to praise music with many young people from various Davao churches this week. The event was presented to raise money for the establishment of a brand-new Christian camp in Davao.
16. that PJ accompanied Elvie and I to a community prayer meeting this week. I officiated the event and gave the Biblical message.
17. That a friend was able to share with me this week about the mistake I made last week, in saying that Ted Tebow is building a hospital in Davao. His name is really Tim Tebow, not Ted.
18. That a neighbor invited our family and friends (there are always many other people besides our family in our house, visiting) over to their place for a free meal of exotic foods. They also tried to sell us titanium cookware, but it is way too expensive for us. They were especially interested in the fact that Abigail just shared with her 6th-grade class about the many usages of the element Titanium!
19. That the choir which performed at our Induction ceremony this week sounded exquisite. Their final number was previously scheduled for earlier in the program. However, due to starting late (a Philippine tradition), I pushed the final song to the benediction. It was the perfect choice, and members were humming the tune on their way home.

NOTE: OCS gifts may also be received through Christian Aid Mission, to 801-BLC.

BUILDING FUND: $1,888 (Total savings for BCA’s new, government-required, by 2017, $56,000 campus)

USA Magic Jack VOIP #: (518) 772-2359.

Present need: $BCA BUS REPAIRS (BUS “D”) $22:

1 PC FAN BELT $4
2 PCS BONDING $6
1 PC ADJUSTER $3
1 PC HAND BRAKE $2
2 PCS LOCKS $2
2 PCS SPRING ADJUSTERS $2
1 PC SPRING UPWARD $2
1 PC SPRING DOWNWARD $1
TOTAL $22.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $3,160 received, $26,840 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

Davao City, Philippines

“BECOMING A GOOD CHILDREN” I looked up at the 10-inch-high letters cut from colored construction paper, which made-up the church stage’s backdrop. It was obvious to me that the one who had decorated the stage the night before must have been tired, as he had made a mistake in his grammar.

Elvie nudged me, whispering, “Why don’t you go up there and remove the REN?” That was a good idea, but to do so in the middle of worship would call everybody’s attention to the mistake, so I left it as-is.

When a month has five Sundays as September did this year, that last Sunday is Children’s Sunday at our church. The kids performed and sang a few songs. One, based on Jesus’ parable of the wise and foolish builders, met with thunderous applause by the congregation, along with a bunch of laughs, as well. “Don’t build you house in the Sandyland.
Don’t build it too near the shore. Oh, it may look kinda nice, but you’ll have to build it twice. And you’ll have to build your house once more.”

The Children’s Church teacher was the speaker for our Bible message.

The kids all sat in little plastic chairs, taking up the first 6 or 7 rows. Since the message was geared for all ages, I considered the strong spiritual foundation that is being built by this ministry for our hundreds of BCA kids. Had we never entered the lives of these students, I shudder to think of where they would be now.

Like viewing the misspelled signage at church, we actually have come into their lives and been willing to correct the errors of their past.
Later in the week, I participated in a Bible study. Since the host family’s house was kind of small, our chairs were huddled together.

After an hour of research and discussion, we had a scrumptious meal of barbecued pork, rice and noodles. I was discussing something with our assistant pastor, and noticed out of the corner of my eye, that something on my plate did not look quite right. Yet in the half-light of the dim overhead bulb, I thought nothing of it. However, it did look big and brown.

I ate it anyway. It was quite difficult to swallow. Reflecting back, I guess it must have been a thumb-sized cockroach. The wings were what made it hard to swallow. I should have spit it out, or at least chewed it some more, but by the time I realized what I had done, it was on its way down my throat.

Back to the Sandyland. Most kids believe anything their parents tell them, right or wrong. They are being “fed” all kinds of non-nutritious ungodly stuff (like the cockroach I ate) and until someone tells them otherwise, they think that it is good for them. But when Jesus comes, and they feast on His “real manna” of Biblical truth, they begin to discern truth from error. They grow strong on a firm foundation.

Praise God for Barner Christian Academy’s “solid rock” foundation of Bible teaching on salvation through Jesus Christ!

Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

Present need:

BCA BUS REPAIRS (BUS “D”) $22:
1 PC FAN BELT $4
2 PCS BONDING $6/1 PC ADJUSTER $3
1 PC HAND BRAKE $2/2 PCS LOCKS $2
2 PCS SPRING ADJUSTERS $2
1 PC SPRING UPWARD $2
1 PC SPRING DOWNWARD $1
TOTAL $22.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. That the families of our BCA students will reinforce the truths their children have learned in church and school, and that they, as families, will also study the Bible together daily.
2. for Juvy, one of our school janitors. After payday, she brought home her pay envelope and the next morning it was empty. She shares a home with many relatives. Her husband Narry is one of our bus drivers. While opening an overheated radiator, he burned his face pretty bad. It turned purple and a few days later started peeling. Yet he still has a smile when he comes to work. The smile is painful, since his face is cracking.
3. for the retarded man who has been dropping plastic bags full of garbage in front of our school every few days. At first we couldn’t figure out who had done it. But we saw diapers in the bags, and when I went running in the morning, I saw a retarded man carrying a baby down the street in front of our school. Any mentally-strong neighbor would know where garbage is supposed to go. We now turn on the lights in front of the school each morning, so that nobody can deface the property without being seen.
4. for Pachelita, the widow who is running our girls’ home. Following Philippine tradition, she visited the grave of her husband this week, forty days after her husband died. Please pray for strength as she goes through the grieving process. By the way, a pharmacist in the USA sent over $100 to help Panchelita in the expenses relating to her baby delivery this week (looks like it will be a boy).
5. for Alex, our men’s discipleship coordinator at BCA. He is teaching the fathers of BCA students (one at a time) from Romans, chapter 3
6. for a Filipina friend of Elvie’s who is having an adulterous affair. We counseled this young mother to return to her husband. However, if she feels threatened by both men, we are willing to house her and her children in our street-children’s homes until she makes a decision. Please pray that this lady will not be harmed by these abusive and evil men.
7. for the ongoing construction of Ted Tebow’s new hospital in Davao City. Ted is a football player and author from the USA who grew up as a missionary kid in the Philippines.
8. for Panchelita, the pregnant widow running our street girls’ home. She’s due to deliver her baby this next week and can’t figure out a name. She asked who would sign the birth certificate, since it is usually the dad, and the father died in August. Somebody suggested that Elvie and I sign, since we “rescued” them from the jungles to giv e them a home and employment. But I disagreed, since the mom should sign her own baby’s first legal document.
9. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: October 22-24 Second Periodical exams, October 29 School-wide Field Trip, October 30-November 5 Semester Break.
10. for God to provide the needed $56,000 for BCA’s new 2.2-acre campus, required by the Philippine Department of education before 2017. Total received so far: $1,851.

Praise God:

1. That I did not get sick on that “whatever-it-was” mystery thing which I ate at the Bible study. Also praise God for the Holy Spirit’s moving during the well-presented message preached by our Children’s Church teacher on Sunday morning.
2. that the DepEd (Department of Education) has provided results from the preliminary paperwork for this next 2013-2014 school year at BCA. As long as we fulfill these final eight provisions (many of which we already complied with within 24 hours of the notice), they will grant the full operational permit for the school’s operation. Yay, God! We also were requested by the personnel at the government office to pray for them. Of course we were more than happy to do so, right then and there.
3. for Minmin, our school treasurer. She celebrated her birthday this week in our living room, and the entire BCA staff joined in the laughing and prayerful time of fun, food and fellowship.
   
4. that our BCA children learned about architecture as they “built” 3-dimensional paper houses out of brown, green and white-colored construction paper.
   
5. that when our 8-yr-old car overheated on our way to City Hall this week, we were able to get safely off the road and also call one of our bus drivers to come and fix it. The fan belt had stopped working. Then the driver locked the keys in the car, so we found a locksmith to open the car and also make a spare key. Although the delay took hours, we still had started out early enough to still be able to get to City Hall to pick up the approved fire inspection permits needed.
   
6. that the students in music classes at BCA had lots of fun this week, as they sang and danced to identify the rhythm of the songs.
   
7. that BCA’s math teacher trained the younger kids in understanding number values by having the kids place the numbers from largest to smallest, and vice versa.
   
8. that one of our preschool teachers decided to teach the pupils about flowers, plants and fruit by coloring the pictures of them, and grading them based on what color crayons they used. They also traced letters to train their small hands in the proper curvature of the letters and numbers.
   
9. that BCA’s computer teacher was able to get the shop who sold us a printer, to fix it for free this week. The black ink had stopped working.
   
10. That one of our bus drivers was able to fix the front brakes on one of BCA’s school buses this week.
    
11. That our school nurse Lucy was able to administer liniment and massages to help in the healing process for two of our BCA students who were suffering with stomachaches this week.
    
12. That when Ben, our street-kids-home administrator, was my invited guest speaker at DCL (Davao Christian Leadership Foundation) Friday, I also asked him to bring some of the boys. Yet the hotel where the meeting was held provided a great illustration, as they would not let the boys in, since they were not “dressed nice enough”. The doctors, lawyers, businessmen and pastors in DCL assured the hotel that the boys were welcome. How ironic, huh?
    
13. that when the preacher Sunday mentioned about avoiding some superstitions that a man should not marry a woman with a mole under her left eye, one of the teenagers who has a mole under her left eye in the congregation did not feel embarrassed, but laughed with the rest of the congregation.
    
14. that my associate pastor Callem’s 4-yr-old son Apec (Asap) sang a delightful solo in front of the whole church this past Sunday. His mom held the mike for him, since he kept scratching his head with both hands. Callem’s daughter Rockrock also played the drums.
    
15. That since I have been appointed as our local Kiwanis Club’s meeting coordinator, I prepared and presented a new idea for our club: a weekly PowerPoint of the program and also of the club’s ongoing financial accountability in the projects and fundraisers to help the underprivileged Filipino children. The club-members were quite satisfied with the presentation.
    
16. That during Sunday’s Monthly Men’s Bible Study, we had the best attendance yet.
    
17. That during Abby’s sleepover last week, she and her friends had a blast. Nice that these missionary kids get along so well with each other.
    
18. That our family was thoroughly blessed while attending the Faith Academy Elementary School hymn-sing. Although PJ and Abby are in High School and Middle School, since I am on the Parent Advisory Council, I attended anway.
    
19. That Sunday’s message during Children’s Sunday at church mentioned putting on the Christian’s spiritual armor (Eph 6). Many children  (and adults) saw the need for salvation, truth, righteousness, faith and solid Bible training.
    
20. that the children in our church performed awesomely Sunday during Children’s Sunday this week. After their presentation, they received thunderous applause when they gave a group bow. They held large Manila Folders to hold their music, and looked oh, so professional.
    

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $3,155 received, $26,845 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BUILDING FUND: $1,851 (Total savings for BCA’s new government-required, by 2017, $56,000 campus)

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 12.

Davao City, Philippines - HAPPY YOM KIPPUR (DAY OF ATONEMENT: 9/26) // DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS: 89.

“Paul, please join our Samaritan’s Purse prayer meeting.” My fellow triathlete Kenneth had been in many Ironman races with me, so when he, an organizer in the “Operation Christmas Child” shoebox distribution network, suggested I join him in the OCC leadership team, I went ahead. First though, I had to contact our pastoral team and move our weekly pastors’ fellowship from Thursday to Friday.

Dear Friend,

Greetings from the Philippines!

As we consider the delightful Christmas season we are blessed to see how God has poured out upon each of us this year from His endless bounty.

However, as we look at the entire planet, not all people will be able to celebrate the holidays with more than, say, an extra cup of rice on the table. No tree. No stocking. No turkey. No toys. Just an extra cup of rice.
In the Philippines, the Barner Christian Academy has decided to put some bigger smiles on children's faces this year. While in the USA this summer, my family and I challenged American children from coast-to-coast to give their almost-new stuffed animals for our 367+ destitute students to have a toy to snuggle-up with this Christmas.

These hundreds of students already have free education at the Barner Christian Academy. We determined to inquire of Operation Christmas Child (OCC of Samaritan's Purse) to send shoeboxes packed by Americans, to our students. Yet since the need is so great in this country of 100 million people, and since the # of donors in the USA is limited, OCC informed us that this year's recipients in thePhilippines would be not in our region, but three hours south of us, in Dadiangas City.

Therefore, Barner Christian Academy (BCA) has decided to provide barefoot Filipino children with high-quality black shoes and socks for every student, to complete their school uniforms.

The price of a good pair of black shoes in the Philippines runs about $20. If you would like to assist in this "Operation Christmas Stocking" (OCS), please send $20 per set of shoes and socks to the following address: Harry Barner, 18 Eileen Drive, Rensselaer, NY  12144-3102, (518) 772-2359

As soon as BCA receives enough OCS gifts for one complete classroom's students (30 kids=$600: elementary/15 kids=$300: preschool), one class will go on a field trip to the shoe store and buy shoes and socks for each child.

While some friends have donated flip-flops for our BCA kids in the past, many of these shoe coverings are already worn out, and parasitic diseases (like ringworms and pinworms) as well as diseases like rat urine entering into the bloodstream through minor cuts, enter in through the bare feet of these kids.

As you hang your family's stockings on your mantle this holiday season, may it not be only the fire that warms you, but also the comfort that somewhere on the other side of the planet, a small child's feet are also covered with socks and shoes.

Merry Christmas, and... God bless us, every one!

In Jesus, Rev. Dr. Paul M. Barner, President, Barner Christian Academy, Davao City, Philippines

Barner Christian Academy is a non-stock, non-profit (501.c.3) MIssouri, USA charity under the title "PMBMI" (Paul M. Barner Ministries Incorporated), and complies with many corporations' guidelines for matching gift programs. PMBMI will send you a tax-exempt receipt for your gift. www.barner.org blckids@yahoo.com

Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. that BCA will receive enough aid through OCS to provide shoes for every child in our school, and that we will also receive for other schools who have already heard of BCA’s new OCS program and also want to receive new shoes for their students this Christmas.
2. that our fish (in BCA’s fishpond) would live long lives., The kids love to watch them during their breaks between classes. However, when our school guard was changing the water in the tank, he forgot to return the fish to the indoor pond, and many of them died.
3. for the student who celebrated his birthday right after exams one day this week. These kids love doing fun things together as classmates. Please pray that they maintain this kind teamwork and companionship.
4. for the BCA kids. During their exams this week, although they did well in their Math and Science tests, their attention spans were quite brief.
5. for the seven fellow computer engineering classmates of our nephew Awing. They rode four hours to Davao to attend a conference, and stayed overnight Saturday in one of our BCA classrooms. They also joined us for church Sunday, where I gave a clear presentation of the Gospel plan of Salvation.
6. for the chickens which we are raising on the roof of the school. We butchered one this week, and it did seem a little scrawny.
7. for the newly-married couple Roy and Jickjick, whom I was chosen to pray for during their ceremony this week. Since our DCL foundation does not meet on the fourth and fifth Fridays of the month, I was available to attend the wedding.
8. for Rev. Cabardo, my vice president at Davao Christian Leadership Foundation. He was ordained in a great, God-honoring ceremony last week.
9. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: October 22-24 Second Periodical exams, October 29 School-wide Field Trip, October 30-November 5 Semester Break.
10. for God to provide the needed $56,000 for BCA’s new 2.2-acre campus, required by the Philippine Department of education before 2017. Total received so far: $1,841.

Praise God:

1. that Samaritan’s Purse, through Operation Christmas Child (OCC), is not only giving millions of children shoeboxes full of toys and other Christmas gifts, but also is discipling these children through a child-friendly Bible follow-up program. Praise God for this incredible ministry which God has begun through Billy Graham’s son Franklin Graham. Praise God also for this BCA school, which also disciples the entire families of our hundreds of free students.
2. that during the Awana meeting this week, PJ and Abigail were excellent as they worked with the smaller children. PJ explained, “I love working with these little ones. It makes me feel like I am their age again!” They helped with crafts, athletics, and Bible verse memorization.
3. that I finished reading through the Bible cover-to-cover for my 57th time this week. Now on to 58!
4. that the newly-retired Demille family from New York will be moving to Davao next year. They want to assist our ministry and build a house nearby.
5. that this week I was able to speak at the funerals of two of our students’ grandparents (on the same day). One woman (a relative of the deceased) prayed to receive Christ into her heart during the invitation. The grandchildren are part of BCA’s triathlon team.
6. that we were able to once again distribute rice to the poor sea-gypsy (Badjao) tribal people in a local elementary school. We also donated a large kettle to cook the rice in. The turning-over ceremony was attended by many in fellow ministries.
7. that PJ was able to catch up quickly with the schoolwork he missed on the one day he was sick. Teachers were lenient, since 20% of the students were out, due to sickness.
8. that after last week’s annual inspection by the Fire Department, BCA has been approved for yet another year, complying with all of the department’s demands. Meanwhile, just a few days after the inspection, a two-story house one block from BCA, burned down. Praise God that nobody was hurt. A child in the house had been playing with matches. Praise God also that the four fire departments arrived in time so that no other buildings could be damaged much, including our school. Sometimes when fires hit in Davao, entire neighborhoods go up in flames, due to the close proximity of the houses. One person’s kitchen wall might be (on the other side) a neighbor’s bedroom wall.
9. that one of our bus drivers was able to repair the defective horn wiring and also to replace the vehicle’s dead battery. Also praise God that none of the bus batteries have been stolen for over eight months! That has got to be a record for us.
10. That during this week’s emergency Kiwanis meeting, all of the rough edges were smoothed out in preparation for the October 6 Annual Induction Ceremony.
11. That, as this week commemorated the anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law (military rule) in the Philippines (1960), that the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship was ended in 1986.
12. That my fellow missionary’s hernia operation was successful, and he is recuperating speedily.
13. that one of the teenage incarcerated boys in our friend Joe’s outreach to the local jail, became a Christian. He has also now, after being released, begun attending Joe’s church and wants to train to become a pastor!
14. that my octogenarian parents are gradually recuperating from their car accident, which occurred six months ago.
15. That our Thursday evening prayer meeting was cancelled, allowing me to attend the 17th birthday party of my associate pastor’s daughter. As senior pastor, I also led the prayer time and well-wishes during the ceremony.
16. That the two churches which meet on the front lawn of our “Father’s House” home for street girls, have decided to combine into one large weekly worship service.
17. That another donor sent a small check to assist with the ministry of our two homes for street children.
18. That Ben, the administrator of our “Father’s House” home for street girls, and “Shepherd’s House” home for street boys, has responded favorably to my request that he be our guest speaker at Davao Christian Leadership’s monthly meeting next Friday.
19. That our family’s September illnesses (stomachaches, dysentery, rashes, fever, coughing, sniffles, and other flu symptoms) have begun to clear up this past week. PJ was out of school one day, and Elvie was out of work for three days, recuperating. PJ will have continued checkups for clogged lungs.
20. That during classes today at BCA, some of the younger students learned in Math what sets are, as well as the distinction of various fruits, including a competition to draw and color many different fruits.

NOTE: OCS gifts may also be received through Christian Aid Mission, to 801-BLC.

BUILDING FUND: $1,841 (Total savings for BCA’s new, government-required, by 2017, $56,000 campus)

USA Magic Jack VOIP #: (518) 772-2359.

Present need: $7,340 for new shoes and socks for all our 367 students at BCA this Christmas.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $3,150 received, $26,850 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

HAPPY JEWISH NEW YEAR 5773 (ROSH HASANA 9/17), FIRST DAY OF AUTUMN (9/22)!

(if you desire our Prayer Supplement, you may receive one upon request. The diary is dated each Thursday, and the supplement each Friday)

“Last night, I didn’t get to sleep at all…oh, oh!” I had to laugh when this song was the first one to come on when I turned on the radio after picking up PJ at his all-night sleepover at Faith Academy School in Mindanao. The Christian station just had talking and I felt like listening to music. So I found a “seventies” station, listening to it as I drove out to the school at 7am to pick up PJ.

Of course the idea of a sleepover is to get as little sleep as possible. So a “sleepover” is really an “Awake-through-the-night”. After a few family-friendly movies and lots of fun games and eating, the high schoolers all got together and started cooking lots and lots of food.

Through the night they slaved, until the wee hours of the morning, when the hundreds of meals of rice and fish, plus small Philippine breakfast  snacks, were ready for distribution.

Then, the group of high school students broke up into teams and scattered all over the poorest sections of Davao City. At dawn, these five or six teams of half a dozen or so each, with faculty chaperones for drivers, gave out food to starving poor beggars and homeless families.

Oh, the smiles!  Sure, the teens were exhausted from their all-nighter, but where they lacked with energy by staying awake, God energized them, as they saw the smiles of those poor people who were able to feast on a hearty breakfast. They also were able to give out lots and lots of Gospel tracts and to share about Jesus.

Great job, Faith Academy! Thanks for training our kids in what is truly important in life…to serve God, tell others about Jesus, and have fun in the process!

Hmm, maybe someday we’ll try something like that right here in our quadruple ministry at Barner Christian Academy, Father’s House for Street Girls, Shepherd’s House for Street Boys, and Faith Fellowship Church, as well! Filipino kids helping other Filipinos!

Oh, and PJ slept-in for the rest of the day…

Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

BUILDING FUND: $1,801 (Total savings for BCA’s new, government-required, by 2017, $56,000 campus)

Present need: $615  for six new fire extinguishers, as well as “recharging” of nine of our other ones, to fulfill the requirements of the Fire Department’s recent inspection of our BCA school.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. that those poor Filipinos who had received Gospel tracts and free meals last weekend will start attending churches around Davao City, knowing that God’s people do care for them in a loving, warm and Christ-like way.
2. that our family’s September illnesses (stomachaches, dysentery, rashes, coughing, sniffles, and other flu symptoms) will clear up this week.
3. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: September
   21-28 Citywide Davao DAPRISA Sports Fest, September 21 Second Preliminary Exams, October 22-24 Second Periodical exams, October 29 School-wide Field Trip, October 30-November 5 Semester Break.
4. for God to provide the needed $56,000 for BCA’s new 2.2-acre campus, required by the Philippine Department of education before 2017. Total received so far: $1,801.
5. for our computer teacher Dexter, as he balances teaching his class, with the duties of making/designing our school ID tags.
6. for one of our fellow missionaries, who needed to borrow my Philippine Blood Donor card, as he is too old to donate. He needed the card in order to purchase blood for his upcoming hernia operation.
7. for our teachers this week, as their Bible focus for the students is on “Noah’s Ark”. Many of these children’s families come from religions which believe that the Bible is full of good teaching, but that the stories are just fables. Here at BCA, they learn that the Bible is the Word of God, and totally true, for God does not lie.
8. for the church in the USA which sent many baby clothes to us here.
   The timing was perfect, as Pancilita (the widow running our street-girls’ home) is due to deliver her baby in early October. What is amazing is that these clothes were mailed even before we knew that Pancilita existed, nor that her husband would die just a month before the boxes arrived! Please pray that the sending church will continue to be led by God in the delightful answers to prayer as they fill these huge boxes and send them the 3-6 month journey across the Pacific Ocean.
9. for the one-year-old baby whom my associate pastor Callem and I dedicated to Jesus this week. The family lives in a tiny house, yet nearly fifty neighbors and friends came over to eat and to hear the Bible challenge and singing which we, as a team, presented.
10. for our friend Joe’s outreach to the local jail. We work together on the outreach, and each Thursday morning provide worship services and feeding programs for the otherwise hungry “teenage and early-twenties” male young adult criminals. One of the boys is young enough to possibly be allowed into our Shepherds’ House” home for street boys.

Praise God:

1. that God has provided wonderful Christians in this world who have the ability to look and find ways to shine the love of Christ in some small way. And also that people like the teachers at Faith Academy are able to creatively direct and lead other believers, both young and old, in ways to serve Jesus. Perhaps one day, many of these missionary kids at Faith will become missionaries themselves.
2. that when I called a retired widow friend in New York this week to wish her a happy birthday, she blessed our family by praying for us!
3. that the electric ice cream maker which a friend in Texas sent us is still working fine, even though often American appliances often have a short lifespan here in the humid tropics.
4. that a fellow missionary had purchased a big bag of dry milk to reconstitute for drinking. Yet he did not realize that it was only designed for baking. Thus he gave our family half the bag for free, as long as we once in a while give him a cake. What fun!
5. that BCA’s preschool classes have learned this week to distinguish between the English “s” and “es”, as well as the Filipino letter “LL”, which is not in the English alphabet. This letter is pronounced “LYEH”.
6. that the staff of BCA is regularly helping to beautify the grounds of our school campus. This is helping to keep costs down as we comply with the ever-increasing demands of a secular Department of Education over our Christian institution.
7. that, although our main sewing machine was broken,  one of our bus drivers was able to check its operational manual and fix the machine so that more uniforms could be made by our school treasurer.
8. that our Thursday pastors’ fellowship attendees were willing to reschedule our meeting to Friday so I could join the OCC’s Thursday prayer meetings.
9. that our school treasurer Minmin, who was scheduled to give the teachers’ Bible Study Monday, although she was sick Sunday night, prayed and woke up refreshed. Her message was, “Be strong and Courageous” from Joshua 1:9.  Another secretary who was sick was challenged to pray for her health. She too was healed!
10. That the violent unrest experienced against Americans in Sydney, Australia this past week has not spread to the Philippines.
11. That during our first Sunday to renew worship services of our Agdao church plant, we had 14 adults and 20 children attend.
12. That the pastor of the Agdao church plant which we began was not harmed when he and his wife got a flat tire on their motorcycle en route to church this Sunday.
13. that our “Father’s House” home for street girls has received two more donations this week to assist with feeding and clothing the endangered girls, as well as to help the widowed family which runs the home.
14. that PJ and one of his Korean classmates received a perfect 100% on their original musical rendition of Deuteronomy 15:11. They sang and also played the accordion. However, PJ’s assistant forgot to do the accompanying choreography. The teacher said that, had they added the missing part, they would have exceeded 100% by over thirty points!
    After class, many of their classmates were humming the catchy tune PJ and John had composed.
15. That during our recent Davao Christian Leadership Fellowship prayer meeting, we were able to review the false doctrines of a fellow believer and assist in understanding the mistakes in his approach.
16. That during the recent inspection by the Fire Department, the inspector was very pleased with our strong and adequate fire escape.
17. That we were able to open and sort three large boxes of used clothes and other items sent from the USA this week, for poor Filipino kids.
18. That I began attending the Operation Christian Child (OCC Samaritans’ Purse Christmas Shoeboxes) prayer meeting this past Thursday.
19. That our Agdao church plant, which had stopped worship for a year, has restarted their worship services this past Sunday.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $3,145 received,
$26,855 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 12.

Davao City, Philippines PATRIOT DAY USA (9/11)

“Ooooohhh, that roasted pig smells awesome!” It seemed so amazing that the same very smelly, very noisy pig just a few hours earlier, was now the source of the sweet, spicy, savory fragrance that was lulling our family to sleep.

Friends had come over to butcher and roast the pig and also to prepare lots of other Filipino food (lumpia, pancit, etc.) in preparation for Elvie’s 45th birthday this past Sunday. Many from the church and school had donated food for the feast, knowing that hundreds of poor men, women and children would be in church the next day for the celebration.

Some finds stayed up all night long, talking and singing together, as they worked over a wood campfire behind our small house. Then, at about 4am, blended in with the whiffs of food cooking, were the wafts of guitar and song. A dozen or so family friends had come over to serenade Elvie and to be the first to grant her well-wishes for this special birthday.

It is a rare and delightful occasion for the pastor’s wife’s birthday to land on a Sunday. In church, PJ and Abigail joined in with the fun.

Elvie sat in a chair up on the stage. After I gave the birthday celebrant a bouquet of roses, PJ and Abby gave her their cards. I sang her the solo which I’d sung to her 16 years ago at our wedding, PJ and Abby sang a duet (which they themselves had written), and the BCA students handed her hand-made cards they’d prepared for the occasion.

Before my associate pastor preached his Bible sermon, Our fifteen-yr-old son PJ gave the Scripture reading from the book of Matthew. Abigail, dressed in a white dress, performed with the tambourine team in their interpretive choreography for our opening song, “At the Cross I Bow My Knee”. Even our dog Jana celebrated the occasion by birthing six puppies!

And yet the best birthday gift was when pre-elected children, youth, men and women came up to the stage to be prayed over and inducted as officers in the church auxiliaries for 2012-2013. Each of these new leaders (presidents, vice presidents, secretaries, etc.) have a story.

Some used to be homeless. Many are quite poor and have never held any kind of position of authority over others in their lives. Many are treated worse than slaves in their labor-intensive, poverty-level jobs. But here, in church, they have positions where they can shine and help others.

As Elvie watched, these members of poor families agreed to carry out their newfound roles in the church to help other orphaned, abandoned, abused, undirected and aimless individuals.

What a great privilege, to see others benefit from the years that God has granted us! And what better place that church, where we celebrate God’s stooping low to empower and lift us up to great heights in service to Him!
Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. that God will direct these new leaders in their positions of authority. The men will do minor construction for poor squatter families whose bamboo and coconut-leaf homes are falling apart. The ladies will sew together curtains from cloth remnants that friends in the USA have mailed to us. These curtains will be given to the poor families whose small shacks have no doors. The youth and children will be distributing Gospel tracts and scripture verses door-to-door and in stores.
2. that the preschool-graded BCA pupils’ math skills, which this covered “less-than (<), greater-than (>) and equals (=), will retain this information for their exams next week.
3. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: September 14-28 Citywide Davao DAPRISA Sports Fest, September 19-21 Second Preliminary Exams, October 22-24 Second Periodical exams, October 29 School-wide Field Trip, October 30-November 5 Semester Break.
4. for God to provide the needed $56,000 for BCA’s new 2.2-acre campus, required by the Philippine Department of education before 2017. Total received so far: $1,784.
5. for Faith Academy Mindanao, the missionary school which our kids PJ and Abby attend, as they are looking for a new school administrator (principal)  for the school year 2013-2014.
6. for many of our teacher sat Barner Christian Academy, who are donating their time after school to provide free tutorials to bring many of the poorer children up to the level of the less-indigent ones.
7. for the Davao Christian Leadership Foundation, a volunteer ministry of which I am the president. In our weekly prayer meeting, the members approved of my desire to include in our monthly speakers, not only visitors from the government, but also highlights on different Para church ministries in Davao, such as “Child Evangelism Fellowship”, “Campus Crusade”, “Operation Christmas Child”, “Evangelism Explosion”, “AWANA”, etc. I have already assigned a speaker from “Father’s House” and also the Spiritual Guideliner to bring the Bible message for the October meeting. However, I have yet to get final confirmation of a local Chinese pastor to be the Bible speaker for November, and also a representative from the Gideons to speak. Please pray that within the next month we will have confirmation for all 24 speakers for the next twelve months.
8. for the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Fire Department to quickly approve of (without bribes, which we always refuse to pay) the permits which Elvie submitted the forms for this week. Also please pray that the 2013-12014 operational permit of the school will be approved by the Department of Education for higher levels than we presently offer.
9. for the six puppies that our dog Jana delivered this week. In Jana’s previous four litters, all the puppies died within their first month. These however look stronger. Even as newborn pups, these little critters are quite cute and cuddly.
10. for Elvie, who is planning on entering the hospital this month to see about her developing goiter and potential surgery.
11. for our telephone “landline” connection to be repaired soon.

