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| 12/25/2014 | December 25, 2014: Merry Christmas! (12/25), Unprecedented WWII Christmas Truce Temporary Ceasefire on both Eastern and Western fronts (12/25/1914), Boxing Day in NZ, CAN, AUS & UK (12/26), 110th Anniversary of the opening of Peter Pan in London (12/27/1904). “WHAT? The Messiah was born right next door to my house and I didn’t even know it?” While preaching from Luke 2 about the response that the shepherds received from the Bethlehemites when they told about the birth of Jesus, I challenged our congregation to seek Jesus, find Jesus and announce Jesus to the World. “And,” I continued, “if we honestly live our lives as believers even in today’s modern age the world will be amazed once again.” Pivy, our visiting sign language instructor, at each of the ten churches we visited taught “Hark the Herald Angles Sing” in sign to the hundreds gathered. After each worship service, we lined up all the BCA sponsored students to receive their backpacks. After each child was handed his or her backpack filled with toys, food and school supplies, the little-kids eyes got bigger and bigger as they pulled out more and more special treats. Of course the kids immediately started playing with their gifts. At one of the locations outdoors, two boys were making plastic bubbles by blowing through straws with quick-setting goo at the other end. As the breeze picked up, one of the newly-created bubbles dashed out of reach toward a grove of trees. As the small boys chased and caught the “coated air,” I remembered last year when not just bubbles, but all sorts of things were lost or left behind, since the kids had nothing to put their Christmas treats in. Yet this year, since each had his or her own backpack, nothing: not a carved wooden car, nor a Happy Meal toy, nor a stuffed animal was missing. “Open your heart to the Lord,” little first-grade Apec sang in his solo, following the dedication of three babies. “Jesus loves the little children,” I challenged them. And so do hundreds of sponsors and other loving Christians worldwide!” For 373 sponsored poor children, we’d bought hundreds of backpacks and spent weeks sorting and filling them. But we were still lacking funds for over a hundred as the days for the parties approached. Then one friend in Pennsylvania gave $300 for 30 backpacks. A week later, $500 more for 50. And then his son sent yet another $180 for 18 more. Ooooh, so close! A friend in Singapore is working on the best means to transfer funds to our bank for us to purchase 18 more. We also received an incredible tale from a friend in Utah… After visiting the bank to send us funds for 30 backpacks, the very next day the bank was robbed! Of course even with robberies the funds are insured and protected. Yet what timing, that the funds for the gifts were sent before the thieves could touch them! So as once again many strong men carried huge boxes with many full backpacks inside, from our BCA buses to the stage of yet another partnering church, it was obvious to these amazed children that yes, the glory of the virgin birth of the God-child lying in that manger two thousand years ago still affects hearts to touch lives of others, even today. Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!) Prayer Request: Please pray for our Faith International Academy Board in the upcoming weeks as we develop a decision as to who the “Moral owners” are that will make future decisions in their institution. With this understanding, we can develop flow charts for lines of succession in authority of various decision-making processes. As chairman of the board, it is my responsibility to be sure that this decision-making process is carried out smoothly. Also please pray for our two orphanages, as we are getting closer and closer to fulfilling the government requirements for authorization from the Department of Social Welfare and Development. One of the major lacking areas is to find a licensed, local Social Worker who is a Christian. Please pray for PJ as he leads the youth group at church in their practices for next Sunday’s Christmas musical which he himself wrote with the help of his sister Abby. Praise: for 48 more “BFF” Christmas backpacks (for BCA students) paid for by the following friends: 18 from a single man in PA and 30 from a retired pastor and his wife in Utah! Praise God as well for the hundreds of children who have already received backpacks and Christmas gifts, and the thousands of their family members who have heard the Gospel clearly explained during our awarding ceremonies. The kids themselves are often the ones sharing the story of Jesus through their Christmas songs, dances and dramas. Upcoming Events: December/January:
January, 2015:
BCA has 373 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. BCA’S New Campus Fund: $85,841: BFF: Backpacks For Filipinos: |
Rev. Paul, Elvie, PJ and Abigail Barner BCA Landline: 011-63-82-234-4000 Home address: 18 Eileen Drive, Rensselaer, NY 12144 For online giving: www.christianaid.org CODE: 801-BLC PLEASE NOTE: OUR PJLILTIM@SKYINET.NET ADDRESS IS DISCONTINUED. PLEASE INSTEAD USE BLCKIDS@YAHOO.COM THANKS! |
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| 12/11/2014 | December 11, 2014: Hanukkah begins (12/16), 68th Anniversary of Unicef (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) (12/11/1946), Quantum Theory of Modern Physics Introduced in 1900 (12/14/1900) “…there was no room for them at the inn…” While preaching at the Agdao church which meets at our girls’ orphanage, I shared from Luke 2 when Joseph and Mary’s visited Bethlehem on that first Christmas two thousand years ago. I shared how the innkeeper, if only he knew who was requesting a room, would not have turned away God Himself, who would be born that night. Often we too are so distracted by the important concerns of life that we lose sight of the real “Reason for the Season”: Jesus. Yet just the evening before, I was kind of like that Innkeeper. I considered ignoring a visitor who was yelling, Ayo…ayo!” at 11:30 pm down on the street three stories below. Just half an hour before midnight, I finally noticed the visitors’ calls. Since our family lives in a classroom on the third floor of the BCA school, it had taken longer than usual for me to notice the presence of the late-night visitors. After having picked- up PJ from his High School banquet that evening, I’d worked a little in my office and then headed for bed. Since the rest of the family was already asleep, the visitors had waited half an hour before I noticed them and went down to unlock the gate. The old adage, “the later the caller, the worse the news,” is often true. My assistant pastor Callem and his wife were informing us that his 79-year-old dad had been rushed to the hospital when his kidneys failed and he remained comatose in the Intensive Care ward. This was the first time in his entire life when this mountain farmer had been confined to a hospital. On Sunday morning the church congregation prayed for Callem’s dad Napoleon. God answered their prayers, for he was alert and responsive when we visited him in the hospital that afternoon. People are here on this planet such a brief span of time that we must avoid being like the innkeeper, too busy to stop and help others. Last week I had spoken at the funeral for the one-year-old younger brother of one of our BCA students. Since the family was poor, the infant was buried above-ground in a cement box at the public cemetery. As I spoke, I noticed some men poking a stick into another older cement box which had collapsed under their weight. Speaking with them later, I glanced into the exposed grave. As he poked at the bones, one man asked, “Do you think the spirit is still here?” Looking inside the shadows, I could see he was poking at the dry skull of what they determined looked like a 20-something year-old lady. After convincing him that when a soul and spirit are absent from the body, they are present with the Lord, I considered what we should do with those who cannot care for themselves during this Christmas season? Shall we poke fun at them with our comments, like that man had poked at that skull? Shall we ignore them? Or shall we pray for them as we did for Napoleon and watched Jesus transform him? While visiting Napoleon in the ICU at the hospital, Callem told me, “Dad can’t talk since he has tubes in his mouth. But I can tell that he wants me to ask you to let him grip your hand.” Amidst the wires and tubes and “blip-blipping” machines and hoses connected to Napoleon, I held his frail hand and was surprised to feel a firm, solid grip. This was the muscular grip of a hard-working farmer. This was the confident grip of a strong believer. This was the firm grip of a proud grandfather who, although his body may be suffering (and perhaps even dying), his hope is secure. “Come unto me,” Jesus said, “I will never cast you out.” Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!) Prayer Request: Please pray for the many Filipinos recuperating from recent Super-Typhoon Hagupit (locally known as Typhoon Ruby). Twenty-one Filipinos died so far from its wrath, many due to drowning. Praise God that unlike last year's major calamity from Haiyan, most residents evacuated earlier. Please pray also for our son PJ as he applies at potential colleges (in seven different states) for his freshman year in the 2015 fall term. His first choice of a major is “Pre-Med”. Praise: for 40 more “BFF” Christmas backpacks (for BCA students) paid for by the following friends: 5 from North Carolina, 10 from Saskatchewan (Canada), 7 from Alabama, 16 from New York and 2 from South Carolina. Praise God as well that four more large boxes arrived from awesome friends in the Western USA, filled with gifts for the BCA students this Christmas! Praise God too that a local ministry is scheduling a seminar at BCA on child trafficking to warn the students and their teachers and parents of the dangers in today’s society from evil pedophiles. Also praise God that Pivy, our sign language teacher from New York arrived safely this week even tough Typhoon Ruby is barrelling down upon the Philippines. She has already begun assisting our staff as they fill the backpacks we have purchased for hundreds of BCA kids’ Christmas. Praise God that Kaitlyn, our six-month American missionary, is returning safely to the USA. Please pray for her as she challenges churches and other friends with praying for the needs of the poor Filipino children of Davao. Praise God that as Elvie and I attended two different civic clubs this past week (one Christian and the other secular), both clubs had members who suggested ways in which the annual Christmas party be preceded by an outreach to help the poor. Also praise God that a fellow missionary this week has given over $1300 in unsolicited funds for the ongoing needs here at BCA. Upcoming Events: December/January:
January, 2015:
February
BCA has 375 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. BCA’S New Campus Fund: $85,741: BFF: Backpacks For Filipinos: Present need: $55 for materials to build a wall ladder in the BCA library storage loft: 4 angle bars @ $11 = $44, 2 pieces of 10 mm deformed iron bars @ $4 = $8, 1 kg welding rods = $3. |
| 11/27/2014 | Happy American Thanksgiving (11/27), 89th anniversary of “Grand Ole Opry’s” airing their first radio broadcast (11/28/1925) “Lord Jesus, thank you for this won-der-ful day…” Children’s Sunday is once a month at our church. Thus this Sunday most of those on stage were two-to-four feet tall. During the opening prayer, little Jenny stepped up to the stage, disappeared behind the pulpit, and then reappeared at the microphone as she stepped onto the little plastic chair behind the pulpit and led the prayer. A bit earlier (after the offering was taken by kids), Charlie had somehow missed it when the offering box was passed. So he walked up to the front of the church with a coin and dropped it through the slot on the top of the offering box. Seems that he had more than one coin in his hand for the offering, and every time he dropped a coin into the box, he dropped another one onto the floor. He would look down with a look of surprise at the floor, pick up the next coin and drop that one in too. It happened five times before he finally ran out of coins. Charlie must have wondered why his “magic coin” had finally stopped multiplying. As American Thanksgiving arrives, I remember Jenny’s prayer, “Lord Jesus, thank you for this won-der-ful day…” Every day with Jesus is truly sweeter than the day before. Although each day is filled with distracting physical pain, projects to complete and goals to revise, one of the best ways to focus on giving thanks back to God is by thanking Him for the awesome ways which He shines through His people. I looked at the stage and thanked God for Lucy, our school nurse who is also an interior decorator and a florist. Until eleven pm the night before she and her family had spent hours decorating the church stage with lights, Philippine-style “Christmas lantern stars”, colorfully-furrowed curtains, etc. On either end of the stage, taped to the wall were shiny ribbons shaped to look like Christmas trees. On them glittered angels, bells and stars. I thanked God for Lucy and her family. Just an hour earlier fourteen-year-old Darrell and her mom helped PJ teach Kids’ Sunday School. She used many of the techniques and materials which both Darrell and her mom had received and learned how to use the day before during the half-day CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship) city-wide Seminar/training session. I am thankful to God for Darrell and her mom. The week had been chock-full of meetings and seminars for me, one of which was for OCC (Operation Christmas Child/ Samaritan’s Purse) and their network to distribute Christmas shoeboxes this holiday season. I am thankful to God for the millions of children and families globally who are evangelizing the next generation through these gifts. Friday morning I led a community prayer meeting for DCL (Davao Christian Leadership Foundation) and three pastors led the music: Doug as song leader, Manny on harmonica and Callem played the piano. We chose many upbeat hymns. The musicians blended incredibly and Callem was all over the keys of the piano while Manny backed him up and Doug had us all sing parts, echo, etc. You have never heard “Onward, Christian Soldiers” until its been played ragtime-style! I am thankful to God for the hymn writers. As we count our blessings, as we name them one-by-one, we are kind of like little Charlie as every time we give thanks to God we turn around and God has blessed us with some new reason to give thanks to Him! Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!) Prayer Request: Please pray for our teachers and staff who will soon be loading-up many of the brand-new backpacks for the ten separate Christmas parties of the different groups of children involved in this BCA sponsorship program. Please pray for the families of the five Jewish leaders who were slaughtered in a Jerusalem synagogue by rogue Arabic terrorists this week. Also please pray that the terrorists will stop venting their wild and evil fury against Israelis, God’s chosen people (or against anyone else, for that matter). Please pray also for the Badjao Sea Gypsies, thousands of whom were displaced early this year when their squatter village, teetering on wooden stilts over the ocean, was ravaged by a fire which totally demolished their homes. The government will not allow them to return, as they plan to convert the area to a casino. Elvie and I are working with civic clubs to provide food for some of these refugees, and may be distributing used clothing to them also. PJ and Abby have also helped (through Faith International Academy) in raising awareness in the missionary community of the pressing need. Please also pray for Raymond, one of our first orphans at our boys’ home. He is getting older and wants to work on the streets of the city. He’s even willing to sing for food, although he gets fed very well in the orphanage. So he has run away twice, bringing one or two other boys with him. Most have returned, but we might have to let Raymond go, as he has become a bad influence on the other boys. Praise: for 2 more “BFF” Christmas backpacks (for BCA students) paid for by the following friends: 2 from New York. Praise God also for Rolee, a taxi driver I witnessed to recently. Elvie’s Honda is still not out of the repair shop due to its overhaul after being submerged in muddy water during last year’s devastating floods. So while Elvie was using my pickup truck to carry out errands for the school, I took a taxi to one of my community meetings downtown. Rolee is part if a cult group which believes that a person can get to heaven by just believing in God, and not by trusting in Jesus Christ’s death to pay for our sins. So I explained John 14:6 to him and reflected on how Abraham, David, Moses, Job and other Old Testament saints were looking forward to Jesus the Messiah’s coming. Praise God too that our first order for Gourmet Flavored Corn Coffee was sold here in Davao to an elderly pastor whose heart will not allow him to have caffeine, but he misses coffee. We designed 100 individual-serve packs of a brand new flavor: Sugar free cinnamon”. The labor was donated by volunteer mothers in our BCA school, as they know they are helping the orphan kids. I also was given permission to distribute hundreds of free samples of the flavored chocolates and flavored coffee to delegates in a series of Christian seminars which I attended this week. Praise God that our son PJ has been tasked to write two musicals: one for our church for Christmas, and the other for Faith International Academy for Easter. Praise God that Elvie, Abigail Kaitlyn and the others who drove many hours away on the dusty, rainy, rocky mountain roads of Kidapawan for the reunion of the family of Cidee (recently deceased cancer patient) have returned safely to Davao Praise God too for an American friend who gave the $16 requested last week for 64 used children’s books (at a quarter each) to be purchased for BCA’s growing library. Finally, Praise God that Ken, a local Christian businessman who is also a fellow triathlete and has been in many races with me (in Davao, Singapore, Hawaii, Camarines del Sur and Cebu) is arranging for me a meeting soon with his knee specialist to solve the swelling of my leg and painful decreasing of cartilage. Upcoming Events: BCA has 376 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. BCA’S New Campus Fund: $85,641: BFF: Backpacks For Filipinos: |
| 11/20/2014 | 91st Anniversary of when the three-signal traffic light was first patented (11/20/1923), 51st Anniversary of the date when 45th USA President John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, USA (11/22/63) “God is love” As Kaitlyn, our six-month American missionary visited the first grade students at BCA, she brought scissors and colored paper with her. To teach the meaning of 1 John 4:8, she had each child cut-out a little heart. Then, as each student brought his or her little heart to the front of the classroom, it was taped to a large outline of a heart. After the last little heart was added, the kids could see the way God’s big love is seen through the small part that each of us plays in interacting lovingly with others. Yet sometimes our love falls short. A few weeks ago, on Kaitlyn’s birthday (11/5) our dog Trixie had her second living puppy. Since the pup was not a female, we didn’t name him Kaitlyn, but instead named him Kaitlyn-O, or K-O for short. A few days ago, as Kaitlyn went to feed Trixie and her older pup Banjo, Trixie had eaten her own pup K-O! Near as I can figure, Banjo in his excitement had stepped on his little younger baby brother, and squashed him dead. Maybe Trixie ate the pup to discard the remains, as she had previously eaten the same pup’s “afterbirth” placenta. Then on Sunday, I was starting up the pickup truck and heard a squeal. Trixie was dead. I’d run over her as she had been napping under the vehicle. Of the three dogs, only hyperactive Banjo remained So we are sharing all of our pet-loving designated for Trixie and K-O, with him. Since Monday in the Philippines is half a day later than Monday in the USA, my sister in the USA called to tell me the miracle which happened in our home church in New York after the Sunday morning worship service. One member was challenged by last week’s email which mentioned the need for backpacks for our students’ Christmas gifts. Let’s reach our goal of 251 more backpacks!” Ellen said on her facebook account. After church, a friend came up to her with a ten dollar bill. “Ellen, I want to give a backpack to a Filipino child this Christmas!” Just then, another friend approached her. “Me too, Ellen!” Before the day was finished, she had 27 backpacks paid for! We have 376 students who will each experience the joy this Christmas of receiving a backpack filled with school supplies, toys, etc., because of you! Like with those little hearts that BCA’s first graders were providing to piece together the “Big Heart of God”, and even though we will make mistakes (like when I ran over the dog), We have reached out with loving care to do our small part to accomplish incredibly great things for others. Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!) Prayer Request: Please pray for the staff at BCA as they prepare for the very busy Christmas season. It is truly a harvest time for souls, as each of the 376 students are performing and also explaining the “Reason for the Season”. Approximately ten separate performances are planned between now and January (by different BCA school groups) in various locations throughout BCA’s areas of influence in Davao City. Praise: for 34 more “BFF” Christmas backpacks (for BCA students) paid for by the following friends: 2 from Pennsylvania and 32 from New York. Also praise God for a friend in Pennsylvania who received a $20 tip at work and used it to provide backpacks for BCA students this Christmas. Also praise God that the six large boxes which I had sent from New York after my mom’s August funeral have finally arrived! Inside a few of these boxes are stuffed animals and flip flops and used clothes donated as a project by my fourteen-year-old niece Elissa. Upcoming Events: BCA has 376 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. BCA’S New Campus Fund: $85,591: BFF: Backpacks For Filipinos: Present need: $16 for 64 used children’s books (on sale) at a quarter each. These will be included in BCA’s growing library of 20,000 volumes. Faith International Academy of Davao City Staff Needs for 2015-2016 School Year: Critical Needs:
Important Needs:
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| 11/13/2014 | 45th Anniversary of Apollo 12 Spaceship’s second manned mission to the surface of the moon, launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida (11/14/1969), 145th Anniversary of Opening of the Suez Canal in Egypt (11/17/1869), 151st Anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address “Four Score and Seven Years Ago…” (11/19/1963). “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body…” I was preaching from 1 Corinthians 15 at the funeral of 16-yr old Cidee. A good friend of our PJ and Abigail, Cidee finally won his three-year bout with cancer, as he left for Heaven. Just a few days earlier, we’d visited Cidee in the hospital’s hospice room, and we joyfully looked up Bible passage after Bible passage about heaven. It reminded me of when our family had been about to leave on our flight to Israel. We had prepared by looking up internet pictures of where to go and what to do upon our arrival. Last week Cidee promised to start a football team in heaven for me to join when I arrive, and he’ll even teach me how to play. That will be many, many years from now when I finally say goodbye to this planet. Though it be in the far distant future, it’ll be like just a day to Cidee, in “heavenly time”. As Cidee “went home” to heaven this past Monday (11/10), he likely celebrated with Jesus and the angels upon his “Arrival Day” in heaven. It was the very day after Abby and I had celebrated our own earthly birthdays (11/9). And a few days before that, BCA school celebrated its own Foundation Day (11/7). Hundreds of BCA students had sung during Foundation Day with their classmates and quoted Bible verses which they had memorized just for the occasion. After the nursery pupils sang “Love in Any Language”, and the Kindergarteners presented “Tell the World of His Love,” the faculty presented “We are The World, We are the Children”. Before the closing prayer, BCA students sang and used hand motions to Praise God also for the home going of Dorothy, the 94-yr-old organist from my home church in New York, where I grew up. Dorothy was a pillar of the church, and her mom was even present when the church was founded over a century ago! What an incredible, ironic blend of the here and the hereafter! Many birthdays here (on Earth) and many birthday “arrival days” there (in Heaven). Often, especially when BCA children sing praises to their God or when they excitedly play games together, we forget that there is a chasm of time between the two, for sometimes life itself seems to be the reflection of heaven as Jesus shines through the joy of His people! “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body…” I wonder, will other funerals start including “Happy Birthday” as part of their “home going” celebration programs? Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!) Prayer Request: Please pray for BCA’s rooftop garden. While our Alabama friends were visiting last week, they helped us to overhaul the agricultural section (separate from the animals) with boards separating the aisles from the raised sections of transplanted vegetable rows (corn, beans, peppers, tomatoes, etc.). As we dug, we noticed that the 10,000 worms we had purchased earlier in the year have pleasantly multiplied. Praise: for 8 more “BFF” Christmas backpacks (for BCA students) paid for by the following friends: 5 from Florida and 3 from New York. Praise God also for the two dozen church members who serenaded Abby and I at 3:30am on our birthday! Also praise God for over a hundred friends who sent birthday greetings via facebook. Praise God as well that as I was the guest speaker at Faith International Academy’s Middle School chapel this past week. Many were challenged from The Sermon of the Mount to start each day with a “Good Morning Sunshine” attitude. Many of the students at chapel made up appreciation cards for the Bible message and the songs I sang. Praise God that in the afternoon on our birthday this past Sunday (11/9), the Church Ministry Team (chair people of the church’s various men’s, women’s, youth, music, etc. auxiliaries), after our quarterly planning meeting, were treated to a festive birthday dinner at our place. Also praise God that for my birthday a friend in Vermont sent a French press for coffee, as well as some fragrant and flavorful hazelnut roast. Also Elvie and the kids gave me great books and also a small solar powered lamp for my office, which will store energy for use when we have our frequent power outages. And of course we played Abby’s new “Twister” game! Praise God that Elvie returned safely from the province of Iloilo where she and other board members of an enormous national missionary organization were determining minor revisions in the ministry’s policies for reaching the yet-unreached Spiritually-lost Filipinos throughout the country Praise God that a friend from New York gave a financial “end-of-year” gift to BCA. The gift is being used for the mandatory “Christmas Bonus” which the Philippines requires of every employer for his/her employees. Praise God also that PJ and Abby performed and participated in planning a very successful Annual International Day at Faith International Academy. Presentations, songs and dances were performed representing South America, USA, Korea, the Philippines and more. Abby was one of the leaders in a Texas-style line dance…complete with cowboy hat! Upcoming Events: 11/21: OCS (Operation Christmas Child) Thanksgiving Informative Planning Dinner January: BCA has 376 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. BCA’S New Campus Fund: $85,541: BFF: Backpacks For Filipinos: Present need: $265 for vehicle repairs: 5 litres of engine oil $31/ 7 litres of transmission fluid $44/ 10 fuses $23/ oil filter $8, air cleaner $5/two fuel filters $6// air cleaner $5/ gas tank cap $7/ battery $98// 2 suspension arms $38. |
