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.
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| Pastor Wilson preaching |
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| Happy graduate receiving his diploma |
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| 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