Praise God:

1. that after Sunday’s church feast, there were enough leftovers to feed many poor families the next day (Monday).
2. that Elvie was able to meet the deadline of submission for the annual Principal’s report to the Department of Education for 2012-2013.
3. that I (Paul) was appointed to the Parents’ Advisory Council (PAC) at Faith Academy Mindanao, to be one of the few who will present to the board of the school the suggestions and comments of the parents of the school’s student body.
4. that on the first few Sundays at church, many poor parents were challenged to help other poor people, during September, “Stewardship Month”. Many left bags of food (rice, fruit, and eggs) on the altar for the church to distribute to other poorer families.
5. that there were many visitors in church on Sunday.
6. that the Hallelujah Church, which lost their lease on their former 2-decade-long place of worship, re-started their worship services last Sunday, on the front lawn of our “Father’s House” home for street girls.
7. that our Agdao church plant, which we closed last year, due to a lack of focus, has been re-evaluated and made new plans for their bright future. They will restart their worship this next Sunday, on the front lawn of our “Father’s House” home for street girls.
8. that seven of our nine church plants were willing to combine worship last Sunday to celebrate Elvie’s 45th birthday.
9. that during my challenge to the congregation this Sunday, my hand, which I set on the pulpit, was grabbed by a large beetle with very long legs. At first he did not let go, but he also did not bite. I didn’t recognize the type of bug, but doubt that he was poisonous. It did make for quite a little show in front of the congregation though, as I tried to get rid of him.
10. That our school nurse was able to feed chewable children’s multiple vitamins to all of our Kindergarten-level pupils at Barner Christian Academy. These vitamins had been donated by friends in the USA. The kids often are served a menu at home which fills their bellies, but is quite lacking in nutritional value.
11. That our school was not sued by the local gas station. Since I was out of the country for about six months, our school cashier only paid a small portion of the fuel bill for our buses. However, a New York church gave a special gift, which paid the bill in full. As a result, we closed the credit account last week, and were even refunded the original cash deposit, made eleven years ago.
12. That the BCA kids were learning first Aid in their health class, and also learned many of the basics for computer keyboard commands.
13. that, as a result of the school’s previous Nutrition Month focus this year, the students were responsive this week as the instructors reviewed the identification of foods as “sweet, salty or bitter”.
14. that a friend from Alabama sent $100 to help with expenses for the delivery of Widow Pancilita’s October baby. Pancilita’s husband died last month and the young widow came with her three girls to run our “Father’s House” home for street girls. $150 of other funds had also been donated this week to help with startup costs in getting the home operational for the entrance of the new street kids.
15. That Lydia, a squatter woman who had tried to move into our home for street girls when we were all out, has finally removed the last of her furniture from the premises.
16. That Sarah, the printshop owner who was three years delinquent in producing the two yearbooks which we had paid her to produce, has finally shown up with the layout and rough draft of the project. Please pray that she finish the entire project before November.
17. That, after bicycling and/or running an average of 7 miles a day, my neck is finally starting to heal of its painful stiffness.
18. That PJ sang on Sunday in a trio at church, the praise chorus “The Alabaster Jar”. He also read the Scripture portion from the parable of the Talents, in the book of Matthew.
19. That our internet connection was repaired this week.

Present need: $141 for repairs on BCA's School Bus #F: 2 Suspension Arms, 2 Sets of Tie Rod Ends, 1 wheel bolt, and 8 engine valves.

BUILDING FUND: $1,784 (Total savings for BCA’s new, government-required, by 2017, $56,000 campus)

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 12.

Davao City, Philippines HAPPY 45th BIRTHDAY, ELVIE! (9/9)

“Please help the street children…” While on our four-month speaking tour in the USA this year, I shared with hundreds of dedicated believers about the dire need for a home for street girls here in Davao, Philippines. Some dear Christians expressed strong interest in coming out, but not immediately. Meanwhile, the homeless girls living on Davao’s streets were being endangered every evening.

Yet we continued to pray, knowing that God would send somebody to help. Then, a few weeks ago, the cousin of one of our BCA bus drivers asked me to speak at the funeral of his cousin Anselmo, who’d died from dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease. At the burial, I was touched while watching Anselmo’s three small girls and pregnant widow Pancilita, knowing that they would have no livelihood, now with their sole breadwinner gone.

A few days ago I was glancing through the pictures that friends had taken of the family during the funeral. One was a close-up, and I could see the shiny line that a tear had made, down the face of their middle child, Melody. “Oh Lord,” I prayed, “You know every tear that falls from our eyes. Please respond to the one from this seven year old!” And you also prayed for this family, and God performed a miracle.

Shortly after, I received an email from Dean, our friend who had given funds for the small house which we had purchased to be the new street-girls’ home. “Please request Anselmo’s widow and three girls to be the first residents, and house parent, of our new girls’ home! A board member has sent $150 to move them in and give them their first month’s food!” he requested. YES! God is AWESOME!

Yesterday, pregnant widow Pancilita, 4-yr-old Esabelle, 7-yr-old Melody, and 10-yr-old Jurgy rode a bus the nine hours back to Davao, and stopped first at our Barner Christian Academy. While waiting for the others on our “Father’s House” team to arrive, I played games with the girls, built tiny houses with wooden blocks and toy cars sent by friends in Utah, fed them and showed them “Chicken Little” and “Tinkerbell” on TV.

Oh, to hear the hearty laughter of these small children, after seeing the tears in Melody’s eyes, added years to my life! Then, after lunch, we all went over to show them their new home and job, as host family at the Father’s House. We each imagined the six bunk beds filled with a dozen street girls, bustling in the home.  Also three new churches are willing to worship, in tandem, every Sunday on the front lawn of the small home, and also to assist the family during the upcoming birth and house-warming. Of course BCA will provide free schooling for all the girls.

There in the front room of the “Father’s House” Girl’s Home, Melody was already napping on one of the bunk beds. It’d been a long 9-hour trip for them, starting 3am that morning from the jungle areas of Mindanao. Ben (our administrator) reached over and tucked a soft blue pillow under her head.

Now, due to your prayers, street girls will be rescued, a homeless and fatherless family will be employed and educated, the widow will be spiritually discipled by a female Bible school graduate on our BCA staff, and others who want to come over to assist from other countries, will have opportunity to do so.

Yes, God saw Melody’s small tear. He touched your heart to pray. Lives are being transformed. We do have one very awesome God, who never misses even one small tear!

Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. that Pancilita and her family will fit-in well with their new home and ministry, and that many street children will be rescued and brought into the new Father’s House Girl’s Home.
2. that the students in Davao’s annual citywide DAPRISA games September 24-28 will all do their very best.
3. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: September 7-28 Citywide Davao DAPRISA Sports Fest, September 19-21 Second Preliminary Exams, October 22-24 Second Periodical exams, October 29 School-wide Field Trip, October 30-November 5 Semestral Break.
4. for God to provide the needed $56,000 for BCA’s new 2.2-acre campus, required by the Philippine Department of education before 2017. Total received so far: $1,714.
5. for the church who has been using the front lawn of our street kids ministry for eleven months, as they transition to a new location. Also for the two new churches which will be worshipping in their place: one on Sunday mornings and the other on Sunday afternoons.
6. for our school printers. They all have been negatively affected by the rising humidity, due to the consistent rain this past month.
7. for our school internet WiFi to begin working again. It has been non-functional for over a week now, requiring that I do all my internet usage in restaurants in the city.
8. for a short-term missionary banker Brianna, who has already purchased tickets to fly to Davao and help out this December..
9. for our preschoolers as they are having challenges in learning initial usage and English Language. Yet they are quite good in learning the Cebuano grammar.
10. for Methuzelah, a one-year-old baby girl whom I dedicated to the Lord this week. Please pray that God will answer this request, that she truly become a great woman of God, and live long years faithfully serving Him. I challenged all present to “come to Jesus like a child” using the acrostic: KID: K=know God and keep close to Him, I=identify with God and be known by His characteristics, and D=depend on God for your every need.
11. For PJ and Abigail, as they are showing Christian movies to the children at Prayer Meeting (in a separate classroom from the main worship) each Wednesday evening.
12. for a friend in Michigan who had to drop her sponsorship after being a sponsor for nearly a decade.

PRAISE:

1. that Barner Christian Academy has found compatible schools to provide education for Melody and Jurgy, who are considered BCA-OCSes (BCA Off-Campus Students), while their sister Esabelle will be schooling on the BCA campus itself during the remainder of 2012-2013.
2. that four boxes full of used clothes arrived from Utah this week, and we will be distributing these clothes to needy families over the Christmas season, which includes the months from September through February.
3. that the two boys who were consistently late for school, missing the bus everyday, have responded to your prayers and are now early every single day.
4. that after our rabbit “Raffy” died this week, we were able to get a fish “Fargo” and aquarium as well.
5. that when our main speaker and Spiritual guideliner both decided to back out of speaking at our monthly Davao Christian Leadership Foundation meeting, I was able to get my Child Evangelism Fellowship representative to speak, after I gave the Biblical challenge from the example of Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego in the fiery furnace, walking with God. The meeting was well attended and all responded very favorably to both messages.
6. that the five large boxes which I had mailed form Missouri this past June finally arrived this week, filled with many special items donated to the school froom friends I’d visited in the states of Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mexico and Guam.
7. that PJ, Abigail and half a dozen of their friends, came over to our place to help bake and decorate eight chocolate cakes for Elvie’s birthday. Each cake had a letter, to spell out, “M-O-M E-L-V-I-E”. The cake mixes had arrived in a box from friends in Utah.
8. that during Wednesday evening prayer meeting, we were all challenged by my assistant pastor Callem’s message from Jude on how we are to prepare for Living in these Last Days.
9. that BCA’s culture day went extremely well, with presentations from every class in the school.
10. That the pregnant widow Pancilita and her three small daughters are adjusting very well to their new residence at our Father’s House street girls’ home.
11. That a friend in Florida gave $70 this week toward a pledge made for my recent Philippine Ironman triathlon, at $1 per mile. This $70 will go toward the need for BCA’s building fund need for the new $56,000 campus by 2017.
12. That when I visited all of our BCA classrooms one-by-one, all classes looked very joyful. The student’s cheerfulness was so invigorating!
13. that during this week’s 5.6 earthquake in nearby Bukidnon, only one person died, in a Cagayan de Oro landslide.
14. that this week, our BCA printer came with us to the lawyer and agreed to our demands that her four-year old unfinished school yearbook project would be finished in this calendar year.
15. That Typhoon Denden, which hit the Philippines this week, did not provide as much damage as Typhoon Bolaven from the week before.
16. That the 7.9 earthquake which hit Mindanao last Saturday, was only 5.6 intensity in Davao, and though cracking the walls of a Davao mall, didn’t provide landslides like in our neighboring province of Compostella Valley.
17. That PJ and Abby came in first place on two separate days in their weeklong school dress-up “Spirit Week” competition.
18. That after I spoke in church on Sunday about Korah’s Rebellion against Moses, our discipleship coordinators Inday and Alex repeated one-on-one with parents (in Cebuano) my challenge that, “Repentance is a U-Turn away from sin. If you continue in your sin, then you likely never really repented to begin with.”
19. That our discipleship coordinator Alex gave the devotional message for our teachers this week, and challenged them from Christ’s example when He ministered to the “Little Ones”.
20. That the BCA teachers successfully covered this week for the younger grades, their basic motor skills, by tracing letters with the strokes they had learned, as well as the numbers 1-4.

Present need: $141 for repairs on BCA's School Bus #F: 2 Suspension Arms, 2 Sets of Tie Rod Ends, 1 wheel bolt, and 8 engine valves.

BUILDING FUND: $1,714 (Total savings for BCA’s new, government-required, by 2017, $56,000 campus)

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $3,135 received, $26,865 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

Davao City, Philippines August 30, 2012 HAPPY LABOR DAY, USA! (9/2)

"Now you will have to be strong." Looking down at the little three girls and over at their 7-months-pregnant mommy, I had to wonder what their future would hold.

Two weeks ago their 39-yr-old dad/husband Aselmo was bitten by a Dengue-infected mosquito while transporting his brother's water buffaloes to market. When fever, rashes and severe stomach pains revealed that he had dengue fever, he was rushed to the rural hospital. Doctors couldn't solve the dilemma, and sent him nine hours away to the Davao hospital.

Ben, one of BCA's bus drivers, is Aselmo's cousin. When Aselmo arrived in Davao, Ben went to the pharmacy to buy the much-needed medicine. But before it could even be opened, Aselmo breathed his last.

Aselmo's pregnant wife and three girls were still nine hours away. The mother took a bus ride to the week-long funeral, leaving her girls behind. She didn't have the funds to transport them to their own dad's wake. An older brother said, "I will get them myself!" So during the interment of the body, the whole family was present.

They couldn't afford much of a burial. The graveyard for the poor is only $130 per plot, so they found a two-foot-wide crevice between two other above-ground cement "ponsion" graves, and sqeezed the skinny casket into the space, cementing it in.

The entire staff of BCA was present, to sing, preach, and pray, witnessing the burial. Narry, another of our bus drivers, held his hand out when the window was about to be closed over the face of the deceased. "Let his daughters have one last look," he whispered kindly.

One by one, the older two of the little girls peeked in at their daddy, with resolute expressions as if to say, "Bye, Papa. See I am strong. I am not crying." But the dampness around their eyes revealed otherwise. The youngest, a three-year-old, was picked up by her Momma, to peep in as well. And then the window was shut.

Standing balanced on the "towers" of other cement poncions, some stacked three or four cement boxes-high, we sang final songs as the cementworker completed his task with framework of discarded lumber, rusty-hole-ridden tin from a shack's roof, and fresh cement. Thus is one reason why poor graveyards are called "cement-eries".

On our way back to the vehicles, I rubbed against the youngest girl's shoulder. "You are kusgan... you are so strong!" The girls and their mom smiled at me.

Meanwhile the deceased's brother burned the empty cement bags. One by one, as per tradition of the tribe, the relatives stepped over the smokey flames. This, they explained, was to give good luck as the ghost of the dead would not come back to haunt them.

I can't help but reflect on this family. What will happen now? No job, three little girls, no wage-earner, and a baby on the way. Maybe they can move to Davao. Maybe we can enroll the kids at Barner Christian Academy. Maybe...maybe...maybe.

There are lots of others like Aselmo's family in the Philippines. We cannot help them all. But one here...another one there...

Just before the BCA multicab reached home, I heard a young teen call out to me from the roadside. "Hi Pastor Paul!" It was Jeffrey, a graduate of BCA, whom we'd picked up off the sidewalk years ago, and entrolled his family in our school. Yes, we are making a difference. Lives being trasnformed and being given hope.

Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. that Aselmo's widow and kids will survive, without their dad/husband/wage-earner.
2. that God will give me discernment in carrying out my newly-elected position as  Chairman for Child Evangelism Fellowship’s Davao District #2, and that I can balance this with being president of Davao Christian Leadership Foundation, Sparrow’s Gate Philippines, Father’s House for Street Children and other Children At-Risk, Senior Founding Pastor of Faith Fellowship’s eight churches, President of PMBMI,  Destiny Church Vision Center, and Kiwanis Club of Davao City: all volunteer positions.
3. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events:  August 31-September 29 Citywide Davao DAPRISA Sports Fest, August 31 Philippine Culture Month School-wide Celebration, September 7 Parent-Teacher Consultation Day, September 19-21 Second Preliminary Exams, October 22-24 Second Periodical exams, October 29 School-wide Field Trip, October 30-November 5 Semestral Break.
4. for God to provide the needed $56,000 for BCA’s new 2.2-acre campus, required by the Philippine Department of education before 2017. Total received so far: $1,698.
5. for wisdom, growth and discernment for PJ and Abigail, who were elected as officers in our church youth group. PJ is Auditor and Abby is “Sergeant-At-Arms”.
6. for the Child evangelism Fellowship here in Davao City, which is teaching “Values education” from a Biblical perspective, in many local public schools.
7. for PJ and Abigail, as they carry-out their new responsibilities at church (they volunteered). PJ plays keyboards while Abby has joined the tambourine team during the church’s “Praise and Worship” time.
8. for our church auxiliary teams this year. Their plans include: KIDS: give-out Gospel tracts in stores (hundreds were donated by a friend in the USA: Used greeting cards, with writing cut out and Filipino Bible verses attached), YOUTH/SINGLES: distribute Gospel tracts from door-to-door in nearby neighborhoods, WOMEN: sew curtains for the poor and distribute some of the used clothes that have been mailed by friend in the USA, MEN: help to do minor construction for some of the dilapidated shanties of poor families nearby.
9. for the students at BCA to maintain their perfect attendance at the school’s weekly chapel meetings.
10. for the staff of BCA as they, in their few leisure moments,  measure and cut cloth for the students’ uniforms this year.
11. For the printer who has served BCA for the past eight years. A year ago, when she received funds to print our annual yearbook, she ran away with the money and has not been heard from again. Please pray that she either returns the funds supplied, or else that she prints the yearbook.
12. for one of the BCA students who is always missing his bus, requiring his family to find other ways of getting him to school.

Praise God:

1. that Barner Christian Academy has almost 500 sponsors to provide an education for the children of destitute down-and-out Filipino families.
2. that our associate pastor’s message from Jeremiah was well-received Sunday, plus my comments afterward elicited favorable responses of a few in the congregation who dedicated their lives afresh to serving Jesus. Also one of our intern pastors (parent of a BCA student)  spoke at our Panantongan rural church plant.
3. that during our BCA finance meeting on Monday, we were able to budget the funds for the month of September, and also make plans for the payment of bills for the month of October, based on previous giving a year ago.
4. that during our civic club meeting on Tuesday, we provided a fifty kilogram-sack  of rice (over 100 pounds), plus other nutritious food for the Bajao sea gypsies, who are in an inner-city public school , sponsored by various civic clubs and churches. I also was able to pray with the principal, as well as to interact with dozens fo small, very poor  school children.
5. that during our Pastors’ Fellowship at our new residence last Thursday (in the former Home Economics Building), we had a joyful time of fun, food and fellowship, with all twelve present.
6. that since last Friday’s DCL Foundation Prayer Meeting was cancelled, Elvie and I took the opportunity to pray together with our assistant pastor and his wife, over breakfast at McDonalds Restaurant.
7. that a friend in the USA is challenging her church to send 500 shoeboxes (like with Operation Christmas Child) filled with Christmas treats, directly to our school of 500 kids here in the Philippines!
8. that last Sunday evening, being the last Sunday of the month, many of the men in the church gathered together in the small home of one of our members, for a Bible Study on the sacrifices necessary in the Christian Life. This study rotates from house-to-house. Please pray that the neighbors of this family will stop smoking, as their home has no windows, and the children are having difficulty breathing.
9. that Elvie’s devotional this week, for the teachers and staff of BCA, was on the life of William Carey. The faculty learned from his example and from the scriptural passage which Elvie taught from, that we should “Expect great things from God, Attempt great things for God, and Accept great things from God.” Carey’s life was inspirational, in that he translated the Bible into many different languages and led multitudes to Jesus. He was willing to overcome enormous obstacles in order to serve God.
10. That the two homeless families who were staying in our home have finally found other places to stay. The homeless girl was adopted by one of our childless teaching couples in the church and school, and also the homeless couple and their two young kids stay with us during the weekends, but have another place to stay during the week.

BUILDING FUND: $1,698 (Total savings for BCA’s new, government-required, by 2017, $56,000 campus)

Present need: $141 for repairs on BCA's School Bus #F: 2 Suspension Arms, 2 Sets of Tie Rod Ends, 1 wheel bolt, and 8 engine valves.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $3,130 received, $26,870 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 11.

Davao City, NATIONAL HEROES' DAY (PHILIPPINES: 8/26)

"Please come...I slaughtered a goat!" Since nutritious food is scarce in the Philippines, the poor often save up their centavos (pennies) over the months for special events. One such event was the birthday of a friend. She'd raised a goat all year so she could butcher it this week to celebrate her 43rd birthday.

After the BCA students were delivered to their respective homes in the BCA "multicab" school busses, our family, and some others from church, came for the feast. Yet after seeing the table, I realized that the large group we had could not gorge themselves on the "fixins". So I filled my plate, but mostly with rice.

"Eat some more!" suggested the host, the mother of one of our BCA students. But in answer, I kept my plate scarce. After lots of singing, plus a sermon and a joyful time, we used our flashlights to find our way on the muddy path, back to the multicab. Driving back to the school, we popped in to see (and preach from the Bible for, and pray with) another student's mom, who was struggling with cancer.

In answer to prayer, this woman's cancer had been receeding. Instead of her former lying down on a bed, within an oxygen tent, Apple was now sitting up and smiling at us. "Today is my daughter Angel's 15th birthday," said Apple. "Please eat!" Elvie and the others (with stuffed tummies) rolled their eyes at me, carefully out of sight of our host. However, since I still had lots of room, I satisfactorilly dug in and feasted away!

The next day I performed four funerals, for other friends who had passed away a few days previous. Most had died of dengue fever, due to the recent heavy rains and increase in mosquito population. One was wealthy. The others were not. "Feast your starving soul upon Jesus' salvation!" I challenged. "Whether you are rich or poor, Jesus calls out to you.

In the first funeral home, one room was reserved for the casket. But in the funeral home for the poor, the three, a grandfather, a father and a baby girl, were all in painted wooden boxes against various walls of one room. "You never know when you will enter eternity...you could go as a baby, as a dad, or even as a grandfather. Are you ready?"

After prayer, I strolled to the back of the building where a white plastic bag covered a new corpse. Yet I did not fill my curiosity to peep into the bag to see the face. After all, I did not know this woman's family. A holy hush came over me as I considered that the Christian School and church that we have begun have given us "permission" to enter into the tenderest portions of theese dear families' lives, and to share Jesus with them!

Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

Present need: $69.29 to repair the cyllinder head and valves of our BCA school bus B ($35.72 for shop labor, and $33.57 for engine block machining labor)

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. that our friend Apple will be completely healed of her cancer, and that the 500 BCA students will be safe from dengue-fever-ridden mosquitoes during this extremely rainy season.
2. that four BCA students, Nica, Kylle, Julima and Christian will be able to pull up their low grades. They have been sick due to the inclemengt weather, and thus have missed many classes.
3. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events:  August 24-September 29 Citywide Davao DAPRISA Sports Fest, August 24-31 Philippine Culture Month, August 24-31 BCA First Periodical Examinations, August 31 Philippine Culture Month School-wide Celebration.
4. for God to provide the needed $56,000 for BCA’s new 3-acre campus, required by the Philippine Department of Education before 2017. Total received so far: $1,655.
5. for safety for the hundreds of children who attend Sunday School in our church, and classes in our school. During a Davao City Child Protection Seminar this week, I learned that some extremely dangerous criminals are parading as teachers and child sponsors, when actually their desire is to harm children, either killing them or leaving lifetime scars of physical and mental anguish. Some of the evil perpetrators are actually incestuous parents of the very children whom they brought into the world!
   Praise God:
6. that while returning from the graveyard this week, when we were driving through fast-moving strong floodwaters  and the BCA School Bus #F stopped working, our bus driver Nari was finally able to get it started again and get us through the deep waters safely.
7. that our Old Testament family devotions each morning this week were a deep blessing, as the lessons learned were great research for “surprise” impromptu messages that I was called on to perform.
8. that while running and bicycling dozens of miles this week, I was able to listen to the entire books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon.
9. that a young family in Colorado decided to sponsor a BCA child this week. They have been considering it for over a year, and have now decided to “adopt” a student. Yay, God!

PRAISE: that these four who were so sick, are now in eternity, free from the pain that they had suffered with.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $3,125 received, $26,875 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BUILDING FUND: $1,655 (Total savings for BCA’s new, government-required, by 2017, $56,000 campus)

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 11.

Davao City, Philippines HAPPY KADAYAWAN! (DAVAO PHILIPPINES HARVEST FESTIVAL, 8/17), HAPPY NINOY AQUINO DAY! (8/21)

     "Please help my starving child!" As I drove from a civic club meeting downtown, a man in rags and a pouty face held his dust-covered child out to me, begging that I would give him something, anything, as hope from his troubled life of hunger and homelessness.

     When living in the Third World, beggars and poverty are a constant reality. This begging father was an example of what our speaker, a Major in the Philippine military, had explained.

     “The Philippines has the longest-ongoing insurgencies in all of Asia, with some constant for over 43 years!” he had revealed. With PowerPoint he targeted areas of the Philippines on his map. “And our area of the Philippines is the most dangerous. Of the 53 known Philippine terrorist camps, our island of Mindanao hosts almost half.  Of those, the majority are in Region Eleven, where Davao is situated.

     The thirty or so in attendance at the meeting were amazed. We knew the problem of Islamic secessionists and Communist rebels was bad, but not that the hotbed upon which we live held such a bleak condition.

     “You might think that we’d put on a “tiger-look” and try and blow up all their camps. But terrorism spreads like cancer. Weed out one area and another pops up. Instead, we have developed an alternate solution…a “lion-look” of loving our enemies! This is a paradigm-shift for sustainable peace.”

     As the major’s aide passed out “Amigo-Ta!” (friendship) buttons, we all pinned them on our shirts.  “Statistics have shown that most of the insurgents are teenage farm boys from tribal, mountainous areas, who have never been educated past third grade. If we can educate the farm boys when they are young, then they will not have time to rebel. Thus we seek to work together with churches to provide food, clothes, education, water, teachers, medical clinics, roads and post-harvest facilities for these kids. In essence, we’ll empower them instead of exterminate them!”

     Arriving back at our Barner Christian Academy, I peeped into the open-air windows of our seven busses. Daily these vehicles pick up hundreds of poor kids, to give them an education. In the next five years we will be building a new campus in a more rural area. In essence, we are saying “Amigo-ta!” to the kids of today…the Peace-leaders of tomorrow!

Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

Present need: $1200 for gas for BCA’s 7 school busses for the upcoming month of September.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. that God will touch the hearts of those who are able, to give so that we can purchase the new $56,000 3-acre property for our new campus, as soon as possible.
2. that PJ, Abby and I can join the new Awana Club at Faith Academy (Davao) by listening to Bible verses quoted by the member children, this September.
3. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events:  August 17-September 29 Citywide Davao DAPRISA Sports Fest, August 17-31 Philippine Culture Month, August 22-24 BCA First Periodical Examinations, August 31 Philippine Culture Month School-wide Celebration.
4. for God to provide the needed $56,000 for BCA’s new 3-acre campus, required by the Philippine Department of education before 2017. Total received so far: $1,625
5. for the congregation from this past Sunday, to follow-through on the message which I preached to them, from 1 Timothy. They need to be examples to their coworkers, families and friends. They are not only to pray for others’ needs and desires to be met, but that they need to also pray that God shall reveal Himself through the lives of us, Christ’s followers.
6. for the older-teenage male prisoners who were reached by some pastor friends this week through the outreach to Davao’s “LAMDAG Sa Kabataan” ministry.
7. for our outreach to the Badjao Sea Gypsies, that it will go beyond just feeding the hungry, and that they  grow in their willingness to take on responsibilities.
8. for a businessman-friend who may be willing to start a support campaign to help with some of the expenses of finding a new campus for BCA, when we are required to move in 2017. This contact was made through missionary friend of mine.
9. for a sister church which, for two decades had been meeting in a leased facility. Recently, their landlord did not renew their lease, and they may be allowed to worship at our future drop-off center for Street Girls, until December, and also the guest church is willing to pay the utilities (electric/water) in exchange for use of the front yard of the home.
10. for our plans for next year’s speaking tour of the USA. We plan to visit Washington State and also UT-IN-NY-VT-PA.

Praise God:

1. that as I preached six times last week (all at different times, places and from different Biblical passages), each time people came up to me and said that God had spoken to them through the message. Yay, God!
2. that our son PJ’s itchy back rashes, likely from “chigger” insects in the USA, are healing up.
3. that Romar, Kenneth, Paul, CeeDee and Philip-John, patients in the emergency ward of a local hospital, are healing of their illnesses. They are still quite ill, however.
4. that the sixth anniversary celebration last Sunday, of our Panantongan church plant, went well. Many of their church auxiliaries, from children to adults performed special hymns and choreography.
5. that Elvie, PJ, Abby and I were able to open the last of nine boxes of used clothes and school supplies sent by friend in the USA. About twenty of the clothing items will be sent to a needy mountainous tribal area where Joe, a fellow missionary, will be performing an evangelistic outreach on August 24.
6. that Elvie, plus BCA’s discipleship coordinator (Filipina) and treasurer (Drocela) were able to make arrangements with the president of an “Acheivers” school to provide for former BCA students to be enrolled, even before the National Acheivement test scores are released. Elvie and I have determined that, in answer to many sponsors who prefer having sponsorship last beyond sixth grade, we could now continue the sponsorship right up through college. This will be possible as schools will decrease their monthly tuition rate to fit into the very minimal funds that come in through sponsorships. These schools realize that they would be not only receiving a bulk of students to fill empty seats in their classrooms, abut also supplying a felt need in the community, to get the beggar children off the streets and behind desks.
7. that during the victory dinner this week for our Davao TRIAD Ironman triathlon team, I was chosen to lead in prayer.
8. that a friend in the USA has pledged a monthly amount to help us refurbish the BCA’s Home Economics (“H.E.”) building into a livable domicile for our family. The Department of Education had required during our last inspection (in March) that we move off-campus, so we moved the H.E. class to a room within the campus, and sequestered the former H.E. building for our home. It is kind of small, but with the pledge from our friend, we will gradually add a second floor and keep out of the path of future flooding.
9. that a Saturday Men’s Breakfast club in an American church has decided to sponsor a boy at Barner Christian Academy.  The organizer found 6 guys to support a child, by taking turns twice a year to pay the $25 monthly fee. After these six were located, another two men “came aboard”, so they may now set up another group or so to support another child!
10. that since the speaker at the BCA teacher’s devotional Monday came in late, I took her place, so next week she’ll replace me as speaker. I challenged the teachers from Acts 20, when Eutychus fell out the window when sleeping through Paul’s all-night marathon sermon. We need to “Rise Up”, Expecting great things from God, “Rise Up”, Attempting great things for God, and “Rise Up”, Accepting great things from God.
11. that as speaker during Monday’s Parent-Teacher meeting, I challenged the parents from the story of Apostle Paul’s conversion. Many of those (like Paul) who formerly persecuted Christians are now Christianity’s best spokesmen
12. that during our Davao Christian Leadership Foundation prayer meeting last Friday morning, I reminded those present of the victories which God gave the Jews in their Old Testament wars, every time they turned to Him. We’d read in our family devotions about the battle where God said, “You will not fight this battle. I will fight it for you.” So instead, the Jews started a praise meeting, singing “Praise ye the Lord, His mercy endures forever and ever.” And God won the war.
13. that during Prayer meeting this Wednesday, I challenged those present from my personal devotions that morning, from the book of Nehemiah. We need to rebuild the walls of protection which God has erected through our spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, giving, witnessing, worship and Christian fellowship.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $3,120 received, $26,880 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 12.