| 11/6/2014 | Happy 17th Birthday, BLC! (11/9/98), Happy 14th Birthday, Abigail! (11/9/2000), Happy 53rd Birthday, Paul! (11/9/61), Veterans’ Day (11/11), CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship) world Day of Prayer (11/5), One-year anniversary of the worst typhoon in the history of the world, “Haiyan (Yolanda)” in the Philippines, where 7,000-10,000 Filipinos lost their lives in the winds, floods, tsunami and typhoon-born downed trees/poles and collapsed buildings. “Did you like the chocolate milk shake?” Dr. Joe and his wife Toni are two retired pharmacists who visited us last week for a series of ten medical screenings throughout many of our ministry points in Davao. Nearly 600 children (and many, many parents) were assisted. Some were serious (one girl had a heavily-soaked head bandage, which needed to be removed so that medicine could be applied. She had fallen from a motorcycle and gravel had entered many points on her forehead. Each time we would enter a ministry point (our church plants, or our orphanages or even some homes) we would set up our “treatment center”. First was the registration, where every child would be weighed and a medical data-index card would be filled-in. Next stop would be my drink station. I have contacted a ministry in New York which provided cases of “Alive!” chocolate drink mix. The stuff is extremely nutritious (made mostly from organic vegetables and mushrooms) with thousands of “Percentage Daily Requirements” of minerals, etc. It is totally safe for kids and great for these children who are used to a scanty diet of fish and rice for one or two meals a day. But the stuff does not taste very good. After my station, they had four more stops: 1) the gummy-vitamins station, then 2) the clinic (only for those who had severe cases), 3) the food and drink station, and then 4) the balloons and lollipops station. Dr. Toni ran the clinic with help from our BCA school nurse. As children approached Dr. Joe’s vitamin station, he’d collect their cups (they could not go past station two without drinking their whole cup of Alive! veggie drink). Then Joe would ask, “Did you like the chocolate shake?” Filipinos are very well-mannered, and rarely, if ever will say no. So the kids would, with grimaces on their faces, force out a smile and say “Uh-huh.” Then to Joe’s second question “Would you like another cup of it?” they would shockingly reply with a frantic shaking of the head no. Such was the case, right up until the tenth clinic on the last day. On that day, I had run out of the Starbucks “sample cups” (a friend in Western USA had mailed them to us a the month before), so I bought larger 6-ounce plastic cups. Since I was running low on the dozens of gallons of veggie drink, I watered it down to about 1/4th of the recommended powder. The kids loved it! They came back for seconds and thirds, and lined up for more. They filled empty plastic water bottles. They even ran their little fingers along the edges of the cups to get the last drop. Dr. Joe called over to me, “Uh, Paul…don’t get a swelled head from your new popularity!” Often we dislike the things that are best for us, like Bible reading prayer, and evangelism. However, eventually God convinces us to trust Him, and He will make our lives abundant. During the United Nations festival at BCA last Wednesday, I gave the Bible challenge from the Old Testament story of Naaman. He was an Aramean soldier who had captured an Israelite girl and made her his family’s household servant. Instead of rebelling, the Israelite girl helped her master when he contracted leprosy. She led him to the man of God who prayed for Naaman. Naaman was then healed after washing 7 times in the Jordan River. We are, like the Israelite servant girl, to look beyond our situations and see the big purpose for why God has put us here. Like that veggie drink, God’s plan for us may not seem enjoyable at the time, but as we faithfully serve Him, we and many others will be blessed. Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!) Prayer Request: Please pray for those many friends who have sent vitamins and medicine to us in the past, that will provide extra non-expired medicines which we can “short-term stockpile” for future much-needed medical screenings: Tylenol (adult and/or kids), Ambroxal (cough syrup), hydrocortisone cream, anti fungal cream, deworming medicine, vitamins (adult and/or children’s). We distributed 100 one-week supplies of adult vitamins to parents during the week of medical screenings. Please also pray for the continued good health for the 600 kids we assisted in the ten locations of Sunday: Samal Father’s House Boys’ Home (11 kids), Monday: Babak (81 kids, with two being sent to the hospital), Pinaplata (22 kids), Kaputian (111 kids, with two being sent to the hospital), Tuesday: Agdao Father’s House Girls’ Home (5 kids), Wednesday: Barner Christian Academy (after our three-hour United Nations’ children’s presentations) (98 kids), Friday: Matina (107 kids, with two being sent to the hospital) Bangkal (76 kids, with one being sent to the hospital with serious implications), Saturday: Panantongun (72 kids), Oceanview (55 kids, with one being sent to the hospital). Total: 585 kids, with eight being sent to the hospital. Please keep praying for our BCA school’s new property purchase. Out of over a dozen options, we’d finally settled on our perfect choice for the location, and as we approached the owner with our willingness to accept their offer, they doubled the price, throwing us back to square one in looking for the most suitable and affordable location for our new campus. Praise: for 44 more “BFF” Christmas backpacks (for BCA students) paid for by the following friends: Praise God as well that the local Kiwanis Club members “passed the hat” among it s members present during their Tuesday weekly noon meeting and gave $50 to buy lacking vitamins for our week-long medical outreaches. Praise God as well that the local Tim Tebow CURE Hospital in Davao (which is scheduled to open its doors next April, 2015) is now holding weekly Thursday free clinics for children suffering from leg, foot and other bone deformities. Praise God as well that our guests, the Kluthos, brought with them from the USA enough materials so they could guide the church youth group in making over a hundred five-color “witness bracelets” Sunday. This month the youth will be giving our these bracelets to Dabawenos on the streets of Davao, as explaining the Gospel to them using this effective tool. Praise God that we have a brand-new BCA student sponsor (a former missionary) from Pennsylvania. Praise God that, aside form the double birthday of Abby and I this Sunday (11/9), we celebrated four birthdays last week with early-morning haranas (serenades) between 3-5am. At one location the celebrant (my associate pastor Callem) was in a remote location, so we just stayed overnight from the night before. Upcoming Events: BCA has 376 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. BCA’S New Campus Fund: $85,541: BFF: Backpacks For Filipinos: |
| 10/23/2014 | United Nations Day (10/24), New Zealand Labour Day (10/26), 95th anniversary of passing of USA Alcohol Prohibition Act (10/28/1919), 497th anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther’s nailing 95 Theses on Wittenberg Door in Germany (10/31/1517), Daylighty Savings Time Ends (11/1), All Saints Day (11/1), 21st Annversary of passing of European Union (11/1/1993). “Roger, could you please bring chicken feathers to work this morning when you come to drive the BCA school bus?” No, replied our bus driver, as none of his poultry were yet ready to be butchered. But Elvie would not give up as she spoke over the phone. “We really need feathers to decorate the hair of some of our BCA students in foreign costumes for United Nations Day next week.” Then I made a suggestion, “Hey, why not get some feathers from one of Roger’s pet pigs?” But he reminded us that, “Pastor, pigs can’t fly!” to which I of course quipped, “Maybe they could have, if you hadn’t taken all their feathers!” Light heartedly, on Wednesday this past week Elvie also played a trick on her BCA staff. “Today we have an international visitor, and we will be taking a picture of him with the BCA students and faculty. Mr. Stanley has flown halfway around the world to be with us today.” In preparation for Mr. Stanley’s visit, our secretaries and parents helped to clean up and scrub unused areas of the campus. Finally the time came. The students were all in uniform and lined up in the BCA gym with their teachers. As I approached the microphone, in my hand was a large envelope. “Mr. Stanley is part of a legend of a boy who was flattened when a school blackboard fell on him. His classmates then folded him up and put him in this envelope so they could send him to us here in the Philippines!” I then pulled the folded Flat Stanley out of his mailing envelope and unfolded the large, life-sized colored picture to show the students. The staff and parents took lots of pictures of the group with Flat Stanley to send back with him in his means of transportation: that large envelope! Then on Saturday many from our church plants crossed the mile-wide Davao Gulf to attend our church’s 17th Anniversary/ Thanksgiving Day and baptismal service for 19 who were baptized. As calm waves washed up on the sandy shore, 23 of the children and staff from our two orphanages were sitting on blankets at the beach as our guest speaker shared his Bible challenge from the Old Testament. Occupied plastic chairs were shaded from the beach sun by coconut palm trees, and our orphan choir came up to the outdoor stage to sing solos, as well as to quote Bible verses which Pastor Callem had taught them over the past few months. I was drowsy from staying up til 3am baking over 30 dozen cookies for PJ’s Student Council refreshment stand at a volleyball tournament. But we were all rejoicing when 19 new believers professed their faith in Jesus Christ as they were immersed one-by-one in the salty ocean water. Pancelita, the young widow who had been pregnant when I buried her husband a few years ago, was one of those baptized. Her two-year old son watched from the shore along with his three older sisters and also the orphan girls that Pancelita cares for. Gathering the congregation back on the shore, while dripping wet I picked up a small white shell from the sand. “Many feel that you can hear the ocean in a seashell, even if you may be far from water. Why not pick up a shell and bring it home, to remind you of this very special day when God spoke to you?” As Elvie led the church people in sack races and other games, I took a much-needed nap in the car. But I woke up an hour later when a lollipop hit the roof of our pickup truck, for some of the candy which had been sent from American friends in a box this month was being tossed to the kids who raced to catch each precious piece. Just as the chicken feathers will decorate the hair of children during this week’s UN Day, likewise our attitude of thanksgiving decorates our church and life, as we show our gratitude to our Savior for the great things He has done in our families and private lives. Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!) Prayer Request: Please pray for These 19 newly-baptized believers in Jesus, that God’s Holy Spirit will speak with them regularly to guide them in how best to serve Him with the abilities He has given them. Praise: for Peter, a painter who is decorating the rear wall of BCA’s campus with colorful paintings of happy BCA students coming to school. Preciously only the front walls of the school had been decorated, and the rear walls were bare. BCA’S New Campus Fund: $84,691: BFF: Backpacks For Filipinos: If you’d like to join BCA’s 2014 Christmas focus for its 373 sponsored children this year, we are filling backpacks with school supplies, toys and food. Because we already do have some stock of stuffed animals and school supplies, each filled backpack will be only $10. So a class of 30 students’ backpacks would cost $300, and the entire project for 373 students will be $3,730. Total given so far: $770/ remaining: $2,960. Present need: $435 Library renovations and paint for school wall. |
| 10/16/2014 | National USA Boss’ Day (10/16), USA Columbus Day (10/13), Canadian Thanksgiving Day (10/13), Golden Anniversary of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize (10/14/64) “Father Abraham…had many sons…many sons had Father Abraham…” As PJ and Abby taught the Children’s Sunday School class this week, their small students energetically responded with the hand and body motions for their kids’ choruses. It is a true blessing to have a whole family involved actively in ministry. After a few songs, Abby had to leave PJ to give the Bible lesson on his own, as she joined the other young ladies for tambourine practice. They later performed during the church worship service. Today the children’s group was larger than usual, as we combined many of our church plants for “Pastors’ Appreciation Sunday.” It is appropriate timing, as October is internationally-recognized as “Clergy Appreciation Month”. The varied ministries of a pastor all reflect the steps of Jesus when He had walked the Earth in human form 2,000 years ago. Even as Jesus studied the Scriptures in-depth as a boy, growing in wisdom and stature in favor with both God and man, so PJ has studied diligently as we’d dropped him off Saturday morning to take again his SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) in preparation for college application-time. After dropping off PJ to take his exam, we headed on to the hospital to pray for one of BCA’s school bus drivers whose body has been swelling up due to rheumatism. Likewise, when Jesus was on the Earth He had visited (and prayed for) the sick. Before leaving the hospital, I also visited one of my fellow Ironman triathletes who had been confined in yet another room on the same floor, due to a leg injury. We are anxiously awaiting the return of our bus driver Roger, as his substitute driver has already in just his second day of driving, damaged the bumper of another vehicle while he was backing our BCA bus out of a parking space. Even as Jesus was present for the Special Jewish festivals of Passover, Rash Hashanah, etc., and also weddings and other gatherings, Elvie has attended community civic club gatherings and an “RRCY” (Regional Rehabilitation Center for Youth) detention home for juvenile criminals. Kaitlyn (our short-term American missionary friend) accompanied her. Jesus also had special teaching times with his friends the disciples. Our family too went to the “Left Behind” exciting Christian movie at a theatre with our family and friends. Present at the move theater were Muslims and others who were curious as to the Biblical doctrines regarding the time when Jesus will return to the Earth. In so many ways the “Father Abraham” children’s chorus reflects the life of a pastor or missionary, who is busy with many varied ministries, quite like a dad, or like a shepherd, looking after the needs of his flock. In the evening as we headed home from the movie, we stopped at a traffic signal. A disheveled, preteen scraggly-haired boy knocked on the window of our pickup truck. With one of his small hands over his shoulder grasping a long piece of cardboard scrounged from somebody’s garbage, we knew that the street-boy carried it to be his sleeping matt keep the cold cement sidewalk from chilling his skin during sleep. Rolling down my window, I handed the boy the expected peso (two cents). “Would you like a place to stay? Food, clothes, schooling and friends?” No, he preferred a life of begging and slumbering along the dirt city streets. Like a father, I see that while this world is filled with needy people, not all will avail of the opportunities which we are offering. Yet we will keep asking, keep helping, keep teaching, so that all who will respond will benefit from the loving touch that God’s people provide to a lost and dying world. Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!) Prayer Request: Please pray for Ian, the boy in our orphanage who burned himself quite badly a few months ago. This week (after doctor, surgery and medical bills of over $3,000) he will finally be released. Praise: that after church on Sunday, about three dozen from the congregation gathered at our parsonage for lunch, and then treated us to an afternoon of fun and fellowship. Then in the evening they treated our family to an all-you-can-eat appreciation dinner downtown. What a delightful group of new believers these people are: excited to serve their Jesus by serving others. Praise God that we have six new sponsors this week, bringing our total sponsored students up to 374! Yay God! Praise God as well that we have sponsors for 12 more backpacks for Christmas gifts for our BCA students: 2 from South Carolina and ten from Virginia. Present need: Required parts for our seven school buses: $388/ new cloth banner for Barner Christian Academy: $25. October-December- Our American friend Kaitlyn (from the USA) is in Davao to lead in Bible training for our church youth group and also for the girls and house parent in our Father’s House street -girls’ home, and also to teach occasional modular lessons at Barner Christian Academy. October- Missions Emphasis Month at Faith Fellowship Church (Paul-Senior Pastor) 10/18- Faith Fellowship Church celebrates its annual Thanksgiving service, on nearby Samal Island at our Father’s House Boys’ Home. 10/20-24- BCA Semester Break 10/25-Pharmacist friends visit BCA and our orphanages from Alabama 12/8- Pivy, our sign language teacher from New York visits BCA 12/15- My brother Phil arrives from New York with his family to teach and train in a puppetry workshop. January-Flo, the retired Kentucky sponsor of a BCA student who has been leading her church Women’s group in making Gospel tracts out of used greeting cards (for our evangelistic community youth outreaches) will be fulfilling her dream to visit BCA for a few weeks. BCA has 374 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. BCA’S New Campus Fund: $84,641: 3-Acre Property Need: $56,000 Raised-PTL! $56,000 Remaining: $0 Administration/Temporary Classrooms/Multipurpose Building: Need: $37,000 Raised: $28,641 Remaining: $8,359 BFF: Backpacks For Filipinos: f you’d like to join BCA’s 2014 Christmas focus for its 374 sponsored children this year, we are filling backpacks with school supplies, toys and food. Because we already do have some stock of stuffed animals and school supplies, each filled backpack will be only $10. So a class of 30 students’ backpacks would cost $300, and the entire project for 374 students will be $3,740. Total given so far: $770/ remaining: $2,970. |
| 10/9/2014 | Starting (Oct 3) at sundown, we enter into the holiest day of the Hebrew year, Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement)// Australian Labor Day (10/6)// World Animal Day (10/4) “We are Paradise-bound!” Rev. Hermosa, an 82-yr-old National Filipino Evangelist, was teaching Sunday School at our church while a member of the youth group videotaped the message. The evangelist will broadcast both his and my videotaped sermons during his daily television programs, with an anticipated audience of six million viewers across Eastern Mindanao. After Rev. Hermosa shared about the believer’s promise of heaven, I brought the Bible message from Acts 10, about Peter’s command from God to reach both Jews and Gentiles with the good news of salvation from sin. “Every human being has a soul,” we are commanded, “and we must ask God which lost souls are within our reach to proclaim the good news of eternal life through Christ’s blood.” Just a few days previous, I had asked Kaitlyn, our six-month missionary from the USA, to ask her disciple (Pancelita) about the level of her spirituality. Pancelita is the house parent in our girls’ orphanage. A few days each week, Kaitlyn sits down with Pancelita (and with an interpreter), training that young widow in how to study the Bible. This past week Pancelita rededicated her life to Jesus. Suddenly a deep joy came over this mother of three small girls and a toddler boy. That same day Elvie and I had had a meeting with representatives from the DSWD (Department Of Social Welfare and Development: i.e.: Social Services). It was determined that we were not allowed to retain a houseparent who was related to any of the girls in the home. Now we need to decide: do we change the nature of the girls’ home to a “Home for Single Moms” or do we ask Pancelita and her small children to leave? Should Pancelita’s young family depart, they will become homeless. This young widow’s struggling family will be broken-up as the four small kids will be taken by different relatives who will consider Pancelita incapable of caring for her own children. As the Sunday worship service continued, Elvie and I were sitting in the front row and watched as a cockroach crawled into the slot of the offering box. Oooh, what a surprise the treasurer will get when she opens that! Elvie whispered into my ear, “We gave a portion from what we had, but that insect gave everything!” As we consider how best to solve the Social Services dilemma, it seems obvious: Pancelita has committed herself to God’s work. How could we possibly cut her and her children off from this exciting ministry? By making this decision, we also have limited ourselves to not being able to bring in any additional girls into the home without a mother accompanying them. However, our boys’ home will continue to bring in kids. Maybe we will consider making the boys’ home coed. Thanks for your prayers in this regard. Our orphanage ministry’s core values are listed at the end of this message. Please pray for wisdom in how we determine the best means to carry out these prayerfully-designed aims. As Rev. Hermosa challenged, “We are Paradise-bound.” However, we are also “Earth-bound”. Bound FOR Heaven, yet bound TO Earth. Revival fires will leap from soul to soul as we lead the world to Jesus. And we will accomplish this by lovingly caring for one needy soul at a time. Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!) Prayer Request: Please pray for the Dep Ed (Department of Education) decision whether to allow our BCA main campus to include the next two higher grades (second and third grade). Their surprise annual inspection of our campus was this past week, and they seemed pleased with our recent renovations. Please also pray for CD, a cancer patient whose doctor informed him before his sixteenth birthday party last week that his next birthday will likely be in eternity. CD is a very dear friend of PJ and Abby. We shared a Bible message during his birthday party. Please pray for one of the families in our church and school. The mom scrubs by hand the laundry of some soldiers in a nearby military camp. Her husband is unemployed. And now her family of eight (including a 3-yr-old toddler) is being evicted from the one-room shack that they have lived in for the past eight years. Praise: That our short-term missionary visitors from Alabama (Joe and Toni) will be bringing 300 Gospel tracts, a hot water bottle, and medication with them when they come to BCA at the end of October. They also will bring materials to teach our church youth group how to make Gospel bracelets for evangelism. Praise God also that Kaitlyn, our short-term missionary from Utah has been busy with not only teaching in our orphanages, church and school, but has been spending hours each day alleviating the school staff as she assists in office work, plus has volunteered in the library at Faith International Academy (the missionary school that PJ and Abby attend) Plus praise God that Elvie’s one-year term as president of the local Kiwanis Club came to an end during the annual induction ceremony this past Saturday evening. Sixty-Nine members were present as Elvie gave her inspirational valedictory speech, reviewing the many outreaches we have performed this past twelve months: calamity relief, food and toothbrush distribution to beggar children, etc. Praise God that our school treasurer Minmin celebrated her sixtieth birthday this past week. I shared a message about the reverence of Matthew the tax collector during the celebration service for Minmin, in the presence of over fifty friends, guests and neighbors. Praise God that during this week’s DCL (Davao Christian Leadership Foundation) biweekly meeting this past Friday, after my Bible message about the Apostle Paul’s conversion, a ninety-four year old charter member of the foundation was so challenged that he expounded for an additional ten minutes on the challenge of “embracing the offense of the cross”. Praise God that this week during our family devotions, while halfway through with reading the New Testament, at the same time we are finishing up the Old Testament and then are starting again at the beginning with Genesis. Praise God that for prayer meeting this week, our nine church plants had nearly twenty different weekly times for prayer to meet the demands of a variety of work schedules. BCA has 368 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. Starting (Oct 3) at sundown, we enter into the holiest day of the Hebrew year, Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement)// Australian Labor Day (10/6)// World Animal Day (10/4) “We are Paradise-bound!” Rev. Hermosa, an 82-yr-old National Filipino Evangelist, was teaching Sunday School at our church while a member of the youth group videotaped the message. The evangelist will broadcast both his and my videotaped sermons during his daily television programs, with an anticipated audience of six million viewers across Eastern Mindanao. After Rev. Hermosa shared about the believer’s promise of heaven, I brought the Bible message from Acts 10, about Peter’s command from God to reach both Jews and Gentiles with the good news of salvation from sin. “Every human being has a soul,” we are commanded, “and we must ask God which lost souls are within our reach to proclaim the good news of eternal life through Christ’s blood.” Just a few days previous, I had asked Kaitlyn, our six-month missionary from the USA, to ask her disciple (Pancelita) about the level of her spirituality. Pancelita is the house parent in our girls’ orphanage. A few days each week, Kaitlyn sits down with Pancelita (and with an interpreter), training that young widow in how to study the Bible. This past week Pancelita rededicated her life to Jesus. Suddenly a deep joy came over this mother of three small girls and a toddler boy. That same day Elvie and I had had a meeting with representatives from the DSWD (Department Of Social Welfare and Development: i.e.: Social Services). It was determined that we were not allowed to retain a houseparent who was related to any of the girls in the home. Now we need to decide: do we change the nature of the girls’ home to a “Home for Single Moms” or do we ask Pancelita and her small children to leave? Should Pancelita’s young family depart, they will become homeless. This young widow’s struggling family will be broken-up as the four small kids will be taken by different relatives who will consider Pancelita incapable of caring for her own children. As the Sunday worship service continued, Elvie and I were sitting in the front row and watched as a cockroach crawled into the slot of the offering box. Oooh, what a surprise the treasurer will get when she opens that! Elvie whispered into my ear, “We gave a portion from what we had, but that insect gave everything!” As we consider how best to solve the Social Services dilemma, it seems obvious: Pancelita has committed herself to God’s work. How could we possibly cut her and her children off from this exciting ministry? By making this decision, we also have limited ourselves to not being able to bring in any additional girls into the home without a mother accompanying them. However, our boys’ home will continue to bring in kids. Maybe we will consider making the boys’ home coed. Thanks for your prayers in this regard. Our orphanage ministry’s core values are listed at the end of this message. Please pray for wisdom in how we determine the best means to carry out these prayerfully-designed aims. As Rev. Hermosa challenged, “We are Paradise-bound.” However, we are also “Earth-bound”. Bound FOR Heaven, yet bound TO Earth. Revival fires will leap from soul to soul as we lead the world to Jesus. And we will accomplish this by lovingly caring for one needy soul at a time. Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! The FATHER’S HOUSE MISSION: Father’s House for Street Children and Other Children At-Risk Inc. exists primarily to provide a safe Christian haven for street children and other children at-risk. VISION: Father’s House for Street Children and Other Children At-Risk Inc strives to be a caring, discipling, evangelizing community which nurtures at-risk children in a family-type environment. CORE VALUE: To make each child in our care to become a mature and responsible citizen of the world spiritually, mentally, physically and socially before he or she turns eighteen years old. GOALS& OBJECTIVES: Father’s House for Street Children and Other Children At-Risk Inc. will help Davao City’s street children and other children at-risk to become well established in the mainstream community, giving them hope for a healthy and stable future.
