My flight Thursday into Bacolod was rescheduled
to depart about four hours later than the ticket purchased. This made the visit
to a congregation scheduled for Thursday afternoon impossible. However, Friday’s
studies planned in Victorias City carried on according to plans. The studies
were held in the same venue as the studies on the last day of my previous trip.
Some of you may recall that 11 people obeyed the gospel at that time, so we
believed a follow-up was needed as soon as possible. Jack let me know on the
drive to Victorias City that the congregation that meets at his house was able to
start 2 new congregations since I was last here in the Spring because of the
number of new converts!
The venue was in a large room on the second floor
of a shopping area that also had a number of function rooms for rental. About
70-80 were in attendance today. Most were newly converted Christians, though
there were a few from denominational groups. We began at 9am with singing. I
then preached a little over an hour and a half on “Foundations of Faith”
examining some of the evidence strongly suggesting the power and wisdom of God
that was responsible for the Scripture. Jack then followed with a lesson on the need
for obedience.
After lunch, I gave a lesson on “Identifying
Marks of the New Testament Church.” It went into numerous differences between
the church we read about in the New Testament and the churches of men that we
see all around us. After a short break, we studied a first principles lesson on
“God’s Word, the Seed, & Salvation” from 1 Peter 1:22-25. That took us to
2:30pm, the time I had told Jack that I would finish my lesson so that he could
extend an invitation. Jack did so, but there were no visible responses.
Jack, Shalom and Shammah Jaco drove me to the
airport where I caught an evening flight to Cebu City where our classes on 2nd
Corinthians start on Monday. Since I could not send this report from the
airport in Bacolod, I am finishing it on Saturday morning from Cebu. I will be
studying today and making preparations for the classes as well as preaching
tomorrow.
My thanks to all of you who have helped make this
trip possible. God bless!