BUILDING FUND: $1,625 (Total savings for BCA’s new, government-required, by 2017, $56,000 campus)

"We’ll have to cut you open.” While we visited the hospital to see CeeDee, the 13-yr old Tai Kwan Do nephew of our BCA security guard, the doc came in and explained that the boy’s lymphoma required surgery. CeeDee was frightened.

Earlier that day, Elvie mistakenly dropped her nice camera, which had been our Mother’s Day gift to her two years ago. The lens was shattered.

Just an hour earlier, we’d read in our Family Bible reading, “If my people…pray…then I will…heal…” (2 Chron. 7:14) “Elvie, it is only a camera. Let’s cherish what God has let us keep, not what we have lost. Let’s thank Him for what He has let us keep.”

While in the hospital that afternoon with CeeDee, I asked him if he was a Christian. Since he’d never prayed to receive Jesus into his heart as his Savior, Elvie prayed with him. Then the two other ladies with us, both pastors’ wives, visited and prayed with the other boys in the four-patient room.

Although we had not known these kids previously, they all prayed to receive Jesus, and also were prayed for for healing. Their ages are 4, 11, 12 and 13. Romar has toxic goiter, with a huge bubble on his throat, and bulbous eyes. Kenneth has bronchial asthma, and is on an oxygen facemask.

Skinny Philip-John is only four years old, and his twin brother Philip-James died two weeks ago with the same leukemia that he is now struggling with. Yet all four boys and their families were smiling when we left, for God had given them hope, for life and for the afterlife.

The next day Elvie popped in to see how CeeDee was doing. Although his condition remains stable, all four boys cheered when Elvie entered the room. “Sorry guys. I can’t stay long, but CeeDee’s aunt will help with your daily Bible studies, ok? And here are your Cebuano-language Bibles!”

All the boys, with what energy they could muster, cheered for the hope that had been ushered into that previously-bleak hospital room.

“Honey,” I mentioned to Elvie that evening, “just like your lens that broke, as we focus on the blessings and opportunities that God has supplied, then we can see that “DIS-appointments are often HIS-appointments!”  

Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

Present need: $360 for ten large plastic, round white cafeteria-style tables for the BCA students to eat lunch on each day.

Please pray:

1. that CeeDee and his roommates will grow in the faith as they have daily Bible Studies in their hospital room.
2. that the extremely heavy rains in the Northern Philippines, begun on August 7, will diminish. After hurricane Gener left the country, the new, no-name storm has left over ten-foot deep floods. All over the country, banks were closed, and one family of five all drowned. Nearly one million people are stranded. Eleven are confirmed fatalities. Many thousands are holed-up in the classrooms of a college campus, with food and clothes being airlifted to them.
3. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events:  August 10-September 29 Citywide Davao DAPRISA Sports Fest, August 10-31 Philippine Culture Month, August 15-16 First Periodical Exams, August 23 Philippine Culture Month School-wide Celebration.
4. for God to provide the needed $56,000 for BCA’s new 3-acre campus, required by the Philippine Department of education before 2017. Total received so far: $1,615
5. for our son PJ’s itchy back rashes, likely from “chigger” insects in the USA, will soon heal.
6. for Romar, Kenneth, Paul, CeeDee and Philip-John, patients in the emergency ward of a local hospital, will be healed of their illnesses. Some are not expected to live through the month.
7. for the message I'll be giving in church this Sunday. I'll be including both a challenge toward concentrated prayer, and a synopsis of our April-July USA speaking tour.
8. that, now that we have rertuned to Davao, we can resume BCA's Youth Triathlon Team.
9. that the church youth group will distribute the ten thousand gospel tracts which were sent to us from the USA recently. Actually, the tracts are colorful, used greeting cards with Filipino Bible verses attached.
10. for the sixth anniversary celebration this Sunday, of our Panantongan church plant. All of their church auxilliaries, from children to adults will be performing special hymns and correography.

PRAISE:

1. that our wonderful friends in a New York Men’s Group have decided to collectively sponsor a pupil at BCA!
2. that two days after our return to Davao, I was chosen by Davao’s Kiwanis  mother club to give a report of the past four months of our speaking tour.
3. that next week I’ll be assisting the local Child Evangelism Fellowship in their strategies to evangelize and disciple the children of Davao City.
4. that four more boxes of stuffed animals and needs for our BCA students, were sent from Utah shortly after we left the USA.
5. that the “NETRC” results of the recent evaluation testing of our BCA students will soon be released. Elvie and two of her BCA assistants were able to convince a local school to enroll some of these high school students provisionally until the results arrive. However it is troubling for the students to keep waiting for the slow process to be completed. Ohh, welcome to the Third World!
6. that the internet was working so that we could call my New York brother Phil this week for his 52nd birthday. He kindly reminded me, “Paul, You will be the same age next year!” Cool.
7. that  the Department of Early Childhood Education Representative for our Region Eleven in the Philippines is providing a conference for non-public schools like ours in Davao the week after next.  Part of the program is the opportunity for us to discuss issues and concerns in our respective fields and offices.
8. that a former Bible School classmate of mine has invited our family to visit his new church next year, and also their men’s group is considering coming out to Davao to help build dorms for our Street-Boys’ camp in 2013 or 2014.
9. that even though we keep falling asleep in the middle of the day, our jetlag from traveling halfway around the globe, is finally starting to go away.
10. that even though a Moneygram sent from the USA had misspelled the name of our school cashier, we were able to get paperwork notarized to receive the funds and pay the salary of our teachers and staff.
11. that my time in the recent Ironman race was: Swim: 45 MIN, 52 SEC//BIKE:3 HR, 28 MIN, 33 SEC//RUN: 3 HR, 13 MIN,  18 SEC. Rank in my age category (50-54) was 34, and out of almost 2,000 competitors, including the dozens who dropped out before the race was finished, my place was #1008.
12. that, since we delayed final payment of PJ and Abby’s school bill until our return from the USA, when we picked up their report cards on the first day of classes, they both received almost straight A’s!
    
13. that nine boxes of used clothes and other school supplies had arrived during our trip, and were waiting for us to open upon our return.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $3,115 received, $26,885 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BUILDING FUND: $1,615 (Total savings for BCA’s new, government-required, by 2017, $56,000 campus)

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 12.

Cebu City, Philippines

"Welcome Home, World Travelers!” After our four-day, six-segment flight from Utah, USA to the Philippines, Elvie and the kids were welcomed by the staff and faculty of our Barner Christian Academy in Davao City. I will be joining them after I complete my 70.3-mile Ironman triathlon race in Cebu this weekend. Fortunately, with all the connecting flights and overnight layovers, only one bag of luggage was lost. As with all earthly possessions, the contents are replaceable: we only lost our kids’ travel games.

Yet losses from our four-month trip to the USA are greatly outweighed by the gains: Our campus is rejoicing that, as a result of those who have given sacrificially during our countless presentations this furlough, traveling through twenty-one states, using up a computer and a projector bulb, etc., the school’s outstanding $150,000 typhoon debt is finally PAID IN FULL! Yay, God!

It was close. Last month, we still had nearly $5,000 to go to pay off the debt. The final surge of giving in July saw a few generous friends sacrificially give $1,000 or $500 each. At the final church, last Wednesday and Sunday, after I shared in Prayer meeting, PJ and Abby spoke in Children’s Church and Elvie spoke in Sunday School, I mentioned during the worship service that we were still lacking $963 to pay off the debt. Yet the afternoon before, after a scrumptious lunch at a prayer warrior’s house, she handed me a check for $500. So, we’d be heading back to the Philippines with only $463 left to pay off the debt.

We had never spoken at this church before. However, after I’d shared, the pastor stepped up to the pulpit to respond, “Pastor Paul, our dear new Philippine missionary and your lovely family, the total of our Wednesday night offering was $400. Today we will be sure to increase that total up to your lacking $463. In short, YOUR DEBT IS PAID!”

It gives me tingles to think that, after four years of sacrificial cutting of corners and challenging people to give, that incredible burden of enormous, insurmountable debt is now behind us. Just yesterday, on August 1, 2012, a check was cashed by the dear friend who had loaned us the money, so that the final $2,000 of recently-collected funds for our debt was paid, bringing the grand total down to zero.

As we have come back to the Philippines, knowing that when we left for this journey we had a debt, and as we return, the debt is gone, I am reminded of an even greater debt that we have as human beings: the debt of sin. When Jesus was on the cross, he said “It is finished”…in essence, “The debt is paid!” And one day, when we get to heaven, there will be great rejoicing, for the burden of sin will be gone from our souls, paid for by Christ’s blood spilled on the cross for us.

We gave nothing to pay the flood debt. It was dear sacrificial supporters who had given, from around the world. All we had to do was to ask, and they gave. Likewise, we do nothing for our salvation. All we have to do is ask, and “anyone who comes to Him, He will in no wise cast out.”

Praise God that “The debt is PAID!” Welcome Home, Sinner, Welcome Home!!

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. My brother Tim’s wife Amy’s cancer has returned, after a few years in remission. Please pray that this inoperable disease will be healed. Also Evelyn, a dear elderly Filipina friend in Texas, is gradually slipping away. Please pray for her husband Dan at this time; that they both will be strong and courageous.
2. that God give me wisdom in how to handle the new responsibilities offered me to lead in strengthening the Awana and Operation Christmas Child shoebox outreaches in Mindanao, as potential Volunteer Regional supervisor.
3. that after my Ironman triathlon this weekend, I will be strong enough to bring Elvie and the kids back on our final flight back to Davao City. Thousands of miles of driving, through long days and nights, plus flying halfway around the world in a few days, plus jetlag of it being daytime when I feel like it is night, may make me weary while swimming, bicycling and running 70 miles. Praise God that friends in this race were able to fix my bike after the security personnel at the airport twisted my chain out of its wheel-set and sprockets.
4. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events:  August 3-September 29 Citywide Davao DAPRISA Sports Fest, August 3-31 Philippine Culture Month, August 15-16 First Periodical Exams, August 23 Philippine Culture Month School-wide Celebration.
5. for God to provide the needed $56,000 for BCA’s new 3-acre campus, required by the Philippine Department of education before 2017.
6. for the security personnel in the US Airways luggage department to find our missing baggage from the recent trip back top the mission field.

Present need: $360 for ten large plastic, round white cafeteria-style tables for the BCA students to eat lunch on each day.

Praise God:

1. that Elvie is leading the Barner Christian Academy as its principal, to participate in the 3-month, Citywide Sports-fest, especially the chess and badminton competitions, in which our school always wins trophies.
2. that after Elvie, PJ and Abby’s plane landed (on August 1) in Davao City, Philippines, and they drove directly to Faith Academy for their first day of the new school year, they were alert and awake enough (albeit with jetlag) to brighten the hearts of their classmates with the reports they give to classmates on how God touched hearts of Americans during their 2012 USA Summer speaking tour.
3. that BCA's total remaining 2008 Typhoon flood debt is PAID in Full!
4. that although Typhoon Gener this week has taken the lives of many in the Philippines, God spared BCA from any damage.
5. that PJ’s high school class at Faith Academy will be welcoming the new school year next weekend with a spiritual retreat to start strong spiritually and to get to know each other.
6. that while flying from Utah to Arizona this week, we had a delightful sendoff from our dear host family in Ogden.
7. that while flying from Arizona to California this week, we were able to call a few friends with some of the remaining time in our USA cell phone before they stopped working when we left the Continental USA. We slept overnight on the floor at the San Francisco airport.
8. that while flying from California to Hawaii this week, although it was our second day of travel, Elvie was alert enough to pray with a Filipina security personnel, who was unsuccessfully looking for one of our lost bags.
9. that while flying from Hawaii to Guam this week, we were finally able to sit together during the eight-hour flight. Previously, we’d been separated in different sections of the plane while flying.
10. that while flying from Guam to Manila this week, although we were concerned that we might not be able to get through immigration in the 50 minutes allotted between flights, and that the flight was delayed an hour due to air conditioning failure, we had nothing to fear, as the Department of Homeland Security no longer requires for us to have our passports stamped for immigration purposes upon leaving the country.
11. that while flying from Manila to Davao this week, Elvie and the kids, though on the fourth day of travel,  were able to share with some Filipinos on the flight about some of our adventures during this 2012 whirlwind adventure of speaking engagements in the USA.
12. that since I left the Philippines 124 days ago, I have driven 14,780 miles, in 9 different cars, visited 73 churches, 21 states, 26 civic clubs, 33 ministries, one school, 15 Bible Studies, 104 families, and flown 21 flights. Whew, what a year 2012 is! It’s great to be back in the Philippines!
13. that while flying from Manila to Cebu City this week, I woke up in time on the floor of the airport in Manila to catch my flight, ten hours later. Also the hotel in Cebu was able to book me ten miles closer to the venue of my race, since there was a last-minute cancellation.
14. Typhoon flood debt outstanding: $ZERO!!!!

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $3,110 received, $26,890 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

Kayesville, Utah

"I have number 412!" Each Christmas, all 500 students at Barner Christian Academy receive a number which corresponds with their new (or used) toy stuffed animal, as well as clothes and other gifts, plus a nice dinner in their classrooms.

These stuffed toys come from donors around the world, and mostly from the USA. As we have traveled thousands of miles in the USA since April, many American children have sacrificed their precious toys for us to give to poor Filpino kids.

A few days ago, as I shared in a church in Indiana,I happened to mention in passing that we also collect stuffed animals for the Filipino kids. After worship, an ederly woman with a delightful smile came up and said, "We ladies in the church sewed up and stuffed over a hunded teddy bears to send to Haiti. But the agency would not take them, since they have ribbons that the Hatian babies might choke on. Can you use them?"

"Can't you just remove the ribbons for the Hatians?" I asked. "Sure, but let's send these first with you and make more for the earhquake victims, since it takes longer to ship to Asia. After all, maybe that is why God had us not send these ones to Haiti yet!"

The next day we were preparing to drive through the 7 states of IN,IL,MO,KS, CO,WY and UT, when another grandmother from the church stopped by."Can you use more stuffed animals? I must confess that I have a pretty big collection. I see them on sale and cannot resist!"

This delightful woman drove five trips back and forth from her home, as we loaded up our van with her "collection". Our 1600-mile journey to Utah caused many heads to turn and much laughter, as hundreds of colorful toy heads peeped out the van windows to passers-by, especially at gas stations!

As a result of the kindness of these dear servants of God who gave, hundreds of lives are being touched... on BOTH sides of the ocean! 

Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

Typhoon flood debt outstanding: $963

USA Tracfone: (518) 322-9321.

Present need: $360 for ten large plastic, round white cafeteria-style tables for the BCA students to eat lunch on each day.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. that this new shipment of these 430 stuffed animals will arrive in the Philippines before our BCA Christmas party in December.
2. that after Elvie, PJ and Abby’s plane lands (on August 1) in Davao City, Philippines, and they drive directly to Faith Academy for their first day of the new school year, they will be alert and awake enough (albeit with jetlag) to brighten the hearts of their classmates with the reports they give to classmates on how God touched hearts of Americans during this 2012 USA Summer speaking tour.
3. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events:  July 26-September 29 Citywide Davao DAPRISA Sports Fest, August 1 Philippine Culture Month begins, August 15-16 First Periodical Exams, August 23 Philippine Culture Month School-wide Celebration.
4. for a retired couple, a missions team, and a single mom in Utah who are making plans to visit the Philippines to assist our ministries in November, 2013.
5. for BCA's total remaining 2008 Typhoon flood debt of $963 to be whittled down to zero by September, 2012 [$703 per week for 2 more weeks] (-$82 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 212 weeks ($703 per week, totaling $149,037), the debt should be paid off in 2 more weeks, or by September, 2012.

Praise God:

1. that many generous friends during this 2012 four-month speaking tour in the USA have donated toys, clothes, food, books and school supplies for us to send to needy Filipino children.
2. that while in New York this week, a friend donated canned food for us to feed poor students at Barner Christian Academy (BCA).
3. that while driving through Pennsylvania this week, a young couple at a rest stop was very kind and considerate to our family. This was a blessing, since we were very tired and drowsy from our looong trip. 
4. that while in Ohio this week, even though we arrived at 6am, the hotel was full, they were willing to re-book our room (to one which was still under construction) so that we could get some sleep before we had to leave a few hours later. Although the area of the inexpensive hotel was somewhat dangerous, God protected us and we met some nice people along the way.
5. that while in Indiana this week, after sharing in church, we received two new sponsors for needy students at BCA! Also many people gave clothes, school supplies and toys. One author even autographed two of her books for our BCA library.
6. that while driving through Illinois this week, people at a rest stop were very friendly and agreed to pray for our school in the Philippines.
7. that while driving through Missouri this week, we were able to purchase food items and American-style hickory-smoked barbecue sauce to ship to the Philippines for some of the volunteer staff at BCA.
8. that while driving through Kansas this week, Elvie purchased small (“Pasalubong”) trinkets to give as a thank-you to our faithful Filipino assistants upon our return to Davao August 1.
9. that while in Colorado this week, we were able to share with many people whom we met, about the love which is shared among the new believers at BCA and in the church outreaches of the youth and members of our Faith Fellowship church in Davao City.
10. that while driving through Wyoming this week, we prayed for an accident victim who crashed his motorcycle into a tractor-trailer on Interstate 80.
11. that while in Utah this week, we were able to thank many who had sent boxes of school supplies, food, clothes, craft items, church supplies, and so much more over the past few years, to benefit the thousands of poor children and their family members in the Philippines. Friends in Utah also shipped many items (such as stuffed animals) which we’d collected on this portion of our trip, packed tightly into our minivan over the past 2000+ miles. While eating lunch at a taco place, the cashier donated (for free) a bottle of VERY hot sauce for the students at BCA! Also PJ was able to lead in the congregation’s closing prayer at the conclusion of a Wednesday night prayer meeting.
12. that since I arrived in the USA 117 days ago, I have driven 14,765 miles, in 9 different cars, visited 72 churches, 21 states, 26 civic clubs, 32 ministries, one school, 15 Bible Studies, 101 families, and flown 15 flights.
13. that the Philippine Nutrition Month, celebrated at Barner Christian Academy during July, with its culmination in the closing ceremonies of a poster-making contest and a food tasting from classroom-to-classroom, was well-attended by parents to support their kids in this event.
14. that last week’s General PTA Meeting & Homeroom Meetings went well at our Philippine school, even in our absence. Praise God for a very capable staff!

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $3,105 received, $26,895 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 13.

Poughkeepsie, New York & Columbus, Ohio

"The Barners are here!” An elderly gentleman in a wheelchair at the entrance to the rehab center looked up and recognized me right away, even though I had never met him before in my life. A nurse came out the sliding glass doors, exclaiming, “You must be Paul. You definitely have your dad’s smile!”

Previously, we hadn’t known what to expect, upon visiting the rehab center where my parents have been recuperating from their tragic car accident three months ago. We’d been anticipating this meeting while driving through Texas, Iowa and a dozen other states. They’re both in their eighties, and also both had surgery after the accident. Would they recognize us? Would we recognize them? We hadn’t been able to call them, as they didn’t bring their cell phones to the rehab center.

Yet just two minutes after we passed through the front door, Mom strolled out, pushing her walker, and exchanging twelve-month overdue bear hugs. Then we went off to their room. On our way there, at least half a dozen residents in wheelchairs and all kinds of other contraptions, as well as some inside their rooms, with doors open, called out, “Oh, here’s Harry and Betty’s kids!” Dad was exercising in the room, working on that rebuilt leg of his.

After giving more hugs, other residents come in, as well as nurses, shared, “Your parents have brightened up this place so very much, with their jokes, stories of you, and words of Christian encouragement!”

After playing a few games of UNO, we had to leave for a speaking engagements elsewhere. Upon our return a few days later, Dad was in his daily physical therapy session for his leg. As his therapist worked patiently with Dad, bending the leg and straightening it again, the two chatted like old friends.

I came into the room and the therapist looked up. “Oh wow, your dad has told me so very much about you! You have a school with 500 poor street children in the Philippines, and…oh…you look soooo much alike!”

“Well,” I responded, if Dad said it, it must be true!” The therapist continued, “And he has told me so very much about his love for God and about Jesus. It is such a blessing to work with him. Every day I look forward to my smiling Christian patient!”

That day, upon leaving the nursing home, I shared with Elvie and the kids, “You know guys, I wonder who the real missionary here is? Dad and Mom, in just three months, have shared their faith even in the midst of pain and recovery. Yet they are also praying for us. What a joyful heritage.

Hmmm, maybe a smile is not the only trait that Dad and I share?

Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

Typhoon flood debt outstanding: $1045

USA Tracfone: (518) 322-9321.

Present need: $360 for ten large plastic, round white cafeteria-style tables for the BCA students to eat lunch on each day.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. that the printer which our Barner Christian Academy uses will either refund the deposit we gave for printing the annual school yearbook two years ago (2010), or else finish and release the printing project, which is long overdue.
2. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: July 20 General PTA Meeting & Homeroom Meetings, July 21-September 29 Citywide Davao DAPRISA Sports Fest, July 27 Nutrition Month Celebration, August 1 Philippine Culture Month begins, August 15-16 First Periodical Exams, August 23 Philippine Culture Month School-wide Celebration.
3. for our remaining speaking engagements while in the USA, that many would be challenged to pray for the work God is doing in the Philippines, and would also consider becoming missionaries themselves.
4. for BCA's total remaining 2008 Typhoon flood debt of $1,045 to be whittled down to zero by September, 2012 [$706 per week for 2 more weeks] (-$1,650 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 211 weeks ($706 per week, totaling $148,955), the debt should be paid off in 2 more weeks, or by September, 2012.
5. for PJ and Abigail. They are exceptional in communicating with young people and children in churches we are visiting, about missions. Please pray that, as we pack and repack our belongings, driving from state to state, that all four of us will lose no addresses and/or phone numbers so that we can keep in touch even while overseas. Keeping prayer lines of communication open is crucial in this type of ministry in potentially volatile conditions.

Praise God:

1. that friends donated a combined total of over fifteen hundred dollars this week to lower BCA's remaining outstanding 2008 typhoon debt! Perhaps it will be paid off by August 1, when we leave the USA.
2. that while in Albany, New York (my home church), I was given nearly half an hour to share about the Philippines, and the pastor’s message also blended in well with the theme of missions.
   
3. that while in Thornwood, New York, during our host family’s backyard barbecue, a young teenage dancer (who trains with a Russian ballet company in NYC) was challenged to visit the Philippines to use her gifts in teaching how to dance to praise music, as she does in her own church. 
   
4. that while in Manhattan, New York, we befriended a young lady on the train who directed us with her iPhone and directions, to be sure not to get lost. Also a dear friend there took us out to eat at a delicious hamburger place in Times Square. By referring to the names of policemen, etc. on their badges, as well as saying “God Bless You” or “Jesus Loves You,” many can see that we are joyful due to our relationship with Jesus Christ.
   
5. that while in Poughkeepsie, New York a sixty-year old woman “JC” was challenged to become a missionary to Davao. She has just received a new job and has the goal that she will save enough each paycheck to eventually buy her airline ticket to join our ministry to street girls.
   
6. that while in Rensselaer, New York, we were thrilled to see Dad and Mom getting around so well with their walkers. These are prayer warriors of ours since before I was born. To see them getting stronger makes me confident that the crucial work in the Philippines continues to be supported by these dedicated, intercessors daily before the throne of God. We were also able to box-up six large boxes of school supplies and stuffed animals and send them to the Philippines. They should arrive before Christmas.
   
7. that while in Trenton, New Jersey a slide trombone was donated to this ministry, as well as an order for 2 waterproof French horn cases, to replace the ones that Abigail and I were using before they were destroyed in a Philippine flood.
   
8. that while in Mercerville, New Jersey, a German family promised to continue lifting up the Barner Christian Academy in prayer. They also let us change in their house before we drove an hour and a half away to a wedding.
   
9. that while in Long Branch, New Jersey, although we got lost looking for the location of a wedding and thus missed the ceremony itself, were invited to the grand reception. The groom was four years old in 1988 when I was his children’s pastor. It is a blessing to watch these young believers as they grow in faith and purpose. A strong Christian testimony was presented throughout the entire evening.
   
10. that while in Pottersville, New York, while visiting some staff of Word of Life International, we were able to share and develop ideas on how better to use the ever-changing world of technology to communicate with believers worldwide how to effectively pray for God’s work in Asia. PJ had earlier this year stayed at a Word Of Life camp in Mindanao while rebuilding Filipino houses (with Habitat for Humanity) which had been destroyed in a devastating, fatal hurricane and landslide. We also shared the love of Jesus with many at a local nursing home.
    
11. that while in Glens Falls, New York, during a men’s breakfast, PJ and I were able to challenge men to pray for missions. Kevin, a young construction worker, became a long-awaited answer to prayer, and he agreed to pack up and ship (to BCA) any gifts to this ministry. His contact information is: KEVIN AND SARAH MAYNARD, 10394 RT 149, FORT ANN, NY  12827, 518-793-1626518-793-1626.
    
12. that while in Lake George, New York, we were able to meet-up with one of the sponsors of a BCA student, while he was at work in a resort. He had been serving at a wedding, but when he was able to take a brief break, he met us and we were able to pray with him and his assistant.
    
13. that the car which a couple lent us to drive 1,500 miles while visiting donors in New York and New Jersey, worked very well, with no mechanical breakdowns.
    
14. that since I arrived in the USA 110 days ago, I have driven 11,958 miles, in 9 different cars, visited 69 churches, 18 states, 26 civic clubs, 30 ministries, one school, 14 Bible Studies, 91 families, and flown 15 flights.
    
15. that our hosts in New York and New Jersey this week have been overwhelmingly wonderful in their kindness and thoughtfulness.
    
16. for Elvie, PJ and Abby, who have been so capably setting up displays in church lobbies while I prepare the audio-visual equipment for speaking during worship services.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $3,100 received, $26,900 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 15.

Ithaca, New York

"YOU RAISE ME UP...to more than I can be” As I led the congregation in singing a song of appreciation for all they do to help their sponsored children at Barner Christian Academy in the Philippines, my mind reflected on the twenty hand-made cards that Abby had handed me just a few days before.

All that she'd carried on the flight across the ocean, halfway around the globe, was a small pink backpack, and yet she'd left space in it for these messages from some of the 500 students at our school.

“Thank you for all your efforts to help us,” wrote Arnell, on what was obviously a colorful sheet of paper, torn off from an advertisement ”May God protect you in all that you do for us.”

And then Michiko, a child in a homeless family which we had invited into our home to sleep on the floor, wrote, “Thank you that I am treated like you own child.”

Diane, a child who was abused by her parents, wrote, “A friend loves at all times (Proverbs 17:17). We want to see you again...thank you for everything.”

“Ang Diyos maga-uban kanimo (May God go with you).” wrote one child in very scratchy writing. Then after I read the name, I understood: Owam, a cerebral palsied student in the school. With his palsied, crippled fingers, and twisted body, he had also written, “I am praying for you.”

Ruth Joy, a girl whose parents were murdered and is being raised by her poor grandmother in a squatter shack, wrote, “Thank you for loving me. For God so loved the world that He gave His Son.”

Wenzdee (a BCA athlete) wrote on a half-sheet of paper with hand-drawn flowers around the border, “Thank you for teaching us how to pray, and also for teaching us in triathlon.”

Allizza Joy, a girl from a family that struggles to keep food on the table, drew lines to be sure the words were straight, before jotting down, “Thank you for the sponsor and food to give every day.”

Hazel jotted down, “Thank you for the teddy bears last year! We are always praying for you...my bear folds his hands as well!'

Wow. We RAISE THEM UP...or is it really THEY who raise US up? As I consider little Owam, who can hardly even hold his head up straight for more than a fraction of a second, pressing his hands together to pray for me, I am humbled with the privilege of working with these precious and delightful children. One day the investment of pouring our lives into these children with be seen in their becoming the future Christian leaders of the world.

Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. that as we daily meet the needs of poor Filipino children, these precious students will respond to the Gospel message lived out through the lives of their Christian teachers and staff at Barner Christian Academy.
2. that friends in Rome, New York, who are on a Bible Camp staff there (Delta Lake Camp) will touch the hearts opf hundreds of campers as the children make decisions for Jesus these next three weeks.
3. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: July 17-18 First Preliminary Exams for BLC Students. July 20 General PTA Meeting & Homeroom Meetings, July 27 Nutrition Month Celebration, August 1 Philippine Culture Month begins, August 15-16 First Periodical Exams, August 23 Philippine Culture Month School-wide Celebration.
4. for our remaining five speaking engagements while in the USA, that many would be challenged to pray for the work God is doing in the Philippines, and would also consider becoming missionaries themselves.
5. for BCA's total remaining 2008 Typhoon flood debt of $2,695 to be whittled down to zero by September, 2012 [$702 per week for 4 more weeks] (-$1,000 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 210 weeks ($702 per week, totaling $147,305), the debt should be paid off in 4 more weeks, or by September, 2012.
6. that friends we have met in New York this week, who desire helping the poor in the Philippines, will be led by God to make time and set aside funds to make the trip possible.

