You might have been
wondering why nothing has been posted for quite awhile on the blog. Life has
been very busy lately at PAFCOE since batch/session 5 has just begun on January
9. We praise God for the 48 students He has sent us from all over the
Philippines and even one from Europe!
Every night of the
first week, Dad (the PAFCOE director) presented topics about what will happen
at end-time based out of the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy. Everyone was
inspired and challenged to be ready for Jesus’ soon coming!
Outreach has already
begun, too! And the stories from their experiences are already flowing in!
One student said, “I
remembered when Jesus was still here on earth He met different people and He
always had compassion towards them. He always had a burden in his heart to
reach every individual He met. While we are walking on outreach, I remembered
myself as I was before – hopeless. I saw that these people are also hopeless
and the Lord reminded me that He died not only for me, but for every one of
them, too. I felt like I’m not worthy to minister to others, but God gave me
the courage to do it! I learned that in my own strength, I can’t do anything, I
can’t speak the right words, I can’t do the right actions and I can’t think
right unless I am connected with the source of all power. We need more prayer
that through this we will have strength and power.”
Another student added
his thoughts:
“Before the outreach, I
prayed that we would have a good experience on outreach. Then we started our
surveys. The first person we met rejected it without even listening to what we
had to say! So we went to another house and the people inside wouldn’t answer. I
was somewhat discouraged. I felt like skipping a house thinking, ‘They won’t answer,’
but we went anyways and someone answered! And the person accepted Bible
studies! We went to another house and she also accepted! I then remembered that
God in His infinite love wanted me to feel the joys of soul-winning!”
Of course, doing
outreach isn’t always easy, but here is one student’s experience:
“While we were walking
to our outreach territory, I began very tired because it’s so far away from our
classroom. Then I remembered the time when Jesus was carrying a heavy cross
just for us and I prayed that He would give me strength to keep going and He
did!”
Getting lost is another
challenge, especially when the students are not from the area (many came from
other parts of the Philippines). This is the story of one team of students:
“I was very inspired
when a Grandma received our survey and allowed us to ask her the questions. Since
it was getting late, we decided to go back. But as we looked at one another, we
realized that we were lost! Neither of us knew how to get back! We laughed
together and started to walk and prayed we would find the way. Praise God, He answered
our prayer and brought us back home!”
Another one said, “We got lost this week
in our outreach. I was so inspired by my partner and the other team that even
though we walked a long ways to reach home, still they didn’t complain! I saw
that their faces are still happy and they were singing. We encouraged each
other not to dismayed but have faith that God will help us and He did!”
And still another
student commented on getting lost. She said:
“We got a little bit
lost this time doing outreach. As we were trying to see where we were on the
map and find our territory, this lady and her husband asked us where we were
going. We explained what we were doing and the nice lady pointed out the
directions for how to get to the streets on our map. Her husband was sick and
they had just come home from a check-up. She even showed us which house they
live in. Since we were still deciding where to start, we told her we would be
visiting her house soon. I was so amazed at her kindness to us strangers! I know
it was a divine appointment and I pray we will be able to do a Bible study in
their home.”
Prayer is the key to
reaching hearts as one student found out:
“When I approached a
lady to do the survey with, she asked me lots of questions that I could hardly
answer. As I offered to do the survey with her, she told me ‘no’ three times
and that she has no time. I just prayed in my mind that she would be willing to
do the survey and suddenly she started answering my questions! She even took
one of our Bible study guides and we ended our conversation with prayer! Glory
be to God!”
Another student said
this: “I learned that if I love God and trust Him, He can change me! He can
replace my feelings of fear to a love for souls. I realized that we should not
have self-confidence and that we need to be prepared for soul-winning. It is
through surrendering myself to God that will make me be a successful
soul-winner.”
God really has His
people who are searching for the truth as one student found out! “I feel so blessed when
we met one of our interests! He is a Roman Catholic and was so eager to share
God’s Word and told us that he doesn’t bow down to any saints or pray to them.
He always believed in Revelation and always read the Bible. I felt so inspired
because he was so eager to learn more about God and is searching the Bible for
its truths!”
And one more from our
lady Doctor who is a student, too. She said, “The most important
experience I had this week was to depend solely on God and to take away all the
pride in my heart. As I was knocking on doors during outreach, Satan was trying
to tell me that I was wasting my time there – that as a physician, I could do
more things to help people than just knocking on doors and doing surveys. As my
partner and I prayed, the Holy Spirit reminded me that my heart was still
sinful. I felt bad to be thinking those thoughts even for a short time. I
surrendered my pride and focused on Jesus.”
Continuing on, she
said, “I had a memorable experience with a helper (similar to a maid/servant) that
we surveyed. I remember her eagerness to know Jesus more through the Bible and
of course, she accepted Bible studies. Her curiosity to know more about God was
like that of a child’s and she was very humble and willing to be taught. It inspired
me to have a child-like spirit like she had!”
Yes, friends, our
students are finding people who are interested in learning more about Jesus and
His truths! Keep checking for more stories about what God is doing through them
here at PAFCOE!
