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| Pastor Joel, a graduate and Pastor Mangiliman - the Conference President |
Dear Family
and friends:
PAFCOE
batch three, as the Filipinos refer to this last graduating class, ended
Tuesday night, May 28. Thirty-seven participants, aged nineteen to
seventy-six, marched down the isle of the Manila Center Church to receive their
certificate and smile at the camera. Participants had more than
graduation to smile about. Click here for more pictures. All had recently returned from OJT, which is
part of their evangelism training. On-the-job-training (OJT) had just
ended with nearly 500 baptisms in thirty different sites in the Philippine
Islands!
Batch three
has been a memorable class in many ways. This was our first session of
PAFCOE in Manila, as the result of the invitation of Pastor Joel Sarmiento and
the staff at Manila Center Adventist Church. And what a supportive church
staff they have been! Years ago, Manila Center was built and pastored by
Royce Williams, as a Center of evangelism for Manila and Quezon City.
Now, the current leadership is working hard to make Manila Center again a
“Center” of evangelism for Metro Manila. PAFCOE is helping them to
realize that goal!
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| The graduating class with Pastor Mangiliman and Pastor Joel in the front. |
Also during
this session, Pastor Doug Batchelor fulfilled a promise made more than ten
years ago, to “return” to Manila to finish an evangelistic series which was
tragically cut short by the death of his eldest son. This year, PAFCOE
students and staff alike were thrilled to have Pastor Doug and his wife Karen
and son Nathan, with us in Manila for more than a week at the end of March! (See older posts for more info on this.)
It was
during one of Pastor Doug’s open-air meetings in the evening, that we
experienced another “memory”—an unexpected rain-shower. For more than an
hour it poured, finally forcing the cancellation of the evening program.
What a “memory” it was for about a hundred of us, huddled together under the
canopy of the stage roof, trying to stay dry while listening to the local choir
sing amidst the roar of the storm.
Then there
was the memorable final weekend of Pastor Doug’s series, when nearly
eight-thousand Adventists and their friends, gathered in a large sports complex
for Sabbath worship and a mass-baptism. This time many used their
umbrellas again to avoid the falling sunbeams!
After
Pastor Doug left, we began in earnest the preparation for OJT—more than thirty
sites of evangelism, where our students would preach a one-month series of
prophecy lectures. The day the students left for their sites, our family
flew from Manila to Bacolod City, to conduct our own OJT.
Working
together with Elder Carpena, the Division Health Director, and the local
Adventist Hospital (Bacolod Adventist Medical Center), we conducted a 4-week
series of meetings combining a nightly health expo and health lecture, followed
by a prophecy presentation. The average attendance was around 500, with
many church members bringing their friends. The retired local conference
president brought a neighbor each night, and at the conclusion of the series,
saw his neighbor baptized!
But perhaps
the best memories were the ones from the Children’s Evangelistic meetings,
conducted at most of the OJT sites. For example, at the Chinese Adventist
Church in Manila, attendance at the adult meets was rather disheartening, but
the number of children attending the Children’s Program, grew to around
200! The lady leading out with the Children’s Program, is a local
attorney, a member at Manila Center. She had helped out in our
evangelistic meeting with Pastor Doug, and had brought her son to the nightly
children’s program conducted by Sandra and the PAFCOE student assistants during
the Revelations of Prophecy series. When she heard that the Chinese
Church had no one to conduct the children’s evangelistic meetings, she
volunteered.
Using her
law-office staff as assistants, Attorney Gizelle (pronounced G-zil) prepared
the nightly crafts, and taught the nearly 200 enthusiastic street-children that
attended. Near the end of the meetings, sixty of the children decided to
get baptized! The rather inactive Chinese Church hardly knew what to
do. “Who is going to follow-up on all these children” they asked attorney
Gizelle?
Of the
sixty children, twenty were able to get permission from their parents to get
baptized and join the Adventist Church. Many are having a profound
influence upon their parents, as they strive to live the faith they have
accepted. Attorney Gizelle and her office staff are holding weekly
follow-up meetings for the children, to nurture the interests.
Among the
personal memories from this past session, is a note from one of our graduates,
a lay-pastor who is now returning to raise up a new church in his assigned
district. He writes,
“The
very thing that I wanted to learn before coming to PAFCOE was how to improve my
personal evangelism skills. Finally, here at PAFCOE, I learned more than
what I had expected—the techniques, factors, and how to witness. Another thing
that I wanted to improve was my public evangelism. Here at PAFCOE, I
learned things that I never learned in college—how to preach with PowerPoint,
how to use my diaphragm in speaking, practical ways to write sermons. But
PAFCOE has changed me, my diet, dress, time management, music, the ways that I
approach evangelism, and most importantly, my personal devotions and personal
relationship with Christ. PAFCOE showed me the right way, the right principles
for a Christian in doing evangelism.”
Of the
thirty-seven students that came through the PAFCOE training this “batch,” only
one paid their own way! The rest were sponsored. On behalf of the
graduates who are now “going forth” to work for the Master Soul-winner, and
also on behalf of the PAFCOE staff, we extend to each of you our “thanks” for
your faithful prayers and support!
Your
friends,
Pastor
Lowell & family & the PAFCOE staff
www.pafcoe.org
www.pafcoe.org