PRAISE:

1. that a friend donated one thousand dollars this week to lower BCA's remaining outstanding 2008 typhoon debt by over 25%!
2. that Elvie, PJ and Abigail are recovering from their colds. Since they landed in the USA June 13, they had  been coughing long into the evening as they tried to sleep. Now they are sleeping more soundly.
3. that while we were in Trenton, Ohio, our young preteen nephew Adam prayed wonderfully for our thousand-mile trip to New York.
4. that while in Andover, New York, at the congregation where my brother is the pastor, many friends expressed desires to reach out to Filipino children through their consistent prayers.
5. that while in Canandaigua, New York, a church which had invited me to speak, presented us with over 100 stuffed animals for us to distribute to the poor kids at BCA during Christmas time.
6. that while in Clifton Springs, New York, members in a civic club I had visited, expressed deep interest in the work we are carrying out in Asia.
7. that a friend in New York handed us a check for $1,000 to decrease the 2008 typhoon flood debt. That brings us below the $3,000 mark...from the original debt of $150,000!
8. that since I arrived in the USA 103 days ago, I have driven 10,458 miles, in 9 different cars, visited 67 churches, 17 states, 26 civic clubs, 29 ministries, one school, 13 Bible Studies, 86 families, and flown 15 flights.
9. that our hosts in New York this week have been overwhelmingly wonderful in their kindness and thoughtfulness.
10. that many school supplies, books, toys and used clothes were donated to BCA while we visited a church in Ithaca, New York.

Typhoon flood debt outstanding: $2695

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $3,010 received, $26,905 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 16.

USA Tracfone: (518) 322-9321.

REMAINING 2012 FURLOUGH TRAVEL:

Trenton, Ohio HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY, USA! (7/4) HAPPY SIXTEENTH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY, PAUL AND ELVIE! (7/6)

"We can’t wait to see you!” As traveling missionaries, it is exciting to see face-to-face the prayer warriors who make this ministry possible. We will be seeing one such family in Utah, in a few weeks.

They’ll be gathering several churches together, as a product of their missions presentation at 4-6th grade Summer Bible camp. This couple actually brought a shipping box to the stage and pulled out all kinds of items that they send to poor kids in the Philippines. As a result, one counselor’s church youth group is now sending some boxes as a service project.

Another woman had been praying for God to show her something that she could do for Him, and then after the presentation, she said (in tears) that God had answered her prayer! 

Every year, the camp sells candy to the kids to raise money for some camp equipment need, but this year, the camp director announced that the $200 that had been raised was to be donated to ship boxes to the Philippines...they're already on the way! 

The 55 small children, plus adults and teenage helpers from ten different churches at Vacation Bible School stuffed cloth backpacks with pencils, personal letters, pencil sharpeners, and a small notebook, and sent them out.

One very blonde youth/music leader said that her prayers were answered, that God would vividly show the  purpose in her coming to camp. The Spirit’s moving and Biblical focus was much stronger than felt in many places previously.

The “Lost and Found” from a local school’s boys' PE coach provided lots of sweatshirts, bath towels and used shoes…and into the boxes then went!

Little did we figure, just a scant few years ago, that by asking Christian friends to consider helping poor children on the other side of the globe, that they too would find deeper meaning in their personal walk with Jesus!

Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

Typhoon flood debt outstanding: $3695

USA Tracfone: (518) 322-9321.

Present need: $360 for ten large plastic, round white cafeteria-style tables for the BCA students to eat lunch on each day.

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. that the boxes that have been recently mailed to the Philippines will arrive safely and in time for Christmas. They typically take from 3-6 months by ship.
2. that Elvie, PJ and Abigail would recover from their colds soon. Since they landed in the USA June 13, they have often been coughing long into the evening as they try to sleep.
3. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: July 17-18 First Preliminary Exams for BLC Students. July 20 General PTA Meeting & Homeroom Meetings, July 27 Nutrition Month Celebration, August 1 Philippine Culture Month begins, August 15-16 First Periodical Exams, August 23 Philippine Culture Month School-wide Celebration.
4. for our remaining twelve speaking engagements while in the USA, that many would be challenged to pray for the work God is doing in the Philippines, and would also consider becoming missionaries themselves.
5. for BCA's total remaining 2008 Typhoon flood debt of $3,695 to be whittled down to zero by September, 2012 [$700 per week for 6 more weeks] (-$316 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 209 weeks ($700 per week, totaling $146,305), the debt should be paid off in 6 more weeks, or by September, 2012.
6. for the Davao Christian Leadership Foundation, of which I am the president.  Upon my return to the Philippines next month, I plan to introduce a project in which they will provide lists in all hotels of the churches and worship times in the whole city.

Praise God:

1. that in these four months in the USA, the prayer lives of many American Christians have deepened as they have journeyed “on their knees” in prayer to meet the needs of destitute Filipinos.
2. that it only took half an hour to register, title and get plates for our “new” 1999 used car this week. In the Philippines this could have taken months!
3. that we were able to pop into my brother’s house in Ohio and pray with his family while driving through the state.
4. that a friend in Missouri spent most of her birthday to rescue us (driving over 200 miles!) when the car broke down.
5. that during our flight from Florida to Missouri, the airlines delayed our flight by half an hour to give us time to rush to the plane after they had changed the gate without previous announcement. We had to rush quickly to the new gate with all of our belongings.
6. that once again, monthly expenses for our boy's home in Davao were covered for the month of June by Sparrow's Gate Mission in California.
7. that a friend in New York handed us a check for $300 to decrease the 2008 typhoon flood debt. That brings us below the $4,000 mark...from the original debt of $150,000!
8. that when the minivan we were driving broke down for a few hours in Missouri, we called a tow truck from St Louis. Then our friends prayed with us and the car started right up never acted up again.
9. that since I arrived in the USA 89 days ago, I have driven 9,438 miles, in 8 different cars, visited 65 churches, 16 states, 25 civic clubs, 28 ministries, one school, 12 Bible Studies, 81 families, and flown 15 flights.
10. that we were able to celebrate our 16th wedding anniversary by going out to eat pizza with loving relatives.
11. that our hosts in Missouri, Arkansas, Ohio, New York, Illinois, Indiana, Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas and Alabama this week have been overwhelmingly wonderful in their kindness and thoughtfulness.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $3,010 received, $26,905 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 17.

New Orleans, Louisiana HAPPY FIFTEENTH BIRTHDAY, PJ! (6/29)

(if you desire our Prayer Supplement, you may receive one upon request. The diary is sent each Thursday, and the supplement each
Friday)

"Kids, we'll have to move again." After the Departent of Education
(DepEd) performed their annual inspection of our Barner Christian Academy, one of their findings was that they would no longer allow our family to live in one of the refurbished classrooms of the school.
"You Barners will have to go," they declared.

"PJ and Abby," Elvie consoled the kids, "when God closes a door, He opens a window." Our family has moved eleven times since Elvie and I were married sixteen years ago. One more move was not going to make any big difference.

However, after living in a small windowless apartment on the first floor of the school for over ten years, the kids had been praying for a place with windows where they could see the sun and trees, and get fresh air.

That prayer was answered last year when we moved to a refurbished classroom on the third floor, after multiple floods had destroyed most of our personal belongings. Yet now, we were required to move yet again, off campus.

The DepEd agreed that the small house we'd acquired alongside the campus as a Home Economics classroom could be considered an off-campus residence, and the we could live there.

The move took less than a day, and many of our teachers and church friends helped. A month after the move, a homeless girl came by a wondow of the small house and asked if she could live with Elvie and the kids. They agreed and let her sleep on the floor.

Then a few weeks later, a homeless family of four in the school asked, “We have no place to stay, but you still have some floor space. Can we join you too? “ Elvie once again agreed, so the new residence, looking like a refugee camp, was increased in members by these two parents and a small boy and girl.

Each morning and evening our new tiny residence of eight people (soon to be nine, when I return from the USA in August) opens the Bible and reads together, taking turns even as we did when we were just a family of four.

“See,” Elvie told PJ and Abby, “when God closes a door, He opens a window. We have a whole lot more windows than doors in this house...and when there are lots of windows, there are lots of people passing by who can look in and be blessed as well! Windows of understanding God's Word, windows of showering God's love upon others, and windows of happiness as we can live and play with others whose lives need a little bit more joy.”

So, when God closes a door, peep out the windows and smile at the world!

Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

PRAISE: that the DepEd approved our living in the small house that had previously been Barner Christian Academy's Home Economics classroom, and that the teachers and church friends had helped with the move.

Present need: $360 for ten large plastic, round white cafeteria-style tables for the BCA students to eat lunch on each day.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. that I do not get drowsy as I drive overnight from Missouri to New York this week.
2. that the homeless families in our school and church would find jobs and safe places for them to live in.
3. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: June 29 Presentation in weekly chapel time of the Bible lessons given by selected faculty and staff. July 1 Philippine National Nutrition Month begins, July 17-18 First Preliminary Exams for BLC Students. July 20 General PTA Meeting & Homeroom Meetings, July 27 Nutrition Month Celebration, August 1 Philippine Culture Month begins, August 15-16 First Periodical Exams, August 23 Philippine Culture Month School-wide Celebration.
4. for my Dad and Mom in New York. Both are still in a special-care facility recuperating from their injuries in last month's severe car accident. Mom is using a walker.
5. for BCA's total remaining 2008 Typhoon flood debt of $4,011 to be whittled down to zero by September, 2012 [$702 per week for 6 more weeks] (-$11 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 208 weeks ($702 per week, totaling $145,950), the debt should be paid off in 6 more weeks, or by September, 2012.
6. that the homeless families in our school and church would find jobs and safe places for them to live in.
7. that I will be able to use my free pass to the hospital in NY for my complete checkup this week (and that I pass all tests there).

Praise God:

1. that, while visiting a friend in Texas, a former missionary to Venezuela stopped in and we were able to share stories and pray for each other.
2. that friends in Arkansas stayed up until almost midnight to see us arrive, and to host us for the evening, before praying with us and sharing about our respective ministries and testimonies for three hours the next day.
3. that after we turned in a ministry car offered for free by Macedonian Call Foudnation in Texas (I've used the car since April 4), a dear friend drove ten hours to pick us up so that we could get to the next few states before picking up our next vehicle.
4. that at a special dinner for retired folks last week in Missouri, my family and I were introduced and many agreed to pray for our work in the Philippines.
5. that monthly expenses for our boy's home in Davao were covered for the month of June by Sparrow's Gate Mission in California.
6. that, after speaking in civic clubs in Iowa, our host gave both Elvie and I handsome blue cooking aprons embroidered with our names! Cool.
7. that the cars that we have driven have worked very well. Recently one of the vehicles we were usign was acting up, but then our next host family was able to do some minor repairs so that it worked great once again.
8. that since I arrived in the USA 82 days ago, I have driven 7,222 miles, visited 61 churches, 3 countries, 11 states, 24 civic clubs, 25 ministries, one school, 9 Bible Studies, 73 families, and flown 13 flights.
9. that we were able to celebrate PJ's 15th birthday today by giving him fun cards and singing to him.
10. that our hosts in Iowa, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas and Alabama this week have been overwhelmingly wonderful in their kindness and thoughtfulness.
11. that tWO more boxes of needed supplies (toys/clothes/school supplies) were shipped from Utah to the Philippines this week.
12. that 2 more churches in Missouri are now added to the congregations who have agreed to pray for us and the exciting work that God is doing in the Philippines!
13. that we were able to share, during a recent meeting in Missouri, about the church, school, and also the goat/livestock ministry which is providing livelihood for mountain pastors.
14. that the DepEd approved our living in the small house that had previously been Barner Christian Academy's Home Economics classroom, and that the teachers and church friends had helped with the move.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $3,005 received, $26,995 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 20.

Typhoon flood debt outstanding: $4011

USA Tracfone: (518) 322-9321.

REMAINING 2012 FURLOUGH TRAVEL:

West Plains, Missouri: HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! (6/17)

"Are you willing to be persecuted for your faith?" After Elvie, PJ and Abigail arrived in the USA, we drove to a Missouri church to speak about missions during their Sunday worship service. Arriving a few days early, we listened to the Wednesday night speaker's Bible message.

"Have we ever REALLY been challenged with life-threatening circumstances when we share our faith with others?" asked the speaker.
Elvie was diligently jotting down copious notes, by my side. She herself understood oh, so well what persecution is.

In the "Voice of the Martyrs" world map, Mindanao (the Philippine island on which we live and run a Christian school) is listed as "Hostile AGAINST Christians". Yet often when hostility rears its ugly face, it is the message of Christian morality which is attacked, instead of the message of salvation from sin. Everybody would love a free salvation from sin, but the line is a whole lot shorter for those who are willing to live as Christians in a non-Christian world.

Such was the case this past year when Elvie and our secretary Grace were both threatened when they refused to bribe the government officers for answer keys to the placement exams for our hundreds of BCA students.

"Why do you HATE my child?" was the question used by one parent to prod Elvie. "Why are you letting him fail? It would be so easy to bribe the officers for the answer key!" Another parent threatened Grace with, "I will kill one of your four children, since my child failed the exam. You will never know when I might be hiding around the corner with a knife or acid in my hand, to remove your face and skin you alive!" And then, "Although you hate my child, do you also hate your own? It would be so easy to get those answers!"

Persecution. Yet when we made the decision to follow Jesus as our Savior, it was like the marriage vow: "In sickness and in health, in poverty and in wealth, til death ...and beyond!"

The very poor are accustomed to surviving "by hook or by crook". They will often beg or steal to keep food on the table and clothes on their backs. Into  these lives of depravity enter our Christian lifestyles of morality. Finally, examples to live by are seen by the lost who previously only have known the hopeless, helpless, downward spiral of "survival of the fittest" instead of "confident hope" in Jesus.

Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

PRAISE: that after a friend sent an email informing me that he'd decided to drop his child sponsorship at BCA, another friend's church decided to sponsor two BCA children and also to donate $500 to decrease BCA's remaining typhoon debt from 2008. Yay, God!

Typhoon flood debt outstanding: $4061

Present need: $360 for ten large plastic, round white cafeteria-style tables for the BCA students to eat lunch on each day.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. that the death threats would cease, and that parents would focus their energies on helping their kids in their studies instead of on how to trick their way into getting a passing grade.
2. that we meet all of the speaking engagements on our schedule as we travel the remaining 7,000 or so miles during this 2012 American speaking tour.
3. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: June 21-22 Introduction of the students to the newly-renovated special-education classrooms for computer, science and home economics. June 25-29 Presentation in weekly chapel time of the Bible lessons given by selected faculty and staff. July 1 Philippine National Nutrition Month begins, July 17-18 First Preliminary Exams for BLC Students. July 20 General PTA Meeting & Homeroom Meetings, July 27 Nutrition Month Celebration, August 1 Philippine Culture Month begins, August 15-16 First Periodical Exams, August 23 Philippine Culture Month School-wide Celebration.
4. for my Dad and Mom in New York. Both are still in a special-care facility recuperating from their injuries in last month's severe car accident.
5. for BCA's total remaining 2008 Typhoon flood debt of $4,061 to be whittled down to zero by September, 2012 [$706 per week for 6 more weeks] (-$520 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 207 weeks ($706 per week, totaling $145,939), the debt should be paid off in 6 more weeks, or by September, 2012.
6. that the Philippine government will make it clear what their demands are for an extension to our permit for higher grade levels. Their requirements continue to change, and the most recent demand is a new set of fire department certifications and new analysis of our building/business permits.
7. that the BCA kids, already two weeks into their 2012-2013 new school year, will excel in every area of their studies. Often the government will fail a child even if they do perfect in all subjects except one.

Praise God:

1. that while speaking in a prayer meeting in a Midwestern church, the pastor led in prayer that maybe, just maybe, someone in that congregation would be touched by God to become a houseparent in our new girls' Home for street kids in Davao.
2. that a friend in mid-Missouri is willing to store our personal belongings for two weeks until we pass through their state again en route to New York.
3. that as we traveled this week, we were able to meet and talk with some friendly Amish villagers about their beliefs and also about their horses. This was a great cultural experience for our kids.
4. that, while visiting a retired friend, and giving her and update about the Philippines, she surprised us with a delicious meal of hot dogs and strawberry shortcake!
5. that I was able to touch base with many pastors at one time in a community meeting which was organized to discuss a the future of a local university's campus ministry center.
6. that, as a guest of a local mayor, I shared about the Philippines in civic clubs in Iowa. PJ and Abigail also assisted crippled and mentally disabled children during the “Miracle Games” in Des Moines. The disadvantaged kids played in a game of baseball in a beautiful ballpark. PJ and Abby were considered “Angels in the Outfield”. Proud Daddy!
7. that a dear friend has suggested that my personal hobbies should not be included in these weekly diaries, even if they raise funds for BCA needs. So I will not list my Ironman triathlons any more in the weekly Diary, nor in the PEPPER Prayer letter.
8. that since I arrived in the USA 82 days ago, I have driven 6,826 miles, visited 58 churches, 3 countries, 11 states, 24 civic clubs, 23 ministries, one school, 8 Bible Studies, 66 families, run two races and flown 13 flights.
9. that Elvie, PJ and Abigail all got me cards for Father's Day.
10. that a friend in Missouri took my family out to eat at a neighborhood restaurant, and even paid our bill!
11. that three more boxes of needed supplies (toys/shoes/school supplies for the BCA kids) were shipped from Missouri to the Philippines this week.
12. that, after my sharing at a civic club this week, a new friend handed me a check for $50 to assist with BCA's school bus fuel expenses.
13. that when Elvie and the kids were stranded by United Airlines halfway across the Pacific Ocean, and the connecting flight's tickets were not able to be used, I stopped by a church (while driving 365 miles from Missouri to Iowa). The congregation, although they had never met me before, and I had just walked into their church on a Wednesday night, joined together in prayer for my family, and God answered prayer as Elvie and the kids arrived the following day in the USA (a day late) for me to pick them up at the airport.
14. that we were able to save over $500 when a friend sold us a used minivan. Flying with a family of four is much more expensive than driving!
15. that, shortly after my family arrived in the USA, Abigail handed me 18 cards that were handmade by the students in the Sunday school class she teaches in the Philippines.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $3,000 received, $27,000 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 21.

Paul's next race: Ironman Triathlon Cebu, Philippines August 5, 2012.

Williamsburg, Iowa: June 14, 2012

"Come to the Philippines!" While traveling, I called Stephanie, a friend who owns a dance studio in a town that I was scheduled to visit a few weeks later. Although on her way out the door when the phone rang, something inside told her to answer it.

"Can I visit your family on May 26?" I asked.
"Paul, our annual recital is that night. Wanna come? We will even put out a jar for people to donate for the Filipino kids."

On May 26, the recital was great. One hundred dancers performed. A few weeks later, I came by the studio to talk with the dancers about the Philippines. The kids then presented a check for $150 to sponsor six kids in our BCA school! Earlier this year, a man in Colorado had to drop his sponsorship of six kids, since he was out of work. So since this studio is now sponsoring six, when classes began on June 11, those kids did not have to drop out.

"It'd be really great if your daughter Gabrielle could come to the Philippines and teach Christian dance to our 500 students and the teachers at Barner Christian Academy in the Philippines!" I suggested. "The one thousand dollars that the dance studio kids raised will go toward the fixing of the gym roof at BCA. That is the roof over which Gabrielle can teach dance when she comes to the Philippines!"

The dance students also donated lots of stuffed animals, equipment and shoes for the BCA kids. They even were willing to do the shipping for us! We're all so very glad that God touched Stephanie's heart to answer the phone when I had called last month!

Thank you!

Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

PRAYER REQUEST: that the many BCA children who passed their third evaluation exams on June 12 will be promoted by their teachers to their rightful grades in various other Philippine schools. BCA's elementary education covers grades 1-6.

PRAISE: that a lifelong friend in NY is letting us use her car in early July when we'll be traveling in her state.

Typhoon flood debt outstanding: $4581

Present need: $265 for a new (homemade) 10-foot-high metal gate for BCA, for increased security so that we don’t have to pay round-the-clock guards.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. that Elvie, PJ and Abigail will recover from jetlag soon after arriving in the USA on June 13.
2. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: June 14-15 Students' first week of classes after Summer Vacation. June 18-22 Introduction of the students to the newly-renovated special-education classrooms for computer, science and home economics. June 25-29 Presentation in weekly chapel time of the Bible lessons given by selected faculty and staff. July 1 Philippine National Nutrition Month begins, July 17-18 First Preliminary Exams for BLC Students. July 20 General PTA Meeting & Homeroom Meetings, July 27 Nutrition Month Celebration, August 1 Philippine Culture Month begins, August 15-16 First Periodical Exams, August 23 Philippine Culture Month School-wide Celebration.
3. for my Dad and Mom in New York. Both are still in a special-care facility recuperating from their injuries in last month's severe car accident.
4. for BLC's total remaining 2008 Typhoon flood debt of $4,581 to be whittled down to zero by September, 2012 [$706 per week for 7 more weeks] (-$7 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 206 weeks ($706 per week, totaling $145,419), the debt should be paid off in 7 more weeks, or by September, 2012.
5. Although BCA classes began on June 12, the government still has still not yet released the required annual operational permit. Our temporary opening is approved until the government makes its final decision.
   
6. that the many BCA children who passed their third evaluation exams on June 12 will be promoted by their teachers to their rightful grades in various other Philippine schools. BCA's elementary education covers grades 1-6.

Praise God:

1. To date, over $1,843 has already been pledged from friends for the 2017 purchase of BCA’s new $56,000 school campus (property and temporary buildings). These pledges have been made per-mile for the following 70.3-mile Ironman Triathlons I plan to compete in: CEBU, PHILIPPINES (August 5, 2012) $6 per mile/HONU, HI (June 1, 2013) $2 per mile/SONOMA COUNTY, CA (July 14, 2013) $2 per mile . Thus, 6 + 2 + 2 = 10 x 70.3=700.30 plus $1,559.24 (from previous Ironman triathlons) =2259.54 - $56,000 =$53,740.46 to go!
2. that since I arrived in the USA 75 days ago, I have driven 5,512  miles, visited 54 churches, 3 countries, 11 states, 21 civic clubs, 21 ministries, one school, 7 Bible Studies, 57 families, run two races and flown 13 flights.
3. That while visiting homes of families who attended the church I pastored in Missouri twenty years ago, many parents said that the children's program back then (with puppets, etc.) had such a positive affect upon their kids that they became pastors in Florida and Missouri, and positive-focused businessmen, and one is even training as a missionary to Papua New Guinea, with New Tribes Missions!
4. That while visiting the church I pastored 20 years ago, the pastor gave me time to challenge the congregation for missions. The church has changed owners a few times since I was pastor there, yet they are still reaching the needy in their neighborhood.
5. That a local dealership was willing to fix the motor troubles on the vehicle I am using while in the Southern and Midwestern USA.
6. That a friend in New York has agreed to let our family use one of their vehicles during the two weeks we will be traveling in that state.
7. that I was able to ship two boxes of needed supplies (and toys/shoes for the BCA kids) to the Philippines this week.
8. that, after a worship service in one of the three churches I visited last Sunday, a member handed me a check for $20 to assist our outreach in the Philippines.
9. that one of the pastors I visited with this week is a missionary kid himself and was very challenged along with one of his deacons) as we talked for over an hour.
10. that I was deeply blessed while visiting the invalid husband of one of one of the little girls from the 1990s who attended our church. The accident he was in two years ago gave him irreversible, severe brain trauma. He sleeps most of the time. Yet when I prayed for him, he reached out and held my hand. That was enough. I felt as if I had been touched by an angel.
11. that a friend has donated many shoes, shirts, and toys for our work in the Philippines.
12. a local church had a "Sharefest" this week. It is like a yard sale, where everything in free. I was able to get many Christian books and CDs, as well as a few toys and bags for the work int he Philippines. Also Elvie, PJ and Abigail can use a few of the bags while they are traveling in the USA.
13. that a friend treated me and another acquaintance to a free night in the park with barbecue and a live bluegrass band.
14. that one evening a local university hosted a free fireworks display, and some friends and I were able to sit so close that we could feel the heat of the colorful explosives!
15. that a friend in Iowa has paid for a rental van (including gasoline!) for us to use while we are in that state a few days this week.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $2995 received, $27,005 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 22.

Paul's next race: Ironman Triathlon Cebu, Philippines August 5, 2012.

Rolla, Missouri: June 7, 2012

"Lance Armstrong is the winner!" While in Hawaii last week, the seven-time champion of the Tour De France also added the 70.3-mile Half-Ironman triathlon to his growing collection of trophies. At 3 hrs, 41 min, he finished his swimming, bicycling and running in just under half my finishing time!

When treacherous typhoon-season headwinds broke the anchor of one of the giant swim buoys, hundreds of the 1800 athletes followed the huge orange bubble out to sea. Bikes were blown off the road, and running was like pushing against an invisible wall. A sharks and a giant dark manta stingray were sighted by fellow athletes.

Meanwhile Elvie and our Philippine staff face other headwinds. Verbal chemical death  threats are a weekly occurrence as the enemy is trying to veer them off course.

Nonetheless, the finish line is in sight. As pressures force them to their knees in prayer, respite is in sight. Friends have come across the ocean to assist, and others have prayed and given and/or loaned financial aid. Like in the Ironman, we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, cheering us on. YOU are those fans. YOU are the ones God is using to spur us on forward in this great race for the lost and dying souls of men.

Thank you!

Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

Present need: $650 for tables for Barner Christian Academy's Industrial Arts Lab.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. that Elvie, PJ and Abigail will have no difficulties in making all their flight transfers and layovers in their six connecting flights Tuesday and Wednesday from Davao-Manila-Guam-Honolulu-San Francisco-Phoenix-St. Louis. Some of the layovers are only half an hour in length, while others are over five hours. These include airplane changes and immigration check-ins. They will try to only bring a carry-on bag each, with nothing to check-in.
2. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: June 11 beginning of the 2012-2013 school year, June 12 Third in a series of elimination equivalency exams administered by the Philippine Department of Education (of our 1300 students from 2009-2011, there are still 198 students who are being processed for future intellectual evaluation).
3. for my Dad and Mom in New York. Dad had a pacemaker installed to keep him from his blackouts. Mom is still recovering from the accident.
4. for BLC's total remaining 2008 Typhoon flood debt of $4,588 to be whittled down to zero by August, 2012 [$710 per week for 7 more weeks] (-$27 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 205 weeks ($710 per week, totaling $145,412), the debt should be paid off in 7 more weeks, or by August, 2012.
5. four more days until classes begin, and the government has still not yet released the required annual operational permit. However, we have been informed that a temporary opening is approved until the government makes its final decision. Welcome to the Third World!
6. For the destitute and hungry teenage and preteen “boat-girls” of Davao. They climb, sometimes naked, from small boats and up the ladders on the sides of passing ships, to sell themselves as prostitutes to sailors. We really, really need a houseparent for our new Girls' home, to give another option to these homeless kids. 
7. For a preteen girl whose parents have been beating her in Davao. She is staying with Elvie until next week.

Praise God:

1. To date, over $1,773 has already been pledged from friends for the 2017 purchase of BCA’s new $56,000 school campus (property and temporary buildings). These pledges have been made per-mile for the following 70.3-mile Ironman Triathlons I will compete in: CEBU, PHILIPPINES (August 5, 2012) $5 per mile/HONU, HI (June 1, 2013) $2 per mile/SONOMA COUNTY, CA (July 14, 2013) $2 per mile . Thus, 5 + 2 + 2 = 9 x 70.3=632.70 plus $1,417.64 (from previous Ironman triathlons) =2050.34 - $56,000 =$53,949.66 to go!
2. that since I arrived in the USA 68 days ago, I have driven 5,210  miles, visited 51 churches, 3 countries, 11 states, 18 civic clubs, 19 ministries, one school, 7 Bible Studies, 42 families, run two races and flown 13 flights.
3. That when some tourists in Hawaii noticed my race wristband, they asked about the race. They were contented to hear that, although it was the most difficult conditions on record for this type of race in this State, most of the athletes were happy to know that they were “survivors” and plodded on until the end.
4. That the race was on a Saturday, so I was able to visit two worship services. One was in the oldest church on the island, and the other was in the Tongan language, with lots of native hymns. It was a delightful worship experience.
5. That donors have given all the remaining funds needed for wall fans in Barner Christian Academy.
6. That donors have given over a thousand dollars to fix the destroyed transmission in our 1984 van in New York.
7. That, while driving across the island of Hawaii (The Big Island), I met some locals in a very volcanic area. There, I was able to pray for the older brother Ricky's injured liver and the younger sister Shanna's clogged arteries. Also I was able to tour around with two middle aged men, Duane and Doug, and share about the similarities between Hell and the lava flows.
8. That, although the Hawaiian airport security confiscated the snow globe I picked up for Abby as a souvenir, a tiny store was nearby in which I was able to get something else for her.
9. That after a very bumpy landing in the Phoenix, Arizona airport, the shaken-up passengers all laughed when the little kids on the plane yelled out, “Whee! That was fun!” I responded with, “Did any parts drop off of the plane?”

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $2990 received, $27,010 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 28.

Paul's next race: Ironman Triathlon Cebu, Philippines August 5, 2012.

Kona, Hawaii May 31, 2012  (may be offline until June 5 when I return from competing in the Hawaii Ironman race, 6/2)

"We're telling the other kids about Jesus, Dad!"

When my cellphone rang at 4am in Missouri, it could only mean one
thing: Elvie and the kids were calling me from the Philippines! After a week of speaking in American civic clubs and churches, it was a blessing to hear from my family.

Elvie and Abigail explained that the school is preparing for the next school year, to begin in just three weeks. Yet PJ could not speak on the phone, and Abby explained why.

"Dad, the team from California came for a few weeks, and PJ went with them to the jungle to reach the poor children there and tell them about Jesus!"

Praise God for a family that loves to share with unbelievers of all ages and cultures around this delightful globe we live in.

Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

Present need: $265 for paint and rollers to spruce up the BCA campus before classes resume on June 11.

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: May 31 end of BCA summer classes, June 11 beginning of the 2012-2013 school year, June 12 Third in a series of elimination equivalency exams administered by the Philippine Department of Education (of our 1300 students from 2009-2011, there are still 198 students who are being processed for future intellectual evaluation).
2. for my Dad and Mom in New York. They are gradually recuperating from their serious car accident a few weeks ago.
3. for BLC's total remaining 2008 Typhoon flood debt of $4,615 to be whittled down to zero by August, 2012 [$713 per week for 7 more weeks] (-$540 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 204 weeks ($713 per week, totaling $145,385), the debt should be paid off in 7 more weeks, or by August, 2012.
4. The government has been very slow this year in releasing our school's annual OPERATIONAL permit. Please pray that the permit arrives before our first day of classes on June 11.
5. the transmission blew out on our New York van, so we need a vehicle from 7/3-21 while we are in that part of the USA.

