Half-Day Preaching in Cebu and Update

 The venue for today’s work was at the building of a former denominational preacher, Alejandro (“Ahl”), who was recently baptized into Christ. The building is on land he owns and it is attached to his house. Ahl was baptized at the very end of July. Since that time, he has been preaching the truth to the members of the denomination (Baptist) with which he was previously affiliated. Nine of those in the local group meeting at his house have been baptized and others are very close to making that decision. Ahl also had an opportunity to preach to another Baptist group and seven were baptized from that group. Today, he invited all of the local group and several denominational preachers to attend.

The afternoon study was introduced with a short lesson on “Salvation and the Seed, God’s Word” from 1 Peter 1:22-25. The next lesson was on the Inspiration of the Scripture. After a short break, I preached on “Salvation and Saul” showing that Saul received the remission of his sins at the point of baptism, not at the point of faith only. That was follow immediately with a lesson on “A Convenient Faith at a Convenient Time” from Acts 24:24-27. This lesson was intended to show that it is never easy to obey the truth, but requires work and dedication. After the lessons, we had a question/answer session dealing with questions on baptism, the thief on the cross, inspiration and acceptable translations of the Scripture.

Our main objectives for today were to (a) further encourage some not yet baptized to see the truth and obey it and (b) get a foot in the door with some of the denominational preachers present. There were no immediate responses to the invitation that Ahl extended, but there is much hope several will soon obey. With respect to the denominational preachers, one of them has invited us to preach to his congregation. Others have committed to study further with Jonathan. (Jonathan has converted his garage to a classroom design for this purpose as well as facilitating other classes.) So, we believe it was a very successful day!

The updates we are receiving on damage from the typhoon are very bad. To start with the good report, Nilo returned to Tacloban today and found his wife and children safe. We are thankful to God for His care over them! However, Nilo also reports that Tacloban on Leyte Island is devastated. He says there are many dead. Nine families in the church at Tacloban have houses with significant damage to being destroyed. Brother Gil, who preaches at Bogo on the northern tip of Cebu Island, came to Cebu City today to tell us that our schedule to preach there tomorrow is impossible. The meeting place of the church had the roof torn off in the storm and is in shambles. Gil says 80% of the homes in Bogo are flattened. Every family in the church there had houses with severe damage or fully destroyed. Jonathan and I plan to worship with the congregation here in the center of Cebu City, then drive to Bogo to gauge the damage and be of whatever encouragement we can to the brethren.

We have also received word from Ormoc City, on the western shore of Leyte, that it is has widespread, catastrophic damage. It was reported that brethren there suffered much loss, but we have no further details about it at this time. We have still not heard from Masbate. The general rule is that near the center of the typhoon, there is overwhelming destruction and numerous deaths. After tomorrow’s visit to Bogo, I will probably have more details. Please keep our brethren and the people of this country in your prayers. The more I hear about the devastation, the more it breaks my heart!