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

Back... At last! :)

It's been a long, long time since anything current has been posted here, due to the busyness of this blog author! Last session (the 5th one) literally "flew" by and there is far too much to write about, but I'll try to give you a brief overview of what happened through the pictures.

Enthusiastic student lecturing on nutrition at the health expo held before the seminar at the Quezon City Memorial Circle.

Happy children doing their crafts in the children's program.

This seminar was a unique one from the aspect that Dad and Michael team-preached the sermons with both being on stage at the same time. People really enjoyed it!

Interested listeners.

PAFCOE students providing special music.

View from the back - it was an outdoor venue, but praise the Lord, it never rained during the evening presentations!

Children's program.

Putting away the chairs after every night's program and getting them out again the next day was a lot of work, but there were plenty of helping hands! :)

Group prayer with the students and staff before the meeting each evening.

A happy little friend who loves to hug me! :)

Baptismal candidates! Praise God!

Practicing their sermons in preparation for their own evangelistic meetings (called OJT - On the Job Training for the month of April 2014).

More posts coming soon!

Little seeds

Did you know that you can be planting seeds in the middle of a concrete jungle (the city) with no soil and with very little effort or work involved? Yes, you can!

Have you ever thought about the fact that flyers/handbills advertising a health expo or evangelistic meeting could be seeds? Yes, indeed – seeds! These seeds don’t need to be planted in the soil; hence no need for getting dirty hands! Flyers make great seeds and require much less work to “plant”! All it takes is a willingness to use your time and smiles for God. Handing flyers to people you meet is probably the easiest outreach there is!

So in the days leading up to the starting of our health expo on February 12, 2014, our students found themselves planting seeds. No, not literal seeds in the soil, but instead they were “planting” (passing out) health expo flyers. Here are their stories:

Commenting on their experience, one student said, “I saw God’s love in all the people that we met in the street as we handed out flyers. Some of them gave us a smile and even an encouragement because they were happy for what we were doing! But my partner and I experienced some discouragements. [Is planting seeds always easy? No, of course not!] Some people refused our flyers and threw them away. But there was an incident that inspired me to do more! We met a woman who was looking for a few check-up. I talked to her and learned her condition. She was so eager to attend the health expo because she couldn’t afford to have a check-up in a clinic or a hospital.”

Another student describing her funny experience said this: “There were lots of big houses in our area and we were afraid to knock at their doors! Then we saw the mail box and we placed a flyer in every box and no one questioned us! Even the guards wanted to have the flyers! Thinking of a place that had lots of people, we went to the mall. We didn’t know that it was forbidden to pass out flyers there and before long, we had passed out more than half of our stack. Then the guard came to us and said, “Give me your permit and I will let you give flyers.” We didn’t know what to do since we didn’t have one! He said, “If you don’t have a permit, go to the overpass and give them out there.” So we did! We even gave him a flyer too and he accepted it!”

One student had a good attitude as she said, “I never would have seen myself passing out flyers to different people, especially for a religious program. But then I remembered my life before when I didn’t know the light and was still in darkness. I remembered that God used many ways to reach me and give me hope. So I realized that giving out flyers was one way that God was trying to reach other people with His love and I was inspired to do my part!”

Yes, you never know who will be won to the Lord by seeing a flyer and choosing to attend! You never know what “seed” will spring up and bear fruit!  In fact, one of our students had an experience just like that! He was walking along the street and found a flyer on the ground. Because it looked interesting, he picked it up and decided to attend the meetings. At the end, he gave his life to Christ and was baptized and now he is a student, preparing to work for others' salvation!

The experience of another student was this: “We were supposed to pass out flyers in a new area, but were not allowed because of the guards. And before that, we got lost and went in the totally wrong direction. We wasted lots of time that way! Then we went to an area where there were a lot of people to pass out flyers. One man came along and I talked to him and he told me all the hard things that had happened in his life. I prayed with him and he came twice to the health expo and enjoyed it a lot! Praise God!”

