| Bible Books Doctrines Words Lord Jesus Christ Messages Hermey Salvation Humm Site Help |
| search tips | advanced search |
I arrived in the Philippines on 3-5-2013. I started this Journal as a series of emails. Then I consolidated the emails that I had not lost. At a later time I changed the order to put the most recent at the top.
I made a mistake in my last report. I reported: In the last couple of years, the average Sunday morning attendance at Bible Baptist Church in La Carlota has gone from about 1,000 to about 1,500. In fact, it went from about 800 to just under 1,000. The average attendance is now over 1,000 with three morning services, everyone required to wear face shields and face masks, get their temp taken before entrance, and swab their hands in alcohol. In addition, because of mandatory ‘social distancing’, most are sitting in buildings other than the main auditorium and watching the service on a TV monitor. Further, many times people have to sit outside in the sun (80-90 degrees) and watch and listen through windows. This is with three (3) morning services.
In addition to that, after Sunday afternoon service, staff and Bible School students go to fourteen (14) other towns to hold local Sunday Night services. (Except when a local town is under ‘lock down’.) Now, try to imagine your church providing people for choir, preaching, ushers and all else required for a service and doing it for fourteen (14) places every Sunday.
As a further report, every week about 100 soul winners go out with face masks and face shields. We are seeing well over 200 professions every week and 2 or more baptisms per week.
Starting about twenty-five (25) years ago, La Carlota Bible Baptist Church started having Youth Camp at the ocean side camp site. The main emphasis was getting lost youth to attend and receive salvation through the preaching of the Gospel. With COVID, and government restrictions on travel, the Youth Camp was restricted to our church and Mission Churches started by preachers trained and sent out from our church. The emphasis was changed to spiritual maturing with last year emphasizing spiritual gifts and this year emphasizing everyone being involved in ministry, including non-preacher ministries. Last year fourteen (14) students came to Bible School and doubled the number of students. The Bible School has a very restrictive acceptance for students. Only students from our church, or from daughter Mission works / churches, or from churches verified to have a matching doctrinal stand, are allowed.
In the past students were allowed from other Fundamental KJV-1611 Bible churches but there were problems due to differences in attitudes and actions which resulted from different non-fundamental beliefs. Therefore, the admittance was kept small, the disagreements eliminated and every graduate went into full-time ministry. (Ask U.S. Bible Schools about enforcing a school uniform because all admitted students have been taught to submit to the authority that God places over them.)
However, doubling the student population has caused a number of problems including places to put the students. And, just one of the several Mission Churches reported having six (6) people wanting to go to Bible School. I have not heard yet what the total is but this makes the space problem even greater. And, yes, we need trained workers in the ministry, but we need help providing that training.
Philippians 4:17 says: “Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.” This is talking about people adding to their heavenly account by financially supporting mission works. This is the only Bible reference, that I know of, which directly says that we can directly invest the money of this world, which we can not take with us, into a Heavenly “account”. And, the Bible teaches that what we have in our Heavenly “account”, we cannot lose.
In addition to that, 2Corinthians 9:10 is the only place in the New Testament where we are told that we can “multiply your seed sown”. This is the basis of what are called ‘Multi-Level Marketing’ programs. Basically, God promises to pass the blessings, and iniquities, to the children to the third and fourth generation. Likewise, this reference teaches that God adds to our Heavenly “account” when we lead another to salvation or teach them to mature spiritually. However, when we train another saved person to be a soul winner, or to teach the next generation, God add something to our account every time that they use our training to reach others. That is how God computes that we “multiply your seed sown” and we can expect God to do so to the third and fourth generation.
2Corinthians 9:8-11 says: “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: (As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever. Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;) Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.”
Please notice that “dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor” directly applies to supporting poor missionaries who are doing the work of God to spread the true Gospel. When we “ministereth seed to the sower”, we are providing an ongoing (“ministereth”) support to Gospel workers who will go out and do the work in God’s field by spreading the “seed” (word of God). And, as our quote says this causes us to “be enriched in every thing to all bountifulness”.
Which brings me to the request that I would ask you to pray about. When I came to the mission field, I had a good sized retirement account. It now has less that $25,000. I’ve given the rest to missions, which should prove that I live what I preach.
There is a desperate need for a new two-story dorm building, especially since it appears that God will continue to increase this church and Bible School. I am not sure of the cost to build this dorm but I would guess to to be about $50,000, based upon costs for other buildings. If you think about it, this is considerably less than the cost most other places. To a large extent, that is mainly costs for materials with most of the labor provided by church members at no cost.
In addition to those considerations, since this building will go directly to helping to train Bible School students, it should be considered by God to be part of what will “multiply your seed sown”.
I hope that you find it encouraging to hear that God is still blessing His work in spite of COVID. I also hope that you will pray about helping where God is blessing and, possibly telling others about this opportunity.
Thanks, and God bless.
In the last couple of years, the average Sunday morning attendance at Bible Baptist Church in La Carlota has gone from about 1,000 to about 1,500. In the last year, the average number of baptisms was a little over 3/week. The average number of professions was well over an average of 100/week.
Since COVID has started, the pastors have continually told the people that Romans 13, and other places in the Bible, tell us to submit to government. People have attended church, gone sour winning and generally continued the church ministries while wearing face masks, face shields and keeping the social distancing. There are 3 services on Sunday morning with people in 4 buildings and sometimes sitting outside. Those people not in the main auditorium watch the service on a screen. So, yes, there are inconveniences but the ministries are continued.
There has been an emphasis on spiritual growth of all church members and of their own personal responsibility to be involved in the ministries. This is where the video comes in. The video is of a new native-built building called “Manna House” where the usage includes physical food but has an emphasis on spiritual food. It was a flooded and weed choked out-door storage area but now is considered the nicest meeting place in the city. Several groups in the church (men, women, professionals, teen soulwinners) have moved their weekly meetings there where “meat” doctrine is taught. With the nice facilities, more people have joined these meetings and, as they learned the doctrine, have become more involved in church outreach ministries and have put more emphasis on having their homes bring glory to God by reducing sin in homes and families.