Praise God:

1. To date, over $1473 has already been pledged from friends for the 2017 purchase of BCA’s new $56,000 school campus (property and temporary buildings). These pledges have been made per-mile for the following 70.3-mile Ironman Triathlons I will compete in: KONA, HI (June 2, 2012) $8.13 per mile/ PHILIPPINES (August 5, 2012) $5 per mile. Thus, 8.13 + 5 =13.13 x 70.3=923.04 plus $826.11 (from previous Ironman triathlons) =1749.15 - $56,000 =$54,250.85 to go!
2. that many recipients of this weekly prayer diary have identified whether they prefer the "long form" or "short form", assisting me to more effectively meet your prayer needs. A well-informed, praying Christian is one of the enemy's greatest concerns!
3. that since I arrived in the USA 37 days ago, I have driven 4,510  miles, visited 45 churches, 3 countries, 9 states, 14 civic clubs, 14 ministries, one school, 4 Bible Studies, 37 families, run one race and flown 9 flights.
4. that the Rolla, Missouri Kiwanis Club was patient when my laptop computer refused to work, my backup computer wasn't cooperating with the projector, and they had to listen to me while watching the pictures on the screen of my laptop.
5. that dozens of my friends in ministry from twenty years ago when I was pastor in Rolla, Missouri, have prayed with me while I visited their homes, restaurants and churches these past few weeks.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $2985 received, $27,015 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 28.

Rolla, Missouri: HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY, USA! (5/29, OBSERVED:5/27)

A great friend suggested I abbreviate our weekly diary, so some portions have been eliminated)

"Mom, can we see how they did?" Our children, PJ (aged 14) and Abigail (aged 11) have been praying very hard for the Barner Christian Academy students to do well on their exams. So when the results arrived, they were as excited as a trick-or-treater is with candy.

Yet there is still one more test, which the government is requiring June 12, the day after school begins. Sorry, kids!

2012 is a wonderful year of deep soul-searching and ministry-evaluating. While Elvie is "holding down the fort" in the Philippines, I have garnered dozens of new prayer warriors stateside. We will begin traveling together again as a family after I pick them up in St. Louis on June 13.

My next Ironman triathlon is June 2. Thanks for your prayers.

Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

Typhoon flood debt outstanding: $4,645

USA Tracfone: (518) 322-9321.

Elizabeth, Arkansas May 17, 2012

"If you don’t come apart, you will fall apart!” Barner Christian Academy’s annual staff retreat was planned by my wife Elvie with the precise reason to help the faculty and staff “come apart” so they would not “fall apart”.

Between the PEPT student validation exams (April 28) and the resumption of Summer School (May 7), the teachers and staff had a week break. During that break, two of the pastors on our faculty were the main speakers as they shared Bible lessons for three days on a campground about an hour from the school.

God really moved in awesome ways! Deep times of spiritual refreshing flowed over the BCA employees as God instilled confidence that He would fulfill three objectives: 1) the 246 students who took the exams would do fantastic, 2)  the annual Government permit, released each year by the Department of Education (DepEd) would be soon provided, and 3) every staff member would experience a deeper and richer relationship with Jesus Christ in 2013, as well as many opportunities to share the wondrous plan of salvation with students, parents and friends.

The teachers and staff also had a blast playing games and swimming.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, I (Paul) was also experiencing the fantastic blessing of Christians from many denominations who were listening to my stories of God’s work in the Philippines, and also promising to pray for many more souls to be ushered into the Kingdom in Asia.

“Paul, you work too much,” a friend told me in Arkansas. “How would you like to go fishing with us on the lake?” Deep inside I cherished the thought. But when another friend informed me that a three-day fishing license could run between eleven and twenty-five dollars, I kindly offered to just sit in the boat and watch the others.

“Sorry guys. When we have starving children in the Philippines, what right do I have to squander that much money on a three-day fishing trip? Imagine all the kids I could feed!”

On Sunday night, a kindly gentleman was talking with me after church.

While shaking my hand, he looked me in the eye and said, in no uncertain terms, “It is illegal to sit in a fishing boat with others who are fishing, and not to have a license yourself. GO FISHING.” As I waved goodbye, I looked in my hand. There was $25! So the next day we went fishing! It was a blast. And the day after that, we went water skiing. It was great too! I didn’t catch anything, and hurt my ribs when I wiped out on the skis, but it was great!

And now I am on my way to the next state, to share with others about the wonderful things that God is doing in Asia.

Isn’t God great? Even He rested after His sixth day of creation…and He definitely didn’t need to rest!

Until next time… Let the islands rejoice!

Present need: $265 for paint and rollers to spruce up the BCA campus before classes resume.

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: May 31 end of BCA summer classes, June 11 beginning of the 2012-2013 school year.
2. for my Dad and Mom in New York. They were in a car accident last week. The top portion of Dad’s leg bone (tibia) had to be replaced, as it was pulverized. He’ll be in rehab for two months. Mom’s intestines burst and she is undergoing tests while remaining under anesthesia.
   Please pray for their complete recuperation. They are in their eighties.
3. for BLC's total remaining 2008 Typhoon flood debt of $5,155 to be whittled down to zero by August, 2012 [$717 per week for 8 more weeks]
   (-$35 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 202 weeks ($717 per week, totaling $144,845), the debt should be paid off in 8 more weeks, or by August, 2012.
4. for my ribs to heal after bruising them while waterskiing.

Praise God:

1. To date, over $1473 has already been pledged from friends for the
   2017 purchase of BCA’s new $56,000 school campus (property and temporary buildings). These pledges have been made per-mile for the following 70.3-mile Ironman Triathlons I will compete in: KONA, HI (June 2, 2012) $8.13 per mile/ PHILIPPINES (August 5, 2012) $5 per mile. Thus, 8.13 + 5 =13.13 x 70.3=923.04 plus $826.11 (from previous Ironman triathlons) =1749.15 - $56,000 =$54,250.85 to go!
2. that a couple in Arkansas who sponsors a BCA child loaned me her Garmin GPS, since my Tomtom GPS is outdated with old maps.
3. that since I arrived in the USA 37 days ago, I have driven 4,110 miles, visited 40 churches, 3 countries, 8 states, 10 civic clubs, 13 ministries, one school, 2 Bible Studies, 24 families, run one race and flown 6 flights.
4. For the friend who gave me $25 for an Arkansas fishing license.
5. That no cars have hit me while training for my upcoming Ironman, even though I have seen road kill of deer, cat, dog, opossum, raccoon, squirrel, bird, armadillo, skunk, turtle, snake, mouse, something that looked like a small alligator, and an unidentified carrion surrounded by bees and buzzards.
6. That when I was running recently and a dog bit me in the rear end, she didn’t break the skin.
7. That I found a welder who can weld aluminum. He welded the broken part from my Trek bike which was damaged in the trans-Pacific flight, but I still have to find a bolt that will fit the newly-repaired area so that the rear derailleur will stay in place.
8. For the many people who have donated clothes and other items for me to mail to the Philippines.
9. that there is an American woman who is strongly considering moving to the Philippines to assist our new Filipina house parent for our Davao Street Girls’ home.
10. That a friend bought Arkansas hats for Elvie, PJ, Abigail and me!

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $2975 received,
$27,025 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 28.

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma May 10, 2012 HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY (5/13)

"God's will is perfect!” Elvie was so pleased with the comfort of knowing that finally, after eight months of preparation and work, both the long-awaited, costly PEPT exam (Philippine Evaluation Placement Test) and the Government Inspection of the school, were both finished!

Many of the parents and staff who had worked in the library (to prepare for the inspection) had gotten sick from overexertion, carrying books, arranging & cleaning. One of the requirements of the government DepEd (Department of Education) was that we double the size of our library space, since the vast quantity of volumes did not fit on the shelves.

Elvie was also coughing from the dust of tearing down one of the cement walls and moving the books which were covered with dust from the demolition and construction. An elderly pastor visited, but due to his age could not help with heavy lifting. Instead, he lifted them all up in prayer!

We want to serve God by complying with the demands of the DepEd, operating this free  school and helping more and more children, reaching entire families & communities for the Lord. “I am just surrendering everything to the Lord,” Elvie told the very tired staff. “His will be done...He knows best...His will is perfect!”

Deep inside however, Elvie sometimes feels tired. Yet she tries to stay strong, for the staff looks up to her as their principal..and she wants to encourage them. While I am away, the Lord renews her strength through her dawn prayers, and meditation on God's Word day by day.

After speaking at a church in Arkansas, I was sharing with a Christian brother about the wife I married, and how she has taken on the project of this free Christian school which I began in 1998. He looked me in the eye and said, “You know, Paul, you married up!” He was saying that I have a very special spouse.

I guess he might just have a very good point there...

Until next time…
Let the islands rejoice!

Present need: $315 for 7 wall fans at $45 each.

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: May 31 end of BCA summer classes, June 11 beginning of the 2012-2013 school year, June 12 Elvie, PJ and Abby fly to the USA for a month and a half, joining me in sharing in churches about the challenge of missions.
2. for a replacement for the sponsor of six of our BCA students. This very faithful sponsor has been out of work for six months, and had to drop his sponsorships recently. Also please pray for him, that God will soon send him work.
3. for BLC's total remaining 2008 Typhoon flood debt of $5,190 to be whittled down to zero by August, 2012 [$721 per week for 8 more weeks] (-$311 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 201 weeks ($721 per week, totaling $144,810), the debt should be paid off in 8 more weeks, or by August, 2012.
4. for an unemployed man whom God had spoken to at a church where I shared about the Philippines. Although he has no job, he made a donation of $40 to help with some of the costs related with the expensive PEPT exam which recently was administered at BCA, and also for preparation of the campus for our recent inspection. Please pray that he find a job soon.
5. for our project to supply Vitamin A supplements into the diet of Filipino children. Without proper dosages, many Filipino children are going blind. The Helen Keller Foundation and a few other networks are being contacted by two of the representatives for our drop-off center for street children.
6. For a teenage girl who was with her youth group, listening to my challenge for missions during their church's evening worship service recently. She feels strongly called to one day become a missionary herself. Please pray that God will open great doors of opportunity for short-term missions trips in the next few years, so that she can experience first-hand what it is like to live in a Third World country and tell people about her faith in Jesus Christ.

Praise God:

1. To date, over $1473 has already been pledged from friends for the 2017 purchase of BCA’s new $56,000 school campus (property and temporary buildings). These pledges have been made per-mile for the following 70.3-mile Ironman Triathlons I will compete in: KONA, HI (June 2, 2012) $7.13 per mile/ PHILIPPINES (August 5, 2012) $5 per mile. Thus, 7.13 + 5 =12.13 x 70.3=852.74 plus $796.41 (from previous Ironman triathlons) =1649.14 - $56,000 =$54,350.86 to go!
2. that over the past month and a half, I have had fantastic and delightful host families with whom to stay in California, Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma!
3. that since I left the Philippines 37 days ago, I have driven 4,001  miles, visited 15 churches, 3 countries, 8 states, 10 civic clubs, 11 ministries, one school, 1 Bible Study, 20 families, run one race and flown 6 flights...but who's counting?
4. that I enjoyed eating fried alligator (on a stick) again, while attending the toad festival in Arkansas this week.
5. that, while listening to a tape of Exodus, hearing about the plagues of flies, gnats and grasshoppers while I was on my morning jog, I was attacked by a “plague of dogs”. They were huge, and must have been about fifteen of them. One was already dead on the road, squished by a car. Yet when I turned around to attack them, they ran away.
6. That Elvie brought a whole van full of parents from our BCA school and Faith Fellowship Church to watch PJ and Abby perform in the school play at Faith Academy. The kids did great!
7. That a project we are working with, to eliminate the dreaded disease of MNT (Maternal Neonatal Tetanus), has made a great leap forward, with UNICEF's immunization efforts in the Philippines. As with previous trips to Cambodia, Indonesia and Sierra Leone, participants at the Philippines site-visit were able to visit local clinics that treat mothers and children, receive briefings from local UNICEF representatives and meet with mothers who have experienced MNT, and subsequently the death of a child, in their lives.
8. That my very good friend's American sister wants to sponsor a girl at the Barner Christian Academy and pay for it herself but have any mail regarding that child sent to her son's address as she is doing this in honor of her granddaughter whose education has already been taken care of. Not only that, but she is also making a separate one-time donation in honor of her niece's wedding.
9. That the man who ran the audio-visual booth at a church I recently spoke at, forgave me when my remote wasn't working properly. Each time I needed to change the picture, I'd call his name: Gary. After 63 slides, and after the benediction, he sat down with me in one of the pews, and mentioned that his name is actually Terry! Oops.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $2970 received, $27,030 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 27.

Arlington, Texas May 3, 2012 HAPPY PHILIPPINE LABOR DAY (5/1)

"Please pray at 7pm, Texas-time!"

My 4-hour drive from Houston-area to Dallas-area of Texas doubled in time as God touched my heart to make a few stops along the way.

I had a box of envelopes, and stuff about our Philippine ministry (Prayer letter, family prayer cards, triathlon prayer cards, etc.) in the front seat with me as I was listening to a Christian book on CD ("Love at Last Sight"). I stuffed ten envelopes with eight items each, and "popped into" a church. After all, while driving, there are always churches that you pass along the roadway.

My goal was ten churches. Since nobody was at the first church, I stuck the envelope into the crack in the door. But first I wrote a note across the front: "Please pray at 7pm, Texas-time, for our Philippine school. 246 of our students are taking an exam TODAY. Any students who fail might drop down TWO grades! Tonight at 7pm in Texas will be tomorrow morning at 8am in the Philippines."

Meanwhile in the Philippines, Elvie was getting pastors, churches, church people, teachers and parents to spend days in fasting and prayer for the kids taking the exam. They were also setting up for the exam, calling and picking-up the head examiner at the airport, feeding her dinner and bringing her to the hotel, hiring extra bus drivers to pick up the children for their final exam and for the last-minute training, and arguing with parents why we refuse to bribe the govenrment to give good grades to the kids. The examiner asked why Elvie would not join her in eating, and when Elvie explained about her fast, it opened the door for Elvie to share her personal testimony of how she became a Christian, and how this ministry began, over a decade ago.

As I drove North on Hwy 45, a church steeple appeared on the horizon. The pastor was out on-call, but his secretary Reta was in. Together we prayed for the 246 kids taking the exam, and for Reta's church worship service as well.

At another town, half an hour later, the doors were locked. But when I was about to leave, a white-haired gentleman pulled his old pickup truck into the parking lot and got out. "Pastor ain't in?" he questioned. "Well, Ah'm sure we can round him up!" With his shaky hand, after a full two minutes of trying to connect the key with the door, he opened the church and we found the pastor. After a great time of prayer with this man of God, placing hands on each other's shoulders and lifitng up each other's ministries to heaven, I hit the road again.

Half a dozen churches later, I was back in the car and looked down at the coin tray. There was the tiny peice that had broken off my bicycle while flying from the Phlippines to the USA in early April. While packing up my bike for the trip from Asia, I had forgotten to remove the rear derailleur. Hence the strain of the trip had broken the crucial part off from the frame. Although my bike had limped through last Sunday's Ironman race, without that tiny peice, the bike could have fallen apart at any time, virtually ending my race.

A lot of people are like that bike. Some minor tragedy may have occurred which stymies them. Just one tiny element of their life causes them to hold on by just a thread. If they are pressured in just the wrong fashion, their life will fall apart.

Visiting lots of pastors along the road, I could see that we lift each other up. A few friends who were concerned about my bicycle, pooled their funds together and gave me enough to get a new bike! Yet when I went to compare prices and models, they rung me up and added an extra fee. "What's that for?" I asked.

"Oh, that's $70 for the pedals." they told me. "Well, please leave off the pedals." I plead. "My sponsors covered the enitre price, but that would put me over the top." A friend called a few hours later, informing me that, since the purpose of these races is to raise funds for our new BCA campus, he sent some of the funds from his tax refund so I could get those pedals! Cool, huh?

Meanhwhile back in the Philippines,the  testing was finished at 9pm. The test had been administered "by batch," with twenty students per examiner, in 9 rooms/examiners and 1 chief examiner.

When Elvie asked the students later, "How was the test?" most of the young ones (Grades 1-3) said it was easy. But the older students (Grades 4-6) said the test was difficult. We will see what the results will be when they are released next month. It had been a long day for Elvie, as she had gotten PJ, Abby and others to wake up at 3am to start praying for the test.

The next day, our church was packed with thankful parents, praising God that the test was finally over. My assistant Pastor, Callem, shared about Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 21, that the battle is not ours, it's God's!

Until next time…
Let the islands rejoice!

 Present need: $630 to design and remodel one of the school rooms to fulfill the government's new requirement that Barner Christian Academy have a Teachers' Lounge.

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: May 7 resumption of BCA summer classes, May 31 end of BCA summer classes, June 11 beginning of the 2012-2013 school year.
2. for Eric, one of the boys at our Street kids Ranch, who cut through his finger with a machete while chopping open a coconut. Please pray that his stitchews will hweakl quickly and that he'll regain full usage of his finger, without numbness.
3. for BLC's total remaining 2008 Typhoon flood debt of $5,501 to be whittled down to zero by August, 2012 [$723 per week for 8 more weeks] (-$211 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 200 weeks ($723 per week, totaling $144,499), the debt should be paid off in 8 more weeks, or by August, 2012.
4. for Nikayla and Shakira, two teen daughters of one of my hosts, as they take missions trips to China and Japan in May. The trip to China will be for 3 wks, and to Japan for seven weeks.

Praise God:

1. To date, over $1473 has already been pledged from friends for the 2017 purchase of BCA’s new $56,000 school campus (property and temporary buildings). These pledges have been made per-mile for the following 70.3-mile Ironman Triathlons I will compete in: KONA, HI (June 2, 2012) $7.13 per mile/ PHILIPPINES (August 5, 2012) $5 per mile. Thus, 7.13 + 5 =12.13 x 70.3=852.74 plus $796.41 (from previous Ironman triathlons) =1649.14 - $56,000 =$54,350.86 to go!
2. that Abigail did great in her Spring concert (playing french horn) at Faith Academy last week!
3. that since I arrived in the USA 32 days ago, I have driven 3,750  miles, visited 12 churches, six states, 8 civic clubs, 6 ministries, one school, 1 Bible Study, 19 families, run one race and flown 6 flights.
4. that I finished readimg the Bible, cover-to-cover, my 57th time.
5. that Abigail got an A+ on her fingerprints project at Faith Ac ademy.
6. that while in Louisiana, I was able to eat aligator and also to pet and hold a live, baby alligator from the swamps.
7. that since this ministry car has a sunroof, I was able to stick my hand through the top of the car and get truck drivers to honk their air horns as I passed.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $2965 received, $27,035 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 22.

The Woodlands, Texas

"Tonight I am going to pig-out!” While preparing for my race, I had to be careful what I ate. But after Sunday’s 70.3-mile Ironman triathlon in New Orleans, I was ready to eat some greasy Cajun chicken with buttermilk biscuits at a restaurant across the street from my hotel.

The race was unique. Due to severe winds, the 1.2-mile swim was replaced with an extra 2 miles tacked-onto the 13.1-mile run. My major concern before the race was the broken frame which left only one bolt-hole to hold my bicycle’s derailleur (rear gears). Since the wind was right in our faces in the first 25 miles, I figured it would be at our backs for the return. But the wind changed direction, so the 1500 athletes were pedaling into the wind the whole way.

While visiting a church recently, I asked if they could please pray for my bike to hold up during the race. I know you were praying as well. The pastor took my hands and prayed, “Lord, keep angels holding those gears together on Paul’s bike, with angels on his right and angels on his left!”

Sure enough, praise God, the bike held up! The roads were quite bumpy, and we even had to ride over long, grooved metal bridge grates, thousands of choppy sections where uneven cement slabs connected,  and manhole covers. But those prayed-for angels were putting in overtime labor to keep my bike in one piece.

I finished the race in 6 hours and two minutes, cutting more than an hour off of my best time of 7.12! Thanks for praying! My leg muscles are still sore as I type this.

After the race, I headed back to the hotel and freshened-up to find a church. I’d missed morning worship, and many churches do not have church on Sunday nights. The internet was not much help, so I just started driving around to see if I could find a church with cars in the parking lot. I’d lost my comb at the race, and couldn’t find a fork to comb my hair. So I just patted it down with my hands and threw on a shirt and jeans.

After about an hour, since most of the bigger churches were closed, I found a small Holiness church with cars in the lot. A big banner said “Pastor Appreciation Sunday”. When I parked the car, I saw a blind man in the car next to me. He told me to see Rev. Brown, so I went upstairs to their fellowship hall. Church was over, but they wouldn’t let me leave before letting me share about our Philippine ministry, and they also gave me a huge, hot Styrofoam container of Cajun chicken gumbo and other “vittles”.

They’d told me of a big church on Hwy Ten that might have evening worship, and also another one a few blocks down. So off I went. The Baptist church a few blocks away was not very big, but the parking lot was full. When I stepped in the door, church was just getting underway.

It was Deacon and Deaconess Appreciation Sunday, and about half dozen pastors from other churches were there. The only other Caucasian was an inmate from the performance group, and inmate acapela choir from a local jail. Aside from the inmates and police officers, I was the only one not dressed in Sunday best.

After worship, they insisted that I bring home another huge Styrofoam container of gumbo and vittles. Plus I shared with many about our Philippine ministry. Driving back to the hotel, I passed the actual church that the Pastor Brown had referred to. The parking lot was empty, which meant they hadn’t had evening worship after all. Then, once on Hwy Ten, the big Household of Faith church had a full parking lot. But it was already almost 8pm, so I figured the service was almost over. I skipped it and went home.

Back at the hotel, I dragged my sore legs up the stairs and feasted on not one, but two great Cajun meals. Pretty good haul for an evening out…and all it cost me was what I put in the offering basket at church!
While chowing down the church food, I opened the internet and found a message from Elvie in the Philippines.

She was really concerned about the upcoming PEPT Equivalency exam for our 246 elementary students, coming up this Saturday (April 28). But I assured her, “If God can hold my broken bike together in severe winds and choppy roads, and if He can keep me going through more than the usual miles to run, and if He can, at the drop of a hat, supply totally-unexpected heavenly meals (plus a great worship service and chances to challenge people for missions) then is one little exam too difficult for Him?  

Until next time…
Let the islands rejoice!

Present need: $1511 for expenses (per-exam cost, flight transportation and daily wages for the national instructors) to hold the PEPT exam for our BCA students this coming Saturday 4/28.

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: April 26-27 final daily PEPT student training for the April 28 national equivalency exams, April 28 (PEPT Philippine Equivalency Placement Tests), May 7 resumption of BCA summer classes, June 11 beginning of the 2012-2013 school year.
2. for my damaged bicycle to continue to hold together even after I disassemble it and ship it to Hawaii for my next race, June 2.
3. for BLC's total remaining 2008 Typhoon flood debt of $5,712 to be whittled down to zero by July, 2012 [$726 per week for 8 more weeks] (-$146 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 199 weeks ($726 per week, totaling $144,288), the debt should be paid off in 8 more weeks, or by July, 2012.

Praise God:

1. To date, over $1473 has already been pledged from friends for the 2017 purchase of BCA’s new $56,000 school campus (property and temporary buildings). These pledges have been made per-mile for the following 70.3-mile Ironman Triathlons I will compete in: KONA, HI (June 2, 2012) $7.13 per mile/ PHILIPPINES (August 5, 2012) $5 per mile. Thus, 7.13 + 5 =12.13 x 70.3=852.74 plus $796.41 (from previous Ironman triathlons) =1649.14 - $56,000 =$54,350.86 to go!
2. that Abigail is fully recuperated from her serious bout with dengue fever three weeks ago. About ten years ago, one of our female BLC students, about Abby’s age, had died of this mosquito-born illness. I was the one who had performed her funeral. When our own Abby got sick, she had been coughing up blood, and her platelet count was dangerously low. However you did pray, and God answered your prayers! Yay, God!  Abby even performed in the Faith Academy elementary school play last Friday.
3. that after I shared about our Philippine work, at a New Orleans Kiwanis Club last week, I was given a really nice mug in thankfulness for our work. At a Texas club the week previous, they donated a book to the local lending library in thankfulness to me.
4. That, after I spoke at a club which met at a restaurant, they paid for my meal. Two elderly ladies who are quilting-bee partners were listening-in from the other room of the restaurant, and called me aside to pray for me, the church and the school.
5. that the Saturday before my race, after I checked-in my bike at the first transition area, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) had a very inspiring worship service, reminding us to do our best in the event and take every opportunity during it to share the Gospel of Jesus with unbelievers. They also prayed for my broken bike and gave me a free music CD, made by one of the Christian athletes.
6. that I was able to walk to the New Orleans Theological Seminary, which is just down the street from the hotel I was staying in, before my eight-hour drive back to Houston, Texas. Some there agreed to pray for the work God is doing in Davao. I also received a clergy discount of 20% off on the book, "Samson Syndrome"!
7. that the Boy's Home arm of our Father's House ministry is meeing soon to discuss what avenues can be taken to work with Kiwanis clubs to provide vitamin A in the kids' diet (in the form of a ten-cent pill). This should eliminate blindness in some of the thousands of potentially blind kids's lives.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $2960 received, $27,040 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 22.

REMAINING 2012 FURLOUGH TRAVEL:

New Orleans, Louisiana

"Paul, I have a laptop computer that I don't need anymore. Would you like it?" Wow, WOULD I! My little laptop is great for attaching to the projector as I give presentations in churches, schools, civic clubs and so forth on this furlough, but for sending and receiving email, it does have its drawbacks. I often have to squint to see the screen. Yet in my nearsighted faith, I couldn't see that God was once again preparing the scene for something "around the corner" and beyond my nearsighted mortality.

I drove back to the home of my host in Corpus Christi, Texas.. The next afternoon, I tried to turn-on my small laptop computer and...nothing! What perfect timing on God's part! He KNEW that my laptop was about to die the next day, and that is why He gave me a replacement, just the day before!

My host knows computers well, so he was able to get my old laptop to limp through some functions so I can still use it to give presentations. However it cannot connect to the internet, and it also requries many extra commands before it can complete any procedures. Yet now I have TWO computers. Where one is weak, the other is strong, and vice versa. It is like when I was a boy and Dad brought home a broken color television set. We'd never had a color TV before. Since the sound didn't work on the color TV, we turned on both sets, using the picture from one and the sound from the other (occassionally we turned them to different channels just for the fun of it).

When Elvie sent me an email from our school in the Philippines, she also mentioned how God had once again provided yet another of His "teamwork" situations. Since the PEPT (Philippine Evaluation Placement Test) practices are every day until the exam date on April 28, many families who live a distance away are staying in Davao until after 4/28. One family (the "Palacs"), has no relatives to stay with, so they are staying with Elvie and the kids.

My family was short on groceries, so the two families went together to the fresh-food vegetable market. Elvie showed PJ and Abigail how to buy food and how to check to see if it was ripe and also show them how to barter for a good price. When the two families returned from downtown, the key broke in the lock of the door.

So Mr. Palac broke a window to get in. Then the next day, he replaced the broken window with a brand new one! Elvie then checked her cell phone, which she'd left behind, and there were two messages from pastors (Steve and Tim).  She hadn't been in contact with Steve for years. He told her that God had laid it on his heart to pray for her. So cool, huh? And with Tim, He said that God has sent us as Davids to fight the Goliaths of life, but we are not alone. That was the very message Elvie had given that morning to to teachers and staff during the school's staff devotions!

So in God's perfect eternal puzzle, everybody has a part to play, and it all works together in the wonderfully awesome tapestry of our Creator's Grand Design. I do not mind being only a small thread in His quilt. After all, with that tapestry, small children are warmed like in a blanket, clothed like in a garment, schooled like within the curtains on the classroom window, fed like on a table cloth, and brought to their Savior.

Until next time…

Let the islands rejoice!

Present need: $630 to design and remodel one of the school rooms to fulfill the government's new requirement that Barner Christian Academy have a Teachers' Lounge.

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: April 19-27 daily PEPT student training for the April 28 national equivalency exams, April 28 (PEPT Philippine Equivalency Placement Tests), May 7 resumption of BCA summer classes, June 11 beginning of the 2012-2013 school year.
2. for Elvie, as she makes rennovations in the school for our upcoming follow-up Govenment inspection. She's changing the Home economics, music and science rooms. Our family has moved out of the apartment which is on the school campus (due to a governmental directive) and into the former home econmoincs building, which is adjacent to the campus. She is also planning to reorganize the school's office area, to include a required faculty lounge.
3. for BLC's total remaining 2008 Typhoon flood debt of $5,858 to be whittled down to zero by July, 2012 [$727 per week for 9 more weeks] (-$15 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 198 weeks ($727 per week, totaling $144,142), the debt should be paid off in 9 more weeks, or by July, 2012.
4. for strength for my bicycle this Sunday. With the expected increased winds and inclement weather, there will be a greater strain on the already-broken bolts that hold my chain's rear derailleur.