Present need: $667 for fuel for our seven BCA buses for the month of October. |
| 10/2/2014 | Gold Star Mother's Day and also Parents of Fallen Military Sons and Daughters Day (9/28), World Rabies Day (9/28), World Heart Day (9/29), Yom Kippur (10/3) “Please allow me to introduce you to my new friend…” Since our son PJ is Chapel Coordinator for the Faith International Academy High School, he asked me to give the weekly Bible message this past Friday. Speaking on prayer (from Matthew 6), I began the Bible time by opening a large envelope which had arrived at Barner Christian Academy in the mail. “Here is my new friend, Flat Stanley!” The high schoolers laughed as I pulled out a life-sized hand-colored paper image of a boy. The legend explains that Stanley had been in class in Middletown, Ohio when the blackboard on the wall fell on him and made him two dimensional. Now his classmates mail him all over the world so others can take pictures and send those pictures along with Flat Stanley back to his classmates in the USA. “In the life of a Christian, you have a choice. Will you be very shallow in your life and personality like two-dimensional Flat Stanley, or will you have depth? I then pulled out a very large manila envelope with x-rays from the recent cat-scan (MRI) of my injured knee. “If I was like Flat Stanley, I’d have no depth. But now it takes 100 pictures just to get a full overall impression of what makes my knee function!” This week different people have revealed themselves as either shallow or deep in their daily lifestyles. This past Thursday was the eve of our BCA nurse Lucy’s 22nd wedding anniversary, and she visited Ian in the hospital. Ian is recuperating from burns which he had received a month ago. A marginally-dim-witted relative of Ian’s started blaming BCA for the boy’s pain, while actually BCA has spent nearly a thousand dollars in medicine and doctor bills for Ian’s recovery. As Lucy did some research, she found that the complainant had been selling Ian’s medications to other patients and pocketing the funds. By stealing Ian’s much-needed burn medication, Ian’s relative is revealing herself as a two-dimensional “Flat Stanley”. On Friday night PJ and Abby brought friends from school over to our place for a slumber party. We’d been baking all kinds of American-type foods like pumpkin pie, macaroni and cheese, cheesecake and cookies before they arrived. As they were playing hide-and-seek later in the various classrooms, one of the kids got his leg caught in the bars of the fire escape. After I pried the bar open to free his leg, Seth was entirely good natured about the whole thing, though it happened three stories in the sky above the dirty water sewage canal, which was gurgling way below in the darkness. Seth’s positive attitude even while in pain an uncertainty revealed that he was not a shallow “Flat Stanley.” On Saturday Kaitlyn (our short-term American missionary friend) traveled up to the mountains of Tamayun with others from church for a weekend of ministering at a rural church among some destitute farmers. In that area there noisy round-the-clock crowing roosters and barking dogs. Also thee are many mosquitoes, large insects, and often no running water nor electricity, toilet paper or mattresses. Kaitlyn showed depth in her attitude of loving to try out new things to serve her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Definitely not a two-dimensional Flat Stanley. Finally, on Sunday morning I heard kids roughhousing in one of the classrooms during Sunday School time. So I borrowed a few large envelopes of curriculum from the newly-renovated BCA library and handed them to PJ and Abigail after breakfast. “Kids, the children’s Sunday School teacher is late. Could you please take over his class today?” Without hesitation our two awesome kids replied, “Sure, Dad.” They headed off to the class, starting the children with “Jesus Loves Me” (complete with hand motions) and “Father Abraham.” Teachers-on-demand. Yup, that qualifies as a non-Flat Stanley. Flat Stanley will have his picture taken this week with our BCA students and their school’s newly-made banner. Then he will head down to the post office to make his trans-oceanic return voyage back to Middletown, Ohio. Although Flat Stanley will never be more than two-dimensional, the lessons he has taught so many has brought a new depth to their lives. As we live by the guidelines of scripture with a lifetime of prayer, Bible study, worship and witness, we also begin to see a new and deeper personality being developed in our lives. Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!) Prayer Request: Please pray the upcoming “surprise” drop-in inspection of our BCA school campus (anytime in October) by the DepEd (Department of Education), that they will be thrilled with the campus and especially with the new and impressive renovations of our school library. Praise: That the pain killers and glucosomine (which is rebuilding the cartilage in my knee) have noticeably improved my damaged left knee’s functioning, and I no longer need to use the crutches nor the knee brace. However I still can’t do any heavy lifting and have to walk slowly up and down steps. Praise – that our six-month short-term missionary college student Kaitlyn gave the Bible messages this week at both evening prayer meeting and Wednesday morning devotions at BCA with the students’ parents. Praise- That last week’s Adult Sunday school lesson on humility brought a very interesting quote: Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.” Praise- that during our recent quarterly CMT (Church Ministry Team) meeting, the church’s three elders agreed to work together in designing and leading in the practices for our annual Christmas musical. Praise- for five new sponsors this week for needy BCA students! Present Need: Two of BCA’s decade-and-half-old air conditioners have finally “given up the ghost” and traveled to a/c heaven. In short, they need to be replaced. Each 1.5 hp appliance costs $637. So to replace the two of them, we’ll need to raise $1,274. In the meantime, all the classrooms do have wall fans. However the top floor does get somewhat sultry even with fans operating. Upcoming Events:
January-Flo, the retired Kentucky sponsor of a BCA student who has been leading her church Women’s group in making Gospel tracts out of used greeting cards (for our evangelistic community youth outreaches) will be fulfilling her dream to visit BCA for a few weeks. BCA has 368 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. BCA’S New Campus Fund: $84,541: If you’d like to join BCA’s 2014 Christmas focus for its 366 sponsored children this year, we are filling backpacks with school supplies, toys and food. Because we already do have some stock of stuffed animals and school supplies, each filled backpack will be only $10. So a class of 30 students’ backpacks would cost $300, and the entire project for 366 students will be $3,660. Praise God for your faithful prayers! |
| 9/25/2014 | Rosh Hashanah (1& 2 Tishrei) Sundown 9/24-26, 9/24/2014: Jewish New Year 5775 (from the time of Moses). 2014 is the Shmita year, the sabbatical year, the seventh in a seven-year cycle during which the Torah mandates that the Land of Israel shall have a rest.//Peace Day: 9/21/14// First Day of Autumn: 9/22/14 “You created me. You formed me in my mother’s womb.” During the Bible challenge at church on Sunday morning, the congregation was reminded from Psalm 139 that God is in control of our lives, from even before we took our very first breaths. At the end of the worship service, a young couple brought their 1-yr-old daughter Generose up to the stage to be dedicated to Jesus. The father had been one of our students at BCA many years ago. “Do you love Jesus?” I asked this poor young couple. “Oh yes, we do.” “Do you promise to bring your child to church on Sundays and also to teach her how to read and study her Bible daily?” They responded again, “Yes, we will!” The Philippines being a tropical country, grows many insects. Along with those bothersome bugs come lizards, spiders, frogs and snakes, who all feast on the never-ending bug supply. We have a short-term American missionary friend (Kaitlyn) working with this children’s ministry in Davao for six months. While she was in the CR (comfort room/bathroom) last week, she saw an enormous black spider crawling down the plastic shower curtain, and rushed out of the CR very fast. Since I was a few rooms away and on crutches from my recent knee injury, I used the crutch to kill and squash the monster, then washed it down the shower drain. Yet the picture Kaitlyn took of the spider made that eight-legged demon a celebrity on Kaitlyn’s facebook page. As our spider friend was making her way to spider heaven, I was using all my fingers to squish her hundreds of spider babies which were scurrying up and down the cement walls of the CR. Abby flushed the almost-empty egg sac down the toilet. Not everyone faces five-inch-long spiders in their daily lives. However, for both missionaries and non-missionaries, our Heavenly Father looks out for us. Even from before we are born, God is preparing each and every one of us for the awesome world in which He is placing us. When we dedicate ourselves daily to serving Jesus, even as Generose’s parents were dedicating their tiny baby to her dear Savior, all sorts of spiders, snakes, stock exchange crashes, ISIS beheadings, and even death itself cannot thwart God’s perfect plan for us. Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!) Prayer Request: Please pray for the many new poor families in our church and school this year (2014-2015), that the Holy Spirit guides and leads them to respond in their weekly one-on-one Bible studies and grow in their faith. Praise: That my (Paul’s) blood test was good. All levels (including uric acid, cholesterol, PSA and other guides) were within normal levels. Also the MRI (catscan) revealed no torn ligaments in my knee, although there does appear to be breakdown in the stuff that keeps my knee parts from rubbing together. Please pray that the doctors will find the cause-of and cure-for the painful swelling in my left knee, leg and foot. Also praise God that Elvie and Kaitlyn made it back to Davao from their conference in Boracay, Philippines safely. Due to Typhoon Mario, their flight was redirected to another city, requiring another overnight stay in an airport. Praise God as well that Ian, the burn victim in our boys’ orphanage, is progressively healing. Since his medicine is expensive ($200 per week) please pray that he heal completely and will not require surgically-administered skin grafts. Praise God that at our church board meeting this week we decided to open each worship service with a traditional hymn, transcribed in both Filipino and English on the PowerPoint Screen. Thank the Lord that Elvie’s overnight prayer meeting was well attended and many lifted up their praises and requests to God during that time of divine communion with the Creator. Praise God too, for Willie and Karen, brand new American sponsors of a BCA student. Upcoming Events: September-December- Our American friend Kaitlyn (from the USA) is in Davao to lead in Bible training for our church youth group and also for the girls and house parent in our Father’s House street -girls’ home, and also to teach occasional modular lessons at Barner Christian Academy.
October- Missions Emphasis Month at Faith Fellowship Church (Paul-Senior Pastor)
BCA has 363 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. BCA’S New Campus Fund: $84,491: Praise God for your faithful prayers! |
| 9/18/2014 | “See you tomorrow!” One of the most enjoyable times of the day at Barner Christina Academy is when the students are getting on the buses to go home. After many hours in the classroom, the kids load onto our seven buses and greet each other with cheerful “Good byes” and “See you tomorrow!” The joy welling up in the hearts of these precious kids is there because of you and others who are praying for and/or sponsoring the education of students at BCA. The school receives other blessing too, as a community whose members care for each other. Elvie celebrated her 47th birthday this Tuesday. At 4am that morning, many from BCA’s staff joined the sixteen trainees from CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship) who have been studying and lodging in BCA’s extra classrooms for two weeks. At 4am they all sang “harana” together with Elvie and gave well-wishes and prayers for her birthday. Later, a dozen parents brought the spaghetti and chicken which we’d prepared for the kids’ “merienda” birthday snack. In the evening until ten pm over a hundred guests, pastors and other friends stopped by to eat, chat, sing and congratulate Elvie on her birthday. The next day Elvie flew with our short-term missionary friend Kaitlyn to a conference in another part of the country. When I gave the Bible challenge at the CEF closing/awarding ceremonies, the pain in my swollen left knee progressively intensified. As my leg ballooned larger and larger, the Filipino words “aray” (painful) and “sakit” (sick) were often on my lips. “Don’t eat fat, and keep away from all legume beans” suggested the BCA cook. “Hmmm,” I thought, “no string beans, coffee beans, cacao beans, human beings, or Mercedez Beenz!” “You have ree-ooma (arthritis) really bad,” I was warned. Yet I was scheduled to preach at our jungle church the next Sunday. Saturday night, I got hardly any sleep. Pain shot up and down my left leg as the evening wore on. In the morning a friend came by to make hot ginger tea as a partial cure for my ree-ooma. BCA’s nurse Lucy came by just before I was to leave to preach. Yay! She had found the clinic’s crutches. It took about ten minutes to make my way slowly and painfully down the 41 stairs and then climb into our pickup truck. Praise God that the truck is an automatic shift, as I couldn’t imagine trying to press down the clutch pedal with my injured left leg! It had rained very hard the night before, which meant lots of mud in the jungle. Yet when I arrived at the church, small children ran out to greet me and to carry my Bible and preaching notes. Two of this church’s core members are very ill. Two years ago Carmen had had a stroke, and last February Annann had suffered a severe motorcycle accident which had almost taken her life. As I saw the pain reflected in their faces, I also felt pain within. “God understands your pain,” I grimaced. “He commands us to serve Him especially when it is difficult to do so.” As I leaned on my crutch while standing behind the skinny white cocowood pulpit, I realized that I would have to abbreviate my message since my strength was giving way to exhaustion. My final challenge rang in their ears, “If serving the Lord seems too difficult for you, choose. When the going gets tough, whom will you serve? Alcohol? Sexsin? Gossip? Slander? Homosexuality? Murder? Drugs? But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. When we are weak, that is when He shines the strongest through us.” Although the long drive home was painful, the joy of brothers and sisters in Jesus brought overriding happiness. Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!) Prayer Request: Please pray for our upcoming televised worship service, October 5. I will be preaching and a national television evangelist will be teaching Sunday School. The event will coincide with our church’s annual “Pastor Appreciation Day.” Praise: That Abigail is restarting our church’s puppet team in preparation for my brother Phil’s family’s puppetry workshop which they’ll be leading upon their visit at Christmastime. The previous puppet team was discontinued due to a BCA teacher’s energetic Sunday children’s program. Abby and PJ plan to resume the team on Saturday afternoons. Praise God also that a local computer store was able to load Microsoft Word on my new laptop computer for free. Actually they found it already on my computer, however it had not yet been activated. Upcoming Events: 9/21- CMT (Church Ministry Team) planning session for our church planting network here at Faith Fellowship Church and its successive daughter churches, which Elvie and I started in 1997. BCA has 362 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. BCA’S New Campus Fund: $84,441: If you’d like to join BCA’s 2014 Christmas focus for its 366 sponsored children this year, we are filling backpacks with school supplies, toys and food. Because we already do have some stock of stuffed animals and school supplies, each filled backpack will be only $10. So a class of 30 students’ backpacks would cost $300, and the entire project for 366 students will be $3,660. Praise God for your faithful prayers! |
| 9/11/2014 | September 11, 2014 Elvie’s 47th Birthday (9/9), Patriot Day (9/11), Grandparents’ Day (9/7), Mexican Independence Day (9/16) “These are our core values...” As chairman of the board of trustees for the new Faith International Academy of Davao City (FIA), where PJ and Abby are enrolled, I (Paul) called for an overnight board retreat this week to tackle the project of identifying the“core” of the “core-poration”. Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!) Prayer Request: Please pray for Kaitlyn, our short term missionary who is with us for six months. She has recently developed a skin rash on her face and it is uncomfortable in this moist, hot, tropically-humid weather. Praise: That Our FIA board retreat accomplished more than we’d set out to do. We came up with our purpose statement, vision statement and core values, as well as the final five school logo nominations (out of the original thirty) upon which the student body will vote, and also reviewed a few choices for the prospective new Board Policy Manual. |
| 9/4/2014 | September 4, 2014 Labor Day, USA (9/1/14), 1666 Fire of London (9/2/1666), 1886 Last Apache American Indian Warrior Geronimo Surrenders (9/4/1886), Australian/New Zealand Father’s Day (9/7), New Amsterdam is renamed New York (9/8/1664) Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!) Upcoming Events: Present Need: $62 for repairs of BCA’s “Bus F”: cylinder head gasket $14, one gallon Castrol engine oil $23, oil filter $7, one set oil seal $18. |
| 8/21/2014 | August 21, 2014 BCA’s Philippine National Culture Day Festival (8/29) “I should tell that lady about Jesus.” While flying to the USA for my mom’s funeral this week, I had many long layovers, terminal transfers and connecting flights during the three-day trip. When deplaning in Tokyo Japan, those in front of me suddenly cried “Oooh, ahh!” Sure enough, some local celebration coincidentally coincided with the exact time of our arrival, and we were serenaded by fireworks. Finally flying from California to New Jersey, I felt a strong urge to share the Gospel of Jesus with the lady sitting next to me. But she was playing a computer game on her table computer, so I figured, “It’s a five hour flight, so I’ll wait till she is done.” Two hours later, the lady was still playing her game. A couple of times I tried to open a conversation, but her answers were monosyllabic. So I left her alone and read a book. I finished the book, and the lady was still non-communicative. So I pulled out another book. The overhead light died! In my lifetime I must have flown in over a hundred airplanes and this was the very first time that the overhead “reading-light” died. So I tried talking with the tablet lady. No go. After the stewardess gave me some coffee, I pulled out my laptop computer and as soon as I turned it on, it died! Come on now! I can’t sleep since I’ve got caffeine in me, and I have no light to read and no laptop. Ok, noncommunicative or not, I am talking to this lady. “Ma’am?” I asked. She turned up from her game and answered me in Russian…okay, since I don’t know Russian, maybe I can’t share my faith with this woman. After she returned to her game, I asked God, “What’s going on here? You break the reading light. You break my computer, and you put me next to a Russian who can’t speak English. Who do I share the Gospel with? Just then the lady across the aisle from me brings her two small children to the bathroom in the back of the plane. “Huh. How could I be so blind, God? I was looking the wrong direction. After they returned to their seats and the kids fell asleep again, I asked the woman if she brings her kids to Sunday School. “I’m Jewish.” She replied. “That is sooo cool!” I explained. “My family just came back from Israel!” For the next half hour I was able to share about our trip, the Gaza Rebellion, God’s favor on the Jewish People, and the outreach work we did at Jerusalem food pantries and nursing home. It was great! God makes no mistakes. Please pray for Elvie as she travels to Hong Kong Monday (8/1), to attend an international conference which is paid for by the conference host. It will be followed up by a conference in Boracay (Philippines) for Kiwanis. I will be flying back to the Philippines Tuesday (8/26) and arriving in Davao two days later. Please also pray that my leg will heal. I pulled a tendon behind the knee while at an archeological dig in Gezer, Israel. The incident has caused a painful limp. Praise God that our jungle church’s ninth anniversary celebrations Sunday went well, even during my absence. Two of the mothers (Ann-Ann and Carmen) in core families at that church are deathly ill, but were still able to attend. Praise God as well that the family agreed to have all memorials for Mom’s earthly departure to go toward BCA. Dad said library renovations are a fine memorial for her. Praise God that Mom’s memorial service went well. Hundreds attended and my brothers and sister were all able to share, with messages of salvation, care and memories, through preaching, singing and prayer. Praise God for both our kids (PJ and Abby) being voted into Student Council by their classmates! A first! BCA has 366 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. |
| 8/18/2014 | “Wow, this home is so tiny!” we thought, as our family glanced around the one-room, seven member dirt-floored scrap-wood household of a family we were visiting in the Philippines. I looked on the walls to see their one decoration: a procession of pictures of the kids: year after year of their five kids’ annual diplomas representing their achievements at Barner Christian Academy. BCA’S New Campus Fund: $84,291: |
| 8/14/2014 | August 14, 2014 Canadian Discovery Day (8/18), Philippine Davao Kadayawan Annual Harvest Festival (8/17) BCA’S New Campus Fund: $84,191: |
| 8/7/2014 | August 7, 2014 Tisha B’ Av Jewish day of concentrated fasting/prayer (8/4-5) Also, when approached by a fanatical, yet mis-informed Muslim in “Old City” Jerusalem that "Jews hate Jesus" I responded, "Are you kidding? Didn't you even know that Jesus is Jewish!! Jews love Jesus. It is the people who say they are following Jesus but do not live up to their Christian claims that Jews dislike.” While driving through the Negev Desert, we were able to stop and see the remains of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were once in a lush green valley, but then due to the evils of homosexuality, the plain was disintegrated by God’s wrath of fire and brimstone and now has become the lowest, most infertile place on the globe. The cave where Lot hid near Zoar, as well as the salt statue of Lot’s wife still remain at the Southern end of the Dead Sea. Even though it is thousands of years since God’s wrath was poured out on Sodom, salt residue continues to coat cliff sides surrounding the Southern Dead Sea Valley. These salt-residue coatings are a constant reminder of God’s wrath which will be poured out on any nation which continues to treat homosexuality as anything less than an insulting anathema against our Creator. While floating on my back in the Dead Sea, other tourists took pictures of me, since I was reading my Bible. The passage was appropriate, as it focused on the Old Testament historical account of Balaam and his cursing of the nation which was attempting to fight against God’s people Israel. While visiting remains of the mountain fortress of Masada, our family avoided climbing the cliff-side by taking the cable car to the top of the deserted mountain. A few hours later (after viewing the impressive archeological remains) we were headed back down. A Nigerian tour group of twenty or so accompanied us in the cable car. I thought, “Africans are typically good singers. I wonder if they’d catch the hint if I started singing some Christian songs.” Sure enough, they started right in as the cable car swayed back and forth to the beat of Negro Gospel spirituals and all in the car sang along as the driver handed the microphone to one of the lady singers in her African dress. Even when we arrived at the bottom of the cliff, somebody said, “Let's go up and do it again!” and instead led many in the procession of singers passing through the souvenir shop...hallelujah! Plus, even though it took three hours’ driving time in the small town of Nazareth trying to find the youth hostel in which we were to stay, we did finally discover it, and were treated well (though over charged) during our overnight stay. The pagan manager even informed us where local Christian churches could be found. PJ convinced a non-Christian girl that she and her boyfriend, who were staying at the same hostel we were, to attend church, and told her what she should wear (not short shorts) at church. Upcoming Events: August-December- Our American friend Kaitlyn (from the USA) is in Davao to lead in Bible training for the girls and house parent in our Father’s House street -girls’ home. BCA’S New Campus Fund: $84,141: |