There has been one non-married couple who used the “Manna House” for their wedding and the church provided the wedding feast.
The main purpose of the “Manna House” is to encourage God’s people to meet, learn more about true Bible doctrine and obey the Bible, and then to go out as individuals or small groups to take the Gospel to others. This is just one of the things which has encouraged the church growth in the last year. And, the usage fulfills part of the ‘Great Commission’: Matthew 28:20- (“Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you:”). Part of the cost for this building came from the financial support which I receive and Philippians 4:17 tells us that this puts “fruit” in the Heavenly account of the supporters.
God Bless
I am a senior. As a result, I have been under lock-down orders most of the time since this COVID mess started. Yet God has been faithful in His protection and provision. I stay in a Mission Home and there is a health clinic just behind the home with three, saved, doctors. I see patients waiting on my front porch 6 days a week. I pay for lunch for the staff, of the baby doctor, most of those days. The staff talk about other medical people getting sick. Yet, they also speak about things which happen to them and which reveal God’s special protection. So, even though I am a senior and more susceptible than people in other age groups, and have sick people coming to where I live, and have fellowship with “front-liners” regularly, I am protected by God.
While I need to thank God, I also need to thank the several Filipinos who do shopping for me and do other tasks. God sees, and blesses, those people who help His children in their time of need.
So, in spite of these changing circumstances, we are not supposed to stop doing the ministry for God but, with God’s direction, we change methods and continue. As a result, I have been doing some Online Bible Study. The first lesson I dealt with was based upon prophecy. I believe many people are preaching about current circumstances pointing to the 'Rapture' but. However, the truly applicable Bible references are found in Matthew 24:6; Mark 13:8-9 and Luke 21:9. They say: “see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet”. These prophecies apply to today and tell us that God must provide circumstances (“all these things must come to pass”) which will test us. Some act like the lost and curse God and God’s ministers, which include the government employees. Some act like spiritual babies and cry and complain because things are not going the way that they want. However, some also act like spiritually mature people and obey God’s ministers (government employees) about how to avoid spreading the problems even while they continue to serve God. That is what is being done here where I am at.
While under Lock-Down, I have been concentrating on the detailed Bible Study that God has given me to do. I have covered all of the epistles, Mark, Luke and John, in detail, and just published the Study of Matthew with summaries for every sentence and links to many of the other Studies, on my web site (ljc1611kjv.com), which reference Matthew. For the Bible books covered, I am very confident that I have more references to support the interpretation given than anyone will find in any other reference source. For example, there are over 300,000 links provided. However, those links usually go to other Studies which give further links to other Studies or to Bible references. The end is that my web site has many tens of millions of Bible references, in total, which support the interpretation provided. In addition, there are well over 15,000 Bible references to the Old Testament. As the saying goes, ‘The New Testament is the Old Testament Revealed’. There are many places where the New Testament references the Old Testament, but many people do not have access to a reliable reference work which tells them the Old Testament references which are used in the New Testament. My site tries to provide that data.
In addition to the links, each of which I have personally verified, I provide additional reference material from other works. When I do, I always give credit to the true source so that, to the best of my knowledge, I don’t violate copyrights. I also do not convert their work into links because it is not my work, I have not personally verified each reference, and I wish to make clear the difference between my work and the work of others. Thus, I am providing reference material to poor third-world preachers, who can not afford to buy the reference materials. However, as I do this, I also make sure that those preachers know who they are to credit for any help which they receive. For example, I provide reference material, for specific Bible verses or specific Bible words, from Treasure of Scriptural knowledge, Nave's Topical Bible, Thompson Chain Topic and Torrey's Topical Textbook and other reference source.
In addition, there are over 1860 Word Studies on my site because it is important that we use the Bible definitions for Bible words if we wish to avoid doctrinal error. I look at every place that a word is used in the Bible or in the New Testament and find what is common in every usage. That is the single definition with the difference between where the word is used providing the many applications. I then look through about 6 dictionaries to find the best, or most useful definition from dictionaries written by men. If none of them provide an accurate definition, such as for the word spirit or the word truth, then I provide a definition which matches every place that the Bible uses the word. In certain cases, the historical or cultural information provided by some dictionary can be very helpful to the serious Bible student. When I find such data, I try to provide a copy of it. This is all so that the serious preacher, and serious Bible student, has access to reliable Bible study aids.
In certain cases, I have been asked if I looked at certain reference materials which have been, historically, relied upon by fundamental Baptists. I have looked at those works and am very careful about how I use data from those sources. In every reference source that I have looked at, the data was incomplete and contained some errors. Therefore, I verify anything which I find in another reference work. I am doing my best to make sure that what I provide is accurate and as complete as I can make it.
In certain cases, such as some tables of miracles in the Gospels, I found that authors copied earlier works, and claimed the work as their own, but did not even verify what they copied. Thus, they copied errors from the earlier author without correcting the errors. So, in certain cases, I may start from another work but I verify and correct every error which I find. In addition, I fill in missing references. This is what I did with my Table of Miracles, Table of Parables, Harmony, Time Sequences in the Gospels, and other works. In other cases, such as my Study called: What Did Jesus Do?, it is 100% my research.
I hope the reader will find ljc1611kjv.com a useful aid in their own study of God’s word.
As everyone should be aware, we've had a pandemic going throughout the world for about two months. And, some social groups, such as seniors, have been under stricter restrictions. So, as a senior, I've been under effective house arrest until recently and there are still restrictions. Please understand, I'm not complaining but stating the conditions. I mean, what man's going to cry when someone else has to do his shopping?
