What’s New | Take The Challenge

Prayer request for Scott, Filipino geography

by TTCI Media Team | Mar 8, 2025 | What's New

Dear All,

Saturday’s Bottom Line:

It’s Saturday evening in Missouri, early Sunday morning in the Philippines. Scott is preparing to preach a sermon, meet with the church leaders over lunch, have a Zoom call with Pastor Gil, and leave at 3 PM to drive 3+ hours to his Monday seminar location. And he’s having back issues.

Saturday’s Prayer Requests:

1. God’s grace and healing for Scott’s back; comfort on the long car ride.
2. The Holy Spirit to guide Scott’s preaching and meetings today.
3. No weird hindrances to adversely affect Monday’s DM seminar in Nueva Vizcaya; great attendance, eager hearts, powerful results!

Saturday’s Details:

A year ago, Scott developed intense lower back pain that was determined to be a result of a herniated disc in his spine. He was pretty much incapacitated for several weeks, but with rest, meds, physical therapy – and our partners’ PRAYERS – he made a full recovery. He wears a brace when playing tennis or doing heavy lifting, but other than that has been fine for many months.

Today he said, “Please have the people pray for my back. I have been having some issues with lower back pain like last Spring.” I put on my nurse’s hat and advised him which med to take, and we would REALLY appreciate your prayers for him now.

After his ministry today at Pastor Daniel’s church in San Blas, they will drive about three-and-a-half hours to Nueva Vizcaya, where Scott will do a DM seminar on Monday.

A bit of geography review may be helpful here. Up to this point, Scott has been coming and going in the area shown on this map.

He’s been sleeping in Tombod and has had a DM seminar in Moncada, a meeting with Myrna’s ARPM pastors in Tombod, a DM seminar in Villasis, a DM seminar in Anao (details below), and he’s preaching now at Pastor Daniel’s church in San Blas. But on Sunday afternoon (Saturday night MO time), when they drive to Nueva Vizcaya, they’ll be heading into a different area or county, maybe timewise like driving from Branson to Kansas City.

Map #1 fits roughly into the yellow box on Map #2.

If I’ve got things straight (and that’s not necessarily guaranteed!), it’s about 3.5 hours from Villasis to Nueva Vizcaya for the Monday DM seminar, and then another 3.5 hours from Nueva Vizcaya to Nueva Ecija for the Tuesday DM seminar. And that whole stretch of Highway AH26 from Nueva Vizcaya to Nueva Ecija is up in the mountains. I hope that makes sense.

Finally, in my concern about Scott’s back, I almost forgot to give you the good news about his Saturday DM seminar in Anao (“uh-NOW”)! Although it’s not shown on Map #1, Anao is close to Villasis and would also be in the yellow box on Map #2. Scott said, “Pastor Roger was struggling to get people in his church to sign up to join a DM group. He had tried to start one several times, but no one signed up. He hosted Saturday’s seminar and here are the 24 people who signed up from his church!”

Scott’s summary of TTC’s ministry so far in the Map #1 area: “3 DM Seminars – 9 new groups – all to be led by Wilson and Angelica’s disciple-makers. Yay!”

Now you know everything I know from Team Take the Challenge in the Philippines. = ) Thank you again for your PRAYERS.

Blessings,
Patty

Full schedule, solar power

by TTCI Media Team | Mar 7, 2025 | What's New

Dear All,

Friday’s Bottom Line:

Scott had a good DM seminar in Villasis, and will have another one in Anao on Saturday. His schedule is packed over the next week, and he’s doing well but is quite tired by the end of each day. He really appreciates your prayers!

Friday’s Prayer Requests:

1. The leaders Wilson and Angelica have been training to be well able to manage the growth of multiple new groups forming.
2. Scott to have wisdom concerning his meeting next Monday with Pastor Gil about how his PCEC organization might partner with Take the Challenge.
3. Physical strength for Scott; in addition to presenting multiple DM seminars, he has many specific meetings (some with various groups, some one-on-one) to prepare for.

Friday’s Details:

50 people had registered for Friday’s DM seminar in Villasis, but none of them had paid, so we weren’t sure how many would actually be there. 82 people came!