| 7/31/2014 | “What is that silver thing shooting up into the sky? Wow, it is an antiballistic missile!” BCA’S New Campus Fund: $84,091: |
| 7/24/2014 | “Baruch haba, bashem, Adonai…” While volunteering three days for Bridges for Peace’s food pantry and nursing home here in Jerusalem, our family planted flowers, swept and raked the sidewalks and lawns, and greeted the elderly residents. BCA’S New Campus Fund: $84,041: |
| 7/17/2014 | “What’s with all the skulls?” It seems that everywhere we look, kids are displaying skulls: on motorcycle helmets, on t-shirts, and even cartoon skulls with eye lashes and pink ribbons! What is it with today’s modern infatuation with death? While visiting Guam to renew Elvie’s USA visa, I stopped at Kmart to get a shirt. And there, I saw a non-skull shirt: it had an artistic cross on the front and a big one on the back as well! Perfect alternative to today’s skull-friendly, death-oriented culture! We also visited a Christian bookstore and I picked up another wordless Gospel Bracelet. Now, to be armed and ready for travel, I only lacked one thing: extra prayer covering. While visiting a church in Guam, during the “open-mic prayer session” I requested prayer for our travels, since next week’s Israel driving will require staying at a different hostel each evening. Somehow a computer glitch had us staying at hostels in three different cities on the same evening, and none of these residences would revise the prepaid reservation dates! So the church prayed… And praise God, a few days later after a few dozen emails and phone calls (and a few friends of ours on-location who followed-up) the problem was fixed! Now that we had out prayer covering, we could also fly again… So, while flying from Guam, PJ noticed there was a non-Barner to sitting next to him in the window seat. That was his cue to switch seats with me. Introducing myself and out family to my new seatmate Alex, I then shared with him the Gospel via the colors on the wordless bracelet. I tied one on his wrist, and he was very pleased. However, the cold I’d caught in Guam caused my presentation of the Gospel to be brief, since I kept coughing. In this case I couldn’t share my full testimony…I’d just have to let other tools “tell the message.” Alex assured me when he said that “My wife and I were wondering why the airlines assigned us seats so far apart on this flight…now I know…so I could meet you and hear this precious story of Christ’s salvation! I can’t wait to explain the Gospel with my wife, using this bracelet!” After landing at the airport, Alex headed out with his bags and noticed my “cross” shirt. “Perfect!” responded Alex. “Jesus is not just in your heart, but emblazoned on your life as well!” Thank you Lord, for this divine appointment with Alex…6 miles up in the sky, at 600 miles per hour…not too fast for the Holy Spirit and angels to catch up to a searching soul! Please also pray for our family’s Outreach/Inreach ministry month of travels in July: 7/9-12 Guam/Manila Also please pray for the rental car company we used in Guam to refund the funds they overcharged us ($39) for the car we drove this past week in Guam. Please pray too for Alex, with whom I shared the Gospel on the plane from Guam to Manila, that others will come across his path to share as well, and that he share with his wife and family. Praise: Praise God that our schools, churches and orphanages back in Davao have emailed us that things have gone smoothly, during this past week while we were out of the country. Upcoming Events: BCA has 364 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. |
| 7/17/2014 | July 10, 2014 USA Happy 18th Wedding Anniversary, Paul and Elvie! (7/6/1996), 68th Philippine-American Friendship Day (7/4/1946) BCA’S New Campus Fund: $83,941: |
| 6/19/2014 | USA First Day of Summer (6/21), Canadian Jean Baptiste Day (6/24) “That man just bit the head off that live chicken with his teeth!” I couldn't believe my eyes. During the special tribal dance two small Bagobo boys and their dad from Elvie’s Guingas tribe performed in their red and blue sequined colorful costumes and beaded bandanas, the centuries-old native festival dance. The speaker for this combined annual outdoor worship service looked on as hundreds gathered under trees to avoid direct contact with the hot and bright tropical sunlight. Elvie had joined various choirs which performed, and after the performance everyone would feast on the food they’d brought, while the children made their way to the oceanfront beach to swim. But first the two boys acted out a “Tribal War Dance.” The two each grasped long, thin bamboo poles in their hands and reenacted a battle, with first one being overcome, and then the other. After which time, to the beat of prerecorded “kalingtong” gongs, drums, bamboo jew’s-harp (although the staticky sound-system did not function smoothly), the boys made peace and began using their war implements for poking holes into the soil and planting rice in the planting/ harvest-festival portion of the dance. Next, to appease the plant/animal animistic gods and thank them for a bountiful harvest in the new time of peace, the father captured a live chicken and as it flapped its wings vigorously, he wrapped his own mouth around the animal’s head and bit it off, spitting it onto the ground. The two boys then majestically waved their arms like the wings of the famous Philippine eagle as they soared and climbed onto the standing shoulders and waist of the father, as a “human sculpture” of the head of the grand eagle himself. As the three colorful performers exited the large open-air outdoor basketball court (picking up the dead chicken’s body, head and loose feathers as they left), a pastor stepped up to the microphone to explain what everyone had just seen. “While this tribal ceremony is as ancient as the Bagobo tribe itself, the new generation of believers in Jesus Christ are able to use this as a tool to witness to Obo Manobo, Tagabawa and Matigsalug tribal peoples, sharing how the dead chicken reflects the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus’ blood for us on the cross. Just as the new peace between tribes began immediately with planting seeds of new life, even so your conversion is important from the first day you received Jesus as your Savior.” This transference from an animistic rite to a symbol of Christ’s death for us is ingenious. Praise God for raising creative Christian sociologists to determine ways to honor their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through the means of original tribal dances. Some who had come were unbelievers who had been invited by friends. At the altar call, many came forward to repent of their sins. Aside from the tribal dance, 180 new believers were baptized at the beach that day, and all joined together as thousands took communion. Elvie and I had sat with a few dozen other church dignitaries; we were surrounded by 3,000 believers from nearly a hundred Davao churches. During this past week’s BCA orientation I also reflected on Biblical truths to make those truths relevant to the parents who were present from our hundreds of BCA families, for this new school year which has just begun. “In the second chapter of Luke, we read of how Joseph and Mary raised Jesus, along with their growing brood of children (the half-siblings of Jesus).” The parents listened with rapt attention as Luke 2: 51,52 revealed three important focuses for parents to raise their children: #1: godly, #2: healthy, #3: intelligent. Fortunately, my message was brief enough that it didn’t require any extraordinary means to retain the audience’s attention…like biting the head off a chicken… Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!) Also, please pray for our orphanage administrator Callem who is interviewing the local magistrates (Kagawads and Counsilors) of tribal mountain areas for permission to release young orphaned homeless boys and girls from their remote locations and bring them into one of our two Barner orphanages. Please pray for Maegen, a local Filipina college student who plans to sell locally-roasted and packaged corn coffee to both pay for her own college and also to subsidize a portion of the expenses for feeding our two dozen orphan children. Praise: Praise God that our Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) team successfully trained teachers in Pinaplata area of Samal Island this week, and plans are underway to return to Kaputian Samal to train many of the pastors who are affiliated with the BCA ministry. Also praise God that, de to the financial gifts many have donated, we were able to purchase paint which our BCA staff used to beautify our classrooms’ interior and exterior, as well as the front and rear gates of the school, and a pastel-trim multicolored wooden picket fence. Upcoming Events:
BCA has 364 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. 3-Acre Property Need: $56,000 Raised-PTL! $56,000 Remaining:$0 Present Need: $273 for BCA’s repairs on “Bus L”: maintenance-free battery N470l $163/ voltage regulator 24 volt $17/ 2 battery terminals $3, 2 oil filters $22/ 2 gal engine oil @ $24 = $48/ fuel filter $8/ one box shoe tack $2. NOTE: Items included under this Diary’s “Present Need” paragraph are not included in the operational costs of the BCA sponsorship program, and therefore come out of the Barner Ministry’s general fund. As God provides special gifts to recover these expenditures (which have already been purchased), BCA is able to refocus these finances in other needed areas on the institution’s financial “to do” list. |
| 6/12/2014 | USA Flag Day (6/14/1777), Father’s Day (6/15), Philippine Independence Day (6/12), Araw Ng Metro Davao Celebration (6/12) “God is not a monkey!” Our Sunday School teacher was Jairus, the Christian father of 3 BCA students. Jairus and his wife became Christians six years ago after we shared with them about Jesus when they had enrolled their oldest daughter in this free Christian school. Since then their increasingly insatiable thirst for Bible knowledge has been quenched by direct weekly one-to-one training by our BCA discipleship staff. Jairus and Jenny often surprise us with fresh insights that we hadn’t previously considered as their daily Christian walk with their Redeemer Jesus intensifies. “Just look at Genesis 1:27. God created man in His own Image. Evolution is false, for only a monkey could create a monkey in his own image!” Our God is an Awesome God. He is not a monkey. He is Almighty Creator, and we can glorify Him as such. After PJ and Abby sang “Our God is an Awesome God” during Talent Night at Faith Academy, they were called on to also sing the same song last week during the local Kiwanis Club’s 47th Anniversary. Our kids, students and staff love Jesus so very much and respect our Almighty Creator so that as PJ brought his guitar to the stage on Sunday morning and he and Abby sang their “Awesome God” duet, the congregation cheered and clapped. As BCA started its classes this week for the new 2014-20125 school year, these hundreds of students, many who have never before heard the Gospel message, will learn that our God is not a monkey. He is Awesome. Our God is an Awesome God. Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! Please also pray for a first grade teacher for Faith International Academy (FIA). This grade is to be one of the largest in the institution for this next school year, and somewhere out there is a god’s perfect choice for this crucial position. FIA’s new school year begins August 5. Thank you so very much for those who prayed for the first Faith International Academy (FIA) board meeting this week in which I officiated as Board Chairman. Not only did the meeting run very smoothly and on-schedule, but on the very day of the meeting, the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released our new incorporation papers! This first FIA Board of Trustees is excellent. I couldn’t ask for a more efficient board of eleven adult professionals to chair. Praise God that the BCA campus was chosen to both host the October CEF meeting, but also to house the upcoming 2-week-long training conference with 20 trainees. Praise God as well that many of the BCA staff accompanied Elvie to her little dilapidated cottage on nearby Samal Island to demolish it and rebuild it. It looks like we are about 80% certain that the best options for the large new BCA campus will be on Samal Island, perhaps not too far from Elvie’s small cottage. Davao Officials have assured us that within the next decade a bridge will span the mile-wide salt water bay separating Samal from the mainland of Davao. Praise God that there were many new visitors present in church on Sunday when I dedicated a baby boy who was recently born to a single mom. Praise God as well that the following special financial gifts arrived recently: $150 from a friend in Kentucky to help feed the children in our two orphanages; FIVE new sponsors of BCA students (from New York, Missouri and Kentucky); $50 from a friend in North Carolina for library roof repair, renovation and expansion; $65 from friends in New York for BCA’s Jericho Feeding program and Emergency Medical Fund, and finally, $1,000 “emergency funds” for our family’s upcoming outreach to Israel. Yay, God! Praise God that a joyful young girl in Maryland tithed her allowance from the year to assist BCA in achieving a new benchmark in its goals for the finances necessary to begin construction on the new campus as soon as the title is signed over and blueprints are approved by city hall. Praise God that once again, both PJ and Abby received almost straight A’s on their report cards. BCA has 364 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. Present Need: $296 for “BCA Bus N” bus repair: general spare parts and top overhaul. |
| 6/5/2014 | USA Pentecost Sunday (6/8) “Abby, should I speak on “Musicians in the Bible,” with selected passages about King David, Miriam, etc., or should I share from one particular Psalm, outlining a section of it each day during the week?” When the Band Director at Faith International Academy asked me (Paul) to give the morning Bible devotions during this past week’s annual Community-wide Orchestra Camp, I asked our own two kids for their advice. “The Barners, after all, make up the entire French Horn section!” reminded our director (Mr. Becker). While PJ played drums and percussion, Abby and I exclusively played the “first” and “second” horn parts, complete with solos. Of course, since my eyesight is failing, my music was “blown up” so I could see the half notes, quarter notes and eighths. “Dad,” suggested Abigail, “Why don’t you take one section and really research it. The musicians would like that.” So for about eleven hours I researched Hebrew translations and English commentaries, cross referencing Psalm 98. “This is a coronation hymn,” I told the one hundred musicians, staff and visitors during practice. “Yet the coming king was not King David nor an other Earthly magistrate. This is the coronation hymn for Jesus Himself, the coming Messiah!” Over the next few days we researched this incredible masterpiece of scripture, as the “New Song” of Salvation is accompanied by singing and choreography of animals, plants, mountains and bodies of water. All creation joins in as they welcome their Almighty Creator. Abigail was correct in her assumption that the students would prefer to analyze one passage. And yet more than just the students were blessed. As the week of practices culminated in Friday afternoon’s Grand Concert, Mr. Becker opened with…Psalm 98! Also, the three hours preceding the concert, Elve and I were processing the final paperwork for transfer of Social Workers for our two orphanages, and the Attorney read from…Psalm 98. The previous afternoon the choir directress (Mrs. Hulstrom) , whose family works aggressively with tribal people, asked for my notes, so that she could make them into a PowerPoint Presentation to challenge these mountain farmers and often illiterate remote tribes that they too are important in worship of our Master Redeemer. On the final morning of my devotions, I reminded the students, “The concert is fast approaching. We are expecting about 250 to attend. The Performing Arts Center will be packed. Suppose the conductor/composer (Dr. Garcia), who has flown halfway around the world to train you, raises his baton to cue your solo and your instrument is out of tune? Violinists, are your strings tight? Brass, have you practiced? In the same light, Jesus is coming…very soon. Tune your life. Repent of any sins you may have difficulty with. Let’s get ready and play our very, very best. After all, how would you like to be outshined my a pebble, a dog or even a puddle? Let’s play our very best for the Master…every single day. Your last note here will be followed by your first note in heaven! Make that last note memorably sweet.” Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! Please also pray that the rain holds off long enough for the new paint on the walls of our classrooms to dry. Praise: Praise God that our youth group once again distributed hundreds of Gospel bracelets at the park, and many spectators were curious about the plan of salvation. Praise God that Elvie was invited this week to share her testimony and a Bible challenge with the families of BCA kids in a squatter area (named Oceanview) on the one-year anniversary of the new church’s involvement with the BCA sponsorship program. Praise God too that a friend in Arizona, USA will be sending her French Horn musical scores to Abby and I, since she no longer owns her instrument. Praise God that this week I noticed, in checking our tickets for July that the schedule for the small car I reserved from Tel Aviv is off by one day, so I can now change the reservation. It would have been difficult if our rental was considered a no-show and we’d have no transportation in Israel. Also praise God that upon my first experiment making roasted corn chocolate, I learned to not use molasses, since it has a strong aftertaste. Praise God too that PJ and Abby will be singing a duet at the local Davao City Kiwanis Club’s 47th anniversary this week. Upcoming Events: BCA has 359 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. |
| 5/29/2014 | USA Shevuot (6/4) “Thank you for the twenty new families!” Pastor Jeremiah on nearby Samal Island had started his church planting work last year, but there was still only a handful of people in the area he was working, even though the work had been started 19 years previous by other church planters who had no success in getting the hardened local population interested in attending church. However last year Elvie approached Pastor Jeremiah, who had been frustrated by the lack of spiritual growth in the area. “Pastor,” Elvie challenged, “Would you be willing to work together with Barner Christian Academy? If you provide Christian Education, government-approved scholastics and spiritual guidance for these thirty children and their families, then your church will grow!” That was a year ago. This week fifteen men, women and children from our own church, along with many others from various churches within a thirty-mile radius came to Pastor Jeremiah’s church to start construction on their new building! The Saturday work day began with these 45 workers, alongside Pastor Jeremiah and some from his new congregation, praying, singing and studying the Bible together. Then they unloaded their hammers, saws, nails and lumber to start building. By the end of the day the skeleton of their new building was completed. Pastor Jeremiah will be challenging the congregation to strap tarps over the structure to keep sun and rain out for their times of worship. Next month our workers will return to add more secure walls and roofing. How excited the people are now, for they now have a place for Bible Study and prayer training even during those long dry spiritual days between Sunday and Wednesdays’ already-scheduled worship times! Pastor Jeremiah approached our BCA team as all the volunteer workers were packing up to leave. “God is truly a miracle-working God! Last year, and for the past 19 years before that, this tiny church was only a “remnant” worshipping in a leaky, unstable structure. Yet now, look at what God has accomplished! Thank you! Thank you!” Praise God that the Old Testament passage “and a little child shall lead them…” is so true, for the families who have enrolled their children in BCA’s education program are also finding Jesus as their children bring them to church to hear the Gospel! Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! Praise: That after our church’s youth group returned from last week’s Spiritual retreat, they were so very excited to practice evangelistic outreaches that they each gave testimonies in church Sunday morning, and then they also took the afternoon to distribute over 200 Gospel tracts/Wordless Gospel Books and Gospel witness bracelets in a nearby shopping mall. Also praise God that this week I had the privilege of leading three days of the morning devotionals (from Psalm 98) to over 100 young musicians and staff at Faith International Academy’s annual orchestra camp. Praise God as well that the director of the camp was willing to enlarge some of the musical scores so that I could see it with my poor eyesight, and play my French horn in the orchestra side-by-side with our daughter Abigail, who also plays the horn. Also praise God that upon my recent visit to a local shopping mall to pick up molds for making chocolate candies; I met a couple who specializes in forming chocolate for distribution. They gave me many pointers on how to use a double-broiler for melting the candy for shaping. We plan to subsidize a portion of our orphanage ministry by selling the chocolates (mixed with organic, locally-produced toasted corn coffee and shredded coconut) to local chocolate lovers. Hopefully, the chocolate sales, though minimal, will provide enough income to keep our twenty orphans fed. Praise God as well that Elvie was able to find local supplies of cow manure to collect and feed to our ten thousand African worms, to provide vermiculture fertilizer for our rooftop garden. She and Abigail also collected sacks of rotten banana trucks for the worms’ voracious appetites. Praise God that this past Sunday was Children’s Sunday at church, and dozens of kids from this ministry sang and read Scripture in front of the congregation before and after the Bible message. Little 6-yr-old Apec sang a solo, “The Lord Make His Glory Seen in the Mountains” and the children’s choir sang, “Lord, I Lift Your Name on High.” Also enormous praises to God that, even though PJ was sick when taking the SAT placement exam last month, and even though he scored low on the essay test, he still received a whopping 2040 out of 2400 overall. Son, you are incredible! Upcoming Events: BCA has 359 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. Present need: $171 for “Bus L” repair and upkeep: wedge bulb 24w blb 10 pcs @ $1 = $10, wedge bulb 24w small 5 pcs @ $1 = $5, wedge bulb socket 3 pcs @ $2 = $6, steel tubewith fitting $3, high/low socket 2 pieces @ $2 = $4, Bosch relay 24 volts 2 pieces @ $7 = $14, Bosch relay socket 2 pieces @ $2 = $4, flasher relay 24 volts $22, flasher relay socket $2, auto wire #14 1xx one roll $14, 3 rolls electrical tape #42667 @ $1 = $3, stop light switch $7, silicon gasket $3, 2 pieces clearance lights LED @ $5 = $10, clearance Lam Scrum $13, Galleo amp $12/ accelerator cable $12/flasher relay 24v $12/radiator cap $5/ headlight sealed beam round type 6024 $10. |