Anyway, I've been concentrating on the Bible Study part of my ministry. As most people know, the "Lord's Supper" is a reminder of the "Last Supper". But, how many people know that the "Last Supper" was the high-point of a seven day "Feast of Unleavened Bread" (Ex 12:17; Ex 23:15; Ex 34:18; Le 23:6; De 16:16; 2Ch 8:13; 2Ch 30:13,21; 2Ch 35:17; Ezr 6:22; Mt 26:17; Lu 22:1)? This is also the "feast" that Paul writes about in 1Corinthians 5:6-8.
In addition to the prior, this "feast" was when the Jews spent seven days making sure that all leaven was removed from their house. It was a symbolic agreement to get physical sin out of their personal life and out of their house, including the members of their family. It is also the basis of what Paul writes in 1Corinthians 11:27-30. Paul did not just make up that rule on his own but actually had a valid Old Testament basis for his rule.
I have just recently updated my web site (ljc1611kjv.com) with the latest results of my study. Below is an extract from what is available there. The references provided can be looked up on your own or, if you access the web site, then clicking on the reference will bring up the reference in your browser.
(Included extract of notes for Luke 22:14-20)
I pray that these references and explanations are helpful to you. I know that properly interpreting symbolic language can be problematic to some people.God bless
I lost copies of reports sent between 1-2019 and 1-2020 dur to multiple computer crashes which required replacing hard drive and formatting hard drive.
Beluw is a copy of the report sent on this date.
God bless you:
I've had a lot going on since I returned to the Philippines in May. I believe that I've sent a report since then but I've lost all of my copies of reports sent since the start of 2018. I was asked to teach a class on How to Study the Bible and there is no book available, so I've been writing a book. I think God will bless this effort since it seems the devil have been fighting it. My "travel computer" crashed twice. The first time the SSD died and I've never heard of a SSD dying before. The second time, the operating system crashed so hard that I could not recover it and had to take it to a shop to have the hard drive formatted and Windows loaded again. Before I could get all of my files reloaded, my "home computer" crashed and had to be reloaded also. Between the two dying at the same time, I lost some files.
In addition to those events, my "home computer" crashed and had to be reloaded a total of three times while I've been writing this book. And, I got pink-eye which swelled my eyes almost closed for two weeks and prevented any work on the computer. However, I'm not complaining because my experience is that when the devil fights, that's a sign that God will soon bless and the devil wants people to mess up and lost the blessing of God.
I've been thinking about how God has blessed since I've come to the mission field. In general, I've been less likely to receive colds and other similar things even while my legs get weaker and I have other problems from the post-polio. As part of the 'Great Commission', Mark 16:18 says: "if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them'. God confirmed His will that I be here by letting me drink water that makes other Americans sick. One preacher was sick for 8 hours after taking just a sip to swallow 2 pills.
A key is a small, but important, part of a door. God has used me to provide a small, but important, part of starting several ministries. For example, I traveled with a couple of Filipino pastors to Vietnam and Cambodia to check on their missionaries. At that time, I met Leo Tago who had led a Cambodian, Danny Li, to the Lord and trained him as a pastor. I started supporting Leo Tago, but he didn't need support for his own ministry so passed the money to Danny Li who had no other financial support at that time. He went to his home village where there was no electricity, only one water pump in the center of the village and the houses are built on stilts because the village floods every monsoon season. As I understand his reports, he now has a church building and about 60 members in his church.
I also went to Thailand with James Nono and Jireh John Nono on a mission survey trip. Then I went with Pastor Nono and Jireh John Nono when he was placed there as a missionary. He spent two years learning the language which takes most people at lease 10 years to learn. He started a church and, at 2 years, has about 30 members. Pastor Nono wanted him to skip deputation and the time involved. I personally guaranteed all of his support which did not come from his home church and the churches directly associated with it. Since then, he has raised some support but also has several Filipino professionals as members who have taken over the support which I can no longer provide since my disability insurance payments ended.
Next, pastor Nono started a mission work in Bacolod, which is the largest city on the island. It is called "Abundant Life" and concentrates on teaching saved people, especially students and professionals, how to mature spiritually and receive the "Abundant Life" that Jesus promised. I, again, guaranteed the costs of starting the work until others picked up the support and continue to support the work.
By the way, I have given an average of over 100% of my regular income to the Lord's work since I came here in 2013 and should have that average continue until at least 2033 with my giving my retirement savings. I only have Social Security and $250-$300/ month support and regularly give 60% of my Social Security to the Lord's work. I am not complaining because I have all that I want and the Lord has assured me that I will not want, financially, for the rest of my life. People with mush more money and a greater income do not have that assurance. And, while devils tell people to "never brag", the Bible tells us to "boast" about how God works in and through the lives of His people. It is called "giving God the glory". I would not be in this position without God using His word to teach me spiritual attitudes and actions about money.
Moving on, I've been teaching at Bible School since about 2014. In addition, pastor Nono had me help him start training sessions for Filipino preachers which he modeled after the "Pastor School" at Hiles-Anderson. I've taught at every one of those sessions, when I've been in the Philippines, since the start. In addition, and related to this teaching, I have over 40 books on Amazon and several of my books, and lessons on my web site, are used is more than one Bible School, church and country. God gave me the spiritual gift of understanding and uses me to help His people understand His word. In addition, he has given me the ability to write books. Most of the books are very detailed and prove that there are no errors in the KJV-1611, but the details can be overwhelming for many people. However, my teaching books summarize the details while teaching the material from beginning to end of the Bible book. In addition, I add 10 doctrinal questions-And-Answers per Bible chapter to show that God's word is consistent from start to end and across the Bible. These books are used by several teachers in Bible School and in churches including missionaries in other countries.