We praise God for the many “seeds” (flyers) that were planted during the week leading up to the health expo! Many of them “sprung” up and started to grow!

Watch for the next post with stories from the health expo, coming soon!

Testimonies of Meeting Jesus!

PAFCOE is all about soul-winning, as you may have realized already! But the stories that come out of PAFCOE are not just from the students’ interests – some are from themselves! I would like to share with you a couple of the student’s inspiring testimonies. Here they are:

“It’s hard to describe my past life. Before I met Jesus, I did not have big problems. I just had a few of so small problems. My life was easy and simple. I played, went to school, ate and then went to sleep; as you can see, it was a life of ease. But deep inside me, something was lacking I didn’t have peace in my heart and felt like there was a longing for something that I could not get. I was somewhat happy, but my joy was not full.

“Because I was born into a Christian family, I heard about Jesus when I was still young. I was always positive about the message of Jesus, but I did not have a close relationship with Him. Then I began to contemplate the many times Jesus saved me from the brink of death – cord coiled in my mother’s womb, almost hit by a truck, could have been barbequed by electricity and others. These made me realize how much Jesus loves me and how much I need to come closer to Him; He saved my life! And as I studied my Bible and prayed more to Jesus, developing a relationship with Him, I saw more of my weaknesses, and saw that I needed Him more. Then I fully gave my life to Him.

“After giving my life to Jesus, I could describe it as like gold. I have peace, I have joy, I have contentment, that I never found until I gave my life to Jesus. But while this was like gold, this gold is still on the process of purifying. Of course there are a lot of problems, sometimes big sometimes small, but it never outgrows the peace that I have in Jesus. My life of ease is gone, but along with it, is my lack. Someone filled up all my longings, and gave me peace and joy that cannot be lost even amid problems and trials. I have a hard time describing how it is such a blessing to experience giving up my life to Jesus. You need to experience it yourself to understand what I am saying!”

Yes, friends, meeting Jesus is the best thing you could ever do! Keep reading for another inspiring testimony!

“I grew up with a devoted mother and non-Adventist father. I went to church not really knowing the reason why I worship God. I’m very shy especially when I’m exposed to people. For so many times I kept thinking the reason of my existence was because I didn’t understand the meaning of my life. And sad to say, I come to church very seldom and had no more interest of spiritual things. For some years in my life, I felt so empty and attain no real joy. I went astray to God yet I still felt His guiding Spirit.

“One day, my sister asked me a question that leads me to answer her directly. Do you still have a plan to come to Jesus? Would you like to come with me to church? The Lord touched my heart and He used someone as an instrument to me to come back to Him. I answer, “yes” and it’s actually what my heart had desired for so long. Jesus found me and led me back to Him at the time that my spirit was so down. I felt unworthy for Him but His love for me is truly great!

“As I contemplate God’s leading, I’m amazed how He prepared the roads I never expected to tread. Amazingly He opened the way for me to be part of His mission. His first calling was for me to experience “literature ministry.” When I was in high school, He also allowed me to serve Him through 1000 Missionary Ministry. Missionary endeavor has never been easy but I’ve learned that true service is not all about us, nor the people alone but it’s all about Jesus. God blessed me so much but most especially, I am grateful for the opportunity of being a laborer with Him. He also heard my prayers and it’s a joy to see people accepting Jesus, especially seeing my father and being with him in the church. Indeed I humbly praise Him for what He has done in my life!”

We have to meet Jesus ourselves before we can lead others to Him!

Finding the joys of Bible studies!

Have you experienced the joy that is found in giving Bible studies and sharing God’s Word to others? If not, we highly recommend you try it! Here at PAFCOE, our students have just gotten a “taste” of this joy! As Ellen White says, “It is a joyous work to open the Scriptures to others.”  -- Testimonies, Vol. 9, p. 118.

Keep reading for some of their inspiring experiences!