| 5/22/2014 | USA Memorial Day Observed (5/26) “He will receive the crown of life that God has promised.” During the second day of our 3-day annual BCA teachers/staff retreat, I challenged 16 of our employees from James 1:11-16, to daily keep-up their personal Bile studies, so they will live a victorious Christian life. “The crown you receive as your reward,” I reminded them, as they sat around in a circle at the rural mountain resort, “is not just in eternity to come, but begins right here, right now during your life.” You have to hand it to our staff. They are hard workers. After the school year ended in March, they had just one week to get their grades in before we started a week of Vacation Bible School. Nearly 400 kids were on campus learning about Jesus each day of VBS. Many of these children had never before been to BCA. Then back-to-back with our VBS, our staff was once again busy with 5 weeks of Summer School. “You now have a 2-week break” I reminded our teachers at the retreat. “Refresh yourself with a habit of deep daily Bible study. You will not be sorry when classes begin again the second week of June.” Even when not on campus, our staff has been faithfully living-out the testimony of their personal relationships with Jesus Christ. On the eight-hour road trip to the neighboring mountain province of Bukidnon, our 2 BCA vehicles were flanked by tribal villages and mist-shrouded mountain peaks. Before arriving at the rice-terraced plateaus of Buda and Valencia, we stopped for gas and for lunch. Beggar children ran up to our buses to sell fried banana chips, as Elvie shared with them in their native dialects how we house homeless children in our orphanages and also educate for free those who are very poor. “Why do you do it,” asked a small, dirty barefoot-calloused girl, “if they can’t pay you?” Elvie answered, as a teenager on horseback trotted by laden with sacks of vegetables which he was bringing to a roadside market. “Because we love Jesus, and Jesus loves all children!” At lunch, many tribal and marginally-foreign religions were represented by the native garb and head shawls worn by fellow customers who had also come to eat. “Ben our bus driver will pray for the meal,” Elvie began. As we all bowed our heads in reverence, Ben prayed for all of those we had met so far on this trip: Catholics, Protestants, Muslims and Tribal animists, that they might come to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. No matter what religion a person follows, John 14:6 says that every human being has to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ in order to get to heaven. The next morning during our staff Bible study we noticed joggers as they passed us. While we sang catchy Christian songs worshipping Jesus our Redeemer, the joggers joined in by clapping in time to our songs, matching the runners’ cadence. We all stayed in one large dorm room with eight double-decker bunk beds. As we sat out front on the veranda, those next door whose cigarette smoke had interrupted our previous evening’s festivities came out to peek over the wall as I shared from the Word of God. I guess their hearts were struck, for whenever I made eye contact their way, I was greeted not with grimaces, but by glowing smiles. “Jesus has promised a victorious life full of deep meaning and direction. None of us are sinless. But our sins are covered by the cleansing blood of Jesus.” And now they know the precious Gospel message: tribal mountain children, animistic travelers and our neighboring partiers. “Blessed is the man,” they now know, “…who loves God.” Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! Praise: That our crippled boy Harry has healed enough from his February accident that he was brought back to our boys’ orphanage a few days ago. He had been recuperating under our family’s care for three months. Also praise God that our short-term missionary friend Kaitlyn from Utah is arriving in three weeks to train Pancelita (our girls’ orphanage house parent) and the residents in Bible knowledge. Plus, praise God that Elvie and I have interviewed and accepted a new member of our BCA staff, a piano teacher named Nimfa, who has recently returned from a ministry in Japan. Praise God that this week I finished reading the Bible from cover-to-cover my sixtieth time (so far during my lifetime). Praise God too that this week I was elected (by an overwhelming margin) as volunteer Chairman of the board of the newly- incorporated Faith International Academy of Davao City, the school where our kids PJ and Abby attend. Also praise God that we were finally able to purchase over ten thousand African worms (nearly fifty pounds) to provide vermiculture fertilizer for our rooftop garden. Finally, praise God that when one of our BCA buses broke down on the eight-hour trip back from our teachers’ retreat, some truck drivers stopped to assist, and were able to help us get the vehicle strong enough to limp back to Davao so it could be properly worked on. The mountain roads had been so bumpy that a large rock had done major damage to the bus’s underpinnings. It was loudly banging for the next few hours, but made it back to BCA late in the evening, in one piece. Praise God as well for the successful series of seminars recently hosted on our BCA campus for our teachers and staff, entitled: BCA has 359 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. |
| 5/15/2014 | Armed Forces’ Day (5/17), Canadian Victoria Day (5/19), American Red Cross’ 133rd Birthday (5/21/1881) Three white roses… to say “I Love you, Mommy.” Six year old Apec brought a small bouquet of flowers to give to his mom during our church’s annual Mother’s Day commemoration. But Apec’s mom Inday was not present for the ceremony. She had volunteered to lead our remote jungle church’s early-morning worship service, and was positive that they would be finished in ample time for her to get back for our main worship service. However, the rural church had been slow in starting, getting the villagers gathered from their huts into the centralized meeting place, singing, praying, studying Scriptures and having a small fellowship “merienda” snack afterward. By the time she finished and returned to our main Faith Fellowship church, the worship service had ended. We had tried our hardest to extend our worship time so that Apec’s mom could be presented with her flowers from Apec. Apec’s sister and dad sang a duet while Apec patiently sat in the front row with his flowers on his lap. PJ and Abby sang another duet, and I even sang a solo, to Elvie. The moms all came up to the stage to be prayed over and to receive hugs from their spouses and children. I gave Elvie a card and chocolates which I had picked up while in the USA last week, and of course accompanied them with a small bouquet of flowers. A few other moms couldn't make it either. One was out sick with a fever. Another had died just a month previous, and yet another young lady in the church was not able to have children. But a motherless child (one of our two dozen street children, visiting from our two orphanages) took her hand and coaxingly tugged her up to the stage to present to her a makeshift card as her surrogate mom. Finally since it was getting quite late, we could wait no longer for Apec’s mom. As the service was about to end, I stood at the pulpit and shared, “You may have noticed a little boy in the front row with tears in his eyes as he sits on his daddy’s lap. His mom cannot be here this morning. Yet doesn’t Apec’s mom show to us yet one more aspect of what moms do for their kids? “They sacrifice…sometimes thanklessly so. “We do not always know how to express our appreciation to them. We sometimes are misunderstood as we attempt to make them feel appreciated. Yet a loving parent, whether others notice them publicly or not, will continue, day-in and day-out, to do whatever is necessary to provide for the needs of their kids.” After the last “Amen” of the benediction was sung, after the last chair was stacked and the final fallen rose petal was swept out the door of our now-empty church, Apec’s mom came breathlessly through the door. Inday gracefully reached down her hand to her six-year-old boy and walked him ceremoniously up to the now-empty stage. There, before the noiseless cheering and the muffled applause of two hundred invisible hands in the empty room, Apec embraced his mom and handed her his three white roses. Nobody needed to see (although some of us were peeking around the corner), as Inday wiped her son’s tears and he reached up to wipe hers. This precious, faithfully patient six year old boy whispered, “Three white roses, Mom. It means ‘I love you…” Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! Praise: That Seigh, the Social Worker for our two orphanages who had allowed his license to expire, has agreed to resign his post and Callem (the orphanages’ administrator) is working together with Elvie (the orphanage president) to choose a replacement from the growing list of qualified applicants. Also praise God that Harry, the small street boy whose foot was severely crippled by a motorcycle accident three months ago is responding miraculously to your prayers, and walking without crutches. Although he still needs daily dressing of his bandages, and hops around a lot, our BCA nurse Lucy may release him back into our boys’ home before the new school year resumes next month. Also praise God that two large boxes arrived this week filled with delightful surprises (canned food, stuffed animals, use clothes, etc.) from wonderful friends in the eastern and western portions of the USA. Also praise God that our kids PJ and Abby did excellent in their school performances these past two weeks. Abby was in a band concert, and PJ was in a school play. On Saturday night PJ played a bank robber, and on Sunday morning at church (youth Sunday) he was scripture reader! Our 2-yr-old dog Trixie, whose mom Jana was killed in the severely devastating 2013 flooding, just gave birth to a little puppy of her own. I read that Kimberly did great in her walkathon for her local Utah Pregnancy Care Center a few days ago. Upcoming Events: BCA has 359 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. Present need: $609 for ongoing BCA Library roof/ ceiling/ shelves carpentry project (labor and materials) three cans paint, five kg nails, three tubes epoxy, common nails 2 kg @ $2= $4, ordinary plywood 5mm x 4 x 8 20 pieces @ $9 = $180. |
| 5/8/2014 | USA V-E Day (5/8/1945), Happy Mothers’ Day! (5/11) “Can you sponsor me in a walkathon?” asked the little girl. At first I couldn’t understand the friendly Downs’ Syndrome girl as she approached me for walkathon sponsorship in Pregnancy Care Center’s “Walk For Life” after the Utah church I visited. “Talk? Wok?” When I finally understood that she was requesting help for her “walk,” I sat down at a table in the lobby and filled out her form, handing her a $20 bill. Yet I guess God had wanted my hard-earned $20 to go for the needs of kids in the Philippines, for ten short minutes later, as I stood behind a table which contained brochures about our ministry in the Philippines, a boy about eight years old approached me with a $20 bill in his hand. “Sir, I found this $20 bill in the parking lot, and decided God wanted me to give it to you for the poor little children in the Philippines!” So that money will now go toward food to help feed our 500 BCA kids during Summer School. Wow, you can never out-give God. Once we try to give to Him, He is already giving right back to us. A week ago my brother invited me to attend a Sunday evening worship service, and when I arrived, they requested me to take half the service to share about the Philippines. Even when we give God our time, He gives it right back to us! During a Wednesday evening prayer meeting I also was given the privilege of sharing about the many churches, orphanages, and school that God has started through us in the Philippines. A few days later a friend showed me around her garage, to see the used items she wanted to send to the Philippines to help our ministry. Since I arrived in the USA in mid-April, I had been searching Salvation Army Stores, Walmarts, Music Stores, Radio Shacks, Goodwill stores and other places to see if I could find a VCR video player, since ours was destroyed in the recent flood. When I was just about to leave my friend’s garage, she lifted up a small box, and there underneath was a VHS video player! It was as if angels were singing the Hallelujah Chorus as an aura appeared (my exaggeration, of course) around the player! The day I was to leave the USA, a very dear retired couple out west took me out to eat at a steakhouse. I ordered medium steak, but the waitress serving said the cook made a mistake and cooked it well done. So she let me eat the entire meal, and gave me an additional one for free! Boy, was I full as I boarded that next airplane! Then, on two of the many flights of my four-day trip back from the USA to the Philippines, God knew I needed to stretch and rest, so He provided an empty seat next to me, so that I was able to stretch easier. On four other flights, my seat partners (Faith, Amy, Ernie, Junjun and Jim) were Filipina, Filipino, Mormon, and Catholic and were thrilled at what God is doing in the Philippines through our family. What a delight! God will never be out-done. He is truly the very best. Every day with this wonderful Jesus is sweeter than the day before. Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! Please pray: (as you stay on your knees, we’ll stay on our feet!) Praise: That Elvie was able to get to her flight on time to reach Davao to accompany PJ to fly to Cebu and take the SAT exam. Also praise God that I was able to successfully make all my connections during my four-day journey back to the Philippines. In order to get the cheapest tickets, I had to sleep in quite a few airports around the globe. While the actual flying time was 26 hours, the layover time (in six airports) was 29 hours, making the entire trip of 55 hours cover portions of four days, from Monday to Thursday. Praise God too that a friend in the USA purchased a brand-new “graphic calculator” for PJ’s advanced math classes in high school. The device was over $80. Also praise God that I did not have to buy any food on the trip, since friends had given me Slim Jim beef sticks, beef jerky, crackers and Nestle Crunch bars which I snacked on half way around the world (in addition to free airplane food). Praise God as well that Faith Academy this week successfully has incorporated itself as its own unique corporation (Faith International Academy) this week, after over thirty years of being under the tutelage of Faith Academy Manila (Faith Inc.). I am one of the original ten incorporators of the new entity. Upcoming Events:
BCA has 359 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. 3-Acre Property
Administration/Temporary Classrooms/Multipurpose Building:
Present need: (for online giving: www.christianaid.org CODE: 801-BLC (518) 772-2359/ Philippine cell phone: 63 (947) 329-0441 www.barner.org |
| 5/1/2014 | USA National Day of Prayer (5/1), National Day of Prayer (5/1), Cinco De Mayo (Mexico-5/5), V-E Day (5/8/1945) “He’s got this.” When my brother Tim’s wife came down with cancer six years ago, while glancing over at her two-year old and five year-old sons she approached the disease like a trooper. When the cancer left and then returned fatally with a vengeance a few years later, she considered the extra bonus years God had given her with her young family as a true blessing. During her memorial service last week her key phrase, “He’s got this” was an inspiration to her friends and family who were present. When loved ones had visited her room in the hospital and in hospice, she’d assure them with, “Hey, no worries. God has it all under control…He’s got this.” Now, since she had dedicated her life to Jesus decades ago, we all know without a shadow of a doubt that she is with her Savior Jesus in Heaven right now. “He’s got this…He’s got her.” Yet while we others are still here on this beloved planet of ours, Amy’s catch-all phrase reminds us in good times and seemingly bad times that, “He’s got this.” A week after Amy’s burial, I attended the funeral of another “pillar of faith,” Mae. Present there were a few friends who faithfully sponsor kids in our Philippine school. Senior citizens who, while the day before had met together for a church luncheon, had passed around the family picture of their little sponsored BCA Filipino boy, and also passed around an offering plate to collect the funds for their $25 monthly pledge. For his schooling, God has taken care of this little boy’s needs through these seniors. “He’s got them.” While volunteering to help clear an acre of wooded forest in a Summer camp, loading ten truckloads of scrap lumber into a chopper to then be spread along the camp’s nature trail (and getting a hefty blister in the process), for those at the camp who had been concerned about the forest encroaching on their sports field, or for there to be no firewood for the summer’s campfires (we stacked two face cords of wood), “He’s got this”. A few of those helping out at the workday had been at a church Bible study the evening previous. That Friday morning I had studied Acts 16 in my 60th reading through the Bible. It was just a cursory reading since my study commentaries had been left on the shelves of my office back in the Philippines. However, when at the evening Bible study the leader requested that I share about the Philippines, and then a half hour later introduced their passage for study for the evening as…get this, I am not pulling your leg…. none other than Acts 16…I was assured yet once again that “He’s got this.” Imagine, out of nearly 1500 chapters in the Bible, they were studying the exact same chapter I had read that morning. Wow. While driving the ten hours through the night from Kentucky to New York my glasses broke at the halfway point outside of Cleveland, and the lens fell into my lap. I found a rubber band to hold the lens in place. The next day I was interviewed on WFLN Christian radio and my brother assured me jokingly, “It’s ok. With the rubber band on your glasses, you really look like a missionary.” After the interview my brother drove me to the Vision Center at Walmart and they had new frames fitted within ten minutes’ time, even though those frames were a discontinued model. As always, “He’s got this.” And finally this morning my flight from New York to Philadelphia was delayed and many passengers were concerned they might miss their flight. A spare plane was available and the announcement was made that an off-duty pilot agreed to fly it (to which I muttered, “You mean the one with the turban?”), the snickering relieved passengers understood that once again, “He’s got this.” And now as I am concerned for Elvie, who needs to take an overnight bus ride from a week-long national women’s conference in a remote Philippine city to catch a plane to get back to Davao in time to pick up PJ and catch a flight to Cebu where he will take his SAT exam, which will likely determine whether he’ll receive a scholarship to attend a Christian college or a secular community college. Nonetheless, I am assured although on the other side of the planet that “He’s got this.” You know, if we look hard enough, there is never, ever a time that we need to worry about anything, because as Amy assured us, “He’s got this!” Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! Praise: That while in the USA, I have seen delight and pride in many sponsors of our BCA students. Sally in New York came up to me and asked, “How is my little girl Neza?” My brother Tim who is now a widower has pictures of his four-year-old Filipina girl Shane Mae pinned to a painting of the Philippines on his wall. Pastor Phil and his wife Sandi made sure that they were up-to-date in their payments for their sixth-grade student Reyland. I met with Suzy, a middle school French teacher who reassured me that she and her husband would continue sponsoring their BCA child, and also the janitor in her school who, with a broom in his hand reminded me, “I pray for my little Filipino boy Uthosandie every day.” Upcoming Events:
BCA has 364 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. BCA’S New Campus Fund: $79,650: 3-Acre Property Administration/Temporary Classrooms/Multipurpose Building: Present need: $762 for BCA’s ongoing roof repair and library renovation/expansion expenses lumber and materials for new shelves 30 sheets of plywood ¾” @ $22= $660, 10 sheets of plywood 5 mm @ $8 = $80, 2 kg CWN nails 2.5” @ $2 = $4, 2 kg CWN nails #.4 @ $2 = $4, 10 rolls masking tape @ $1 = $10, 2 paint brushes #2 @ $1 = $2, 2 paint brushes #1 @ $1 = $2. |
| 4/24/2014 | Australian Anzac Day (4/25), Jewish WWII Holocaust Remembrance Day (4/28), May Day (5/1), Philippine/ Mexican Labor Day (5/1), USA National Day of Prayer (5/1), Loyalty Day (5/1) “What is your final destination?” When the clerk at the airline ticket counter inquired as to the remainder of my trip, I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to witness. After having already traveled for over 24 hours from the Philippines, through China to the USA, it was time to cross the North American continent. “My final destination?” I responded. Well, Heaven, of course!” The lady in the line next to mine looked at me as if I had said the most ridiculous thing in the world, and I remembered the careful scrutiny that American airports have against deranged terrorists who like to blow up planes as a passport to eternity. So I inserted my quip, “But likely not today…” That seemed to set things right. Heading to the security scanner, the California Airport’s guard asked, “Did you leave anything behind? Keys, wallet, or bags?” Once again I just had to give a quip. “No, but I left my heart…” as the guard and I joined in a duet there at the scanner, singing “…in San Francisco!” It made everyone around smile, just a tad as they put their belts and shoes back on after security checks. Later on another connecting flight from Charlotte, North Carolina to Cincinnati, Ohio I had a seatmate from Columbus, who was a recording artist. I shared for half an hour or so with Donnaire about the ministry we have in the Philippines among street children and poor squatter families, educating them and telling them about Jesus. “What do you sing about?” I asked Donnaire. To which he looked down a little embarrassed and said, “I sing in nightclubs via Rhythm and Blues, about the opposite subjects from what you do.” Maybe when Donnaire returns to Columbus he will sing about more godly subject matter… Meanwhile, as I prepared a message to share at my sister-in-law’s funeral and burial ceremony in Ohio, our church in the Philippines was having their Good Friday and 3am Easter Resurrection Sunrise Services. One-by-one seven of the parents of our BCA students shared Bible truths from the last phrases of Jesus in the cross. I am soooo proud of these relatively-new believers, who we’ve been training these past few years in Bible knowledge. Not everyone has the thrill of traveling around the Globe with the Gospel message. My sister (in law) Amy had never once flown to the Philippines yet had sponsored children in our school for over a decade. She was, and her surviving widower (my brother) is, one of 364 awesome sponsor heroes who are transforming the lives of poor endangered Filipino children on the other side of the planet. Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! Praise: That during Easter week’s Good Friday worship service at BCA, many of the staff took turns speaking (five minutes each) on each of the seven phrases that Jesus spoke while He hung on the cross to pay for our sins. Most of these speakers were unbelievers just a decade ago, and have already been trained in Bible knowledge by our BCA staff so they are ready, able and willing to share their faith with others. Also praise God that our church’s 3am Easter Sunrise Service still went okay, although I was the scheduled speaker and had to be replaced when I flew out to the USA for my sister-in-law’s funeral. Also praise God for the successful BCA Staff’s seminar Tuesday on the unique qualities provided through a Christian school’s education. Praise God that hundreds of dollars of memorial gifts (in memory of my brother Tim’s wife Amy who recently passed away) were donated to BCA to assist with construction costs for our new campus. I also had the privilege of speaking during the burial ceremony. Upcoming Events: 4/14-5/16-BCA Summer School (Mandatory for BCA’s sponsored students). 6/2- BCA’s new school year of classes (2014-2015) begin 6/9- Our American friend Kaitlyn arrives at BCA (from the USA) to assist at our Father’s House street-girls’ home for six months. BCA has 364 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. 3-Acre Property Administration/Temporary Classrooms/Multipurpose Building: Present need: $62 for BCA Roof Repair additional supplies: paint thinner one-gallon bottle $1/ paint roller Brush King Original PKO-011 Set 4” $5/ SJG8 paint Welcoat WPRE-4010 gallon Red Oxide Primer 3 @ 11 = $33/ SJG hacksaw blade Sandflex Sandcut 24T 2 @ $3 = $6/ NKD utility paint brush Lotus LUPB 300-3 $4, 5 kg welding rods 6013 $12 |