In addition to the teaching books, I've written a book on Non-Preacher Missionaries which is scheduled for an update. My book on �Preacher Missionaries� covers the detailed Biblical reports of how Peter and Paul were used as missionaries. That book is currently being edited. Then, my book on �How to Study the Word of God� is being reviewed by another teacher before going to the editor. Among other subjects the �Doctrine of Preservation� is covered in a high level. Too many of God's people are deceived that �God breathed� His word but did not preserve it. However, without preservation we can't rely on the promises in it such as the basis of our salvation. Inn addition, as I explain in that book, the people who deny preservation by God are attacking the character of God even if they don't realize that they are doing so.
While I could go on with more, I believe this is sufficient to let people know that God has been blessing my efforts here on the mission field. Philippians 4:17 says: �Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.� In context, Paul was telling the supporters of his ministry that people who support (prayerfully and financially) a godly missionary receive �fruit (in) your (Heavenly) account�. Too many people believe the lie from Satan that we are going to a Communistic heaven where everyone gets a mansion and lives in eternal bliss starting as soon as they get there. However, God does not change (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8), and God promises to bless His people who obey while cursing His people who disobey. This includes 'the judgment seat of Christ� (2Corinthians 5:10-11). Some saved people will only get �a place� and will be eternal paupers while having tears an average of almost twice a week for more than 1,000 years. Those are the saved people who disobey God's command to �lay up for yourself treasure in heaven� (Matthew 19:21; Mark 10:21; Luke 18:22). They also are deceived about the �parable of the pounds� (Luke 19) and the �parable of the talents� (Matthew 25) which teach that saved people who go to Heaven, but do not bring a spiritual profit to God, lose everything beyond being in heaven.
However, people who are doing the �Great Commission�, including supporting missionaries, are promised, in the Bible, that such efforts will add �fruit (in) your (Heavenly) account�. Thank you for all prayer and financial support and be assured, according to the Bible, that God will reward your efforts when you get to Heaven.
Since the last report I was able to present the ministry in a few churches before returning to the Philippines November 1, 2018. Since then I have been very busy with speaking to preachers, staff and Bible School students at the La Carlota Mission Conference and another Preacher Fellowship. I have also been teaching in Bible School (Pauleen Epistles and Missions) and spoke another couple of times along with working on the study of the Gospel of Mark.
There will be a tent meeting in la Carlota Feb 4-6 and one in La Castilians Feb 25-27. The Youth Camp is in April. I plan on returning to the U.S. in May to get minor repairs on my RV and then sell it. Then in the end of June I am supposed to go the anniversary of the Mission in Thailand that I helped to get started.
Support seems to have been dropped by everyone. I would remind people that, according to Philippians 4:17, this is one way have �fruit that may abound to your (Heavenly) account�. Please send any support to: Rochester Hills Baptist Church, 3300 S. Livernois, Rochester Hills, MI 48307-4358. Please make the check out to the church and put �PAME� or �Gerard Cotter� in the check memo.
The times that I spoke at the La Carlota Mission Conference were supposed to go up on Facebook but there were technical difficulties. Those messages can be accessed at ljc1611kjv.com/Menu/ms-index.html. The messages are: �Blessings According to Obedience�, 'saved but Cursed�, and 'tent-Maker Ministry�. In addition, the message given to the pastors is at the same place and called �An Open Door�. The basic message of all of them is that all saved people are commanded to do the �Great Commission�. The Bible promises great rewards to the obedient and great punishment to the saved but disobedient.
I am financially supporting putting up a building at Camp Canaan which will be sufficient for American preachers to stay in. Most of the Filipinos stay in tents but that will not work for speakers who are no longer used to such conditions and who need to concentrate on spiritual needs instead of the physical. Right now, the speakers must travel quite a distance two ways between the closest Hotel and the camp. With the ability for them to stay at the camp, they will be able to interact more with the Filipinos and be a greater blessing.
After I sell my RV I plan to use that money, plus all that is left in my retirement account, to partially pay for a building that will minister to the La Carlota High School and City College. There are 9,000 students between the two schools which sit next to each other. Also, the students are very open to the Gospel and their age is ideal for teaching them how to mature spiritually and to devote their life to the service of Jesus Christ no matter what profession they go into. One of the many reasons why the support of missions in America is (reportedly) shrinking is that too many non-preachers believe that they are not in God's service. However, in places like Romans 16:1-2, the Bible teaches that all saved people are to be in God's service with the non-preachers providing for the physical and financial needs. For too long Filipinos have looked to America for financial support. This ministry plans on teaching the Filipinos that it is their responsibility to send the Gospel to �regions beyond� and not rely on others to do their job. Those who don't go are responsible to send and that includes providing financial and other support. Thus, while it will take time to produce fruit, this ministry should produce many saved people who are actively supporting the �Great Commission�. Please pray about how you might be involved in this ministry which should add much to the heavenly accounts of the supporters.
Ptr. Nono arranged to have Bibles shipped from TN in several shipments. The first shipment has arrived. Since he made that arrangement, he was told about a ministry which helps with the shipping. In addition; Fellowship Baptist Church, in Clarklake, MI; provided the labor and more to ship bibles printed by Parker memorial Church in Lansing, MI. (They are still on their way). Putting a Bible into the hands of someone newly saved and baptized is critical for their spiritual growth and many of these Filipinos only earn a few dollars for a 12-hour day, when they get work. Therefore, buying a Bible is a real hardship for them and a great blessing when others supply one.
There is a plan to send, as a missionary to Brunei, a preacher named Marvin Lebria. The current plan is for this to happen in June. He is a graduate of the Bible school with several years� experience as a staff member at La Carlota. Brunei is a Muslim country under Sarai Law, which makes it illegal to give out the Gospel. If caught, the person has their back beat bloody and is thrown out of the country. The plan is for him to start a business and blend into the thousands of other Filipinos who live and work there. It will cost a couple of thousand dollars to move him there and he will need support for the4 first year at least. After that the company that he starts will provide some support but it is hoped that he will be able to spend most of his time working in the Gospel. Ongoing support will enable that. If anyone is interested in helping with initial costs and/or ongoing support, send it to Rochester Hills with the memo saying �PAME� and let me know that it is for Marvin. I will be sure to pass on everything sent. (I personally give over 50% of my SSI to missions and do not need personal support. '''')
As plans for the future develop more I will send updates. Thanks for all support, especially prayer support.