Praise God:

1. To date, over $1473 has already been pledged from friends for the 2017 purchase of BCA’s new $56,000 school campus (property and temporary buildings). These pledges have been made per-mile for the following 70.3-mile Ironman Triathlons I will compete in: NEW ORLEANS, LA (April 22, 2012) $3.50 per mile/ KONA, HI (June 2, 2012) $7.13 per mile/ PHILIPPINES (August 5, 2012) $5 per mile. Thus, 3.50 + 7.13 + 5 =15.63 x 70.3=1098.78 plus $550.36 (from previous Ironman triathlons) =1649.14 - $56,000 =$54,350.86 to go!
2. that one of the churches which I spoke at recently took-up a special offering of over $400 for our ministry in the Philippines. With the upcoming PEPT exam this April 28, the school sorely needs funds to pay for this urgent, expensive test, to be administered to 246 of our elementary students.
3. that on one Sunday I spoke in a church's morning worship service, and in the evening (since the morning church has no Sunday evening worship), I was invited by friends to visit another church to listen to another missionary (from South America) speak. It was great to share and receive prayer requests from both fields, since there was a time of fellowship afterwards. Many people in that church also agreed to pray for our upcoming PEPT exam and also for my race this Sunday (4/22) in New Orleans, Louisiana.
4. that, although many of the Toastmasters and Kiwanis Clubs I planned to visit have changed their meeting times or locations, I still have been able to visit some. The people in these clubs worldwide are wonderful people, and occasionally (even though I do not request it) they pay for my meal!
5. that the United States Navy's Blue Angels jet team is performing in the air over the race site this Saturday and Sunday, due to it being the two hundredth birthday of Louaiiana's statehood. Louisiana, after the war of 1812, became a state in April of 1812..
6. for the wisdom of the race directors, who have decided that, due to severe winds predicted for this weekend, are revising the swimming, bicycling and running portions of the race. The 1.2-mile swim may either revise its location, or even be replaced with an additional 2-mile run becfore the cycling portion. The cycling portion, due to debris being blown onto the course, may be abbreviated by 4 miles (52 instead of 56). And the running portion will remain the 13.1 miles, but include different roads.
7. for safe driving these past 2 weeks. I have already gone about 1500 miles in this Mercury Mountaineer car which the Macedonian Call Foundation has so joyfully provided for our family during this furlough.
8. for a few friends who included on their facebook accounts a quote from my last-week's email diary. Many more people were blessed!
9. that Abigail is now much stronger after her scary bout with dengue fever. Dengue is a little like malaria, caused by an infected mosquito's bite. Due to your prayers, she was able to be released from the hospital, head back to school and also even catch-up on a few basketball practices toward the end of the season. Thank you, thank you, thank you for praying for my precious daughter to be well!
10. that Mark, our missioary friend who had helped with bringing boys into our street-kids' home, has successfully made it back to California to petition for his Filpina wife to become an American citizen.
11. that a ministry called "Flips For Flops" is considering sending over one hundred rubber sandals (flip flops) to our school for the poor children who are practically always barefoot, while not in school.
12. that at one of my stops here in the USA, a friend donated an electric ice cream maker for our school. The BCA kids will be sooooo pleased! Wow, homemade ice cream. I am drooling already!

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $2955 received, $27,045 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 22.

Nuevo Progreso, Mexico

“Honey, Abigail is coughing up blood! I'm terriffied!” To be a missionary, 13,000 miles away from my sick daughter in the Philippines, is quite challenging. Yet the same God who has called us to the mission field and started an immense ministry, reaching thousands through the church and school that God used us to start, all out of nothing, is the same God who can care for our sick, eleven-year-old daughter.

At the hospital, after the doctors saw that Abby’s platelet count had dropped drastically, they gave the verdict: dengue fever (kind of like malaria). But the stomach aches, headaches, fever, etc. were not enough to knock down our strong little “angel princess”.

“Daddy,” she told me on the telephone in her confident little voice, “thanks for your prayers!” I was using a phone card that a friend had given me, and was sitting on the ground in the dark with the outdoor pay telephone in my hand. I had called at 9pm so that I would reach them in the daytime on the other side of the world. Shoppers passed, loudly pushing their carts along the cement sidewalk into the local Walmart, picking up tidbits of my international conversation as they passed by.

It was good to hear my little girl’s voice. I shared with her, “Abigail, you know my new triathlon bicycle? It was destroyed in the airplane!” I explained how the baggage people on the plane had manhandled the bag with my bike in it and broke off the tiny piece which holds the rear gears onto the frame. There is no time for me to file a claim and for them to send a new replacement frame, since the race is just next week away (April 22) in New Orleans, Louisiana.

I brought the bicycle to a bike repair shop and they said, “There’s no hope. It is destroyed.” I thought about Abigail, and how she was not willing to let the pain and frustration of this illness ruffle her feathers. So I checked another bike shop, in a neighboring town. Eleven miles later, the other mechanic suggested, “Well….there just MIGHT be a way…” So in fifteen minutes, he rearranged a few items and re-tooled a bolt, and suddenly, whahlah, the bike worked! Today I test-rode my bike to Mexico and back (from where I am this week in Southern Texas) and it ran fine.

“But be careful,” cautioned the mechanic. “It is still quite fragile. If that bolt breaks off in your race next week, you’ll have to drop out.”

You know, life often seems to be filled with temporary fixes. It often feels that the prayers we have lifted up are holding our loose ends together with duct tape. But the depth of security we can have in Jesus is so much stronger than that. At prayer meeting at a church I was visiting this week, the pastor asked the entire congregation to pray for my precious Abigail. “Lord Jesus,” he said, “Hear our prayer for this missionary’s daughter on the other side of the world. Heal her body right now, we pray!”

Many in the congregation also prayed for Abigail. I could hear them agreeing in prayer with their “Amen” or “Yes, Lord”. Wow. Suddenly my daughter became everyone’s concern. What a blessing. What a privilege, to be part of such a vast and caring family in Jesus. Friends in Vermont, New York and other areas of the world started sending emails stating they were praying for Abby and asking if her telltale platelet count had yet risen back to normal.

Prayer is so very much more than duct tape or a temporary “fix”. It is hope. It is security. It is confidence. It is latching on to the hand of the One who holds the universe together. Walking hand-in-hand with Him, we can never fail. Everything is gonna be a-okay.

“Daddy, I love you.” Yeah. That’s my little girl. Thanks, God, for touching so many strong believers to lift her up in prayer, and thanks too for making her totally well again…soon! Two days after, while sharing with students in a Christian school in Texas, I shared how Joshua and Hur had held up the arms of Moses when he was getting weak. Thanks, prayer warriors, for being the ones to hold up our arms (and family) by your prayers!

Until next time…

Let the islands rejoice!

Present need: $320 for new science lab renovations and equipment.

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: April 12-27 daily PEPT student training for the April 28 national equivalency exams, April 28 (PEPT Philippine Equivalency Placement Tests).
2. that a mechanic was able to temporarily fix my bike so that I’ll be able to race in the April 22 Ironman triathlon in New Orleans, to raise funds for BCA’s new campus.
3. for BLC's total remaining 2008 Typhoon debt of $5,873 to be whittled down to zero by July, 2012 [$731 per week for 9 more weeks] (-$276 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 197 weeks ($731 per week, totaling $144,127), the debt should be paid off in 9 more weeks, or by July, 2012.
4. for complete healing for Abigail, as she recuperates from dengue fever.

Praise God:

1. To date, over $1473 has already been pledged from friends for the 2017 purchase of BCA’s new $56,000 school campus (property and temporary buildings). These pledges have been made per-mile for the following 70.3-mile Ironman Triathlons I will compete in: NEW ORLEANS, LA (April 22, 2012) $3 per mile/ KONA, HI (June 2, 2012) $7.13 per mile/ PHILIPPINES (August 5, 2012) $5 per mile. Thus, 3 + 7.13 + 5 =15.13 x 70.3=1063.63 plus $550.36 (from previous Ironman triathlons) =1613.99 - $56,000 =$5438.01 to go!
2. that Abigail’s blood platelet count is rising after she was sent to the hospital with dengue fever this week.
3. that the three-foot-deep hail storm which hit McAllen Texas missed my visit to that city by one week. Fire engine crews used fire hoses to spray down and melt the drifts of hailstones, with some stones the size of baseballs. Over a billion dollars in damage to roofs, glass, signs and vehicles resulted from the tragedy. Some work crews drove in form other parts of Texas to help with repairs.
4. that a family in Vermont that is sponsoring a girl at BCA has decided to add a boy to their sponsorship as well.
5. that a friend in California gave me a cell phone to use while in the USA. The Tracfone company has agreed to send me a replacement SIM card for free, so I should be able to use it before I arrive in Louisiana next week.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $2950 received, $27,050 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

San Francisco, California HAPPY EASTER! (4/8) GOOD FRIDAY (4/3)

“We are channels of JOY!” The Palm Sunday message that God gave me to share with our congregation focused on how the crowds could not refrain themselves from praising Jesus, 2,000 years ago during His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, on the back of a donkey’s colt.    

As His colt had strolled from Bethphage into the Kidron Valley, and as the City of Jerusalem in all of its glory burst into view, the book of Luke states that “the whole crowd began to joyfully praise God in loud voices”.

Just considering the intensity of the expectations of the local population is overwhelming, for they could not stop praising God! They had spontaneously burst forth in loud praises, shouting, and most likely even singing. Do we also live in that same attitude of expectancy of daily, moment-by-moment, basking in the presence of our Glorious Redeemer?

Two days before Palm Sunday, I had dropped by the bank and fitness club (after dropping off Abigail at Faith Academy). PJ was away on a week-long field trip with his high school class, rebuilding houses of flood victims nine hours away in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines.

When I informed he bank manager that I would be out of the country until mid-August, he said, “I will not be here when you return.” Although he is sickly, he wasn’t saying that he was going to die, but that after 29 years of working in that bank, he is finally retiring.

A few years ago I had prayed with this kind manager to receive Jesus into his heart as his personal Lord and Savior. Now, he no longer focuses on his continued sickliness, but on his lifelong goals and plans. It is his form of expressing his confident joy and praises to God.

An hour or so later, while getting ready to exercise at the nearby fitness club, I passed the locker room and an atheist friend, leaning heavily on a cane, came over to greet me. It looked as if he had aged twenty years since I had last seen him in February.

“I will not be here when you return,” he sadly stated. “My platelet count is desperately low and the doctors cannot figure out what is wrong with me. I am dying. Could you please pray for me one last time, before you go?” Now, for an atheist to ask a pastor to pray for him is an event that does not happen every day. Of course I placed my hand on his shoulder and prayed for him.

I so wished that he would accept Jesus in these, the twilight moments of his earthly existence. However, erasing seven decades of unbelief to suddenly make a u-turn toward Jesus was something he was not willing to do. He wanted Jesus’ blessing, but not His salvation. Sad. And yet maybe, just maybe, before he breathes his last breath and enters into eternity in the upcoming days, he might remember some of those long debates we had while we were jogging side-by-side on treadmills or cycling on stationary bikes these past dozen or so years.

A final scene of goodbye before my 32-hour trans-global flight, took place just a few minutes before I headed out the door to the airport, Sunday afternoon. After I said goodbye, many of our precious BCA (Barner Christian Academy) children surrounded me and hugged me tightly (including our daughter Abigail) and just wouldn’t let go. It was like a “holy huddle”. “We are praying for you, Pastor Paul!” Many of the kids had tears in their eyes, as they asked yet one more time, “Do you really have to go away for four while months? What will we do without you?”

And yet as I headed out the door with my bike, small projector,  backpack, passport and airplane tickets, these eleven-yr-old kids rushed out to our school gym’s stage to help lead in the singing and puppets for our afternoon children’s Bible time.

The banker, the septuagenarian, and the children: if they stood along the streets to Jerusalem that Palm Sunday 2,000 years ago, which ones would be chastising the Messiah to “Rebuke your disciples” to keep quiet, and which would themselves be singing loud hosannas?

May our prayer be that wherever we are, whatever we are doing, we will by our words and actions cause others to burst out in loud hosannas in praises to Jesus, our Redeemer, King. It is so very delightful to be a Channel of JOY.

Until next time…

Let the islands rejoice!

Present need: $1,546 for the required fees to administer the upcoming April 28, 2012 (PEPT) Philippine Equivalency Placement Tests for 280 BCA students who were not able to pass the September, 2011 PVT (Philippine Validation Tests).

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: April 5-27 daily PEPT student training for the April 28 national equivalency exams, April 28 (PEPT Philippine Equivalency Placement Tests).
2. that during my thousands of miles of driving and flying in the USA these next four months, I will not get lost, and that  God will bring me faithfully to all of those who have scheduled for me to speak at churches, schools, civic clubs, etc. Also that hundreds of listeners will pledge to PRAY for my four main focuses on this furlough: P: PEPT Exam of BCA kids April 28, R: Revival of Prayer and Witnessing among the hundreds of new believers in the Philippine churches which we have planted since my arrival in 1996, A: Autos, that our seven BCA school busses would stop breaking down, Y: Yearly operational permit of our school, under its new name, would be released in the next few weeks, so that Elvie, as principal and director of personnel, can properly plan for the June, 2012-13 school year.
3. for BLC's total remaining 2008 Typhoon debt of $6,149 to be whittled down to zero by July, 2012 [$703 per week for 9 more weeks] (-$400 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 196 weeks ($703 per week, totaling $143,851), the debt should be paid off in 9 more weeks, or by July, 2012.

Praise God:

1. To date, over $1473 has already been pledged from friends for the 2017 purchase of BCA’s new $56,000 school campus (property and temporary buildings). These pledges have been made per-mile for the following 70.3-mile Ironman Triathlons I will compete in: NEW ORLEANS, LA (April 22, 2012) $3 per mile/ KONA, HI (June 2, 2012) $7.13 per mile/ PHILIPPINES (August 5, 2012) $5 per mile. Thus, 3 + 7.13 + 5 =
   15.13 x 70.3=1063.63 plus $550.36 (from previous Ironman triathlons) =
   1613.99 - $56,000 =$5438.01 to go!
2. that the recent twin tornadoes which hit Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas did not affect my flight to Houston (the next day). I am not scheduled to visit Dallas until near the end of this month.
3. that, while in Northern California this week, I was able to share at and visit a prayer meeting, Bible study, A.A. meeting (as a visitor),  fitness club, walk across the Golden Gate Bridge, and meet with many awesome individuals who are faithfully praying for, supporting and some soon to visit, some of God’s ministries in our part of Davao City, Philippines.
4. that our 14-yr-old son PJ recently returned safe and sound from his week-long high school field trip 9 hours away to Cagayan De Oro to work with Habitat for Humanity, in rebuilding (from scratch) the homes of many Filipinos who suffered intensely through the December typhoon-related floods and landslides.
5. that this week, most of the policemen in Davao were fined for their negligence in allowing the drive-by shootings of hundreds of Filipino “Street Children” these past five years, by the so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS).

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $2945 received,
$27,055 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 23.

Davao City, Philippines

“What if…” While brainstorming with other ministry leaders, we couldn’t avoid a little humor.

Choosing a table in the back of McDonalds for Egg McMuffins and Coke, an American doctor, his brother (a pastor), their wives and I began to network our ministries. The Midwestern doctor’s ministry brings medicine, surgeries and the Gospel to far-flung rural and war-torn areas of Mindanao (and to urban areas as well). I am secretary of the board of the pastor’s evangelistic outreach to train pastors to disciple new believers. The doctor’s ministry also semiannually visits our BCA school to give medical checkups to our hundreds of poor students.

“What if…” I suggested, “You work together? While doing an appendectomy, you have the patient under local anesthesia, and cut open the patient. Then, with that sharpened scalpel in one hand, you kindly ask your brother to come over with his Bible. He probes the mildly-sedated patient, whose insides are lying all around, with the question, “If you were to die today, are you SURE you would go to heaven?”

Suddenly we all burst into laughter. Of course we realize that none of us could ever force another to accept the free gift of eternal life.
It is the exclusive work of God to save a lost soul. However, we were sobered by the realization that well-intentioned, loving ministries all over this country need to come to grips with the fact that 80% of the population is still unsaved. We need to be creative in joining our multiple efforts to grasp the hand of God and focus on redeeming the time we have left before the Lord’s return.

Together we developed the “Four Ps” of a strategy to reach the unreached 80% of Mindanao in our lifetimes. 1) Penetrate- over the past 110 years, ministries have been penetrating more and more regions of Mindanao. But we need to reach EVERY UPG (Unreached People Group) on our island. We can do this by sending Filipino missionaries to network with the ministries which are already active, to avoid overlap and to glean from each others’ expertise. 2) Pray- Our prayers must be focused and direct. We are praying for lost souls to come to Jesus.
But we also need to be sure that our own lives are filled with repentance, purity and conviction. 3) Pastors- some of the Mindanao pastors do not even know the prayer of salvation! How can a pastor preach if he does not know how to lead a lost soul toward redemption?
We need to school our pastors in evangelism. We also need to train many more new pastors to open church-planting churches. We also need to be sure that the physical needs of every pastor’s family are met.
4) Population- every realm of the population needs to be in our focus:
wealthy and poor, religious and non-religious. Every human being on this planet has a soul, and every soul needs Jesus. We cannot afford to let even one precious soul slip through our fingers; be they Methodist, Baptist, Alliance, Pentecostal, Catholic, Muslim, Atheist, tribal or whatever, we cannot let even a single soul out of our sights.

After a time of prayer, we left. A few days later in our Davao Christian Leadership Foundation morning prayer meeting, everyone present prayed through these same four Ps: Penetration, Prayer, Pastors and Population. An aura of expectancy was felt as we lifted up Mindanao in prayer for this 2012 Holy Week.

Then in the evening, God answered our prayers in a small way. After driving Abigail home from school, I went upstairs first to our apartment. When Abby arrived she said, “Daddy, there is a man outside who says he knows you!” After heading back downstairs, a dear friend from Washington State, whose flight had just arrived today, came up and we discussed his potential ministry here in Mindanao. We reviewed all of his exciting plans for a Christian camp, empowering a local Christian school, and also maybe spearheading a centralized AWANA Bible memorization program here in Davao City. I began to see God’s potential blueprint in answer to our “Prayer for the Four Ps”.

Praise God that our Lord lays out His perfect plan, piece-by-piece, so that we can understand it better and put it into motion!

Until next time…

Let the islands rejoice!

Present need: $584 for repair and replacement parts for our seven BCA school buses’ annual preventive maintenance.

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: April 2-27 daily PEPT student training for the April 28 National Equivalency exams, April 28 PEPT Philippine Equivalency Tests.
2. that next week’s Good Friday, Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday messages clearly challenge the congregation at our Davao City church plants.
3. for BLC's total remaining 2008 Typhoon debt of $6,549 to be whittled down to zero by July, 2012 [$736 per week for 9 more weeks]
   (-$153 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 195 weeks ($736 per week, totaling $143,451), the debt should be paid off in 9 more weeks, or by July, 2012.
4. for me to take every opportunity God gives me to share the Gospel with seatmates this Sunday as I fly halfway around the world from Asia to the USA, for my four months of speaking engagements and races..

Praise God:

1. To date, over $1473 has already been pledged from friends for the 2017 purchase of BCA’s new $56,000 school campus (property and temporary buildings). These pledges have been made per-mile for the following 70.3-mile Ironman Triathlons I will compete in: NEW ORLEANS, LA (April 22, 2012) $3 per mile/ KONA, HI (June 2, 2012) $7.13 per mile/ PHILIPPINES (August 5, 2012) $5 per mile. Thus, 3 + 7.13 + 5 = 15.13 x 70.3=1063.63 plus $550.36 (from previous Ironman triathlons) = 1613.99 - $56,000 =$5438.01 to go!
2. that I was re-elected for my second term as president of the DCL (Davao Christian Leadership Foundation) to last through 2013.
3. that we are working with Downs Syndrome and other medical challenged children in a civic outreach by reading kids’ storybooks and also by providing cookies and milk to these kids in a local ministry.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $2940 received, $27,060 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 23.

Davao City, Philippines

“When I grow up, I want to be…” Art our Barner Christian Academy graduation last week, each pupil approached the microphone to tell what he or she would like to become one day. The first three pupils strove to be chefs. When the fourth student, a chubby little guy, held the mike in his hand, and his graduation certificate in his other hand, I just automatically figured that he’d be “chef #4”. But he surprised me with his desired occupation, “…an engineer!”

The barangay captain (like a local mayor) sitting by my side on the stage noticed, “Hmmm, no graduate has said that he wants to be a politician!” My Bible message to the students and parents focused on the Bible book of Second Timothy, which reminds us that the Bible is our best manual for life.

My “future engineer” friend came over to talk with me during the luncheon after the closing of the ceremonies. While I was answering his questions, he began reaching over and eating food from my plate.
What a privilege, for the kids to have such confidence in me that they’d desire to share my food!

A few days later, I called Ben, the administrator of our drop-off center for abandoned street boys. Parents of one of our students had had an argument and the husband had walked out, abandoning the family.
Now they were struggling to make ends meet. With no positive role model, the four sons (ages six and up) had begun experimenting with dangerous substances. They also were sleeping in abandoned cars and vacant rat-infested shacks.

Ben took in two of the boys to our Center, but the older one of the two went ahead and ran away again. “Oh,” I thought, “if only the fathers in this world knew how important a positive role model is!”
And now, just a few days ago, our family was driving to a dinner downtown, at our kids’ missionary school. Halfway there, a car sideswiped us, leaving a dent in the rear wheel well.

Pulling to the side of the road, both drivers exited our vehicles.
“Sir, why did you hit my car?” I asked. Suddenly the man started yelling at me and pushing me, trying to get me to fall in the roadside canal. He began using vulgar profanities and rushed to his vehicle proclaiming, “I have a gun and will shoot you!” Needless to say, I was quite taken aback, having never experienced this type of armed, crazed maniac driver before.

“Sir, if you shoot me, I will go to heaven. No big deal. So do what you like. I forgive you for hitting my car. Yet I see you have a baby in your car. Are you sure that you want that child to grow up with an example like that to follow? Do you want him to become a murderer and use vulgar language like you?” After the man shouted and threatened some more, he drove away, saying that my family would never again be safe.

After supplying a report at the police station, I considered how many children in this world do not have positive parental role models. As a result, many kids will look to you instead as an example to follow.
The baby in the crazy man’s car needed a better role model. The runaway street boy who cannot understand why his little brother loves and laughs so much, enjoying our Samal boy’s home. And then there is our chubby little future engineer, the fresh graduate from BCA, who shows us that quite often, these precious kids may look to you, instead, as their example to follow. Let’s not let them down.

Until next time…

Let the islands rejoice!

Present need: $650 for tables for BCA’s Industrial Arts class.

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: April 2-27 daily PEPT student training for the April 28 National Equivalency exams, April 28 PEPT Philippine Equivalency Tests.
2. that I not miss any of the four connections in my flights to the USA this Sunday, April 1.
3. for BLC's total remaining 2008 Typhoon debt of $6,702 be whittled down to zero by July, 2012 [$739 per week for 10 more weeks] (-$642 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 194 weeks ($739 per week, totaling $143,298), the debt should be paid off in 10 more weeks, or by July, 2012.
4. that Elvie have wisdom and discernment when she makes a four-day trip to Tagbilaran this week as a national board member of CAMACOP, a huge global missionary-sending institution.
5. that PJ will learn much during his five-day high school “Outdoor Adventure” field trip this week. They will drive to Cagayan de Oro to rebuild houses with Habitat for Humanity. Many families lost all they had in the landslides and floods last December. The high school team will reside on the campus of the Word Of Life camp during their trip.
6. that the DepEd (Department of Education) will release the final documents this April, in a series of annual permits required to operate this scholastic institution each year.

Praise God:

1. To date, over $1473 has already been pledged from friends for the 2017 purchase of BCA’s new $56,000 school campus (property and temporary buildings). These pledges have been made per-mile for the following 70.3-mile Ironman Triathlons I will compete in: NEW ORLEANS, LA (April 22, 2012) $3 per mile/ KONA, HI (June 2, 2012) $7.13 per mile/ PHILIPPINES (August 5, 2012) $5 per mile. Thus, 3 + 7.13 + 5 = 15.13 x 70.3=1063.63 plus $550.36 (from previous Ironman triathlons) = 1613.99 - $56,000 =$5438.01 to go!
2. that when a thief somehow got the numbers from my credit card and made almost $300 in international purchases, the credit card company caught the fraudulent transactions in time and I was not charged.
3. that my family was protected from harm when a crazy man threatened us with a gun this week.
4. that, during the Kiwanis Asian Pacific Conference (ASPAC) which I attended in Sri Lanka, attended by delegates from over a dozen Asian nations, our Philippine South District received an award for the display table I manned. I also detained to the judges our five-fold focus this year in 1) MNT: Eliminating Maternal Neonatal Tetanus, a 5,000 year old disease which kills a mother or child every nine seconds; 2) greening of Davao: planting mangrove trees to retain the seashore and “swallow” the carbon fumes from an adjacent highway/manning high school student cleanup teams to police the seashores,/protecting and rebuilding the coral reefs which have been dynamited by lazy fishermen; 3) feeding program for malnourished Filipino children. For this cause, tons of vitamin-fortified rice have been sent from a church in Minnesota, USA. Our BCA K-Kids are weighting hundreds of poor children to calculate their proper weight to see who is undernourished and who is not; 4) book donation program to increase the literacy of Filipino children, 5) Barner Christian Academy’s child sponsorship program.
5. that on the third leg of my journey back to the Philippines (Sri Lanka /Malaysia/Manila/Davao), during my five hour layover, a dear, long-time American pastor friend met up with me in Manila to explain a fantastic prayer focus entitled “College of Prayer”. Of course, we also had a delightful prayer time together in the airport, before my flight was to depart.
6. that Abigail and three of her girlfriends (Ekay, Russel and Fraulein) learned from me how to make cake, and baked enough for the sixty teenagers who came to BCA last Sunday afternoon for a 4-hour-long District Youth Rally.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $2935 received,
$27,065 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 23.

(This is being sent a few days early, since I will be away in Dambulla and then Baticoloa, in the North-Central and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka/Ceylon)

SRI LANKA/Kiwanis Asian-Pacific Regional Sri Lankan Conference: ASPAC (3/15-17)

“Let’s see…how can I share Jesus with lost souls today?” My Sri Lankan host Ajit was trying to convince me that Buddhism (the national religion of Sri Lanka), is not really a religion, but a code of ethics for life. He said that a person could be both Buddhist and Christian at the same time.

However, as we have visited (as tourists) many different churches and temples across the country of Sri Lanka (including the “Temple of the Tooth” where a 2500-yr-old tooth of Buddha is enshrined in gold), I have noticed devotees praying to many of the hundreds and hundreds of Buddha statues, and even offering sacrifices of food, money and flowers in abeyance. At one temple, even cars, computers, ancient coins, silver and gold were on display, donated by faithful followers to the temple over the course of the past few thousands of years.

Due to the language barrier, I have a challenge in sharing with others about my faith in Jesus. The rural population speaks mostly Tamil and Singhalese dialects.   

Yet this week, while climbing the third highest mountain in the center of the country (Adam’s Peak), we started the ten kilometer round-trip ascent during the hottest part of the day. Halfway up, we stopped for lunch. My shirt was soaking wet with sweat, and my face dripped continuous streams of salty water into my eyes.

The second half of the trek began about 8pm, when it was cooler. Still, by the time I arrived at the summit an hour later, I was drenched. And at the top of the mountain, it was about 45 degrees Fahrenheit. A Buddhist shrine is at the very top. Inside is an enormous, four-foot-long, and two foot wide golden indentation in the cement, called “Adam’s Footprint”. Many devotees were bowing down before it, praying and giving money.

A manmade cave was beneath the shrine, and a freezing cold breeze blew in one end of the cave and out the other end. Shivering, surrounded by about a hundred others lying on the cement floor, and wrapped only with a dark blue sarong (small sheet) to block out the bitter wind, I kept breathing warm air onto my shirt to try and evaporate the sweat which soaked my short-sleeved shirt. Due to the shortness of the sarong, whenever I covered my feet, my shirt would be exposed, and vice-versa.

While listening to the Bible on tape, I prayed for more hikers to come into the cave, to increase the temperature by their body heat. Someone’s toes poked into my back, a small child rolled against my side, and my own feet brushed against a hiker’s head. It was a long night. Praise God that my tape player’s batteries stayed strong, as I listened to the complete books of 2 Kings, and 1 & 2 Chronicles. By early morning, God had fully answered my prayers, for I was surrounded by over 350 hikers, and also my shirt was finally dry.

Venturing into the darkness, I joined 900 others outside the cave, waiting for the sunrise. Half an hour later, at about 6am, I noticed a small boy looking wide-eyed in the opposite direction from where I faced. Sure enough, I had been looking west, not east, for the sunrise. As the clouds lightened, the rising sun painted awesome pastels of pink and orange, and the mountains, layered dozens of miles into the distance behind each other, one-by-one leaped out into the half-light of dawn.

The panoramic view engulfed my tiny form as peaks were outlined and framed by clouds which were beneath, not above, the place where we stood. Overwhelmed by the intensity of it all, words of that familiar hymn suddenly fell from my mouth “Then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to Thee, How Great Thou art!”

Like a rolling stream, one hymn of praise led to another and another. Not loudly, as I did not want to disturb the Buddhists in their chants. After all, I was only a guest here, and it was their shrine. Yet once I began, I could not stop. Every once in a while, while climbing back down the tens of thousands of ancient steps of my descent, a Buddhist monk in his flowing orange robe, or a panting Sri Lankan teenager in blue jeans would smile as melodies flowed up from where I trudged.

While carefully choosing my footing at a very old, broken-cobbled area of the steps, I noticed a thin, barefooted, ancient, bent-over Tamil woman, struggling to grab onto something so that she would not fall. Yet there were no roots or railings for her to catch. While still singing my hymns of praise to Jesus, I gently took her other, dark brown and shriveled hand, leading her gracefully, broken step by precariously-sharded step, across the threatening archipelagoes and crevices.

“Jesus helps me o’re the tumult…” I sang, as we landed back from the hazardous area and onto the next flat area. I placed my hands together and bowed in respect to her, as she returned a toothless smile of appreciation. Suddenly I overheard people on the benches alongside the landing, sighing, “Wow!” With a huge smile of realization on my own face, I continued down the slope with yet another hymn, “Make me a blessing to someone, today…”

My lesson? Sometimes, if we can’t find an opportunity to share the Gospel with others, just living, 24/7, the excitingly abundant Christian life, will burst open doors of opportunity to reach others who may be confused, needy and searching for someone who really, truly cares.

Jesus is the very one they have been seeking, after all.

Once the hymns

Until next time…

Let the islands rejoice!

Present need: $9,739 for the required two equivalency exams and school name-change (BLC-BCA) that the government is requiring of our school, due to the 2008 mistake of our school secretary in filing our annual permit. Of the actual $43,255 total, we have already paid $33,516, leaving the balance still owed, of $9,739. The second required exam is scheduled to be held on April 28.

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: March 14-16 National Achievement Exams. March 30 BLC Undergraduate Recognition Ceremonies, Graduation Day/ Baccalaureate Ceremonies. April 28 PEPT Philippine Equivalency Tests.
2. that, after I fly back to the Philippines on March 19, I will be able to accomplish the 23 major projects that I must complete before flying to the USA ten days later (4/1). Some of these tasks include filing my own USA tax forms, correcting and re-mailing a few inaccurately-itemized tax statements for donors, and also finalizing intrastate flights for me, and later, for my family (who will be arriving in the USA 2.5 months after me, on June 13).
3. for BLC's total remaining 2008 Typhoon debt of $7,344 be whittled down to zero by July, 2012 [$737 per week for 10 more weeks] (-$102 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 193 weeks ($737 per week, totaling $142,189), the debt should be paid off in 10 more weeks, or by July, 2012.

