Our Tuesday study in the
“Learning to Use the Bible” series went very well. We covered the NT books in
an overall look, the view the books in their groupings (Gospels, History,
Epistles/Letters and Prophecy), and then some distinctive elements of each
individual book. Since I was fighting the loss of my voice, Jonathan Carino
took the rest of the time after I left about 3pm. As most of the Filipino
preachers are more familiar with the NT, they seemed to grasp the points more
readily than the day before.
This morning was our time to
bring it all together. We reviewed the principles from the previous two days,
then I put up the words of a passage and had them identify where it was located
using the principles about the books that we learned previously. They were only
allowed to use their Bibles without any kind of concordance or search engine.
As we went through the exercise, they caught on well and were able to narrow it
down to a given book and then find the text. After doing that about 20 times, I
showed them the ultimate point of the exercise. We noted that they could alter
that process and find a passage by knowing the point they wanted to make in a
sermon and, knowing the make-up of the sections and books, quickly find a
passage that would be correctly used in its context rather than just seeing a
phrase that looked right and possibly using it out of its context. They seemed
to benefit from the classes and expressed their thanks repeatedly.
The extent of the damage done
by Typhoon Ompong (known as “Mangkhut” as the
international name) is becoming clearer by the day. Some of the worst loss of
life seems to have been some distance south of the typhoon’s path in Baguio. That
is a mountainous region and the rain was especially heavy there causing large
landslides. Today, the reports are that 60 were killed in one large landslide.
The damages in the Cagayan province (where Tuguegarao is located) seem to be
mostly from the high winds. I saw reports yesterday from Jerome Forelo, Rody
Gumpad’s son-in-law, that he had personally seen those from 16 congregations in
that area and all had significant damage to either homes or church buildings or
both. Many seemed to have had their metal roof taken away by the wind.
Rody
leaves tomorrow and hopes to be in Tuguegarao by Saturday. I am due to be in
Tuguegarao in early November for preacher training classes there on the “Epistles
of Peter” and “Premillennialism.” It looks like those classes will be possible
as the President of the Philippines visited Tuguegarao shortly after the
typhoon passed. He has ordered a massive force to restore power quickly and
have the airport open within a week. When Typhoon Yolanda hit several years
ago, the President at that time did very little and much of the devastation
remained unchanged for more than a year. I will do my best to keep up with news
of the damage as I get it and pass it along to all of you.
This statement is from Rody
Gumpad: “I am getting so many requests from brethren in
many places and I do not know how to start with! The damages are so great!
Besides Isabela, Kalinga and Apayao Provinces there are more than 60 active Congregations
in Cagayan alone and all have damages and heavily affected (Church Buildings
and house of members and crops destroyed)! It is so impossible to supply all
the amounts they are requesting to help them recover but we can divide what we
can get especially to those who are most in need.”