Ljc1611kjvcom/Menu/FiloJournal.html holds copies of the Status messages which I have sent since going to the Philippines. Unfortunately, I somehow lost copies of reports sent several between December 30, 2016 and June 25, 2018. I did not skip sending messages but do not have copies. For those people who are receiving a Status for the first time, the web address at the start of this report allows you to view past reports from my ministry.
I have a few minor residual problems from the prostrate surgery, that I mentioned in my last report, but the main problem is fixed. I thank God for the healing that I have and I thank all who prayed for my healing.
For those who are supporting my ministry, Please send future support checks to: Rochester Hills Baptist Church 3300 S. Livernois Rd. Rochester Hills, Mi 48307 Please out �PAME� or �Gerard Cotter� in the memo line.
I have my plane ticket to return to the Philippines 11-1-2018. Lord willing, I will stay there for the next several years building the ministry there. I have been returning to the U.S. twice a year since 2013 as required by the insurance company in order to maintain my disability payments. However, those payments are now stopped since I am 66. I am supposed to get Social Security but SSA has a legal tangle in their records and are telling me to wait until they clear it up with no guaranteed time to do so. Thank God that He is in control of all that happens to me. However, this reduces my support for the ministry by $30,000/year after I start receiving Social Security payments.
God has proven to bless my ministry by using me to provide a small, but key, part of starting four (4) ministries since I went to the mission field and there are several more possibilities for the future. With this cut-back God is opening the door for others to �invest in their Heavenly account� (Phil 4:17), but most preachers that I've contacted are not interested. I've contacted at least 100 churches / pastors this year. With few exceptions, the response has varied from refusing to talk; to me to forgetting prior commitments to have me present the ministry to their church; to claiming that I am doing wrong by doing what the Bible commands when it does not match their religious traditions. I will be glad to get back to the Philippines where most people will check in the Bible when what they believe does not match what someone tells them that the Bible says.
One lady from Gospel Light Baptist Church has said that she will support my ministry, along with Rochester Hills Baptist Church. I also have scheduled to present my ministry at Friendship Baptist Missions Conference and at another church in West Virginia. Please pray for those meetings that God's will will be done. I am still making arrangements for storing things that I have in the U.S. when I return to the Philippines.
Fellowship Baptist Church has allowed me to park my RV at their church while I try to contact pastors / churches and while I finished up writing a 3-volume set on the Gospel of John and another book called: Teaching the Gospel of John. I am having technical difficulties but hope to have them published soon on Amazon.com along with SbS-Non-Preacher Missionaries, which I finished earlier this year.
Thanks to all who pray for me and my ministry and for the financial support. Lord willing, I will continue to work on the mission field until I die. What we have in this world we leave behind for others to fight over. However, when we �give to the poor and follow Jesus�, we are promised to have 'treasure in heaven� (Matthew 19:21; Mark 10:21; Luke 18:22). May each of you always invest in your eternal account because you can not lose what is invested there while everything held in this world is left behind when we leave (1Timothy 6:7).
FYI: I've had prostate problems for a couple of years and needed surgery. However, I didn't want it done in the Philippines. I planned to get it done in MI, but the pastor of New Testament Baptist Church, Bill Roan, told me that his doctor did robotic surgery, which is supposed to be better with faster recovery. I have been in FL since the start of May with various tests and waiting for appointments and had surgery June 18. The doctor wanted follow-up office visits to be for 2 more weeks but I have appointment in Chicago 6-27 through 6-29 and in MI until the Sword conference at the end of July. Everything is going well so far. Thank God that I am healing quickly from surgery and, Lord willing, plan to keep my schedule. I see the doctor, for the last scheduled visit, today. There is still healing which can last 6 weeks after surgery. I plan to travel north and stop to see a childhood friend of my brothers in Orlando. From there I go north of Chicago to Quentin Road Baptist Church for a 2 day Bible conference where I have been invited to set up a table. Then I go to Jackson, MI for a family weekend and after that stay near my home church until the end of the month when I travel south to the Sword of the Lord Conference. Lord willing, I will make contacts with preachers and churches where I can encourage God's people to invest in their Heavenly "account" (Phil 4:17) by supporting Filipino ministries who are producing Godly results. Thanks for reading and thanks, again, to all who are praying for me and the work I try to do here. On a different subject, I have written book on Non-Preacher Missionaries. At least one couple have committed to going to the mission field as a result of reading it and another couple is praying about it. While I was writing the book, and teaching a Missions Class in Bible School, the students said that the things in the book were things which they had never heard before. These are all directly out of the Bible but truths which have been ignored and even denied in �fundamental Bible Believing KJV only Baptist churches�. The book is waiting for the design from the cover artist. However, I have attached a PDF-formatted copy and would appreciate any feedback which people will provide.
I'm sorry I have not sent an update for some time. I have been very busy with more of the same type of things and fell into a routine which sending a report would have required my thinking of something different.
I have been concentrating on studying through all of the epistles at a detail level that I believe no one else has done to publish a work. My intention is to publish this work and even if few buy it the work will be there to help God's people who want God's perfect interpretation of God's word.
For many years we've heard about 'problem verses' within the Bible and anyone can find books written about these within Christian Book Stores. I've heard preachers at fellowships talking together about how no one gives a good explanation of certain verses which they don't understand. We've heard people arguing about the KJV1611 verses other man-written 'bibles' and how people find the KJV1611 hard to understand. This reason and others have some people saying that we should abandon the KJV1611, which many have done, while others say that the KJV1611 is the perfect word of God and that we need to stick with it.