Praise God:

1. To date, over $1263 has already been pledged from friends for the 2017 purchase of BCA’s new $56,000 school campus (property and temporary buildings). These pledges have been made per-mile for the following 70.3-mile Ironman Triathlons I will compete in: NEW ORLEANS, LA (April 22, 2012) $1 per mile/ KONA, HI (June 2, 2012) $6.13 per mile/ PHILIPPINES (August 5, 2012) $4 per mile = $1263.67/ GALVESTON, TX (April 7, 2013). Thus, 1 + 6.13 + 4 + 0= 11.13 x 70.3=$782.44 plus $550.36 (from previous Ironman triathlons) = 1332.80 - $56,000 =$54,667.20 to go!
2. that I have been given opportunity, during these 35 days in Sri Lanka, to be the guest speaker at five different Toastmasters Clubs, to explain about the ministry to poor children which God has begun through our family for these past 16 years in the Philippines.
3. that I was able to share with a young, intelligent Buddhist Israeli couple for three hours of our recent 6-hour train ride from Nuwara Eliya.
4. that during a recent two-hour-long bus ride from Nanu Oya, I was reading an intense autobiography of a persecuted Chinese Christian (Liu Zhenying: Brother Yu, the Heavenly Man). The young teenage Singhalese girl in the seat beside me kept looking over her shoulder and reading portions of this incredible man through whom God preserved through years of incredible, relentless torture and also through whom thousands of souls came to a knowledge of Jesus Christ during the severe government persecution against Christians in the 1980s.
5. that the Barner Christian Academy is in the final few months of its three-year-long ordeal from penalties of mistakenly-documented government permits. Therefore the Philippine Department of Education has begun referring many other smaller schools to ours so that we can guide them through the process of correcting their own mistakes. Elvie entertains, on the average, twenty calls and visits from other schools each month, voluntarily assisting them in the expensive, tedious process of examinations, permits, forms and inspections to realign their educational institutions with ever more demanding government requirements.
6. that, through email and MagicJack VOIP phone calls (518-772-2359), I have received final confirmations from about 60% of the 59 different speaking engagements and visits for our April-July USA speaking tour.
7. that the Sri Lankan people in Colombo and in many other parts of their small nation (about the size of New York or Mindanao) have been delightfully hospitable as I have traversed and spoken in much of their beautiful country.
8. that Ben Snyder, the administrator of our Samal Island Street Boy’s Resident camp, has successfully built a small, native home for the ten or more boys. Water and power are not yet working, since a container ship ripped up the underwater cable which powers half the island from the mainland. Nevertheless, when the cable is repaired, hookup may be possible, since Ben has painstakingly filed all the permits and laid the appropriate equipment. Nearly half the kids have already been moved to the island. Please pray for God to supply for them a well.
9. that Elvie has scheduled my sharing about this Sri Lanka trip, immediately following my return to the Philippines later this month, both at the Kiwanis Club where I am the Immediate Past President, and also at the Davao Christian Leadership Foundation, of which I am the current president.
10. that the faith Fellowship Church, of which I am founder and senior pastor, is successfully presenting training for the hundreds of children in its care during the five Sundays that I have been away in South-Central Asia.
11. that, shortly after my return to Davao, I will be preaching (3/25) to an extended televised audience of about six million viewers form Eastern Mindanao, accompanied by the national Evangelist, Rev. Hermogenes Hermosa. The camera crews will be taping the broadcast right on our BCA school campus, in the gym.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $2930 received, $27,070 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 23.

(This is being sent a few days early, since I will be away a week in Kandy, Sri Lanka, in the mountains)

SRI LANKA

“USA: DON’T SUPPORT TERRORISTS!” The red, white and blue banners over the bustling Sri Lankan streets were a response to the Human Rights Commission’s slander of Sri Lanka for ending the thirty-year, bloody war against the LTT Tamil Tiger rebel faction.

Just two days pervious, I had taken a twenty-hour, round-trip bumpy bus ride to the northern tip of the country, Jaffna, where mine fields, crumbled buildings and an enormous, destroyed water tower which lay on its side, told the tale of the many years of violent turmoil.

This morning I read the overhead banners while riding on a bus, returning to my temporary residence in Colombo, from an orphanage two hours away. After I taught twenty learning-disability and down-syndrome children the words and hand motions to “Jesus Loves Me,” the campus priest asked me to pray with (and for) him.

The country is struggling to rebuild its infrastructure, roads and corporate stability, in this newly-acquired time of peace. Some of the orphan children had lost their parents in explosions sparked by the terrorists. My connection to the orphanage was a septuagenarian whom I had met the evening previous at an International Toastmasters Meeting.

In the impromptu “Table Topics” speech portion of the meeting, I volunteered to pull a surprise topic from the jar. “Explain how you feel about the Picketing of the Human rights Commission”. As soon as the topic was read to the audience, they all sighed. After all, it was a debate spurred on by the USA, and I was the only American present.

Yet I was ready. Before the businessmen and media present at the meeting, I explained how I was out of town when the picketers paraded down the street in front of my residence (Colpetti Street). Yet I had my own type of solution to the human rights violations in another hotbed, the Philippines.

Eyes opened wide and expressions were hinged on each word as I shared about the hundreds of children murdered on the streets of Davao for petty crimes by the DDS (Davao Death Squad). “Do I picket?” I asked. “No. Do I carry a sign to post my complaints against the vigilante shootings? No.” Expressions remained attentive as I posed the question, “So, how do we confront these continued eliminations? We have a tried and true plan, which works.”

The audience of thirty of the greatest minds in Colombo followed my reasoning as I shared the grass-roots dissertation and modus operandus of Barner Christian Academy, Faith Fellowship Church, and Father’s House Center for Street Children. “These children are targets as they sleep on the sidewalks. The DDS is not the only attacker, on the prowl to harm street kids. The drug dealers force the preteen street boys to be their messengers. The prostitutes brazenly approach their victims as the boys look on. The gays shamelessly clown around, arm-in-arm with their trashy talk. The drunkards breathe their filthy breath and vomit on the very sidewalks where these boys sleep.

And then we go out, at 2am, to find these boys. We give them a roof over their heads, and a hot meal in their stomachs. These rough street boys, some as young as eight years old, befriend the other abandoned children and study together their lessons. We give them an education so that they can read the Bible for themselves, studying the words that hold the precious story of hope and love which only God can give.”

“My challenge,” I shared in this two-minute brief summary of our ministry, “is to ask you, in this scenario, which is more effective? Is it holding up the picket sign which is ignored by the ones responsible for the violations, or is it to hold up the open hand of friendship to lift out of the gutter those who are unjustly treated? The answer, in my mind, is obvious. Choose for yourself.” They chose, and I received first prize in the contest. The prize was three boxes of locally-grown, prime Ceylon (Sri Lankan) tea!

Until next time…

Let the islands rejoice!

Present need: $9,739 for the required two equivalency exams and school name-change (BLC-BCA) that the government is requiring of our school, due to the 2008 mistake of our school secretary in filing our annual permit. Of the actual $43,255 total, we have already paid $33,516, leaving the balance still owed, of $9,739.

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: March 14-16 National Achievement Exams. March 30 BLC Undergraduate Recognition Ceremonies, Graduation Day/ Baccalaureate Ceremonies. April 28 PEPT Philippine Equivalency Tests.
2. for the five Sri Lankan boys whom I swam with in the Indian Ocean at Jaffna. They asked me for money, which I had none of. Yet when I swam, I found something golden underwater. It was a clay pot, with a rock inside and a red/gold ribbon wrapped around it. I dove and lifted it out of the water to give the boys. Shocked, they yelled, “Put it back! There is death in the pot!” Later it was explained that when a Sri Lankan had died recently, the family waded out into the shallow ocean water and dropped the pot there in memory of their loved one.
   Please pray that the fear which these poor boys have will be replaced by the hope and love which only Jesus can give.
3. for BLC's total remaining 2008 Typhoon debt of $7,446 be whittled down to zero by June, 2012 [$741 per week for 11 more weeks] (-$62 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 192 weeks ($741 per week, totaling $142,087), the debt should be paid off in 11 more weeks, or by June, 2012.

Praise God:

1. To date, over $1263 has already been pledged from friends for the
   2017 purchase of BCA’s new $56,000 school campus (property and temporary buildings). These pledges have been made per-mile for the following 70.3-mile Ironman Triathlons I will compete in: NEW ORLEANS, LA (April 22, 2012) $1 per mile/ KONA, HI (June 2, 2012) $6.13 per mile/ PHILIPPINES (August 5, 2012) $4 per mile = $1263.67/ GALVESTON, TX (April 7, 2013). Thus, 1 + 6.13 + 4 + 0= 11.13 x 70.3=$782.44 plus
   $480.56 (from previous Ironman triathlons) = 1263 - $56,000 =$54,737 to go!
2. that your prayers last week for a conclusion to the endless paperwork that Elvie had to get approved at the government offices to schedule our upcoming Second Equivalency exams, has finally been answered! The tests will be administered April 28. The expensive 2008 permit mistake of our BLC school secretary was just caught last year, and the resulting two required equivalency exams required about thirty bureaucratic documents with signatures to be approved before the second exam will be administered, on 4/28.
3. that on my recent trip back and forth across Sri Lankan provincial borders, the guards were kind. They require all foreigners to carry their passports with them at all times. Nobody had informed me of this. I had left my passport safely concealed back at my Colombo residence. So I just showed my American driver‘s license.  Thankfully, although the guards were perturbed at my violation, I was neither fined nor turned back the six hours I had already traveled.
4. that my family, Elvie, PJ and Abigail, are doing fine in the Philippines during my 35-day visit to Sri Lanka. This is a great encouragement to me here, for it allows me to concentrate on the tasks for which I came.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $2925 received,
$27,075 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 23.

SRI LANKA (RACE FINISH: 7HRS, 32 MIN)

“Huff, puff, gotta beat that guy!” At 6:30am, the Sri Lanka Inaugural Ironman race announcer exclaimed, “…and our oldest participant is a 75 year-old, four and a half foot tall athlete from Japan,! This is his 17th Ironman race.” I wasn’t quite sure why I noticed the announcement, but it stuck in my mind as the countdown began for the start of the race. “5-4-3-2-1…bang!” …and we were off.

Fighting the waves, it was less than an hour before I left the Indian Ocean swim portion of the race. Then, I donned my bicycle helmet, while lots of salt water sloshed in my stomach. Next were three treacherous 30-km loops in and out of bumpy city streets in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Coming around a tight corner and up a small hill, a rider came barreling toward me out of control. I swerved away, as he missed me and hit a trishaw (motorized rickshaw). Since many policemen immediately came to the cyclist’s aid, I didn’t stop. Later I heard the rider dropped out of the race, covered in cuts and blood, with a damaged bike.

After the first two laps, who should I see pedaling like the wind past me, but that short, 75-year-old Japanese athlete! I was dead tired, but figured, “If this guy, 150% my age, can do it, so can I!” For the remaining four hours of the race, I was neck-and-neck against the oldest Ironman in Sri Lanka.

I overtook him at the 70km mark, swerving to avoid a crowd of black-robed, black-veiled Muslim ladies, walking in the middle of the road. He passed me again at the 80, when I whistled to get the attention of a huge dog that was crossing the road right in front of me. Finally, at the 85, I had him. Rush-hour traffic had resumed, busses and taxis were careening to avoid cyclists, and the thousands of orange cones had led me in the wrong direction six times But when I got back on track, my perpetual nemesis never passed me again.

Yet during the four-lap, 21km running portion, I kept seeing his energetic, determined face, just a few minutes past every one of the eight turn-arounds. Picking up speed for the grand finale, with the finish line in sight, I didn’t bother turning back. I knew I had him.
Raising my weary arms in the air, I crossed the finish line, as a medic handed me a bag of ice and I rubbed it over my sunburned face, arms and legs, crashing on the grass. Five minutes later, I focused my tired ears through the thunderous applause as the announcer exclaimed, “and now, coming in from Japan…”

I was so thankful for that Japanese athlete who had kept me focused in the race. I knew he probably wasn’t a believer, noticing how he had flirted aggressively with very young, teenage Australian ladies at the booth as they awarded him his finisher’s medal. I waved to him, but he hardly noticed me.

A few days later, I limped on blistered feet to a local Anglican church’s midweek, morning worship service. It was the only open church I could find. There, in those ancient, 500-yr-old halls, amidst an enormous pipe organ and cavernous wooden ceiling, I joined with hundreds of other in singing the hymns of old. A soft, screechy little voice was coming from the bench next to me.

Looking down, I smiled at yet another four-and-a-half foot tall friend. This one was a little old Indian woman in her wispy, ornate sari, whose face concealed some sort of hidden pain. When it was time to leave, I let her pass me and took her hand. She looked into my eyes and didn’t let go of my fingers. “Thank you, friend” she offered in broken English.” Her voice was so soft that I had to bend to hear her, over the honking of horns of cars passing by in the streets of Colombo outside.

“You see,” she explained, “My daughter just died a few days ago. She was in her fifties.” I placed my arm on her shoulder. Making our way toward the door, she explained that it was quite sudden, a burst aorta, and her precious little girl was gone. Her daughter had been about my age.

A single tear passed down her cheek, as she once again whispered, “Thanks again. Your caring touch was just what I needed most.” And then I never saw her again.

Amazing, isn’t it? In the busy-ness of a race, or of the rat-race, there are people touching people. Some old, some young, some red, some yellow, but all like a child inside. And all needing the touch of another to come alongside and push us on, saying, “You can do it. Keep going.”

The race is not really all so far. There are bumps, yes. There are accidents and mistakes, yes. But together, let’s celebrate the route that God has given us. Let’s lift each other up along the way. And when we cross the finish line, to thunderous applause, we’ll give each other an energetic high-five. No need for an ice pack or tears then.
The only tears will be ones of joy, at having finished the race, won the prize and kept the faith!”

Until next time…

Let the islands rejoice!

Present need: $9,739 for the required two equivalency exams and school name-change (BLC-BCA) that the government is requiring of our school, due to the 2008 mistake of our school secretary in filing our annual permit. Of the actual $43,255 total, we have already paid $33,516, leaving the balance still owed, of $9,739.

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: March 14-16 National Achievement Exams. March 30 BLC Undergraduate Recognition Ceremonies, Graduation Day/ Baccalaureate Ceremonies.
2. for a conclusion to the endless paperwork that Elvie has to get approved at the government offices to schedule our upcoming Second Equivalency exams. The expensive 2008 permit mistake of our BLC school secretary was just caught last year, and the resulting two required equivalency exams require about thirty bureaucratic documents with signatures to be approved before the second exam is administered, hopefully this month.
3. for BLC's total remaining 2008 Typhoon debt of $8,708 be whittled down to zero by June, 2012 [$744 per week for 11 more weeks] (-$1200 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 191 weeks ($744 per week, totaling $142,025), the debt should be paid off in 11 more weeks, or by June, 2012.

Praise God:

1. To date, over $1263 has already been pledged from friends for the
   2017 purchase of BCA’s new $56,000 school campus (property and temporary buildings). These pledges have been made per-mile for the following 70.3-mile Ironman Triathlons I will compete in: NEW ORLEANS, LA (April 22, 2012) $1 per mile/ KONA, HI (June 2, 2012) $6.13 per mile/ PHILIPPINES (August 5, 2012) $4 per mile = $1263.67/ GALVESTON, TX (April 7, 2013). Thus, 1 + 6.13 + 4 + 0= 11.13 x 70.3=$782.44 plus
   $480.56 (from previous Ironman triathlons) = 1263 - $56,000 =$54,737 to go!
2. that two retired men, one in Ohio, and the other in New York, gave a combined total of over a thousand dollars to reduce the still-outstanding 2008 BLC typhoon debt!
3. that already I have spoken at a few occasions here in Sri Lanka, and many have expressed an interest in the work that God is performing through me in the Philippines. After speaking at a local bank’s meeting which I was invited to, almost a dozen came up to me afterward and thanked me for the inspiration they received.
4. that we have a new sponsor this week, for one of the poor children on the waiting list for free enrollment at Barner Christian Academy.
5. that PJ got 100% on his science test!
6. that I was able to finally find a cheap jar of delicious, locally-made peanut butter in this land of spicy curry and chili powder! And I was able to also cook up some spaghetti to treat my hosts to an American-style feast.
7. That the bus we took from the airport here in Sri Lanka only broke down seven times on the one-hour trip from the airport!
8. that, due to the end of the recent thirty-year long Sri Lankan civil war, there were hundreds of police and soldiers to assist with Sunday’s race.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $2920 received,
$27,080 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 23.

“And dear Jesus, please bless Daddy’s trip today to Sri Lanka, Amen” It was Abigail’s turn to pray in our daily morning family devotions. Boy, as the day began to unfold, I leaned extremely heavily on our little eleven-year-old girl’s prayer!

“We’ll play UNO before I leave, ok?” Since my flight was an evening flight, I knew that I could see PJ and Abby off with a few games and lots of hugs while heading to the airport after school. I had ticketed three connecting flights, from Davao-Manila-Malaysia-Sri Lanka. The tickets were purchased way back in December (with a great discount!), and I had carefully scheduled-in all of the departure times and stops with extra waiting time to help me make connections in other countries. My trip was to end that night at midnight, just south of India.

After sending the kids off to school on Wednesday morning, I went to my office to get caught up on last-minute projects (like the March PEPPER prayer letter) that had to be finished before my 35-day stay in Sri Lanka. Satisfied that everything was pretty much in place, I started repacking my bags. I had three bags: my bicycle, a small LCD projector, and my thin backpack. No extra clothes, since I could get them in Sri Lanka pretty cheaply when I arrive.

While double-checking my tickets, my eyes suddenly opened wide when I realized that my flight was not at 6pm, but 6am! I’d missed my flight, and it was already 11am! How was I to get to Manila to catch my Malaysia flight by 3pm?

Throwing everything back into my bags, I zipped out the door and got Elvie to have one of the BCA bus drivers to drive me (five minutes) to the airport. Of course the ticket counter was closed, but Elvie checked-in my bags with a different airline while I purchased the tickets. The flight on the other airline was to leave in half an hour, and they still had just one seat available!

I had to leave the terminal three times, since the airline booking agent was not inside the building. One of the three times through the security check, I’d removed my belt, shoes, keys and cell phone, but forgot to take off my watch. The buzzer went off and those next thirty seconds seemed like five minutes, until the guard would let me pass though. One time there were no trays for my removed items, so I just placed them on the bare conveyor belt by themselves.

Running in sock-feet across the terminal, while carrying my belt and sneakers and weaving and out of the maze of other strolling passengers for other flights, I thought, “Hey, this is great training for this Sundays’ race!” Finally in my miracle seat on the plane, less than an hour after I’d noticed in my office that I’d mistaken the time for my flight, I prayed that I could catch my connecting flight in Manila.

An hour and a half later, after landing in Manila airport, I rushed down to the baggage claim area. My bicycle bag is bulkier than the other bags, so fifteen precious minutes ticked by before my bag finally came through the chute. My 3:05pm Sri Lanka flight was from another airport, and I had to take a taxi to get there. The taxi line had twenty people in front of me. Finally through the queue, while putting my bike in the back seat of the taxi, I glanced at my watch: 2:20pm! Maybe, just maybe, by some miracle, I could catch this flight, even though all passengers are supposed to check-in three hours before international flights, and also get through immigration passport and visa checks.

I explained to the taxi driver my rush, and when he saw that the traffic outside the other airport was backed up, he parked the car and offered to carry my bag for me as we ran. I ran faster than him, and could not find him when I got to the terminal. “Did he steal my bike?” I wondered. So I backtracked back down to the parking lot to find him. Suddenly I heard him calling to me from the terminal. So I rushed back up and retrieved my bag, and zoomed into the terminal. More security checks.

There must have been easily over a thousand people in that terminal building. Getting through the crowds with my enormous bicycle bag was like trying to squeeze a Toyota into a sardine can. Finally, I got to the counter and it was closed. “Hey, what do I do?” I asked. Somebody pointed me upstairs, so I lugged my bike bag up to the fourth floor, to the airline office. My flight still hadn’t left. It would take off in fifteen minutes. Maybe, just maybe…and then…maybe not.

“Sorry sir, but you have missed your flight.” Ay-ay-ay-ay. Those were not the words I wanted to hear. “What do I do?” I calmly asked. “Please help me.” The woman looked into my eyes from across her desk and could see I was not only sweating profusely, with dripping wet face and shirt, but I was also looking quite desperate. Finally, she was able to re-book me for the same flight the next day, with only a slight rebooking penalty charge, since I had actually arrived before the flight took off. “Whew!”

Praise God for all of those who assisted me along this hair-raising trip: Elvie, our bus driver, the airport guy in Davao who helped check-in my bike bag (Elvie told me he is the dad of one of our BCA students), the taxi driver who offered to carry my bulky bike bag, and so many, many others. Oh, and also PJ and Abby, who will have to wait 35 days to give me those precious hugs and also to play with me that UNO game…

I am now in Manila, at a very, teeny-tiny, discount 8-foot by ten-foot hotel room overnight (shared public bathroom). This message is being sent early, since I know that once I get to Sri Lanka, I have to prepare for the race. After Sunday’s race, I won’t feel like anything for a few days. Then, I’ll be hitting the road again! (below, please see my itinerary.)

I wonder. What might have happened if Abigail had not prayed for me this morning? I shudder to consider it! Praise God for Christian kids!

Until next time…

Let the islands rejoice!

Present need: $650 for tables for BLC’s Industrial Arts class.

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: February 24 School-wide General PTA Meeting.
2. for wisdom and clarity of thought as I seek to share in my many, many speaking engagements in Sri Lanka. I will be at churches, Toastmasters Clubs, Kiwanis Clubs, an orphanage and visiting with many Indians regarding the process of starting a faith-work like our Philippine Christian BCA school.
3. for BLC's total remaining 2008 Typhoon debt of $8,708 be whittled down to zero by May, 2012 [$741 per week for 12 more weeks] (-$32 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 190 weeks ($741 per week, totaling $140,825), the debt should be paid off in 12 more weeks, or by May, 2012.

Praise God:

1. To date, over $1263 has already been pledged from friends for the 2017 purchase of BCA’s new $56,000 school campus (property and temporary buildings). These pledges have been made per-mile for the following 70.3-mile Ironman Triathlons I will compete in: NEW ORLEANS, LA (April 22, 2012) $1 per mile/ KONA, HI (June 2, 2012) $6.13 per mile/ PHILIPPINES (August 5, 2012) $4 per mile = $1263.67/ GALVESTON, TX (April 7, 2013). Thus, 1 + 6.13 + 4 + 0= 11.13 x 70.3=$782.44 plus $480.56 (from previous Ironman triathlons) = 1263 - $56,000 =$54,737 to go!
2. that the Davao flood this week which kept us stranded in traffic for two hours, although pouring 2-ft-deep sludge into the school, did no permanent damage.
3. that although one of our two family dogs (Barn-barn) died last week (he misjudged the length of his chain when climbing over a wall, and was strangled), three other friends have offered us puppies to replace him with!
4. for two Philippine businessmen who surprisingly gave a total of over a thousand dollars to pay some of the school’s bills while I am out of the country.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $2915 received, $27,085 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY! (2/14) HAPPY PRESIDENT’S DAY (USA)! (2/20) SRI LANKA IRONMAN TRIATHLON (2/19) HAPPY FIFTEENTH ANNIVERARY TO OUR CHURCH PLANT! (2/12)

“Where’s Diane?” I couldn’t locate one of our BCA fourth-grade students in church one Sunday, last month. Diane’s older brother explained, “She ran away from home.”

An adopted child, Diane felt that she did not quite fit into her new family of three boys and a baby sister. She had not run very far though, as was seen when her grandmother called the dad from the other side of town, and told him that her grand-daughter wanted to stay with her for awhile.

We prayed regularly for Diane during our own private devotional times throughout the month of January. Then, last week, we had the pleasant surprise of her appearance during our weekly Sunday afternoon Children’s church.

Pastor Richard has just finished sharing from the Bible that Jesus transforms our lives and replaces our sadness with joy. As he was closing in prayer, I joined the puppet team behind the puppet stage.

This week Roger was not absent, so we had our normal puppet stage.
However, when setting up the stage, Roger had forgotten to pin-up the stage’s curtains. So we puppeteers had to hold up the curtains with one hand, while holding up the puppets with our other hand.

Our six puppets mouthed the words to the song, “Butterfly Kisses,”
which was followed by the very active song, “Shout to the Lord”. The puppet stage is two-tiered, and since I am the tallest on the team, I only had to share the upper-tier with Abigail, who was standing on a chair.

There was a lot of space back there, So I let go of the curtain with my left hand and put a second puppet on that hand. I was moving all over, with my two puppets dancing the full length of the stage. My puppets even interacted with Abby’s

Sweat poured off my face in torrents, stinging my eyes with salt water. Earlier that morning I had driven a dozen miles over rocky, rutted dirt roads to preach at our rural daughter church. My missions theme had been, “Let My People Go!” from Exodus. On my way back to the mother church, the multicab was packed with small children who were coming to the afternoon children’s church.

The third and last song that the puppets performed was, “Thy Word is a Lamp unto My Feet.” My puppets were looking up to heaven, then down to the audience, and bouncing around to the music. A crowd of older kids were smiling and giggling as they snuck over to the side of the auditorium where they could peek behind the stage. I smiled back and suddenly got an idea.

I already had a puppet on each hand, yet there was another small kitten puppet still in the box. Since the Word of God is a lamp to our feet, why not use my foot to hold a puppet? So while my lion puppet was performing on my right hand, I removed with my teeth the pink panther puppet which was on my left hand. Then, using my free left hand, I took off my sneaker, placing the kitten puppet on my left foot.

With my mouth, I pulled the panther puppet back onto my free hand.
Russel, a fellow puppeteer, shoved her chair over for me to stand on.

With the lion on my right and the panther on my left, standing on the chair with my right foot and ducking down my head so it would not appear over the top of the stage, I stretched and stretched, trying to get that kitten on my foot high enough to be seen above the stage. It would require me to do a standing split.

Suddenly roars of laughter burst from the hundreds of children in the audience. Curious as to what caused this suddenly response, I looked up and started laughing myself at what I saw. The curtain of the puppet stage had dropped to the floor. The kids watched the calisthenics of their senior pastor (me) as I had two hands raised into the air, each with a puppet on it, and a foot and leg raised high with a third puppet, and sweat pouring down my matted hair and face.

As the kids all clapped, we returned the curtain to its rightful place and finished the song (after I removed that kitten puppet from my left foot). It reminded me of the scene in “The Wizard of Oz” when the wizard says, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”

After the end of the song, as we made our way back to our seats on the audience, I caught a glimpse of Diane, the returned runaway child. She was smiling and laughing! If my crazy antics had been a tad embarrassing, it was worth it to see that troubled prodigal child finally smile.

Until next time…

Let the islands rejoice!

Present need: $650 for tables for BLC’s Industrial Arts class.

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: February
   15-17 Fourth Periodical school-wide exams. February 24 School-wide General PTA Meeting.
2. for the survivors of the Philippine earthquake this week which took the lives of over one hundred people.
3. for BLC's total remaining 2008 Typhoon debt of $8,740 be whittled down to zero by April, 2012 [$745 per week for 12 more weeks] (-$1,530 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 189 weeks ($745 per week, totaling $140,793), the debt should be paid off in 12 more weeks, or by April, 2012.

Praise God:

1. To date, over $1263 has already been pledged from friends for the
   2017 purchase of BCA’s new $56,000 school campus (property and temporary buildings). These pledges have been made per-mile for the following 70.3-mile Ironman Triathlons I will compete in: SRI LANKA (February 19, 2012) $7.13 per mile/ NEW ORLEANS (April 22, 2012) $1 per mile/ HAWAII (June 2, 2012) $6.13 per mile/ PHILIPPINES (August 5,
   2012) $4 per mile = $1263.67/Thus, 7.13 + 1 + 6.13 + 4 = 18.26
   x70.3=$1263.67 - $56,000 =$54,716.32 to go!
2. that our local Kiwanis club wants to invite two Badjao sea gypsies to BCA and sponsor their food, clothes, books and education.
3. that PJ, Abby and I (Paul) were in a local running race last Saturday. Theirs was a 3km, and mine, 10km.
4. that I have been invited to share with the congregation at a church in Corpus Christi, Texas, while I am in the USA this April.
5. that a friend gave our family a big white rabbit (“Raffy”) to replace the one that died (“Norm”), which we had in our roof garden for almost a year.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $2910 received,
$27,090 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday (2/12)

“Could you please put air in the car’s tires?” Elvie was about to drive to the government office for the Department of Education. Since we’d already registered the school’s new name (Barner Christian Academy), she was following-up on the status of our permit to continue operating the school with its new corporate name in 2012-13.

Yet Elvie confided in me, “Not everybody is happy with the change.” Due to one of our school secretaries’ secretly and illegally tampering with our official school permit, it was necessary to change our corporate name and apply for a new permit last year. But in confusion, many of the schools which BCA is paying to educate our elementary students, have temporarily dropped our students down a grade or two.

Parents have complained to Elvie (as principal of BCA) and some have even insulted her. “This is so painful,” Elvie confided to me, “that those who we have previously been so kind to me can suddenly be so vicious.” I consoled her, “It is all in God’s hands. He has a perfect plan in all of this. Look for the hints God is giving that He has it all under control.”

When our school bus driver brought our family car to the gas station to air up the tires, he was crossing traffic with an open lane. Suddenly, two jeepneys roared barreling down the hill toward him, racing each other, each packed with passengers. The huge vehicle in the passenger lane crashed into the rear door of our car, bending the wheel sideways and spinning the car around on the highway. Broken glass scattered around the road, and the car slid, backwards, perfectly into a parking space at the gas station, within the painted lines prepared for parked cars!

Yet during the spin, the car hit a stack of egg trays, and 360 eggs burst all over the road. If it had been earlier in the day, it would have been so hot out that the road might set a world record for the biggest pan of scrambled eggs! “How could God’s hand be in this accident,?” asked Elvie, as we viewed the destruction of our family car.

“Look,” I replied, “Look closely, and you can see God’s fingerprint of purpose. One clue is in His awesome parking job!” we could see how perfectly God had parked the remains of our car. We never could have even moved the vehicle, since the impact was so powerful that it had snapped the rear axle with the drive-train dragging on the cement. Yet still, the car was perfectly aligned, backed  into its parking space And facing the road!