Scott’s primary target audience is pastors, because he has learned that the process of raising disciple-makers in a church simply doesn’t happen if the pastor doesn’t have a vision for it. Although many of the people at Friday’s seminar are not pastors, and many of them are already members of a disciple-maker groups, there was enough interest among the attendees to start at least one new in-person group and probably another online group, so we are encouraged.

The Raising Disciple Makers book — which clearly explains both why raising disciple-makers is vitally important and the specifics of one effective way to do it — is selling well, and we are so pleased that this critical message is being spread to more and more people. In fact, at his earlier seminar in Moncada, some people asked Scott to autograph his book!

Those of you who know Scott personally can testify that he is a high-energy guy, and when he’s on a mission trip his pace is usually, well… intense, to say the least. This trip is no exception, and between meetings and travel his schedule is quite full. He does have one planned day off on March 28, but that’s three weeks away, so prayers for wisdom as he balances essential events with rest are appreciated.

And, as promised, here are a couple non-ministry pictures. Scott said, “Surely, the fields are ripe for harvest here in the Philippines!”

Even those of us who are not farmers know that raising grain crops is a long process. Hmm… that’s kind of like raising disciple-makers… Selah.

Anyway, I already knew that farmers have to prepare the soil, plant the seed, tend the plants, eliminate the weeds, and harvest the corn or wheat. But I never thought about the fact that with, for example, wheat, you also have to DRY the grain, and Scott found the local method of drying grain very interesting. They spread it out in the sun on a hard surface! Scott said, “This man is spreading the grain for drying early this morning. The concrete pad is part of a bypass being constructed a block from Myrna’s place in Tombod.” (I was wrong yesterday; I think this is wheat, not corn.)

And if you wonder about those neat lines of grain, here’s a video clip of how they got there.

Thank you for PRAYING for Scott again today. We know your prayers are paving the way for people in the Philippines to receive and reproduce the disciple-making process this week!

Blessings,
Patty

Recap, correction, and lots of new friends

by TTCI Media Team | Mar 6, 2025 | What's New

Successful seminar, magnificent Myrna, surprising scene

by TTCI Media Team | Mar 5, 2025 | What's New

Dear All,

Wednesday’s Bottom Line:

Scott’s DM seminar in Moncada was very successful, he’s looking forward to an equally productive time in Tombod on Thursday with the members of the Agape Reaching People Ministries.

Wednesday’s Prayer Requests:

1. Scott to pace himself well as he works through jetlag; sound sleep each night.
2. The Holy Spirit to guide him on exactly what to share with the ARPM people in Tombod on Thursday.
3. No hindrances to prevent people from attending the Friday DM seminar in Villasis.

Wednesday’s Details:

Following the Moncada seminar, Scott said, “We had 25 attendees and 17 sign up to join a DM group. Yay!” That’s an awesome response, and we expect those groups to start in the next couple of weeks. I think they will be led by people Wilson and Angelica have been discipling. = )

Here’s some background about Agape Reaching People Ministries (ARPM), the group Scott will be spending time with on Thursday afternoon (about 10 PM Wednesday MO time).

Many years ago, Myrna, who is Filipino and lived in the Philippines, married an American man and moved with him to the U.S. We met Myrna at the church we were attending in Little Rock 30 years ago. We all went to the same Bible school there, Agape School of World Evangelism. When Myrna’s husband died, she determined to move back to the Philippines and start an Agape Bible school there to train pastors and ministers, and she did exactly that. Now at 88, Myrna is still a dynamo and a force to be reckoned with! For each of the past 25 years (maybe more?), she has graduated a class of Bible school students, training generations of pastors and sending them out to plant churches. Her ministry network is called Agape Reaching People Ministries.

Some of those ARPM folks are gathering in Tombod, and Scott has been invited to speak to them on Friday. Tombod is just 15 minutes away from Myrna’s home in Villasis, where she frequently hosts various guest ministers and travelers. Scott and a couple other folks are staying there now.

End of background information, and I’ll close today with a classic Filipino cultural moment Scott shared with us.

[NOTE: According to Google, “A Filipino tricycle is is a motorized vehicle that consists of a motorcycle and a sidecar. It’s a common form of transportation in the Philippines, especially in rural areas.”]