One of the main results is churches full of spiritually immature saved people who refuse to grow up spiritually and demand a constant diet of spiritual milk. However, no one has a baby so that they still have to change the diapers 10 years after birth. John 10:10 says The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
However, in order to have the life more abundantly
, people must spiritually mature. No wise person gives car keys to a two-year-old and tells them to take it for a drive. Likewise, God does not give some of His blessings to His people until they spiritually mature. 1Peter 2:2 says As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby
. Saved people want the sincere milk of the word
but many today are not willing to grow thereby
and while many are willing, they do not know how. Many understand that spiritual growth requires faith but many do not know that true Biblical faith is an action word which requires us to obey what God tells us to do in His word. Even when saved people are willing to obey, there is confusion about what God's word truly says and part of that confusion is because of the argument about which English 'bible' is the true word of God. Even when that is removed as a source of contention, many are still confused by arguments about that it truly says.
We have a perfect God who gave us a perfect word of God (John 1:1) which tells us the perfect way of God (2Samuel 22:31; Psalms 18:30). Therefore, the problem is not with the word of God, but with our understanding of it. That said, the Biblical definition of the word of
is 'belongs to'. The KJV1611 is the word of God
because it 'belongs to' God. All of these other so-called 'bibles' belong to men as evidenced by the copyright within them. (Any KJV1611 that has a copyright in it only applies that copyright to the additions such as notes and references). While there are lots of books written and arguments about this subject, no valid court of law, especially God's court, is going to ignore the legal ownership expressed by a copyright. Therefore, we conclude that the KJV1611 is the only English 'bible' that 'belongs to God' and the only one that we can hold God to keeping the promises within it.
Even when we remove that argument, we have many arguments about what it says and the many claims of 'problem verses'. However, God's word gives us a perfect way
to understand God's perfect word. The problem is that for years men have been taught to use the wisdom of this world
to understand God's perfect word instead of using the wisdom of God
. When men use the wrong way to interpret God's perfect word, and find a conflict or some other problem, that swell up in pride and claim that the problem is in God's perfect word ('problem verses') instead of admitting that the problem is in their own interpretation. For example, many preachers take what is an application of the word of God and declare it to be the single interpretation and then have problems when their application does not match another application found within the word of God. A simple example is the doctrinal meaning of the name of Jesus
. We are told that it means 'saviour'. However, while there are 983occurrences of this name within the Bible, three are applied to a man who is not our 'saviour'. There is no conflict within the Bible only a conflict between the doctrinal error which we have been taught and what the Bible truly says. The name of Jesus
is the name of a literal physical man and many places where this name is used within in the Bible we are not told about our salvation but we are told about the humanity of the Son of God. This is a doctrine that the devil wants God's preachers to ignore because He is our example of how to live in this flesh using the Power of the Holy Ghostand the devil does not want God's people living a holy and righteous life which comes from following the example of Jesus
.
The fact is that no one can start from one source (KJV1611) and arrive at two different results (single interpretation verses multiple applications) using the same method. The main job of preachers is to show us the proper application. The problem that we have is when people use their way to try and get the single interpretation. However, God's way (that comes directly from the Bible as a step-by-step procedure) to interpret His word requires us to look at EVERY occurrence and find what is common in all occurrences within the Bible. This is true for finding the true Biblical word definitions and for finding doctrines. (God does not change [Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8]). Therefore, to get the single interpretation and prove that there are no conflicts within the Bible, we must use God's way to interpret the Bible which emphasizes the word every
.
Lots of preachers preach about our having a 'God breathed' word of God but neglect the doctrine of a 'God preserved' word of God because that allows them to disagree with what God's perfectly preserved word says. However, we are told that God preserved every word
and every jot and tittle
(punctuation). When we use God's way to interpret God's word, which includes using God's single definition for each Biblical word and God's single definition for each punctuation mark, we get a single interpretation which is NEVER in conflict with any other part of God's word but which conflicts with the doctrines accepted by most (all?) religions.
God has shown me His perfect way to interpret His word and I have been applying it to every sentence, every verse, every phrase, every punctuation mark and every significant doctrinal word within the epistles and other places within God's word. I have challenged over 200 preachers to find any place where my interpretation goes against what the Bible literally says or where there is a conflict between the proper interpretation of any two places within God's word. While many have said they would prove me wrong, NO ONE has ever come back with any evidence of error. Now Please do not mistake what I write. I do not claim that I have a 'perfect interpretation' but that I am using God's 'perfect way of interpretation' which any godly person can use to get a 'perfect interpretation' of God's perfect word. While many have expressed an opinion that the KJV1611 is perfect and without conflict, they have not provided proper proof. However, my applying God's way to God's word and showing that there is NO conflict (for every sentence, every verse, every phrase, every punctuation mark and every significant doctrinal word within the epistles and other places within God's word) constitutes proper proof.
Therefore, the major job I have been doing, while on the mission field, is creating the proper proof that there are NO 'problem verses' within God's perfect word. All problems are due to God's preachers and people using the wrong way to get the single interpretation of God's word. Those wrong ways include using the correct way to get the many applications, which most preachers have been taught, and claiming that that same way can produce two different results (single interpretation / multiple applications).
Scripture interprets scripture' and I have over 150,000 links to support the interpretation of over 6,000 verses within the Bible (mainly the epistles). However, almost all of those links go to other studies which provide further links and someone, I believe validly, claimed that if all of the links for every interpretation were fully followed, there would be over one million references to support the interpretation which God has provided through me. In addition, there are at least three very godly senior pastors, each with doctorates, which have looked at my work and said that it could not be done in the flesh but that the results could only come from God working through me.