“And look at these eggs!” Elvie suggested, “A mess, right?” If you can imagine ten dozen eggs squashed among hundreds of white shells, scattered among broken glass all over the highway, it’d be hard to see any beauty in that. “But,” Elvie said, “If the accident had been five minutes earlier, the man who had stacked the egg trays along the side of the road would have been hit and killed!” Sure enough, the “egg-man” had unloaded the stack of egg trays from the back of his motorcycle so he could fill his gas tank at the fuel pump. “And if I had been in the back seat of the car instead of waiting at the school for Ben (our driver) to return, I would be in the hospital now!

Thus there are 3 perspective to viewing anything: 1) optimistically (the glass is half-full), 2) pessimistically (the glass is half-empty), 3) superntaurallistically (the glass is God’s, so everything in it is perfectly proportioned). We shouldn’t worry about what is in the glass…instead, look at the fingerprints on the glass itself.. the fingerprints are God’s!

Until next time…

Let the islands rejoice!

Present need: $265 for a new (homemade) 10-foot-high metal gate for BCA, for increased security so that we don’t have to pay round-the-clock guards.

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: February: February 14 Teachers’ and Staff Appreciation Day. February 15-17 Fourth Periodical school-wide exams. February 24 School-wide General PTA Meeting.
2. for my upcoming trip to Sri Lanka (2/15-3/20). I will be attending many civic club meetings there, plus two conferences, and competing in one triathlon race.
3. for BLC's total remaining 2008 Typhoon debt of $10,270 be whittled down to zero by May, 2012 [$741 per week for 14 more weeks] (-$40 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 188 weeks ($741 per week, totaling $139,263), the debt should be paid off in 14 more weeks, or by May, 2012.
4. For the 60 delegates who attended the free Truth Project seminar that we hosted through the Davao Christian Leadership Foundation, of which I am president. The delegates participated in the first of six seminars, each viewing two one-hour-long DVDs. The second seminar will be June 9, on DVDs 3 & 4. At that time I will be in Missouri, so others are running the program in my absence. Also please pray for the monthly “house parties” which are follow-up Bible studies in homes of the delegates, to introduce their friends and neighbors to the Biblical approach toward truth. Doug will be scheduling the House Parties.
5. for Ben, the administrator of our Drop-off Center for street boys. He is in his thirties, and has been in and out of the hospital with enlarged spleen and prostate, plus malfunctioning intestines. Also, when he is not confined, he is supervising the construction of buildings on the Home’s new island property.
6. for the secretary who tampered with our school’s government permit last year. Some parents want to sue her for causing their children to get lower grades.

Praise God:

1. To date, over $1263 has already been pledged from friends for the 2017 purchase of BCA’s new $56,000 school campus (property and temporary buildings). These pledges have been made per-mile for the following 70.3-mile Ironman Triathlons I will compete in: SRI LANKA (February 19, 2012) $7.13 per mile/ NEW ORLEANS (April 22, 2012) $1 per mile/ HAWAII (June 2, 2012) $6.13 per mile/ PHILIPPINES (August 5, 2012) $4 per mile = $1263.67/Thus, 7.13 + 1 + 6.13 + 4 = 18.26 x70.3=$1263.67 - $56,000 =$54,716.32 to go!
2. that Ben, our bus driver, was not harmed in the car accident which demolished the car’s rear door and undercarriage.
3. that Sunday, February 12, our church plant will celebrate its fifteenth anniversary!

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $2905 received, $27,095 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 24.

“Rejoice in the Lord always!” The 80 small children present in our Sunday Kids’ Chapel clapped their hands and sang along with the music.

A little earlier PJ had begged, “Dad, can you please help with the puppet stage? Roger is not here today.” Since morning worship was over and I’d already finished preaching, all I had planned after lunch was to work on the tax receipts for those who’d faithfully given to this ministry in 2011.

“Sure,” I replied. It’d be a nice break from my paperwork. While teacher Richard preached to the kids, the puppeteers and I looked around for the puppet stage.

Yet where Roger had hidden it, nobody could figure out. Frauline, Abby’s friend, suggested we just have two people hold- up a sheet, and the puppeteers could hide behind it. But we’d tried that once before, with disastrous consequences when one of the “holders” scratched her nose and dropped her corner of the sheet. At that time all the puppeteers were suddenly embarrassedly exposed.

Noticing a temporary cubicle-wall in one of the classrooms, I had the kids help me drag it onto the stage. Perfect! Then PJ handed me a puppet “Since you are here anyway, why not join us?” How could I refuse?

Now Sam (my puppet) is an unusual one. He has a big head with moveable mouth, a bright red shirt, and two long arms. His shirt has long sleeves, with holes under the elbows for me to stick my own hands through. So Sam has human hands (mine).

My arm was tired from Saturday’s practice swimming for next month’s Sri Lankan Ironman triathlon. And after the first two songs, my arms were aching. But PJ had planned one more song. It was an active number, and Sam had a solo. So crouching low, with the puppet on my right arm and my left hand lifted in praise through the puppet sleeve, the puppet sang, “Open the Eyes of my Heart, Lord.” He pointed to his eyes, then placed his hand over his heart. “I want to see you…” His hand (which was actually MY hand through the puppet’s sleeve) was placed over his forehead, peering out as if over a distance.

Then the other puppets joined in, and Sam danced around “…to see you high and lifted up, shining in the light of your glory…”

Once the song was finished, Russell, one of the other puppeteers, apologized for stepping on my feet behind the stage. But she couldn’t help it, since I was a moving target. When the puppet Sam had leapt all over the stage, I was also moving all over behind the stage. Ikay (another puppeteer) saw the sweat pouring from my face and shirt and commented, “Wow!”

An hour later I sat in my office at the computer keyboard. I couldn’t type, since my arms were so sore from puppeteering. Yet in the back of my mind rang the words of one of the teachers. “Pastor Paul, when Sam the puppet pointed to heaven, eighty children looked up to follow his gaze. When he placed his hand over his heart, they did too. You really had an interactive puppet show today!”

It truly was interactive. The Holy Sprit was there. The puppet’s life came through us, and our life comes from the Holy Spirit!

Until next time…

Let the islands rejoice!

Present need: $$650 for tables for BLC’s Industrial Arts class.

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: February:
   February 3 Sixth grade tree planting. February 14 Teachers’ and Staff Appreciation Day. February 15-17 Fourth Periodical school-wide exams.
   February 24 School-wide General PTA Meeting.
2. for our upcoming April-July furlough in the USA. Already many churches have confirmed our visit to the six states of Texas, Missouri, Louisiana, Arkansas and New Mexico.
3. for BLC's total remaining 2008 Typhoon debt of $10,310 be whittled down to zero by May, 2012 [$747 per week for 13 more weeks] (-$75 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 187 weeks ($747 per week, totaling $139,690), the debt should be paid off in 13 more weeks, or by May, 2012.

Praise God:

1. To date, over $1213 has already been pledged from friends for the
   2017 purchase of BCA’s new $56,000 school campus (property and temporary buildings). These pledges have been made per-mile for the following 70.3-mile Ironman Triathlons I will compete in: SRI LANKA (February 19, 2012) $6.13 per mile/ NEW ORLEANS (April 22, 2012) $1 per mile/ HAWAII (June 2, 2012) $6.13 per mile/ PHILIPPINES (August 5,
   2012) $4 per mile = $1213.37/Thus, 6.13 + 1 + 6.13 + 4 = 17.26
   x70.3=$1213.37- $56,000 =$54,786.62 to go!
2. that a lawyer friend from Michigan came with us this week to visit the new property just purchased for our Father’s House/Shepherd’s House camp for street kids, on the nearby island of Samal.
3. that eight delightful Californians came to visit BCA this week.
   After touring the school, they prayed for God’s work here.
4. that a church board in New York State voted to sponsor me for ALL FOUR Ironman triathlons this year, at $1 per mile, up to $300!
5. that a friend in Vermont, USA gave $25 to help Barner Christian Academy save up the funds needed to purchase the new three-acre campus required by the Department of Education within the next five years.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $2900 received,
$27,100 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BLC Children still waiting for sponsors: 24.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY (1/16), PHILIPPINE NATIONAL BIBLE WEEK (1/23-29)

PAUL, STAY IN COLOMBO, SRI LANKA.” God was clearly speaking to me, but He had to be more specific before I took Him seriously. Just call me hard-headed.

Last March I was attending the Kiwanis Regional Asian Pacific Conference (ASPAC) in Malaysia with Elvie. While there, the delegates voted to host the 2012 ASPAC in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Then just two weeks later, after I competed in the Singapore Ironman triathlon, I was handed a flyer that listed the first-ever Sri Lankan Ironman race in…you guessed it, the city of Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Hmmm, was it just a coincidence that both of these events were in the very same city? Even though I didn’t know where Sri Lanka was, and also didn’t know even one person in the whole country of Sri Lanka, I still felt that irresistible urge from God to join both events, and stay in the country the three weeks between the Ironman race and the ASPAC convention (February 15-March 20).

Then, as God always does so very efficiently, He started to fill-in the details. While visiting Guam for the first time ever last month, I met Greg, a man who works for Trans World Radio (TWR) He’d transferred to Guam from…you guessed it, Sri Lanka. Also one of PJ’s teachers at Faith Academy got me in touch with a friend of hers who runs a ministry in…you guessed it: Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Then, my friend Floy from Iowa who is in Toastmasters Public Speaking group put me in touch with a Hindu friend of hers named Balraj who is president of a Toastmasters club in…you guessed it, Colombo,. Sri Lanka.

After a few emails to him, he put me in touch with his Catholic friend Ajit, who is involved with tourism and also is Vice President of his Toastmasters club in…you guessed it, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

This was getting interesting, so I was wondering what else God had in mind. In emails to my new Facebook friend Ajit, he asked me what I had in mind to do while in his beautiful country. I explained that I wanted to keep practicing for my other three Ironman races in 2012, plus pray for our work in the Philippines and visit Sri Lankan churches and people, as well as to have opportunities to share what God is doing here in this ministry in the Philippines.

He responded that we could visit Protestant, Catholic, Buddhist and Hindu places of worship, plus he would schedule me to speak in Toastmasters Clubs all over the city of…you guessed it, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Breathless by this time in how God was designing this extremely interesting agenda, and concerned about how I would pay for my expenses while traveling, Ajit responded to my most recent email yesterday: “By the way, Paul, you will be staying with my family. We live in the city, but there are lots of places nearby where you can pray and prepare for your races, here in…” you guessed it, “Colombo, Sri Lanka”

So thanks, God. Thanks for your perfect plan. Thanks that the very unknown things in life are fully known to You. And finally, thanks for the awesome plans you have for the city of…you guessed it, Colombo, Sri Lanka!

By the way, this morning God provided another sweet surprise. Two legs of the journey for our family’s upcoming USA furlough this summer are from Davao to Manila, and Manila to Cebu. The airline has a “surprise” fare discount, of only two cents per ticket (before taxes and fees). These tickets usually start at $70-$100 each. Is God awesome, or what?

Until next time…

Let the islands rejoice!

Present need: $265 for a new 10-foot-high metal gate for BCA, for increased security so that we don’t have to pay the salaries of round-the-clock guards.

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. for the next upcoming Barner Christian Academy events: January: Fourth Preliminary school-wide exams/ Parent-Teacher Conferences/Weekly Saturday training for the Second PEPT equivalency exams.
2. for the humanitarian aid foundation of which I am president (DCL: Davao Christian Leadership Foundation). DCL is hosting its annual Christian Leadership Seminar this Saturday, January 28. We will be showing and reviewing the first three videos of “The Truth Project” by Focus on the Family. Please pray that all the details will fall into place well. We will serve snacks at this half-day event, and expect fifty pastors, businessmen and politicians to attend. It will take place in the rented fellowship hall of a Baptist Church in the city of Davao.
3. for BLC's total remaining 2008 Typhoon debt of $10,385 be whittled down to zero by May, 2012 [$753 per week for 14 more weeks] (-$392 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 186 weeks ($751 per week, totaling $139,615), the debt should be paid off in 14 more weeks, or by May, 2012.

Praise God:

1. To date, over $932.70 has already been pledged from friends for the 2017 purchase of BCA’s new $56,000 school campus (property and temporary buildings only). These pledges have been made per-mile for the following 70.3-mile Ironman Triathlons I will compete in: SRI LANKA (February 19, 2012) $5.13 per mile/ NEW ORLEANS (April 22, 2012) $0 per mile/ HAWAII (June 2, 2012) $5.13 per mile/ PHILIPPINES (August 5, 2012) $3 per mile = $932.70/Thus, 5.13 + 0 + 5.13 + 3 = 13.26 x70.3=$932.70- $56,000 =$55,067.30 to go!          
2. that Ben, the Administrator for our home for Street Boys, is out of the hospital after some extremely painful intestinal malfunctions.
3. that each Saturday hundreds of former BCA students are coming to our campus to refresh their educational prowess so that they can perform their very best in the upcoming (February) PEPT Elementary Equivalency make-up exams.
4. that this week I finished reading the Bible from cover-to-cover for the 55th time.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $2895 received, $27,105 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

“I would rather have 50 committed believers in church than 700 who are forced to be here!” As senior and founding pastor, I shared with our pastoral staff the justification of why, as of April this year, we will no longer require that the parents of our BCA students must attend our church every Sunday and Wednesday to qualify them for free schooling at Barner Christian Academy.

The challenge with requiring parents to attend church is that since they are poor and struggling to find employment, the parents often have to work on Sundays. Plus, if the parents do not attend church, the children are disqualified from taking their monthly exams, and their grades suffer.

Added to this is the fact that the real spiritual growth for the unchurched masses here is our one-on-one discipleship meetings, since the parents can learn at their own pace and also to ask questions. 90% of the hundreds of parents who have become believers through this ministry, have accepted Jesus during their one-on-one weekly meetings. Their Christian growth is also evaluated smoothly and simply during these meetings. We have even hired (full-time) a male and a female Bible seminary graduate to do the discipling.

Let us compare this new approach to ministry with something that happened this week. I was stopped by the police for having fake license plates. Three years ago, the plates on our car fell apart. License plates are made quite flimsily here. We were given at that time a permit to use temporary plates until the new plates were assigned to us from the government. But the government has such a backlog on replacing broken plates, that they just extend the permit every six months.

When Ben, one of our BCA bus drivers, removed the unexpired permit from our car to check on the document’s semiannual renewal, he did not tell us that he had not left any spare copy of the permit in the car.

The police officer waited as we called Ben to come quickly with the permit. He arrived an hour later. But by then, the officer had already issued the ticket. We showed the policeman the permit, but he refused to revoke the violation. “Your permit must be in the car at all times. You will be fined $50, plus you must attend a government-approved class on how to obey traffic rules.”

In both cases; the one-on-one BCA classes; and the mistake in our driver’s failure to give us a copy of the permit, we see that personal follow-up is critical. In church, it is great to have nearly a thousand people worshipping together. But the personal discipleship meetings are so much more effective, as they reveal the true needs of every single individual in the congregation. Plus, we can see, by those who remain in the congregation even when it is not mandatory, which parishioners are deeply committed to weekly fellowshipping with believers in church.

We love these people, as well as their kids. We pray that they will see in us the joy that they too can have by maintaining a close walk with Jesus.

Until next time…

Let the islands rejoice!

Present need: $60,000 for the first floor of our new building, which (after funds arrive) will be built in the location of the present BLC gym.

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. for the next upcoming BLC events: January: Fourth Preliminary school-wide exams/ Parent-Teacher Conferences/Weekly Saturday training for the Second PEPT equivalency exams.
2. for Elvie who, as first vice president of our local Kiwanis Club, was elected to fill-in (as acting president) for Present Karen during the six months that Karen will be out of the country.
3. for BLC's total remaining 2008 Typhoon debt of $10,777 be whittled down to zero by May, 2012 [$753 per week for 15 more weeks] (-$68 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 185 weeks ($753 per week, totaling $139,223), the debt should be paid off in 15 more weeks, or by May, 2012.

Praise God:

1. It was called to my attention by a friend that the faith goal (see above) of $753 per week for 15 more weeks, to pay-off the outstanding remainder of BCA’s 2008 $150,000 typhoon debt, would finish all our Typhoon obligations by the end of May. Yet since my four triathlons this year are in the months of Feb/Apr/Jun & Aug, I should not request sponsorships to pay off a debt which should, by those months, already be paid. Thus, instead of raising funds through my races for the final payoff of the debt, we will instead focus on the next great need. The government is requiring that BCA purchase a three-acre (one hectare) lot before 2017. After checking prices, it looks like the new school campus (property and temporary buildings only) will cost around $56,000.
   
   Therefore to date, over $932.70 has already been pledged from friends for the 2017 purchase of BCA’s new $56,000 school campus (property and temporary buildings only). These pledges have been made per-mile for the following 70.3-mile Ironman Triathlons I will compete in: SRI LANKA (February 19, 2012) $5.13 per mile/ NEW ORLEANS (April 22, 2012) $0 per mile/ HAWAII (June 2, 2012) $5.13 per mile/ PHILIPPINES (August 5, 2012) $3 per mile = $932.70/Thus, 5.13 + 0 + 5.13 + 3 = 13.26 x70.3=$932.70- $56,000 =$55,067.30 to go!               
2. that permanent houses are in the plans already for the new buildings on Samal Island for our Permanent Bible Camp lodging for abandoned street boys. Once the new buildings are complete and the boys move onto the spacious new campus,  the present home will be converted into a home for abandoned preteen street girls.
3. that my Sri Lanka visa has been approved. I will only have to renew it once during my 35-day visit in that country.
4. that during the recent cultic “Black Nazarene” Filipino festival, although eight million people crowded the streets to follow the 300-yr-old cross to kiss it, none of the expected terrorist attacks occurred. It is believed that power will come form this age-old artifact to heal and remove sins. 
5. that even though rain from nearby typhoons have caused catastrophic and fatal landslides and floods, Barner Christian Academy has been spared any flooding. Yay, God!
6. that the recent inspection of BCA’s campus by the Department of Education (DepEd) resulted in a very high score. They are especially pleased with our library, clinic, classrooms, offices, home economics building and science laboratory equipment.
7. that a friend in Washington State has sent us a spare copy of the Truth Project 12-video DVD set by Focus on the Family. We are using the Truth Project to teach pastors, in four half-day annual seminars, between the years 2012 and 2016. The seminars are funded by the foundation that I am president of, Davao Christian Leadership Foundation. Our first seminar (where we show the first three videos) will be early next month (February).

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BLC 10-passenger multicabs: $2890 received, $27,110 left to go! Five of the present seven BLC vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

(note: since we are still traveling, this weekly diary is briefer than usual. The weekly debt totals, schedules and prayer requests are lacking, since my files are in Davao City.)

“Thanks for your prayers!” While in Guam to renew Elvie’s USA visa, (Guam is the closest American soil to the Philippines), little did we realize that our trip would bring in new prayer warriors!

After landing at the Guam airport on Tuesday, I checked around to find a car rental place. There was a really cheap rental place a quarter of a mile from our hotel, so I went there and reserved a compact car. But after walking down to their office three times, they changed their minds and informed me that all their rentals were fully booked.

On the way back to the hotel, I noticed another rental place, so just popped in to inquire. It is run by Christian Filipinos! Seeing we are missionaries, they gave us a massive discount on the rental, and also invited us to go to church with them!

After driving the whole perimeter of the island of Guam (about 70 miles), the four of us celebrated New Year’s Eve by opening our “goal envelopes” from last December, renewing our goals for 2012, and standing on the fourth floor roof of the hotel and watching fireworks over the ocean. While watching the lights, there on the roof of the hotel, PJ and Abby made friends with other kids form various countries.

Sunday morning, our new car-rental friends came to the hotel to pick us up (we’d already turned in the car, after two days’ rental).

Church was great. The pastor’s message was deeply theological, yet practical (just as I like it). And we sang real hymns, with accompaniment from a harp, sax, flute and piano! When volunteers were invited to the microphone to share prayer requests, I mentioned three requests from God’s ministry at Barner Christian Academy: 1) wisdom for those who are distributing the aid we’d given for relief for the 100,000 homeless survivors of the recent Cagayan de Oro flash flood, 2) wisdom for those BCA students who did not pass their equivalency exams in September and will be re-taking them this January, and 3) speedy (yet strong) construction of the temporary housing we are having built on Samal Island for our camp/residence for Abandoned Street Boys.

Every request was prayed for by the congregation, and we were invited out to eat by members of the church. They paid!

Isn’t God great, that even when we travel to a country where we know absolutely nobody, He provides wonderful, loving believers to fellowship with? More prayer warriors! God is fantastic!

Until next time…

“Let the Islands Rejoice!”

PTL! Many churches and individuals have already confirmed our speaking engagements for this year’s April-July furlough!

Quick prayer: for the BCA students coming back to classes this week after the end of their Christmas break, that they concentrate well and dig into their studies.

PS:

My tally from last year’s goals:

1. TURN 50 YRS OLD-ACCOMPLISHED!!!
2. READ THROUGH THE BIBLE FIVE TIMES (LACKING TWO TIMES)
3. RUN 2,000 KILOMETERS (LACKING 750KM)
4. EXERCISE EVERY DAY (LACKING 30 DAYS)
5. FINISH THREE 70.3 IRONMAN TRIATHLONS-ACCOMPLISHED!!!
6. PAY-OFF BLC’S  $35,000 2008 TYPHOON DEBT (LACKING $10,500)
7. WEIGH 150 POUNDS (I AM NOW 170)
8. COMPLETE FURLOUGH IN NY-FL-AL-OH-UT-ACCOMPLISHED!!!
9. HAVE REGULAR FAMILY BIBLE TIME WITH ELVIE, PJ AND ABIGAIL-ACCOMPLISHED!!!
10. PRAY ONE-ON-ONE WITH FOUR PEOPPLE TO RECEIVE JESUS INTO THEIR HEARTS (ONLY IN GROUPS, NOT ONE-ON-ONE)
11. BUY A PICK-UP TRUCK (ALMOST…FORD RETURNED OUR DOWNPAYMENT, DUE TO LACK OF STOCK)
12. RE-MEMORIZE JAMES CHAPTER ONE (ONLY ABOUT HALF FINISHED)
13. HEAR GOD’S VOICE AS HE LEADS ME TO BE THE SHEPHERD OF THE FLOCK AT FAITH CHURCH-ACCOMPLISHED!!!
14. LEARN THE CEBUANO LANGUGE (I TRIED… REALLY, I DID)
15. START A CHICKEN RESTAURANT TO RAISE FUNDS FOR THE FATHER’S HOUSE STREET-BOYS’ HOME (THAT RESPONSIBILITY IS NOW TRANSFERRED TO ROSE-ANOTHER INTERESTED AND GIFTED CHEF)
16. SPONSOR A CHRISTIAN FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SEMINAR WITH DEAN TINNEY- ACCOMPLISHED!!!

TALLY FOR 2011: SIX OUT OF SIXTEEN GOALS: 37%

“IT IS BETTER TO SHOOT A LITTLE OUT OF REACH AND MISS EVERY GOAL, THAN TO NEVER AIM ANY HIGHER THAN YOU HAVE ACHIEVED PREVIOUSLY”

SOOOO……

HERE ARE MY “SCALED-DOWN” 2012 GOALS

1. TURN 51 YRS OLD
2. READ THROUGH THE BIBLE COMPLETELY THREE TIMES
3. RUN 1000 KM
4. VISIT USA-HAWAII-GUAM-SRI LANKA-ROXAS CITY
5. FINISH FOUR 70.3 IRONMAN TRIATHLONS
6. WEIGH 165 POUNDS
7. HAVE TALLIED A LIFETIME READING TOTAL OF 130 BOOKS
8. PAY-OFF BARNER CHRISTIAN ACADEMY’S NO-INETEREST $20,000 LOAN
9. FINALLY BUY THAT PICK-UP TRUCK
10. MEMORIZE JAMES 1-5
11. PREACH A SERMON IN THE CEBUANO LANGUAGE
12. BICYCLE 3000 KILOMETERS
13. SWIM 200 KILOMETERS
14. LIMIT THE RATIO OF BARNER CHRISTIAN ACADEMY STUDENTS TO 2 PRESCHOOLERS FOR EVERY ONE ELEMENTARY STUDENT

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012!

(note: this is being sent a bit early, since our family will be in Guam renewing Elvie’s USA visa for a week) “Do you have room for Jesus in your life?” Focusing my Christmas Day sermon on the innkeeper of Luke 2, I remembered just a few days before. We’d buried Mario, the father of some of our young BCA (Barner Christian Academy) pupils.

Since Mario’s family is quite poor, he was buried in the public cemetery. Thirty years ago his grandmother was buried in the same plot. The locals call it a CEMENT-ary, since they make an above-ground cement box and slide the casket through the open-end of it, before sealing it shut with cement. These cement boxes are just inches apart from each other, and are called “ponshions”. In Mario’s case, the other ponshions were so close that they had to take the lid off his casket to get the proper angle to slide it into the end of the ponshion

Mario’s grandmother died back in 1980. Twenty years later his uncle died. So they threw the grandmother’s bones into the empty cement box. (they’d bought two ponshions, side-by-side). They also discarded the casket, since it had rotted away anyway. They placed the uncle into the newly-emptied ponshion. In 2008 when the 108-yr-old grandfather died, the uncle’s bones were thrown in with the grandmother’s. Now, when Mario was buried, they made room for his casket by transferring his grandfather’s bones into the ponshion that already held the bones of his other two deceased relatives. I wondered, “Hmmm, I wonder what Mario’s widow is thinking, about her own future location of burial?”

Similarly, about 150 miles north of us on the same island of Mindanao, in Cagayan De Oro city, many of the thousand corpses of those killed by hurricane Sendong/Washi were rotting, since all the funeral homes and morticians were busy. Also some whole families were eliminated by the flood, so nobody was left to claim the bodies.

Through the local Kiwanis Club and churches, we raised over $6,000 among Filipino Businessmen and congregations, to send food, water, clothes, and medicine to the survivors. And for the victims, while waiting for the Red Cross trucks to arrive to dump the bodies into the public landfill areas, we provided dozens of backpack-tanks of sanitizer to spray the corpses to prevent the spread of disease.

Mario’s grave had made room for more bones. The Cagayan Landfill had made room for the bodies of the flood victims. As I watched at church on Sunday, there was also room in the arms of our hundreds of living, breathing poor students, for all the gifts from friends who had sent them stuffed animals, toy Hot Wheels cars, food, clothes, and school supplies.

Thousands of friends, over the course of 2011, had found room in their hearts to give to these kids on the other side of the world. One pastor’s wife in Utah had hand-sewed dozens of matching flowered dresses and purses, which these precious little girls were wearing, after going into a back room and removing the rags they’d been wearing previously.

A pre-teen in New York had cleared out her entire collection of stuffed animals and shipped them to BCA in Davao. These and hundreds more were sent for the BCA kids from so many sources that I’d lost count. Also a western gentleman’s entire Hot Wheels collection of hundreds of miniature cars (all unopened, still in their original packaging), found their way to BCA.

A man in Eastern USA went to his basement pantry to send the food cans he’d collected, which he’d bought in “two-for-one” sales. Another American woman who knew a bit of the Filipino language saved up hundreds of used greeting cards and typed Bible verses in the local language for us to give out to the kids.

These, along with so many, many others, truly showed through their sacrificial, selfless deeds, that they did have room for Jesus.

And I, as the missionary giving the gifts for these generous donors, had the delightful privilege of seeing the smiles on the faces of these hundreds of children who embraced their gifts at Christmastime.

Thank you all for being unlike the innkeeper. Yes, you do have room for Jesus, after all!

Until next time…

Let the islands rejoice!

Present need: $300 for 100 tambourines for BLC’s new tambourine troupe.

Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!)

1. for the next upcoming BLC events: January: Winter Break ends/ Fourth Preliminary school-wide exams/ Parent-Teacher Conferences.
2. for my visit to the Sri Lanka embassy in Manila to result in a visa for my upcoming month-long visit to that country.
3. for BLC's total remaining 2008 Typhoon debt of $10,845 be whittled down to zero by May, 2012 [$760 per week for 15 more weeks] (-$60 from last week). Based on per-week average debt reduction over the past 183 weeks ($760 per week, totaling $139,155), the debt should be paid off in 15 more weeks, or by May, 2012.

Praise God:

1. that over $932.70  has already been pledged from friends for reduction of BLC’s outstanding 2008 Typhoon debt of $10,845. These pledges have been made per-mile for the following 70.3 Ironman Triathlons I will compete in: SRI LANKA (February, 2012) 
   $5.13 per mile / HAWAII (June, 2012) $5.13 per mile)/ PHILIPPINES (August, 2012) $3 per mile = $932.70/Thus, 5.13 + 5.13 + 3 = 13.26 x70.3=$932.70- $10,845 =$9,912.30 to go!             
2. that Joe, a fellow missionary, was spared when a large snake wrapped itself around his foot. We just had the title deed signed over to our orphanage, and Joe’d been transferring items for our new property on the Island of Samal. The snake came up through a large hole in his floorboards, wrapping itself around his accelerator foot.
3. that when our nine-year-old car’s security system went haywire, a local mechanic was willing to disconnect it. However, first we had to drive five miles with the loud “beep-beep-beep” causing a ruckus, along with the flashing headlights. We’d even been stopped by the police, who also couldn’t figure out how to fix the problem.
4. that when I was driving one of our BCA buses, and it broke down, the children jumped out to push it. They had to “jump-start” it twelve times before we got back to the school.
5. that when a fellow missionary postponed his small preschool’s outdoor field trip (by one day) to attend our indoor DCL (Davao Christian Leadership Foundation) Christmas party, the new date was sunny and warm, while the previous day was rainy and chilly.
6. that a fellow missionary has made contact with missionaries in Sri Lanka to give me lodging while I am there during February and March.

Status of $30,000 needed for three 21-passenger jeepneys to replace three of our overcrowded BCA 10-passenger multicabs: $2885 received, $27,115 left to go! Five of the present seven BCA vehicles are dangerously overcrowded.

BCA Children still waiting for sponsors: 22.

Rev. Paul, Elvie, PJ and Abigail Barner
Philippine Missionary Church Planters
Barner Christian Academy of Davao City, Inc.
PO Box 82,224
8000 Davao City, Philippines 011-63

(082) 234-4000
(Philippine Cell) 0917-322-8224
(USA) (518) 449-2105

Home address: 18 Eileen Drive, Rensselaer, NY 12144
BLCKIDS@yahoo.com
American tie-in free NY # (for messages) to Philippines: (518) 772-2775

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Last edited January 27, 2013
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