Philippines

I have lost count, and stopped counting, how many thousands of children, young people and their families have accepted Christ because of the feeding program.  In  half of the areas in which we operate, there are no Christian churches to help bring God's message to the children and their families. So we have distributed thousands of pieces of Christian literature from Love Packages in these areas.  Churches that cooperate with us have doubled, tripled or in some areas the churches are totally overwhelmed. Many churches now hold 3 to 5 services on Sunday to accommodate the harvest.  Because of the Christian literature we are distributing thru the feeding programs, more than half a million people have come to know Jesus Christ, in the last few years.  This opens the door to Christian churches to "evangelize".  Sadly, we do not have enough workers now to teach "values education" in all the participating schools, but Love Packages literature is being used in all the schools.

All of my Bible study groups are having materials to hold on while I’m discussing the lesson. It is easier now to learn and understand when I teach them. Everybody are so happy and thankful to have those materials that bring us more encouragement to continue serving God.

We now have more than 60,000 malnourished children on our feeding program throughout the Philippines.  Feeding Centers are located in elementary schools and Day-Care Centers in 9 provinces, as well as in one or two municipalities in 16 other provinces.  We are receiving excellent cooperation and are welcomed by the school officials as well as many local governments - the governors, mayors,  etc.  This reception and cooperation has not been extended to any other religious organization including the Roman Catholic Church.  We are busy preparing to plant one church, or Bible study  in each of the more than 1,300 towns that have feeding centers.  In many remote towns and villages in the Provinces of Apayao, Kalinga and Ifugao, there has been absolutely no witness for the Lord Jesus Christ.  Regardless of the claims of many radio and television evangelists, they have not reached these areas because there are no radio and televisions in many of these places.    When we launched the feeding program in Apayao Province last November.  I spoke to all the school heads, and the government officials in a special program.  I sat down and wept, when there was a mad scramble for the outdated Sunday School materials we brought along, so that the schools would be able to teach and tell about Jesus in their classrooms.  Tons of these outdated material is thrown away in many "rich" countries, and here the school heads were begging for more material to tell about Jesus.  Thank you for sending  us so much good Sunday school materials.

The Love Packages will be distributed to around 2,000 church partners nationwide and since June, we have already distributed sets of 15 manuals to 200 churches in Metro Manila and it is still on-going. We target to finish distributions in August. The materials will be used by pastors and church workers as reference/teaching materials in Bible studies, preaching, small groups and Sunday schools and other outreach activities.

Yes, indeed because of your continued support in the form of religious materials, many people are blessed tremendously especially the desperate and unfortunate people of God in my country, not to mention the more than 300 pastors under my jurisdiction as the Bishop of the province of Bataan.  The materials that you are sending are a great help in the churches among the children, young people as well as the adult.  Many are being born again just by reading the materials, listening to teaching tape materials especially those who are receiving Bibles since many poor church members cannot afford to buy their own copies. 

Sure am glad to have received from you! The Bikes that you gave has really been a blessing to all of our Pastors that got one. These little tools has saved a great deal of money for the churches due to the fact that they don't have to spend money on fare to go to Bible Studies.  The Xerox Machine has also greatly blessed us as well, this too has become a great savings to and for our Ministry.   The Books are being used by all of our Schools but still it seems like there is never enough Reference books, Dictionaries, or Commentaries.  The Sunday school literature has been distributed now all over the Islands, and the Children are so happy in all of our Churches.  Pastors, are looking to us now as a literature distributor. Ha ha.

I apologize for this late mail. The 20 foot container was finally delivered to Baguio City and unloaded last Saturday - November 25. Praise the Lord. Although the container was released the evening of Friday - Nov. 24, the truck had trouble pulling the container up the mountain and broke down twice. At one time it lost its brakes and almost fell off the mountain. When we unloaded the container we were overjoyed at the items that were in it. Foremost were the Bibles. Then the Vacation Bible School kits, then the thousands of reading material. The container arrived just in time for a large Women's conference we are having next week, and then successive medical missions, school crusades and outdoor evangelistic crusade from January to May, 2007. Thank you

also for the bicycles and sandals. The children here in the Orphan Home will enjoy them. 

70 Pastors and Christian workers came to pick up materials. All were very happy to receive the materials from you and they are now using them in conducting VBS programs in their respective churches. Many were from Bataan, Zambales, Quezon City, Baguio City, Tarlac and other areas. Thank you ever so much for your kind help and we are conveying our most profound gratitude to all of you at Love Packages. May God richly bless all of us as we labor for Him during these endtimes.

Nationwide our churches conducted their annual Vacation Bible School for ages five to twelve. Thousands of little children came to know Christ as their Savior. I can’t thank God enough for the ministry called Love Packages. They greatly helped us with the literature for the VBS programs. God Bless You!! Also, through them we received bicycles that were given to pastors who recently graduated from Bible School. This will save them much in fares as well as time. Thank you all so much for the labor of love that you have shown to me and the whole body of Christ here in the Philippines.

In cooperation with our Department of Education, we are feeding more than 3,000 grade school pupils in remote and far flung areas. In January, our Bethesda Ministries team together with Doctors and Nurses from the Dept. of Education visited THREE of the remotest areas where we have feeding centers. In KAYAPA, Bakun, Benguet, more than 300 children with their parents and younger brothers and sisters gathered. The four wheel drive vehicles had to travel over rough terrain for several hours, crossing rivers twice. Here, each child and their family were given reading materials supplied by EAGLES NEST (Steve Schmidt) and the Word of God was planted in each child. 241 children between the ages of 9 to 14 made decisions for Christ at this place. Then the same team traveled to BEDBED, Mankayan, Benguet, and they met with the same response. Only this time, more than 320 recieved Christ into their hearts and the Word of God was planted.