I hope this long explanation of what I have been doing, and why, has not been too boring. God willing, before I return in March, 2017, I will have published on Amazon the results of my research. I hope to publish 'Sentence-by-Sentence Thru (epistle name)' and 'Teaching (epistle name)' for all of the epistles before March. In March, when I return, I plan on trying to get into churches and not only present this work but also present the results that PAME has achieved. All who hear these results agree that they are possible only by the power of God being applied to the ministry. In addition, to those two things, I hope to tell people about some godly Filipino ministries that they can partner with to lay up treasure in Heaven
. In general, Filipinos need only 10% of the support that American missionaries require in the same mission field and they are better prepared, in some critical ways, to go to the foreign mission field than most Americans. Therefore, from an eternal result investment perspective, their ministries should be seriously considered by anyone who wants to be more than a 'floor sweeper' in Heaven.
I pray that this report finds all in good spiritual condition and that all pray about letting me provide a more detailed report to their church when I return. Also, as a personal favor, Please watch for a mechanically reliable small camper that I can use to live in and travel to churches as I try to raise support for these Filipino missionaries.
Once more, I knew that it had been a while since I sent a status update, but, until I checked, I did not realize how long it has been. Sorry about the delay. I have been posting on Facebook because it is better for pictures. I hope you access my Facebook page (Gerard Cotter) to get more timely updates along with pictures.
I was audited by the IRS and MI Treasury because they have a hard time accepting that someone would actually give more to the Lord's work than they had in income for the year. We've gone back and forth a couple of times with the last that that I sent each of them telling them why they were wrong and that I was now claiming a deduction that I did not claim until I was audited. Therefore, each needed to give me a greater refund than I originally asked for. I regularly leave something not claimed until I receive an audit and then claim it to motivate auditors to leave me alone. In the past I won 16/17audits and have been left alone for more than 10 years. However, my giving record, while on the mission field, was too much for them, I suppose. Lord willing, I will continue to give 150% of my regular income to the Lord's work for the rest of my life. Also, Lord Willing, I can encourage others to try what gets me blessings from God.
I went to MI in September for my Doctor checkup but I am going to FL this March to move my mailing address in the U.S. MI government officials are obnoxious in many ways and their last action did me in. The county officials insisted that I show up and sit in court to see if they wanted me on jury duty. They didn't care if I lived literally on the opposite side of the world. They ignored my demand that they get MI Treasury to agree to pay travel costs that would be greater than $2,000.00. All they cared about was their little perspective and if they caused problems then those problems were for Legal or Treasury but not their own little office. I'm tired of dealing with such small-minded people and there are many in MI government. Therefore, it is time to move my legal address to where I should have less hassle.
In September my home church promised to support the Filipino missionaries on an ongoing basis. First Baptist of Hammond, IN also promised a one-time offering. A preacher and his wife also, recently, promised to help raise support for these Filipino missionaries. Please pray that Jeff Wilson and I can get into churches to present the Filipino missionaries. In general, their support requirements are only 10% of an American missionary while they are also, often, far more effective. For example, Jireh John Nono learned the Thai language well enough to win souls within 6 months while the American team all still needed translators after 2 years. One major difference is that Filipinos grow up speaking multiple (at least 3) languages and it is far easier for them to add another language. Also, they blend in and are treated as natives while white people are ALWAYS treated as foreigners in all of Asia. There are many other reasons to partner with these Filipinos but one of the most basic is that his entire support is only $6,000.00/year. We have a command to get treasure in Heaven
(Mt 19:21; Mr 10:21; Lu 18:22). This needs that we need to 'invest in our eternal retirement plan' and one way to do that is to support missionaries who are actually building the kingdom of God
here and now. I am not trying to switch anyone from supporting American missionaries but hope to encourage American churches to also consider partnering with Filipinos.
One of the main things which we did in 2015is get more training and more teaching materials to the Filipinos. (Please see ph-pame.org and also follow the Lessons link to see what has been provided). We also got many of these missionaries, who never wrote a support letter before, to start producing regular reports on their missions efforts. The latest of those reports are on the PAME site (ph-pame.org) and once a quarter those reports are updated.
On my personal web site (LJC1611kjv.com) I have finished writing up every one of the Epistles. I am not going back through them to verify what is there and to add additional links to supporting verses and things like word definitions for each sentence. Unlike any other source that I know of, this site does not skip anything. Every sentence, verse, phrase, punctuation mark and significant word will be covered. In addition, every sentence is summarized, the sentence summaries used to create chapter summaries, the chapter summaries used to create epistle summaries and those are added with question-and-answers (usually 10/chapter) which help people understand the doctrine of the chapter and help with teaching the epistle.
I knew that it had been a while since I sent a status update, but, until I checked, I did not realize that it has been since November, 2014. Sorry about the delay. I have been posting on Facebook because it is better for pictures. I hope you access my Facebook page (Gerard Cotter) to get more timely updates along with pictures.
At the moment I am in Mindanao (island / state in Philippines) and will soon be on a bus for a 4-hour trip to the airport. Early tomorrow we fly back to Negros (home island / state). Dr. Nono, his wife and I came to the church of her oldest brother to do a one-day presentation of the PAME ministry. About 30 preachers were present and were very interested in the training and other help provided by PAME. Dr. Nono wants to contact another brother-in-law in another part of Mindanao to arrange another one-day presentation before scheduling training sessions. He said that there looks like we should be able to extend the PAME ministry to 4 or 5places in Mindanao. Travel to these places is more than a day one-way so we want to reach as many preachers as possible when we come here. If possible, we will come for something like 2 weeks at one place then go to the other place for another 2 weeks before returning. There will have to be multiple trips as the total training time is 6 months. Please pray for wisdom in extending the PAME ministry into other parts of the Philippines.
