Dear All,
Sunday's Bottom Line:
WOW! Friday and Saturday's marriage seminar and vision-casting for the Foursquare pastors in Dagupan were tremendous and had excellent results. Then, after Scott preached there Sunday morning, he, Wilson, and Angelica drove S and S more than two hours to a hotel in Manila near the airport they'll fly home from on Monday. Wilson, Angelica, and Scott have now driven back "home" to Villasis for a couple much-needed "unscheduled" days before they, along with Pastor Daniel and his wife, fly to a whole different part of the country for their final Filipino vision-casting and marriage seminar of this trip. After that, Scott will scoot 1/3 of the way around the world to Morocco. = )
Sunday's Prayer Requests:
1. Rest, refreshing, and renewal for our Faithful Four: Wilson and Angelica, Pastor Daniel (who skipped the airport run), and Scott. Also healing of Scott's right elbow, which has been troubling him.
2. The couples who attended the Better Together marriage seminar to keep applying what they learned and communicate more deeply with each other than they have in the past.
3. Grace for the 15 DM coaches to quickly connect with their new group members and hold their first group meetings THIS month! Energy and momentum in each group and close relationships to develop naturally among members as they all share the same vision and goals.
4. Nothing to hinder what God wants to do through our team in the hearts of the pastors and couples coming to the Thursday/Friday meetings in Cebu City.
5. Safety for everybody and their luggage to arrive with them on all their various flights to various locations this week!
Sunday's Details:
59 couples came to the Better Together marriage seminar on Friday. They started with worship.
That marriage seminar is broken into several sessions, and near the end, there's always a time for each couple to spend some time one-on-one to confess sins, repent, and ask for and receive forgiveness. Angelica sent us several pictures of those special couples' times.
She said, "How can I start? 😊 We had 59 couples attended the seminar and it went, well.. more than we expected. As you can see from the pictures, there was healing, restoration and forgiveness going on. Just taking this picture a while ago, I said to Pastor Scott, 'I want to cry because there is no right words to describe that moment.' You can just feel the sincerity, and the atmosphere was great seeing all the couples having a heart-to-heart talk. 😇"
That evening, Scott, who had not been feeling well, said, "Made it through today's BT seminar. Yay! I didn't have any issues until it was over. Now I am super tired... Praise God for his grace! 🙌"
Scott sent me this one-liner about Saturday's DM vision-casting: "386 people at today's DM seminar! 🤠"
Then on Sunday, Angelica (who always addresses me as "Ma'am"), sent this report: "Hello ma'am here [is] our update from yesterday's vision-casting. We had 386 who attended the seminar, and more than 100 signed up [to join DM groups]! We will find out the actual group counts when we will start our weekly gatherings. Please continue to pray for us."
By the time you're reading this, S and S are in their hotel in Manila and will fly out on Monday, arriving back home encouraged and refreshed. Our Faithful Four will rest and re-fuel at home in Villasis before flying from nearby Clark Airport to Cebu City. You may remember this map.
The Philippines is an archipelago (string) of more than 7,000 islands, the largest of which Luzon, the island at the top of the map with our team's blue travel route snaking through it. From our command center in Villasis, our team is effectively expanding TTC's outreach into many other parts of Luzon, but their goal is to bring the disciple-making process to ALL of their nation. So, on Wednesday, they will fly to Cebu on Mactan island, and the bottom edge of the map. There they will hold a vision-casting on Thursday and a marriage seminar on Friday. Then Scott will preach on Sunday and fly on Monday from Cebu to Casablanca via Manila and Dubai!
Please take a moment to pray TODAY for our team and the folks they are ministering to. We appreciate your prayers very much!
Blessings,
Patty