| 4/17/2014 | Good Friday (4/18), Easter Sunday (4/20), 239th Anniversary of the day when the USA Revolutionary War began (4/19), Earth Day (4/22), Administrative Professionals’ Day (4/24) “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart!” As four hundred small children at this year’s Vacation Bible School sang of their happiness in Jesus, over a hundred parents and staff cheered them on at Barner Christian Academy, this Palm Sunday. A dozen different age groups were led by their teachers in songs, a drama of the life of the Apostle Paul and reciting memory verses. Afterwards they each were called up to receive a certificate of completion, with ribbons attached describing their unique qualities such as “Best in Memory Verses, Most Diligent,” etc. As the first graders sang “Through a Child’s Eyes” with accompanying hand motions, my mind wandered to my nephew Daniel in Ohio, whose birthday was the same day, as he turned eight years old. Yet of all his birthdays, this one he will never forget, for his mom (my brother’s wife) died of cancer just a few days earlier. A few hours after the VBS ended, I flew out of Davao for the three-day journey to the other side of the planet. “My sister is in Heaven,” I challenged the parents during Sunday’s ceremony. “Suppose it was you. Would you be in Heaven too?” Just as the VBS teachers had led many children in the Prayer of Salvation this past week, I also led many of their parents in the same prayer. In good or bad times, we Christians do have the “joy, joy, joy, joy” of Jesus in our hearts, no matter what happens. This week someone decided to fill our family’s empty mouthwash bottle with dishwashing liquid because the bottle was “Just the right size” and I ended up gargling with soap and blowing bubbles, I still had the “joy, joy, joy, joy” of Jesus in my heart, as I spent the next twenty minutes trying to get that icky taste out of my mouth. And when Abigail finished eating a bowl of cereal, then reached out to put the bag away and saw a tail moving in the bag, revealing a lizard, she still had the “joy, joy, joy, joy” of Jesus in her heart, as she moaned, “Eeyeewww…gross!” When I spent two hours reserving one of my twelve flights and rental cars for the next few weeks, and then the power suddenly went out, I had the “joy, joy, joy, joy” of Jesus in my heart when the power returned and in the light I noticed that I had been about to schedule to the flight for the wrong date. And finally, as Elvie realized that her two upcoming flights (for an upcoming lady’s conference and for bringing PJ to his SAT testing) had been scheduled at the same time, we were about to change the flight times online when suddenly the power went out (it happens daily at varying times) and we had to drive to the airport to pay for schedule changes, we still had the “joy, joy, joy, joy” of Jesus in our hearts. As Elvie and the kids waved me off at the Davao airport knowing that they’d see me again three weeks later just before Mother’s Day, we were grateful that our joy does not depend on circumstances, but on God’s presence in our hearts. It is His joy that flows through us. What a blessing it is to be a believer! Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! Praise: That at the recent board meeting of a national missionary organization, Elvie, as one of their fifteen trustees, was chosen to join two others on an all-expense-paid 3-day trip to Hong Kong for their regional conference, this September. Also praise God that we have a new sponsor this week, from North Carolina. Upcoming Events: 4/14-5/16-BCA Summer School (Mandatory for BCA’s sponsored students). 4/18 Good Frisay worship service at BCA. Many of the staff will be talking turns speaking (five minutes each) on each of the seven phrases that Jesus spoke while He hung on the cross to pay for our sins. 4/20 3am Easter Sunrise Service @ BCA 4/22 BCA Staff seminar on the unique qualities provided through a Christian school’s education. (Paul’s USA travels: 4/13-5/9 Philippines, Ohio, New York, Utah: approximately one week in each state) BCA has 364 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. 3-Acre Property Administration/Temporary Classrooms/Multipurpose Building: Present need: $35 for Child Evangelism Fellowship seminar for BCA VBS staff (honorarium for speaker, and lunch for all participants). |
| 3/13/2014 | FEAST OF PURIM (3/15-16), ST PATRICK’S DAY (3/17) “Wow, what can you do to help,” Elvie asked, “when even those who are hurt are afraid of you and run away?” The next evening (Sunday night) PJ and Abby were busy finishing up their homework when PJ heard a knock at our door. This is not common at night, since our family lives in a classroom on the third floor of the BCA school building (our home was destroyed during the 2013 typhoon season). There on our doorstep were three dirty street urchins. They had hiked eight miles from inner-city downtown, with worn-out flip flops on their feet. We fed them dinner, let them take baths and also found clothes that fit them from BCA’s used-clothing room. Fresh and clean, they listened as Elvie shared the Gospel with them, using our five-color wordless bracelets. In unison, the three little boys prayed with Elvie to receive Jesus into their hearts. Fresh and clean on the inside and out, we drove them back downtown to the portion of the sidewalk where they sleep on pieces of cardboard. The next evening (Monday) at about 8pm, the now-familiar tapping could be once again heard at our door. This time it was Abby who answered it. Three little boys were once again at our door, aged 8-10. Although dirty, two were dressed in the clothes we’d given them the night before. They had not changed, but slept and ran and played on the streets in these same shorts and t-shirts around the clock. Elvie felt tingles as she noticed that the third boy was different from the one who had come the night before. The bruises all over his face and arms assured her that yes; this was the little guy she’d seen being beaten up just a few nights previous. Maybe the boys who’d come the night before were just testing us to see if our intentions were really good for this banged-up kid. Once again we let them bathe, eat and get a new change of clothes. It was pretty late, so we even laid out blankets on the floor and let them stay overnight, watching a few Christian videos before dozing off. At first the boys would roughhouse and punch each other. Yet at the outset I informed them that ours is a “no-hitting” household. They actually seemed a little relieved that they would no longer have to defend themselves, even against their friends. Sleeping on a blanket on our floor indoors was much more comfortable than sleeping on cardboard outside on the sidewalk. On Tuesday morning after having the boys join us for family devotions, our school nurse dressed the wounds of Jovani, the ten year old whom Elvie had seen getting beaten up three nights previous. The three boys also sat-in on one of our BCA classes. After classes had finished, the three guys rushed up to my office to show me the pictures they had drawn and colored in class. The content was a little disturbing. One was ok, just the faces of two people. But the other two were of stick figures with guns in their hands, pointed at each other. In the background were signs that said “POLICE” and other people behind bars. Was this really the day-to-day life of a street kid? What happened to cute kindergarten pictures with lollipop trees and box/triangle houses with smoke rising from the chimney, to place with a magnet on the door of our fridge? Working in my BCA office as the boys had lunch, I thought. Wow. These kids are angels. They may not look like angels. They are dirty, hungry and like punching each other. But Scripture states clearly that often when we unselfishly help another in need, we may be actually helping angels, unaware. In the afternoon, I noticed that Jayson (one of the three boys) was toying with the five-color bracelet on his wrist, and reciting “Black stands for sin…Yellow stands for heaven…” Our bus driver whose bus run passes through downtown had the three boys join his route and dropped them off at their section of the sidewalk. A few hours later Elvie was shocked at the school (I was on errands in another part the city at the time). She texted me on her cellphone, “Don’t come home. It is dangerous. There are twenty street people, adults and kids, who are very angry., It is not safe at home right now!” So I picked up PJ and Abby at the missionary school and spent the early evening hours at the mall before heading home. Turns out that the friends of the street boys had thought we had rejected them by sending them back to the streets. Some came on bicycles, some walked and others hitched rides on public transportation the eight miles to our BCA school campus/home. Elvie fed them as the street children wandered all over the school, looking at the classrooms, etc. She shared the Gospel and also explained that there are legal procedures we must follow by law before accepting a child into one of our childrens’ homes. Each child must first be checked with the police department, then with social welfare, then with the media, to broadcast pictures of the child for any family to claim (if there is a family). Then and only then can we accept a child in one of our homes. Satisfied, the street people thanked Elvie and found their way back home to the streets and alleys of the inner-city. There was no knock at the door that Tuesday night. However, the next time we rode through the city in the evening, each of the street children and adults recognized our black family pickup truck and smiled and waved. Cool. Being noticed by an undercover angel. Lots of them. Awesome. Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! PRAISE: That this week the Philippine Department of Education has issued BCA’s annual Permit of Operation for the school year 2014-2015. Elvie and the BCA faculty/staff worked very hard over the past six months on preparing the 200 pages of paperwork and forms, as well as visiting government offices, attending, scheduling and aligning interviews, fire department/government campus inspections/demonstrations/repairs/renovations, pictorial representations (after cleanup from the typhoon-related flooding), etc. UPCOMING EVENTS: 3/15 I (PAUL) AM GUEST SPEAKER AT THE LOCAL FULL GOSPEL BUSINESSMEN’S FELLOWSHIP WEEKLY SATURDAY MEETING 3/20 BCA COMMENCEMENT/MOVING-UP CEREMONY 3/23 BCA BACCALEUREATE SERVICE AT CHURCH 4/7-13 VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL 4/9-11 ELVIE IS AWAY IN PAGADIAN (PHILIPPINES) AS MEMBER OF THE 4/13 VBS CLOSING CEREMONIES/PRESENTATIONS AT CHURCH (PALM SUNDAY) 4/14 BCA SUMMER SCHOOL BEGINS 4/20 3AM EASTER SUNRISE SERVICE @ BCA BCA HAS 361 SPONSORED STUDENTS. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program.
ADMINISTRATION/TEMPORARY CLASSROOMS/MULTIPURPOSE BUILDING:
PRESENT NEED: $217 for BCA’s Bus “L” repairs: Battery recharging, Jeepney labor and materials |
| 4/3/2014 | Happy Canadian “Easter Monday” (1/1), Happy Araw Ng Kagitingan Philippine Holiday (1/9) “Your students will not care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Pastor Ariel (from Child Evangelism Fellowship) was training our BCA and VBS staff this week in how to present the Gospel to children. Our family is having real, hands-on opportunities to show how much we care this week as our 9-yr-old friend, thin and short street-child Harry, is staying with our family while his injured foot begins to heal. When our school nurse Lucy was out for a few days, I dressed Harry’s open wounds myself. When she returned, she was horrified that I would soak Harry’s foot in normal warm tap water to remove his bandages. Harry actually said it hurt less to remove the bandages this way, from his open, sticky wounds. “It is supposed to be only touched by saline solution” Nurse Lucy chastised. As a result of my care, Harry was in greater pain later in the afternoon. One evening his pain as so intense that he softly moaned in agony, while writhing back and forth on the floor. “Elvie, PJ and Abigail, Harry needs out help. James 5 (in the Bible) says we should anoint the sick with oil and pray for them to be healed.” PJ responded, “But Dad, I am not an elder. The verse says to call the elders to pray.” I suggested that he pray and anoint Harry anyway with the rest of us. “The verse does not say that the elders are the only ones who can pray. It just says to call the elders to anoint and pray. I am an elder, so I have been called to answer Harry’s cries of agony.” I went to get the vegetable oil from the kitchen, but PJ mentioned that it smells so bad that it might make Harry sicker. So Abby handed me a little bottle of baby oil. We only got thirty seconds into our prayer, and Harry’s writhing and moaning suddenly was replaced with calm, deep breathing. He was asleep! We silently turned off the lights and let him sleep until morning. The nest day I happened to mention Harry’s predicament on the phone with a retired pastor friend in the USA. Immediately the Holy Spirit touched his wallet and my friend said, “This afternoon I will deposit funds into your bank account to buy crutches for Harry so he doesn’t have to hop around on one foot anymore!” After I bought the crutches, I had placed them (wrapped in plastic) in the back of the pickup truck. These crutches are nice and sturdy, metal with rubber padding on the tops (for armpits), middle (for hands) and bottoms (for gripping the ground). Harry was afraid of crutches previously, since the only one we had for him was an old wooden one which often collapsed under his paltry weight and put undue pressure on his healing foot. He was at the school gate with a few fellow students when I arrived home, so I got out and said, “I have a surprise for you, Harry. Now, shut your eyes so you do not spoil the surprise…” Two female students each put their hands over Harry’s eyes as he anticipated what the surprise might be. “Okay, now open them!” As the two girls removed their hands from his eyes, Harry’s entire face lit up as his eyes got bigger and bigger. “For me?” he asked, incredulous. Since he wasn’t sure how these crutches were to be used, I demonstrated and the kids laughed and laughed, to see and adult hopping around on a child’s small crutches. Yet the size was perfect for Harry. For the next two days, you never saw Harry without his crutches. Then yesterday, Nurse Lucy said that since he gets around better with his new crutches, Harry would be permitted to join Elvie and others who were traveling out to our Boy’s Ranch on nearby Samal Island. When Harry had been found on the streets a few years ago, he was not alone. He had two brothers with him. One of these (Ian) was to graduate from elementary school, and Harry was permitted to go cheer on his sibling! Elvie sponsored a feast at the ranch to celebrate the graduation, and by the time they returned home, Harry was sound asleep. One of BCA’s bus drivers (Ben) carefully lifted Harry from the back seat and carried him up the three flights of stairs to our third-floor apartment in the school. As he was setting Harry down on our couch, the bandaged foot slid under his body. Harry’s full weight suddenly was resting on his wrangled foot. The slumbering eyes suddenly shot open and tears poured out in torrents. We tried to distract him from the pain, but nothing worked.. Finally after about twenty minutes I could not watch him any longer. He writhed and cried, yet was not loud…just glancing occasionally over at me as if to say, “Please. Please do something. I…can’t…bear…the pain any longer!” Tears streamed down my own cheeks as I whispered to Abigail, “I think we should pray again.” So Elvie, Abby and I (PJ was away with a team of fellow students rebuilding a house that was destroyed by a typhoon) knelt down and tried to catch a shoulder or hand or even a part on his head to touch while we anointed him with a few small dabs of oil and prayed. Once again, miraculously, after about thirty seconds, he calmed down and fell asleep. No pain. No grimacing in his dreams, only deep breathing and calm, restful sleep. Finally, I too could breathe deeply, knowing that once again God had touched the agonized body of this abandoned street child. “Oh, thank you Lord. Thank you so very, very much.” The next day Harry was laughing and playing with friends and the pain from the night before was forgotten. Yet I caught his eye once while he was on the floor playing a game and Harry looked at me as if to say, “You care. You really do. Thanks so very much for bringing my pain to Jesus.” Yup. Kids care about how much we know when they know how much we care. Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! Praise: That the national evangelist who will be speaking at church this Sunday came a week early by mistake, and he is willing to return as our guest speaker the originally planned Sunday. Also our Adult Sunday School teacher was willing to let the evangelist take the whole Sunday School hour to teach. Upcoming Events:
BCA has 363 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. Present Need: $161 for home economics room roof and repairs, (T006 paint Blue Island gallon Roofkote 2471 Clear Blue- 6 cans @ $17 = $102, T006 Paint Island gallon Roofkote 2400 White- 2 cans @ $21 = $42, pipe emerald sanitary PVC clean-out 3’ for school bathroom 1 piece @ $1, T006 paint roller island 7’ 1 piece @ $4, brush paint Tacoma #603 2’ super fine 1 piece @ $3, N003 vice grip Lotus LPG-175 1 piece @ $6, l001 paint roller Anchor PRWT 7’ w/tray 1 piece @ $3. |
| 3/27/2014 | British Mothering Sunday (3/31), April Fools’ Day (4/1) “When I grow up, I want to become a…” One-by-one, the graduates at Barner Christian Academy stepped up the four stairs to the school’s stage as his or her name was called. In their white caps and gowns, each received his or her diploma from me as their school president, plus a handshake and medal from myself and their principal Elvie and other dignitaries who were present. Finally, each approached the microphone to announce what he aspired to become over the coming years as educational opportunities advance. Thursday’s day of celebration brought many students’ parents and relatives to the school, so I used the opportunity to share the precious Gospel message. “Train up a child in the way he should go,” I challenged from Proverbs 22:6, “and when he is old he will not depart from it.” The Bible verse, being our Christian school’s theme verse, is printed on the side of every one of BCA’s school buses and even on the walls of the building. And as the new metal roof of our school is nearing completion, even it will be painted blue with large white words, “Proverbs 22:6”, to be seen from low-flying airplanes and Google Earth. During BCA’s ceremony the students all sang together, “Jesus want me for a sunbeam, to shine for Him each day…” As they performed, I watched the proud faces of their parents, scattered through the audience, as well as the teachers, leading their students in the choreography with body language and gestures. I told the grads and their families about a 77-yr-old Christian who was about to pass away into eternity, yet was in tears, moaning how he so regretted 75 years without Jesus. “Oh,” he declared, “Only two wonderful years, walking daily with Jesus. Why didn’t I receive Him sooner? What a delight my life would have been. I have tasted the sweetness of a redeemed life, yet if I had only accepted Him sooner, I could have feasted from the table of delight in Him daily!” “These graduates,” I continued, “have begun their education in a Christian School. All their lives they will remember the delightful spiritual truths they have learned from the Word of God. What about you? Why waste another day without Jesus?” During the closing prayer I could hear voices of parents repeating after me the words of repentance, “Dear Jesus, I am a sinner…” Awhile later, as the graduates approached the microphone one-by-one, many wanted to become teachers, policemen and engineers. One little boy held the microphone tightly in his little hand and declared, “When I grow up, I want to be a General!” Whoah, straight to the top, huh? Yet thinking back to those who had become Children of God that day, I have to say, “when I grow up, I want to be…above all else…redeemed!” Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! Praise: That many students who graduated from BCA this month would not have made it to the celebration without God’s intervention. One almost died six months ago from dengue fever. Another is severely crippled with birth defects and no other school would take the chance of trying to educate her. Yet another was born to a mom in her old age and she decided to have him anyway. Yet one more had been born to a single mom, out of wedlock. Truly, God has completed a series of miracles through these kids. God said in Proverbs 22:6 not “IF they grow old,” but “WHEN they grow old…” Also praise God that Vacation Bible School plans are in full swing, with our coordinator, Richard. His agenda for training and preparation include: 3/23-Staff meeting, 3/24-Preregistration, 3/27- CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship) training at BCA by an experienced CEF staff member (Ariel), 4/1-Classification of registered participants, 4/5- Distribution/preparation of Instructional Materials/curriculum, 4/7-11 VBS and CEF 5-day club, 4/12- Games and Practice for Sunday Presentation, 4/13- VBS closing ceremonies/granting of certificates, 4/14-5/16-BCA Summer School (Mandatory). Plus praise God that eleven large shipping boxes have arrived from dear friends in the Western USA, filled with school supplies, used and new clothes, canned food, and two brand new laptop computers to replace ones that were destroyed in the calamitous October Philippine floods. A friend in New Jersey has also offered to send a used laptop and desktop computer to replace the remaining units which were trashed in the flood. Finally, praise God that this past week Abigail won a relay race in the Faith Academy Mindanao Field Days, as well as her soccer team winning in a shutout 4-0 against a girls’ soccer team from another Davao school. Upcoming Events:
BCA has 363 sponsored students. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. BCA’S New Campus Fund: $79,000:
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| 3/20/2014 | GRADUATION DAY AT BARNER CHRISTIAN ACADEMY (3/20) “We are leaders. We must make the accessories in our lives reflect our goal of saving souls.” While speaking to 50 Christian Filipino businessmen at an FGBM weekly meeting this Saturday, I lifted up my wrist , displaying a Gospel bracelet, explaining the significance of each of its five colors. “You members of Full Gospel Businessmen are to make every aspect of your lives to reflect the Precious Gospel message.” Later I arrived home to our family’s third-floor classroom apartment. Outside our door were six and one-half pair of slippers. In the Philippines, you can often tell how many guests are visiting by the increased number of slippers resting outside your front door. But why an odd-number of slippers today? Because we have a one-legged guest: Harry. Harry is a thin, 9-yr-old boy who is a fresh recruit from Davao’s streets to our Boys’ Ranch. Oh, he has two legs. But when he cut his foot pretty badly at the Ranch, he was brought to the hospital for stitches. After three days’ confinement, the doc said Harry would need to “convalesce” at least a month before returning to the Ranch. So Harry is our guest. Daily our BCA school nurse Lucy changes the dressing on Harry’s foot. Due to the large bandages, Harry must hop around on one foot, and cannot fit a slipper on the “dressed” one. When we go out to eat on Family-Night-Out, PJ carries Harry on his back. While at home, Harry mostly prefers to travel on his own hands and knees. Each day the BCA teachers take turns in tutoring Harry in reading English during their lunch hour. Harry came to us with only the clothes on his back. But now his wardrobe has increased, due to a few visits to BCA’s used-clothing room. Yet on the clothing-room’s shelf, there are a few left shoes with no matches, due to Harry’s wearing the right portion of the sets. On Wednesday evening this week, the congregation was invited by Bebing (one of our church members) to have prayer meeting at her home. Since Bebing just lives in a small bamboo shack, there was not enough room inside for all of us. So we brought chairs with us and set them up outside. The early-evening country air was fresh and sweet. We gathered around a small candle, stuck to the bottom of an upside-down old tin can on an old wooden crate as we sang, shared Bible verses and prayed. Bebing’s “accessories” were so few, not like the 50 wealthy businessmen I’d shared with on Saturday. Yet Bebing was thankful to have two feet of her own to be used for God’s will. Harry’s “accessories” also only included his hand-me-down clothes and one usable foot. Yet his contagious smile and cheerful attitude are being used for God’s will. What are your “accessories” today? Two fully-functioning feet to walk to a classroom in church to teach Sunday School? A home with a large living room where you can host a Bible study? Whatever we have, (as our accessories”) let us use them to carry out God’s will. Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! PRAISE: That the Full Gospel Businessmen enjoyed my presentation this week so much that the president of the Davao Chamber of Commerce has considered inviting me to speak at their national convention this May in a city at another portion of the country. UPCOMING EVENTS:
BCA HAS 361 SPONSORED STUDENTS. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program.
