Last Day in Ozamis City

Today’s work was in Ozamis City at the building of a congregation meeting within ten minutes of our hotel. We were transported to and from the building by tricycle. As tricycles go, this one had more room than any I have taken previously. A member of the church in Clarin with whom we worked on Saturday was the driver. He is also starting to preach, so he also wanted to hear more to help him in understanding more of God’s word. Due to the request for pictures the last time I mentioned riding in a tricycle, I have included a picture for your general amusement. I look like a large bass packed into a sardine can.

The congregation visited today was included in our schedule to open a door for further study. The group has embraced institutionalism in times past. However, those who had strong institutional sympathies have left or died. The preacher has seen where the church involvement in entertainment and central control leads. The building will easily hold 200 people and was at one point almost filled. However, with the emphasis being on social and entertainment activities, they have dwindled to less than 20 in number. There were 26 present today if I counted correctly – a number that included a few visitors.

One visitor was a preacher with the “One Container” faction who is trying to buy the preacher from this congregation for the obvious purpose of getting his hands on the building. He tried to distract the audience, but after I kindly asked if there was a problem, he ceased is disruption. He left before the end of the first lesson. As the “One Container” element from America (mostly from the Oklahoma City area) comes to the Philippines, it is their common practice to go to established churches and seek to change their practice. I have not seen this group trying to teach and baptize non-Christians. They leave that to our brethren and then come in offering support for those preachers who will change their teaching. Frankly, if such preachers are ready to change their teaching and sell themselves for evil, I am glad they leave faithful brethren, rather than letting their leaven work among the Lord’s body.

In the morning session, I preached on “Salvation and the Seed of the Gospel,” a slightly altered form of the same lesson used numerous times on this trip. James Armada followed with a detailed summary because the audience did not understand much English. Afterwards, I began another on “God’s Inspiration of His Word.” The lesson was divided into two parts because of the time. Jonathan Carino gave a detailed summary of the first part before lunch and James did the same with the second half after lunch. To use the remaining time more efficiently, I asked Jonathan to preach his lesson on “The Church.” He addressed some of the basic issues in the dialect. At the conclusion of his lesson, Jonathan offered an invitation, but there were no visible responses. We thought it best to end at that point to avoid information overload.

 

The congregation clearly showed their pleasure with the teaching and we were enthusiastically invited back for further studies as soon as possible. This also happened with the churches over the past two days. This is only my second time to preach in the Ozamis City area and I did not work with the any of these congregations on the last trip. All are either new congregations or newly open to the truth. We seek no control over them and left the teaching in their hands to examine in light of the Scripture. I believe there has been a great deal of progress with doors open to the truth, but follow-up is urgently needed.