Here's an update Dad wrote:
Greetings from the
Philippines! What is happening at PAFCOE? You’ve probably wondered
on several occasions, and the silence from here may have heightened the
mystery. Yes we have been busy, but in a busy world, that seems like a
poor excuse. So we’ll just have to say politely, like they do so well
here in South-east Asia, “We’re sorry, we’re late!” Being late is much
more easily forgiven here, than in the West. Filipinos smile shyly and
say, “We’re on Filipino time.” That is considered an acceptable excuse
for tardiness, but at PAFCOE, our students are required to be on time...
Looks like my PAFCOE journalism is hopelessly late! Permit me to borrow
another Asian expression – “Kindly forgive me!”
Our twenty-three students are
on OJT. That is short for “On-the-Job-Training” – which at our school of
evangelism means a one-month evangelistic series in a local church somewhere in
the Philippines. Our students and staff are in 19 different sites
scattered throughout the Islands of this tropical paradise, with a combined
total attendance of over one-thousand adults in the adult evangelistic
meetings, and even more than that in the many children’s meetings.
Some students are thrilled
with the numbers attending, some discouraged with smaller meetings, but all are
facing the usual challenges of doing evangelism in enemy territory. Last
night one site sent us a message to pray that the pouring rain would stop so
that people could come to the evening program. About an hour later they
sent another text, “Thank you for the prayers. The rain has stopped, but
now there is a brown-out (black-out). Please pray that the power will
come back on.” We learned later that they had to conduct the meeting in
the dark since the power remained off, but even that difficulty turned into a
blessing, since the people were very quiet and attentive.
This is the first week of
meetings for our students in their sites throughout the Philippines. For
us, classes ended Oct. 31, and most of our students departed the next day on
busses, boats, or planes, for their OJT sites. For all of them, it is
their first 4-week evangelistic series. They had worked with us in our
“training series,” and taken classes on public evangelism, but “on-the-job,”
doing it “yourself,” is still the best training!
We conducted the “training
meeting” from August 31 – Oct. 6 in an area of Iloilo where there is no
Adventist church. This was a 5-week evangelistic series, with our
students as helpers, learning the art of public evangelism. The meetings
were in a covered gym with open sides, in what is considered one of the
“roughest” and “poorest” neighborhoods of the city. Now, praise-the-Lord,
there is a new group of Adventists meeting in that district of Iloilo, and the
little group of new believers is praying for God’s direction in building a
church in their area.
The weekend that we finished
that series of meetings, an American friend of ours started a four-week
evangelistic series in another district of the city, and before he finished,
his brother and family came to conduct a two-week series in yet another
area. When those two young men finished, a beautiful beach baptism
brought more souls into the family of God! Planning, preparing, and
coordinating those meetings in addition to teaching classes at PAFCOE during
the day, kept us “running” up until the time our students left for OJT.
When Jesus said, “Go,” I think He meant “run,” to save souls!
Now we are on break—sort
of. We are back to “walking” and our students are “on the run” for
soul-winning! During this month, we will be traveling to Manila to lay
plans for moving the PAFCOE school to that metropolis next year. One of
the central churches in Manila has invited us to come hold PAFCOE at their
church, and conduct evangelism in metro-Manila. We have seen God’s
leading in that move, and are stepping forward with plans. We believe
that this will broaden the influence and opportunities of the PAFCOE training
considerably. When we initially started PAFCOE here in the Philippines,
it was our vision to make the school “mobile” so that different areas of this
country could take advantage of the evangelistic training being offered.
Now we are seeing how God is fulfilling that vision.
That is a “little update”
from a “little country” in South-east Asia, but we extend a BIG “THANK YOU” to
all those of you who have supported the evangelism work of PAFCOE! “Thank
you” to those of you who have sponsored worthy-students. “Thank you” to
those of you who have sponsored this school. The average cost for all 22
of the evangelistic meetings this session (including our main meeting) was just
over $1000 per meeting. We’ll update you when our students finish their
meetings, what the final outcome of souls is. At any rate, even one soul
is an investment that heaven paid the “highest price” for. “Thank you,
and thank the Lord!”
We’ll share some stories
about our training meeting in that “rough” district of Iloilo, in our next
report. It won’t be next year either—I promise!
Best wishes for now!
Your friends,
Pastor Lowell & family
& PAFCOE staff