PRESENT NEED: $69 FOR MISCELLANEOUS REPAIR IRTEMS IN THE SCHOOL: REPAIR HARDWARE FOR 2ND FLOOR BOYS’ BATHROOM-HARDWARE: $11 GATE VALVE, $1 TEFLON (SEALANT) TAPE ($1), FLUORESCENT LIGHTBULBS FIREFLY FS40/T12D DAYLIGHT 5 PCS @ $2 = $10, WELDING RODS IPWELDWIPSTAR 6013 1/8 1 KG 5 BUNDLES @ $3 = $15, SJG TAPE TEFLON JECO ½ 2 @ $1 = $2, JIC25 BALLAST GE 40W 4PCS @ $5 = $20, SJG STARTER FOCUS KOREA 10 PCS @ $1 = $10. |
| 3/6/2014 | DAYIGHT SAVINGS TIME (3/9), BRITISH COMMONWEALTH DAY (3/10), AUSTRALIAN CANBERA DAY (3/10) “Where’re the candles?” After our third two-hour-long brownout (Philippine blackout) of power in less than one week’s time, our family decided it was about time to invest in a few candles. We’d attempted to re-use a burned-out one by throwing table napkins into a can with melted wax, but doused it when the inferno was spouting ash and smoke all over our little one-room apartment. Being in a Third-World Developing country, we often experience seasonal water shortages as well, so we’ve begun filling spare bottles, barrels and containers with a back-up supply. Preparing for emergencies is important when we do not know at what time these needy items will be required. Preparing in other ways is also a necessity. Recently I decided to revise my personal daily devotions to more than just reading my Bible, singing and praying. Last week I started making “mini-sermons” every few days, spending hours under dozens of commentaries and journals, researching and cross-referencing successive passages from the book of James. Then on Wednesday evening during our weekly prayer meeting the worship leader surprised me with, “Pastor Paul, will you give the message tonight? Our planned speaker has not shown up.” Since I had my “James Journal” with the mini-sermons enclosed, the message was ready and waiting for this emergency. A few days later, arriving home from the pharmacy where I had picked up some medicine, I looked through my pills and receipts, realizing I’d been short-changed. Everything except the box of Vitamin C was there. Elvie looked through the pills with me, but sure enough, no Vitamin C. So on Saturday I returned to the pharmacy with my receipt and bag of pills. The clerk there apologized and then gave me the missing Vitamin C pills. One Sunday morning I reached up to the shelf to get my Vitamin C and there side-by-side were not one, but TWO boxes of Vitamin C! Uh oh. So, back to the pharmacy as soon as possible I went, to pay for that second box. Maybe the pharmacist knew he had given me those pills, and maybe not. But he did know that I had returned when I realized my own error. In church on Sunday morning one of the teenagers (a BCA graduate) came up to the microphone and gave her personal testimony of thanks to God. Holding up her “wordless bracelet” she described how she had been asked my one of her unbelieving classmates in High school about what the colors represented. There in her school she shared the Gospel message of salvation with her classmate. Since it had always been right there on her wrist, often other classmates asked her again and again, So whether there are brownouts, water shortages, needs to apologize and correct mistakes, or even to share the Gospel at a moment’s notice, we are always to be men and women of integrity. Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! PRAISE: That one of our rescued street-boys is presently in the hospital. On Sunday while riding to church on the house-parent’s motorcycle, his foot got caught in the wheel and did some damage to his foot. Thankfully the x-rays showed no broken bones. Praise God that the administrator Callem was present to help the boys through the hospital procedures so that the house parent Allen-Jun could stay with the other twelve boys. Also praise God that a candle maker in our church, with the extra income from so much demand for candles lately, purchased a second-hand amplifier for the church. This replaces the former “ringing” that the old amplifier presented each time a mike was used. Perfect timing, since BCA Graduation is just two weeks away! UPCOMING EVENTS:
BCA’S NEW CAMPUS FUND: $78,850: |
| 2/27/2014 | MEXICO’S FLAG DAY (2/24) “Please tell us your love story.” Associate Pastor Callem was teaching Sunday School and asked different couples to come up to the microphone and share how they had met their spouses. When my turn came, I shared how God had prepared Elvie and I for each other over the decades through similar callings in our lives. Our “dedicated desire” (love) for each other is based daily upon our promise to God to be committed to each other for life. Since it was Children’s Sunday the children’s Sunday School teacher (Richard) preached the morning message, on “Versions of Love.” The stage filled with his students, and a dozen of them came up to the microphone one-by-one to each recite a Bible verse “piece” which he or she had memorized. Each child also held up a colorful paper heart that had been decorated by him or her personally. The last child was very short, and the congregation laughed as she smiled and recited “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) in her little-girl lingo, “Ah-ih-Lubb!” Meanwhile Elvie, PJ and Abigail were spending the long holiday weekend (Philippine People Power EDSA Day) out on nearby Samal Island at our Boys’ Ranch for Street Kids, ministering to the kids by distributing food and clothes and teaching Bible Stories. These kids differ from our church kids in that they have no parents (except the Ranch’s house parent) to help them memorize Bible verses. One boy (Doydoy) has a large bandage wrapped around his finger, due to when he had been attacked by a gang on the streets of the city. They had amputated a joint of one of his fingers using a rock. That was when he wisely had decided to leave the streets and join our Boys’ Ranch. Another boy (Kinkin) was not at the Ranch, since he was attending his grandfather’s funeral. Kinkin’s mother had approached us at the funeral to ask us to bring Kinkin’s little brother also into the Ranch. Both boys bore the scars of living on the streets. Kinkin’s foot was bandaged from a large cut that had been infected and was rotting before we were able to have it treated medically. His brother is missing an ear, since he had taken shelter one evening under a parked car. The car started up while the little tyke was sleeping and the driver unintentionally ran over the side of the boy’s head. Fortunately he only lost an ear. However his head is quite swollen. Since neither of the boys have living fathers, the mom entrusted the boys to our Ranch. “I eat so well with the Barners!” bragged Kinkin. With a huge smile he added, “They even gave me freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies!” It was not a difficult decision on his brother’s part, as he stood skin-and-bones and in rags looking at the colorful new clothes and bandaged foot sported by glowing Kinkin. All of these formerly homeless street boys and girls had had no loving Christian parent to teach them “Ah-ih-lubb,” but now we are their surrogate parents, feeding, clothing, educating and most importantly, warming their souls with a love for Jesus, their loving Savior who had brought them off the streets and into His loving care. What a wonderfully true love story that is! Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! PRAISE: That Elvie and BCA’s property-search teams have narrowed down options for BCA’s new campus to four available 3-acre pieces of real estate. The first two choices (Communal and Ilang) are within the city limits and would reach out to the poor squatter families whom we encounter at the present time. The third is on nearby Samal Island and would cater to poor fishermen and farmers’ families. The final location is a distance away in Salumay and would potentially reach out to poor tribal families in the foothills of nearby Mount Apo. UPCOMING EVENTS:
PRESENT NEED: $532 to purchase hardware for ceiling shelves in the hallway just outside of BCA’s “Atwater-Shinn” used clothing room (additional shelves for non-clothing items: school supplies, etc.), plus materials for further external roof repair: G-I sheets (44 sheets Mightyfine galvanized metal 24x12 @ $10 = $440/ 3/4 inch plywood sheets, 2 @ $22 = $44/ #3 common wood nails, 1 kilogram = $2/ #2 common wood nails, 2 kilograms @ $2 = $4/ #11 common wood nails, 1/2 kilogram = $1/ 40 MM C padlock 2 @ $4 = $8/ ship chain .55 grams @ $3 = $2 10m Sefar b2 21 = $7/ Saulfex blade for hacksaw 2 @ $2 = $4/ 91 P varnish 10 @ $2 = $20 (for online giving: www.christianaid.org CODE: 801-BLC) |
| 2/20/2014 | PHILIPPINE PEOPLE POWER DAY (2/24) “Look over there!” While driving over six miles of rutted, bumpy dirt and mud roads to a small rural church to distribute toothbrushes and toothpaste to nearly a hundred poor squatter children, I had to wait for our second vehicle to catch up, since their pickup truck does not have four-wheel-drive. Peering out the windshield, I could see a little two-yr-old boy in his pajamas. On the ground before him were three items: a big yellow banana, a small board and a bucket. He seemed to be trying to carry all three items at once. Into the bucket he laid the banana, and placed the bucket on the small board, balancing it on his head. However, every time he got the board up onto his head, the bucket slid off, dumping the banana onto the dusty road. After about a dozen attempts (the little guy was quite persistent) he took the banana in frustration and hurled it into the bushes, along with the board and bucket, storming away. Little kids sometimes are frustrated yet for many, this ministry has brought hope and joy to poor kids. On Friday during Barner Christian Academy’s “Hearts Day/Teacher Appreciation Ceremony, I shared with pupils and parents how John 3:16 reveals God’s type of love, with the example that love isn’t love until you give it away. A little eight year old in the audience was not a BCA student. His name is Kinkin and he has a large bandage on his right foot. A child born and raised on the sidewalks of Davao City , he had cut a deep gash in his foot on a sharp piece of glass last week. The team we had brought onto the streets at night to minister to street kids determined that Kinkin needed urgent medical assistance. We brought him to the hospital for stitches. After the operation the doctor stated that the foot would break back open and get infected if Kinkin went back out to the streets. So we took him into our home. He sleeps on a blanket in our living room. Although our home was destroyed by last year’s flood, we are cozy as a family sleeping in one of the BCA classrooms. Kinkin and his ever-present smile was a welcome addition to our little residence. Since our classroom/home is on the third floor, I brought him up and down stairs on my shoulder. He is quite light, since his fare for the past few years has been scant: whatever he could beg from generous passers-by in the city. I felt a little like the father in Charles Dicken’s novel, “A Christmas Story” with Tiny Tim on his shoulder. On Saturday night other kids from church wanted to spend time with ever-cheerful Kinkin, so we lad out other blankets as eight “friends” found empty spots on the crowded floor of our makeshift living room. While I was making tacos and baking cookies, Kinkin started singing. Often to catch the attention of prospective donors while he was begging, he’d sing on the streets. Although his voce is somewhat nasal, there is something behind it that says, “Hey, it’ll be ok. Just you wait and see.” “Tomorrow, how about singing at church?” I asked. So the next day my associate pastor pulled out his guitar and his six-year old son sat alongside our resident street child to join in singing a trio. In a few days Kinkin (dressed in used clothing from our clothing room, and a few pounds heavier from the great amounts of nutritious food…and cookies, we have been pumping into him), will be healed up enough to join the other two-dozen former street-children in our Boy’s Ranch. But until then each morning I will look forward to waking up and seeing the face of Jesus in the ever–smiling face of Kimkim. As Matthew 25 states, “Whatever you do for the least of these, you have done it unto [Jesus]”. Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! PRAISE: That the short-term missions team that came from North/Latin America paid for Kinkin’s hospital visit, and also for pillows and sheets for the kids in our Boy’s Ranch and our Girls’ Home. They also gave over a thousand dollars for food and other expenses in the homes. UPCOMING EVENTS:
BCA HAS 361 SPONSORED STUDENTS. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program.
ADMINISTRATION/TEMPORARY CLASSROOMS BUILDING:
PRESENT NEED: $1,247 For extra expenses of BCA during the recent Tacloban/Palo Missions Trip (Typhoon Yolanda additional aid to survivors): motor oil for buses $7, gas to Cagayan De Oro $88, gas to Butuan $59, gas to Bato, Leyte $50, gas to Maasin $50, gas to Surigao $50, four days of meals for 300 refugees: Thursday 1/23 (pork, carrots, cabbage, ginger) $41, Friday 1/24 (chorizo, pineapple) $26, Saturday 1/25 (misc. groceries, ice) $70, Sunday 1/26 (misc. groceries, watermelon, bread, roasted pig) $197, ferryboat/barge for two vehicles (Surigao to Leyte) $148, (Leyte back to Surigao) $142, food for mission team, en route: Bukidnon $3, Cagayan $23, Balingasag $18, Butuan $4, Surigao $13, Sugod $1, Palo $10, Tacloban $22, Samar $14, Binagol $9, Sugod $7, Surigao $15, Montevista $24, brooms, masks, plastic bags to hold separate clothes, food for individual families, medicine, clothes, car wash (remove salt water from ocean barge trip) $156. (for online giving: www.christianaid.org CODE: 801-BLC) |
| 2/13/2014 | HAPPY PRESIDENT’S DAY (2/17) “Where’s Grandma Cuddles?” When our visiting short-term missions team from Mexico, California and Arizona visited the park late one evening this week, many street children saw a clown on our team “Sparrow” and still remembered the clowns who’d joined us in street ministry way back in November of last year. These kids have so few joys in life, that they do not forget when someone reaches out and shows them a little kindness. As we twisted colorful balloons into shapes of puppies and butterflies, kids appeared like magic, crowding around to get a balloon sculpture. The team visiting this week also was busy during the days, visiting children in our school, in our church and also in our two “homes for street children”. They gave medical checkups, taught how to cut hair, took the kids out to a Bat Farm and slid around in a natural waterpark/waterfall. Of course I had to dive off rocks high up on the falls with the other children, into the cool water in natural pools below. Returning to our Boys’ Ranch, we distributed folders that had been hand-colored by children in the USA with special personal notes inserted into each envelope. After saying goodbye to the kids in the ranch, we headed back out onto the streets at night. While handing a sculpted balloon to a ten-year-old, I could feel bumps on his wrist. “Kimkim, what are these lumps from? Holding up his hand for out visiting nurse to see, suddenly we noticed that the end of his finger was missing, with dried blood around the edges. “What happened?” I asked. Ever-willing Kimkim answered with animated body language, demonstrating what had happened just a little earlier that day. “A gang of boys who are older than we are wanted to show us that they were stronger,” he said, being interpreted by Elvie. “He took my friend’s hand like this,” Kimkim said, while placing his own finger on the cement ground at the park, “and took a big rock like this,” he demonstrated by picking up an imaginary rock, “and pounded on the finger until he squashed it.” We stood aghast as Kimkim explained, piecing together the scenario of how the boy lost part of his finger. When part of the team came back with hot mango pies from a local fast-food store which was still open, the other skinny, homeless boys gave their food to the fingerless boy, explaining, “Gutom” (“He’s very hungry”). Our nurse cleaned and dressed the wound, and also treated a deep, long cut in Kimkim’s bare foot. The next day at the board meeting for our two children’s homes, we could vividly remember the scars of these two boys. “Twenty-three children have been rescued so far. They have food, clothes, and are safe from such dangers as we have seen. These hours we have spent in running this ministry… are not to great a price to pay for their safety. The next evening a new boy was added into our home. Praise God for pointing out how we can bring these needy kids to safety and to Jesus. Sure, “Grandma Cuddles” the clown may be back in the USA now, but now twenty-four children are now able to be lovingly cuddled and rescued! PRAISE: That PJ is now on the high-honor roll at Faith Academy’a Davao High School, and thet Abby just returned from her class field trip where she swam in the heated waters of a volcano. Both PJ and Abby performed on stage during our church’s 17th anniversary this past Sunday. Correction: Last week’s diary stated that the town of Palo where Elvie and her team carried out after-typhoon aid, has a population of 300. The total is actually 65,000. UPCOMING EVENTS:
BCA HAS 361 SPONSORED STUDENTS. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. While the past week has seen the addition of three new sponsors, the end-of-year analysis removed 17 sponsors who have not sent funds in over twelve months.
ADMINISTRATION/TEMPORARY CLASSROOMS BUILDING:
PRESENT NEED: $260 FOR BCA BUS REPAIRS: 1 SET PISTON RING .25 THICK = $35, ONE SET OVERHAULING GASKET $40, ONE SET MAIN BEARING STD = $18, ONE SET CON ROD BEARING STD = $15, TIMING BELT = $33, TENSIONER BEARING = $17, OIL FILTER = $6, FUEL PUMP = $38, SILICON GASKET $3, ONE SET SLEEVE = $38, VOLTAGE REGULATOR 12V = $17, MACHINING RELINER OR RESLEEVE |
| 2/6/2014 | MEXICO CONSTITUTION DAY (2/3), NEW ZEALAND WAITANGI DAY (2/6) “Our God is an Awesome God!” PJ and Abigail clearly presented their admiration for their Creator during the duet during Faith Academy’ annual talent night this week. PJ also led as one of the announcers (emcees) for each of the ten acts which performed. What a paradox, as fragile yet talented young people proclaim from the depths of their hearts the massive awesomeness of our Almighty God. A few days later during our Sunday worship service my assistant pastor Callem preached on the topic of “The Widow’s Mite” from Luke 21. Jesus had proclaimed deep spiritual truths from the seemingly insignificant gift of a few tiny copper coins sacrificially given by a poor widow. On Monday this week a short-term mission team from New York visited our BCA campus. Since our library is in the process of renovation, reconstruction and repair (both inside and out), it was not nearly as pristine as normal. Yet the team was kind enough not to comment on the mess of scattered volumes and construction-related debris. Still, it concerned me. After Elvie and the “Typhoon Team” returned to Davao from their mercy mission on Tuesday, I challenged her to lead the teachers, parents, staff and students in an overall cleanup of the school. Sweating side-by-side, dozens of adults and kids gathered together with brooms and sponges and soap and elbow grease. Classes had been cancelled nationally on Friday anyway, due to the celebration of Chinese New Year. All present celebrated the “Year of the Horse” by working “like a horse” (plus a little “horsing around” as well). On Thursday the entire student body had gathered in the school gymnasium as the fire department demonstrated safety procedures in cases of fire emergencies. Three little preschool boys rushed to sit on my lap and wrap their tiny fingers tightly around my arms for security as the firemen ignited a propane tank in the center of the gym. One-by-one, each of the staff (as well as some parents and myself) took turns in either safely turning off the ignited tank or in spraying it with one of the school’s fire extinguishers. Yes, we may feel at times like the needs around us rage in an uncontrolled inferno. Yet together each of us sacrificially gives our “widow’s mite” of ability and we not only contain the fears of our children, but also overcome incredible obstacles for the furtherance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Truly, our God is an Awesome God. Who else could do so very much with so relatively little? Only God. Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! PRAISE: That Elvie and her “Typhoon Team” plan to return to typhoon-devastated Palo a little over a month from now with many of the BCA staff during their annual “Teachers’ retreat”. In years past, this three-day event was filled with Bible-based messages and relaxation. However, hands-on training in compassion in this very needy area is also a great lesson. I am developing a think-tank to establish a farming community to build homes and create jobs to sustainable feed their 300-member town with a local pastor as their administrator. Also praise God that one member of our Typhoon team who had planned to abandon the team when the journey got especially rough was convinced to remain, and thus became a source of great strength and stability throughout the outreach to hurting survivors. UPCOMING EVENTS:
BCA HAS 361 SPONSORED STUDENTS. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. While the past week has seen the addition of three new sponsors, the end-of-year analysis removed 17 sponsors who have not sent funds in over twelve months. PRESENT NEED: $655 FOR FLOOD AND TYPHOON ONGOING RELIEF, REPAIR AND REBUILDING: $202 FOR HOUSEWARES KITCHEN ITEMS: 2 SW VP LAUNDRY SETS, A1 KAWA #2,COOKWARE KING CASS, FUJI WOOD HANDLE, CLRSPLSH SLTTD TRN, CHEF KNIFE 8’ Y18, PARING KNIFE 3.5’, SANDOK BLK HDLE 3, EU BMB TURNER W/I, TRAY, EX STRAINER S/S PH, OLIVE MET THER, MEGA SAKOLIN 96’ B, 6 COUGAR RAINBOOTS, 4 BOTA1 LDS RAINBTS, GOLDSTAR POT EXTRA LARGE, $74 FOR MISCELLANEOUS HARDWARE, $53 FOR 2-32GB SD CARDS FOR DOCUMENTATION PURPOSES FOR CAMERA AND VIDEO YOLANDA TYPHOON OUTREACH @ $26.50 EACH, $23 FOR TYPHOON-RELATED MEDICINE, $60 FOR RAINCOATS FOR VOLUNTEER WORKERS 10 @ $6 EACH, $61 FOR EXTRA FOOD FOR VOLUNTEERS, $80 FOR GAS FOR PICKUP TRUCK TO TRANSPORT WORKERS TO RELIEF SITE IN PALO: 73.27 LTR @ $1.10 / LTR, $102 FOR GAS PLUS SPARE GAS TANKS 93.84 LTR @ $1.09/LTR ALL FOR TYPHOON RELIEF |
| 1/30/2014 | HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY (2/2) “The Tacloban government hired a backhoe ‘payloader’ to bury 100 more cadavers.” Two months after devastating Typhoon Haiyan/ Yolanda hit the Philippines with massive winds, torrential floods and a thirty-foot-high tsunami, 500 of the still decomposing contents of 1400 full body bags are still waiting to be identified. After taking DNA samples and tagging each bag, a mass 400-foot-long grave was dug to bury the remains. Meanwhile, in the midst of so much death, our Davao BLC “Calamity Crew” is working among the living survivors. It was not easy to arrive at their destination. The two-day trip was doubled due to delays caused by a severe low pressure system named ‘Agaton’. This new typhoon added sixty more fatalities to the typhoon tally. As Elvie led her team of seven from Davao in two strong vehicles (our pickup truck and one of our BCA jeepney school buses), they were delayed by a damaged bridge eight hours north of Davao in Cagayan de Oro, and had to stay there a second night. Thankfully a local pastor housed them and prayed for their trip. The next day they were delayed again due to an overturned vegetable truck sprawled across the road in severe rainstorms. They only reached the barge to get to the next island the next day, as it was late evening and the waves were gale-force. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and now Thursday, in the middle of the night they continued on driving through the twilight hours and arrived at 3am on Thursday morning. The Trans-World Radio “TWR” Christian radio team was scheduled to join BCA’s relief efforts on Wednesday, but when they arrived in the small town of Palo, our team was still en route. So they continued on their way to aid another village while waiting. On Thursday the TWR team returned to Palo. After a few hours’ rest, Elvie and her crew “dug in” to begin their aid efforts. Setting up a soup kitchen, they untied the tons of aid which we’d carefully packed half a week earlier. Inside the boxes and bags was more than just food. Included were clothes and toys for the hundreds of homeless children who’d become refugees (some now orphaned) by the typhoons. Along with the TWR goods, the teams repacked aid in individual smaller bags for the needy families. Long lines began to form and word got out that aid had finally arrived. Working side-by-side with the TWR team, they also distributed one hundred special radios, most of which required no electricity nor batteries, but instead were wound-up with a small handle. Each radio was permanently set to the TWR station, beamed to that area on a powerful AM band with counseling messages for those who were grieving and struggling to cope. After a busy day of goods distribution, John, head of the TWR team, interviewed Elvie on the air about our school, orphanages and churches to help the Filipino people learn about Jesus. He was amazingly touched. Each evening the teams slept in tents, with minimal comforts. Yet the following night, on Friday, would prove to make the entire trip and sacrifice worthwhile. After a day filled with feedings and basic construction, at 5pm Pastor Dennis (a good friend of Elvie’s from Seminary twenty years ago) gathered hundreds of survivors together for a worship service. Since the local Waray-Waray language is a challenge to translate, our Assistant pastor Callem taught the Plan of Salvation using the Wordless book. Elvie led in the Sinners’ Prayer and 250 adults and children responded by accepting Jesus into their hearts! The evening was filled with celebrations of lollipops and cookies which our team had brought along. As the multitudes found places to rest for the evening among the warzone-type environment, Elvie’s BCA team worked alongside the TWR team to prepare rice and chicken “Arroz-caldo” soup for Saturday morning’s breakfast. Previous to November’s typhoon calamity, Dennis’ church was small. However now Dennis has his hands filled with 250 new believes, hungry physically, yet even hungrier spiritually, to learn more about their new-found Savior. Please pray for Pastor Dennis, as he works among this virtual army of new believers. May God empower him to rebuild this small village on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ! Even as the government had been finally burying the dead after Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda, our joint team of BCA, TWR and Pastor Dennis have seen hundreds bury their old lives of sin and become reborn to their new lives as followers of Jesus. PRAISE: That Trans World Radio came alongside our Davao BCA team to triple the aid supplied for those in the typhoon-stricken village of Palo. God has used this effort to add hundreds of souls to the ever-increasing Kingdom of believers.
