Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Hope Manila 2014 with Pastor Wilson



This is an update Dad wrote:

Christian greetings!

On May 11, the fifth “batch” (class) graduated with nearly 80 students from two different programs.   President Ted Wilson who was in Manila for a two-week evangelistic effort, delivered the commencement address, challenging the PAFCOE graduates to “dream big” in their future plans for service and soul-winning.

Pastor Wilson preaching
 
Happy graduate receiving his diploma



The whole group (students, staff and guest speakers)

 Pastor Wilson’s two-week series was the culmination of a huge evangelistic outreach to the Metro-Manila area, called HOPE Manila 2014 iCare.   



 The Central Luzon Conference where this sprawling city is located, hosted over 120 evangelistic meetings, 55 of which were conducted by PAFCOE students and staff.  On Sundays from January through March, the conference sent in a group of about 45 lay-preachers to learn the principles of public evangelism at PAFCOE.  These were laymen who have jobs during the week, but are active in preaching, and anxious to sharpen their soul-winning skills.  After twelve Sundays of classes, they went out to conduct a one-month evangelistic meeting. 

One laymen from the local church where PAFCOE is located, sent me the following text while he and his partner were conducting their OJT (on-the-job-training / the one-month evangelistic meeting our students are required to conduct in order to graduate):

“I never wanted to be an evangelist.  I thought that I wanted to be either a teacher or a preacher.  Praise God!  Now I am enjoying every minute of it despite the seemingly numerous discouragements.  I would not have it any other way.”

After finishing his series, he sent another text:

“I am already starting to feel and miss the pressure of our one-month evangelistic meeting.  It’s like I’m yearning for it.  Is this normal Pastor Lowell?”

Yes it’s normal!  He has been infected with the love of soul-winning which is exactly why we insist on all students doing an OJT.  After that “taste” of seeing souls baptized as the result of their own personal efforts, most PAFCOE graduates can never go back to being a “normal” or “nominal” inactive church member.  PAFCOE is training an “army” of evangelists that are spreading out to South-east Asia and beyond!

Aside from the “Sunday Students,” another 45 students took the “full-course,” learning principles of personal evangelism, health evangelism, child evangelism, and literature evangelism, plus classes on Daniel and Revelation and Bible Doctrines.  They too went out to conduct a one-month evangelistic series either for adults or for children.  During the mass baptisms at Pastor Wilson’s meetings, what a thrill it was to see many children among those taking their stand for the truth.  Many of these children were prepared for the step of baptism at a PAFCOE OJT meeting.

After the one-month OJT, most PAFCOE students brought their baptismal interests to one of the mass baptisms that the Central Luzon Conference held in connecting with Pastor Ted’s two-week series.  Approximately eight-hundred were baptized through the work of PAFCOE students, staff, and alumni.  Praise God!






What a thrill it was to see every level of church structure, and virtually every department, all working together to win souls in Manila!  At PAFCOE, we feel honored to be involved in God’s work, and also to be able to train workers for the Master.

“With such an army of workers as our youth, rightly trained, might furnish, how soon the message of a crucified, risen, and soon-coming Saviour might be carried to the whole world! How soon might the end come.”  (Education, p. 271).

Thank you for supporting the work of Amazing Facts, and specifically PAFCOE in our mission to prepare a people for Christ’s soon return!

Your friends,

Pastor Lowell & family & the PAFCOE staff