One student said, “The most inspiring experience I had was during the time I was talking to one of our Bible interests. She is an old lady, in her 70s and still working by selling candies and newspapers. She opened up to me and told me how difficult her life was and how much she desires to study the Bible but that she can’t see clearly anymore. While I was talking to her, it reminded me that I still have lots of work to do in bringing souls to Jesus. It inspired me to use all my strength for the service of the Lord. Many people are just around us, only waiting for people to tell them about Jesus! Then I realized that I should be an instrument of God to do that important work!”

Sometimes Bible studies are given in unique places! But it’s always where the people are as one student commented:

“I was so inspired so much because of our experience this week! There was an old man working at the side of the street planting grass. During the time we met him, he was digging a hole about 4 feet deep. He invited us to do our Bible study with him in that hole! So we did! We sat together with him in the hole and opened our Bibles to begin the study. Imagine how the people around us reacted when they saw us opening our Bibles to an old man in a hole!”

Yes, that was a unique place to have a Bible study, but it worked and God blessed! Another student said,

“This week, we were able to meet a beautiful young lady on the road. She happened to stop and ask us if we can guide her to the street she was looking for. My partner gave her more than she was asking for – she surveyed her and I didn’t expect she would be so friendly and eager to have a Bible study! I saw God’s great love for us all. He loves even the very ones who seem to be so engrossed by the world. I praise God for seeing His great love today that even this lady was interested in learning more!

Then she added, “I’ve learned many lessons this week. There was a person whom we approached for the survey, but we did it in a hurry and didn’t even offer a prayer for him because he was a hurry himself. Suddenly we noticed that we had neglected to survey the hurried man’s companion! The man’s companion approached us and asked us what we were doing. I was so sorry to God that we had not noticed him earlier because he was so eager to know the truth and accepted for a sit-down Bible study which will be given to our male classmates. I learned that I must regard each person as a precious soul and never withhold the truth from anyone.

It’s so easy to study with kids! Here are two experiences the students had with kids:

“My partner and I happened to have this wonderful opportunity to gather the kids from a slum area around us and teach them Scripture songs and tell them Bible stories and how to pray. Through their smiles and eagerness to learn, I saw Christ’s wellspring of love. He revealed to me His great love for me through telling me to be like the children – willing to be taught and happy to learn new things!”

The other one said, “When the children learned that we know how to teach Bible stories, they asked us for more stories when we come back to visit them. Then I asked them if they know who Jesus is and all of them said they didn’t know what we are talking about! I almost cried because they want to know more about Jesus. I love children!”

Yes, friends, working for souls is a “joyous work”! Try it yourself and just watch how you will be blessed!

Missing Jesus

Have you ever thought you might be missing Jesus – even if you are working for Him or serving Him as a missionary? Think again! This is the story of one of our current students:

“Years ago, even though I grew up in a Christian home, I still have this emptiness within me. I tried to fill this emptiness by joining dance competitions and other things that pleased me – all the pleasures of this world. I thought those were the answers but then God called me to join a group of young people who wanted to share God’s love to those around them. I read the book Steps to Christ, by my favorite author and decided to become a missionary.

“Though I was a missionary and knew many things about God, there was one thing I missed. I missed Jesus! I knew that Jesus is the Son of God but knowing Jesus is different from trusting fully in Him. God brought me to another place and used a Christian Doctor to introduce Jesus to me. I learned how to trust God and surrender to Him. His sacrifice for me and His power to help me overcome sin was so amazing!

“By accepting Christ as my personal Savior, my life is not easy. I have trials as others are experiencing, too. But I thank God that we have Jesus to tell our sorrows to and unload our heavy burdens on. I’m now a missionary, a fulfilled missionary, with the love of Jesus and the assurance of eternal life; not by what I’ve done, but what He has done to me and through me. I’m now enjoying my time with Jesus by communing with Him and reading His Word! God is so good!”

Yes, we can be so busy sometimes with our work (even if it’s God’s work), that we can miss Jesus. Let’s purpose to always spend the time we need each day to make Jesus our truly “best” friend!