PRESENT NEED: $1552 for groceries to feed the Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda survivors: 200 PKG NOODLES, 100 BEEF LOAF CANNED CHOPPED BEEF, 96 BTL SOY SAUCE, 100 .5 KL SALT, 350 BTLS WATER, 100 CHOICE MANGO JUICE PACKS, 130 ORANGE JUICE PACKS, 1,108 INSTANT COFFEE (3-IN-1 SUGAR,MIX, CREAM), 100 PKTS MILK, 100 CANS CORNED BEEF, 100 CANS TUNAFISH, 100 GC SP CL MNTN 60G, 300 SACHETS BONUX LAUNDRY POWDER, 300 .5 KG BROWN SUGAR, 18 DOZEN EGGS100 5KG BAGS RICE, 35 DOZEN CHOICE WHITE SPN BIG, 100 POPI PAPER CUPS WHITE 6.5 OZ., 400 WHITE RABBIT PAPER PLATES #9, 1,000 HOPE CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES, 2,400 LONBISCO CRACKER PACKETS (PURPLE UBE SWEET POTATO FLAVOR), 1 50-KL SACK RICE, 1 LTR SS SKNG PTI 4.5%, .5 LTR SOY SAUCE, 1 CHOICE BT 3P12RL 450 SHEETS 100 MM X 100 METERS, 3 LOAVES BREAD, 5 BTLS LEMON FLAVOR GREEN TEA, 2 DOZEN EGGS, 5 PKTS NOODLES, 1 KG IODIZED SALT, 2 CS DM BAGUMBAYAN, FRESH BELL PEPPERS, FRESH GINGER, FRESH ONIONS, 4 BOXES CHEESE, 5 BTLS RED RASPBERRY TEA, 50 LADIES’ SANITARY NAPKINS, 50 BTLS MILK CHOCOLATE, 3 POUNDS FRESH CARROTS, FRESH GARLIC, 5 BAGS EGG CRACKERS, 100 PACKETS CRACKERS, 20 PACKETS PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES, 2 LA PACITA PRMA TST BIG 200G, BIG TUB SANDWICH SPREAD, BOTTLE SOY SAUCE, .5 KG BAG GINGER SALABAT TEA, 1 KG BROWN SUGAR, 2 KG BEAR BRAND POWDERED MILK, 6 SMOKED HD 8X14 HB ASSORTED, CS CHOICE OXOBIOSNDOBGLGEORANGE, CSCHOICEOXO-BIODSNDBGLGEBLU80S, 10 DOZEN MILO CHOCOLATE MILK POWDER DRINK MIX, 1 BOX EDEN FLD CHEESE, .5 GALLON COCONUT OIL, 6 CANS CORNED BEEF, 6 CANS BEEF LOAF CHOPPED BEEF, 11 BAGS PORK FLAVORING BOULLION, 9 LUCKY ME SUPER SFD MNI SZE 35GM, 5 KG SPAGHETTI NOODLES, LARGE BAGCOFFEE STIRRERS BLACK, 36 SEASONING PACKETS MAGGI MAGIC SARAP, 9 KG SPAGHETTI SAUCE, 218 SACHETS SUNSILK SHAMPOO, SPONGE, 12 SACHETS RUBBING ALCOHOL, 2 HAIR POLISH, 30 UBE sweet potato candy, 2 SOAP, 12 SACHETS FABRIC SOFTENER, HAND LOTION, 2 BTL RUBBING ALCOHOL, BETADINE ANTISEPTIC MEDICINE, 1 TUB DISHWASHING PASTE, 2 TUBS VICKS VAPO RUB, SCOTCHBRITE SCRUBBNG PAD, EFFICASCENT MENTHOLATED MASSAGING MEDICINAL OIL, AGUA OXIGNDA 120 ML, OMEGA PN KLR LINNAMENT, 20 SISTERS PL SILK FLOSS BUDGET PACK. |
| 1/23/2014 | HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! (1/31) “The people are so hungry, that they rush to our aid trucks even in towns we are only passing through, pleading and begging for us to give them something to eat.” The reports from Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda were heartbreaking enough to tug at our heart strings and also those of many prayer warriors worldwide. We decided to not only send aid, but to bring it ourselves. This aid was to be both spiritual and physical. We set up a team of builders, cooks, nurses and pastors. The date we set two months in advance for departure was January 20. And yet the news on the morning of Monday, January 20 was… “Hey guys, the bridge is out! Traffic is backed up for 5 miles…” It’s been raining almost constantly for the past two weeks now, here in Mindanao. The resulting floods destroyed a major bridge on the National Highway in Agusan, five hours northeast of Davao City. Our relief team’s 30-hour road trip was to include two thirteen-hour land trips, sandwiching a four-hour ferry ride from Surigao to the areas hit hardest by typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda, in Palo, Samar, Tacloban and Leyte. “Since there is only one road going through Agusan, how is traffic moving?” we asked. The Agusan pastor responded to Elvie on the phone, “Busses on the south side of the river are emptying out their passengers, who carry their luggage across the surviving portions of the bridge, and are picked-up by busses on the other side of the river.” Since we had loaded up our pickup truck and one of our larger BCA school buses with $3,000 in two tons of aid for typhoon relief, there was no way we could drive up to Agusan and then get across that river without a bridge. On the other hand, we could travel an alternate (longer) route northwest through the rural mountain villages of Bukidnon to eventually get to the ferry that would transport our vehicles to the islands where relief was needed. “That’d be better,” replied the Agusan pastor, “since the local government is saying it’ll be at least a week until the bridge is repaired.” A week’s work on a government project usually takes about six months. A text message arrived from one of Elvie’s prospective volunteer relief crew members (the photographer/youth worker), “The ferries are not running! High gale warning alert. Not only that, but the mayor of Davao has closed all schools in the city due to a severe Typhoon-like low-pressure system, for the entire day: January 20. I am dropping out of the team.” Hmm. What now? Added to that, our ten-member group (from the south) was to meet up with the four-member Trans World Radio team (from the north), scheduled to arrive in Palo on Wednesday (Jan. 22) from Baguio City, Luzon. That meeting would not happen if our team never made it across the water. They were also bringing 100 radios and 200 sacks filled with aid. “Postpone the trip a few hours.” I suggested to Elvie. “Then we should know if the gale alert has made landfall.” So when our southern team started arriving at BCA at 3:30 am on Monday morning they turned around and went home. On Sunday in church, at the end of our worship service, the congregation stood and joined in prayer to commission our “typhoon team” whose members were standing in a line across the stage. “Lord, please protect our team,” I led the congregation in prayer. “Keep them safe from dangers on the road and also give them direction as they rebuild the churches and reach-out with the love of Jesus to these hurting people who lost fathers, mothers, children and homes to the storms!” God answered prayers with direction via the news radio announcements, “Landslides are now blocking the highway’s eastern passage through Compostella Valley en route to Agusan” declared the radio announcer, which solidified the fact that the eastern (shorter) route would not be possible. Thank you for your prayers, and for all who gave. We will keep you posted as to the departure time/date of our team. Meanwhile, please keep praying! Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! PRAISE: That one friend in the USA gave his Christmas bonus from work to assist the Typhoon/Flood outreach, and also a senior citizen gave her month’s social security check. Praise God for the sacrifices of His people! Praise also that a youth group from Guam plans to have a short-term missions trip to Davao this Summer. UPCOMING EVENTS:
BCA HAS 373 SPONSORED STUDENTS. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. Four new sponsors are considering taking-on BCA students, which would bring the overall total to 377! 3-ACRE PROPERTY PRESENT NEED: $529 for repairs for BCA’s BUS “M”: 2 CANS TOP 1 GREASE @ $6 = $12, 2 QUARTS BRAKE FLUID @ $5 = $10, 1 SET BRAKE SHOES 4 DRS RSK 627 $55, 2 PCS WINDSHIELD WIPERS 16 INCH @ $2 = $4, 1 PC WIPER ARM $7, 2 PCS OIL SEAL 4 DRS @ $4 = $8, 2 PCS R. WP 30233 @ $2 = $4, 3 PCS R. WP 30023 @ $1 = $3, 2 TIRES @ $213 = $426 |
| 1/16/2014 | MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR DAY (USA) 1/20 “Paul, can you use 320 beaded Gospel color bracelets?” A friend in New York had planned a VBS craft activity which included threading five medium-sized colored beads onto thick, stretchable twine to make bracelets. She and a seniors group in Kentucky finished nearly 400 bracelets and sent them to us. Last week I asked our youth leader Don when was the next planned outing for the youth group to share the Gospel message. He immediately replied, “Next week!” Yet starting on Thursday and continuing into Sunday morning it had rained constantly, around the clock, which is rare for the Philippines,. Usually it’ll pour for a few hours and clear the sky. But the constant drizzle was quite uncommon. When Sunday morning arrived, Abby stated, “the Gospel bracelet distribution is postponed, due to the rain.” Over the past few decades, I have watched the little BCA preschoolers progress from grade to grade, some of them eventually becoming taller than me. It is a joy to see these kids also reaching out with the Gospel as proud followers of Jesus. Before the youth group left for the park, I prayed over the kids as our “soldiers for Christ” and also for the bracelets themselves, that those who received them would have willing souls to respond to the Gospel invitation. Upon their return, the faces of each youth were glistening with excitement. “Handing out the gospel tracts before was great training for today’s outreach!” declared Don. “These Gospel bracelets make the youth think and explain the meaning of the colors. Many people strolling in the park responded to the Gospel message when the kids explained that the BLACK represents sin in our lives, the RED represents Christ’s blood that was spilled on the cross for us, the WHITE represents the purity we have when Jesus washes our sins away, the GREEN represents how we should grow as believers by praying, reading our Bibles and obeying the truths found therein, and the GOLD represents the promise of heaven.” One by one, members of our youth group prayed with twenty people in the park to become believers in Jesus Christ! “Thirteen year old Mechico was amazing,” said PJ. I started sharing with one Filipino woman, and she boldly stated, “I Do NOT speak English!” After which Mechico overhearing, said, “I’ll take care of this” She rolled up her sleeves, strutted up and then had a double-take with, “What am I dong?” But she went ahead a little later after her courage was regained, and shared the Gospel in the local dialect.. Thanks so very much, VBSers and a Senior citizens group on the other side of the world, for twenty new souls being ushered into the Kingdom, and also for helping two dozen young people courageously proclaim the Gospel in the Park! Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! PRAISE: That I achieved 7 of my 12 goals for 2013! ACHIEVED:
UNACHIEVED:
GOALS BY DEC. 31, 2014 (19)
UPCOMING EVENTS: BCA HAS 373 SPONSORED STUDENTS. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. 3-ACRE PROPERTY ADMINISTRATION/TEMPORARY CLASSROOMS BUILDING: |
| 1/9/2014 | EPIPHANY SUNDAY (1/5) “Pauliebencol is walking!” To watch this 14-month-old baby boy waddle quickly across the room was like watching God’s perfect plan turn the page to a brand-new chapter. Back in 2012 I performed the funeral for Anselmo. This common laborer had left this world without even being given a chance to see his only son being born. The father of Pauliebencol (“Baby Ben”), Anselmo had breathed his last after being bitten by a dengue mosquito in the jungles where they lived. Three months later Baby Ben was born. We hired his mom Pancelita as house parent for our Girls’ Home, after she agreed to move their family of five seven hours away to Davao. Complications ensued during Baby Ben’s delivery, yet God graciously spared the lives of both baby and mother. The months have flown by, and now Baby Ben is already walking! Pancelita has been busy running our girls’ home, especially after the 2012 Typhoon Pablo brought in six homeless girls whose parents perished from the floods. A year later, just after Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda hit the Philippines, the Administrator of our two homes finished his three-year term and moved back to the USA. Elvie and I have this week recruited our assistant pastor to consider applying for the vacant position. To stir his enthusiasm, Elvie included him with a team of five on an overnight trip to a very effective Christian orphanage in Southern Mindnao. Our crew from BCA was overwhelmed by the joyful Christian atmosphere they encountered in the 62-yr-old Korean-run institution. Happy boys and girls greeted them with huge smiles. The staff and house parents fed them and pored over paperwork and scheduling lessons learned since the institution began in the early 1950’s just after the end of World War II. Many of the orphans who passed through this children’s home have become pastors. One even performed Elvie’s and my wedding almost two decades ago. Callem has plans to teach our 19 formerly-homeless boys and girls to pray, play guitar, memorize Scripture, and decorate their respective homes with a weekly-changing variety of Bible themes. “It’ll be so fun!” declared Callem’s wife Filipina. Of course Callem and Filipina Betil will not live in the two children’s homes, for that responsibility resides with the “house parents”. But daily the Betils will visit the homes and interact with the kids and staff to open the minds of these impressionable kids to the joy, creativity and excitement that only Christ can give. Baby Ben is walking now, trying out his daily-strengthened physical muscles. Yet with the newly-expanding, deepened Christian emphasis in our two homeless-children’s homes, these nineteen kids will strengthen their “Spiritual walk” each and every day! Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! PRAISE: That during our recent trip to the island of Guam (near to this Island of the Philippines) to renew Elvie’s American visa, we visited a church where representatives from Trans World Radio (TWR) offered to send a team to accompany Elvie later this month as she works to rebuild houses in Typhoon-ridden Samar, Tacloban and Leyte. TWR plans to send 100 transistor and wind-up radios with our team to the Typhoon’s hardest-hit areas for Christian counseling and encouragement. BCA will also be sending building materials, food and medical supplies. PRESENT NEED: $1,255 FOR BCA ROOF REPAIRS (30 METAL SHEET-ROOFING, NAILS, METAL “FARLIN” BEAMS, PAINT, ETC.). |
| 12/26/2013 | January 2, 2014 HAPPY PHILIPPINE RIZAL DAY! (12/31) “These boys are criminals.” As we drove up to the youth jail detention center an hour away, we were briefed on the caliber of criminals we were about to encounter. With us was Pivy, our temporary sign language professor from New York. “These boys have committed the worst crimes, from drug dealing to rape and homicide.” Pulling into the dirt, rutted road which led to the center required shifting our pickup truck into four wheel drive after getting stuck. As we passed through security, once the armed guards were introduced to us and our work, they let us through with big smiles. “These boys NEED to meet you!” they said. Upon our arrival, teenage boys lounged around, many obviously tattooed, homosexual or otherwise desultory. Others were not paying any attention to the speaker, whose Powerpoint and videos displayed charts and accompanying footage of quadriplegics, etc. whose stamina and courage brought them to overcome impossible odds. After the speaker finished, pictures were being taken of the distinguished guests. As we posed for the pictures, I whispered into the ear of the institution’s president (a friend of Elvie’s for many years), “May we also share with the boys?” Surprised that we were more than just spectators, the head (Papo) said, “Definitely. Go right ahead!” A hush fell over the group of over a hundred criminal boys as I greeted them in their local dialect. Then I introduced our guest from New York. “Would you like to learn sign language? We have here a professor from a school for the deaf in the USA. And…she too is deaf.” Suddenly the boys stopped squirming. They watched attentively as Pivy taught them the alphabet, numbers and “Amazing Grace” in sign language. To watch a video of an overcomer is a great inspiration. However, to actually meet such a courageous individual in real life is like meeting a super hero. When we finished and closed with prayer in sign language, not one boy clapped. Instead, looking around the room, hundreds of hands waved and shimmered in the air, the sign language for applause. These boys could see that, although they had found excuses for the vile crimes they had committed, those infractions have become their identified handicaps. Instead of allowing themselves to be labelled by their handicaps, they can overcome them and be victorious. A few days later Elvie, Pivy, some of our BCA staff and I gathered at one of our satellite churches, which meets in a tiny, open-air cement room. Since there was not enough space for the 90 small students and their families gathered there, many peeped in from outside. One by one the kids were called and came forward to receive their toys, clothes and other Christmas gifts. I saw that these children’s handicaps (poverty, sickness, etc.) are also being overcome. Even the local pastor’s challenges of meeting the needs of the poorest of the poor, are being overcome. Nothing is impossible with God. Until next time… Let the Islands rejoice! PRAISE: That the Hot Wheels cars which were donated to our ministry over the past three years have sufficed to be distributed to every single one our BCA kids each year. While we have finally depleted our supply, approximately 300 homemade wooden cars have been donated to BCA, so we can save them to give away for next Christmas. Also, praise God that we distributed dozens of “pillow case dresses” donated by American ladies’ sewing groups, plus colorful dress/purse matching sets, given to poor little elementary/preschool aged female students. BCA HAS 373 SPONSORED STUDENTS. As God sends new sponsors, we will add more out-of-school children to the sponsorship program. TWO-PERCENTERS: 24 (26 more needed). ($1,000 pledged or donated for BCA’s new campus) BUILDING FUND: $70,300. PRESENT NEED: $1,460 for fuel consumption for our BCA buses for the month of November. Although the damage from our Halloween flash flood rendered many of our buses inoperable, we were able to get three of them up-and-running again. |
Rev. Paul, Elvie, PJ and Abigail Barner BCA Landline: 011-63-82-234-4000 Home address: 18 Eileen Drive, Rensselaer, NY 12144 PLEASE NOTE: OUR PJLILTIM@SKYINET.NET ADDRESS IS DISCONTINUED. PLEASE INSTEAD USE BLCKIDS@YAHOO.COM THANKS! |
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| Archived news from 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002 Last edited
January 4, 2015
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