Christmas in the Philippines was relatively quiet but I have been busy since. Since the last report, I had to make a trip to the U.S. to see the doctor and generate the required reports for insurance. In addition, Dr. Nono's church held 2 tent meetings with almost 2,000 professions at each. They also held a Youth Camp, VBS and more. In between other things a group of staff and students went to a southern city for tract distribution and soul winning in order to help a mission in that city. Then the same was done at a northern city with over 5,000 tracts distributed and about 250 professions. In the future there is a plan to distribute the largest number of tracts ever done within a single day. Dr. Nono is trying to get at least 200 people involved with at least 6 street preachers with megaphones. The reason that I am reporting this is that I, through the PAME ministry, am footing many of the associated costs. Please make no mistake. It was/is the Filipinos who prayed and took the time to go and do. However, without some help in finances they would not have been able to these things. This is what financing the missionary effort is about. However, what many people fail to consider, but what PAME concentrates on, is how effective in the ministry of God a particular missionary is. Only those who are producing results are supported. Anyone who disagrees is welcome to waste their money on lazy non-producers.
It is now about a week after I started this Status Update. I was interrupted and was too busy to continue until now. I am sitting outside in soaked clothes and dripping sweat in high-90s temperature and humidity. I am in La Carlota waiting for a ride back to Bacolod where my apartment, a cold shower and air conditioning are at. Earlier there was a presentation to over 30 pastors about a new tract distribution ministry. About a year ago Dr. Nono was in the U.S. and Fellowship Tract league provided 5million tracts. Also, Bearing Precious Seed, of Milford OH, provided thousands of John-Romans, New Testaments and full Bibles for distribution. The container was held in L.A. for several weeks due to a labor strike. Then it was delayed for over a month in Manilla with made-up excuses while officials changed fees from just over $1,000 to $7,000. While many people are involved in providing these materials and getting them to a mission field, many people in the U.S. don't realize how corruption within third-world countries often prevents the aid from actually reaching the people who actually need it. PAME provided the $7,000 and storage of the material while Dr. Nono set up a ministry for distributing material to other churches and mission works within the Philippines. Again, Please understand that the Filipinos are doing the actual work but they can not do it without help because some things are beyond their capacity and God wants us to work together so that God can bless all. In addition, there are some needs which can not be identified and understood from the U.S. for several reasons. In the book of Acts, and other epistles, we read of several non-preachers who were sent to the mission field as representatives of their home church. These people spent time there helping the mission works even though they remained members of their home church and maintained their status as representing the help from the home church. That is what I am doing here. Besides my helping in personal ways, I am helping through PAME. For example, the costs of travel and food to send the soul winners to the two cities mentioned earlier was provided by PAME. Since then, the one pastor reported 3new Bible Studies, 5people joining the church, several baptisms and other increases in that missionary work. These results are what PAME is trying to help produce by helping willing workers to be able to do the work of the Lord.
Since I have been here I have gone with 3or more Filipinos on 3separate mission trips where I paid over half of the costs. The results have been increased missions participation in at least 3Filipino churches and a Filipino missionary being sent to Thailand. Again, these are things which would not have been sent to the U.S. as a request for help because sometimes there needs to be personal involvement to fully understand the need and opportunity to help the work of God in a way which produces significant results. Please pray for me that God would continue to guide and protect me. Attacks by devils are real. Threats of kidnapping white people, and more, are real in the areas where God is sending me. Please consider what it would take to get another on the mission field to replace me and of the results that would stop without my being here to see the need. I'm not special, but having an American perspective of the mission work is different from having a Filipino write a mission support letter.
Related to the mission trip to Mindanao, I have been asked to forward a request for material to teach children, preschool to 12. The churches in Mindanao can not afford to buy the material as many of these preachers only get $5-$25/month support. I am waiting for mailing addresses so that any material provided can be sent directly to the Filipino church. If someone sends me a request, I will forward the mailing address of churches. Please understand that you can tell them to not copy and distribute to other churches, but that they will make copies, as needed, for their own church. The court decisions on making copies for personal use and backup are not simple and I am not a legal expert on these things. Please pray about what God would have you or others do and, as God leads, help these poor brethren who have nothing to help them teach children.
Moving on to other work for God, there are several updates to LJC1611kjv.com. I have finished studying all of the Pauline epistles and providing an interpretation of every sentence, verse, phrase, punctuation mark and significant word in them. I am working on doing the same with the General Epistles. Many of the General Epistles already have interpretations but not at the same level of detail so I will be adding details. In these Book Studies I emphasize the contextual considerations, along with other points. Each sentence is shown how it fits within the context of surrounding sentences and how it fits within the message of the chapter. Each chapter is summarized from the sentences and all of the chapter summarizes are combined to show the message of the epistle. Thus, from the message of the entire epistle down to the significant words within any given sentence / verse, these Book Studies show the consistence of the Bible and prove that there are NO conflicts within the Bible. In addition, there are over 125,000 links on this site which show how scripture interprets scripture
. There are several hundred Word Studies which show where a word is used within the Bible and how the Biblical definition of words is not always what people think.
People use dictionaries but those, including The Greek
and Webster's 1828, give the definitions used by men and the definition from men does not always match God's definition. A lot of the so-called conflicts in the Bible are due to people using the wrong definitions for Bible words and getting a different meaning than what God intended. A simple example is that people think that ye
means you
. However, people are led into doctrinal error by this type of belief. When God spoke a word He had a meaning attached to it. God did not change that meaning and give the word another definition later because God does not change. In addition, God did not give that definition to another word because God is not the author of confusion. People complain about the personal pronouns (ye, thee, thine, thou) in the Bible because religion has taught us to drop the personal
part of these definitions. Religion does this in order to keep people from understanding what the Bible tells them about maintaining their personal relationship with God. They have to do that before they can convince people to accept religious ceremonies as a replacement for their personal relationship with God.
Another example is something that God showed me recently. Most people don't understand why the Bible adds a th
onto action verbs such as looketh
and continueth
. I've never heard anyone explain this but God just gave me the explanation that it means to keep on keeping on
. The th
is only added to action verbs and not to nouns, pronouns, verbs of being or any other type of word. In addition, since every word in the Bible has a unique meaning, look
and looketh
have two different meanings with look
being an action verb that is done once and looketh
being and action verb which requires us to keep on doing the action until the end of our life. So, when James 1:25says this man shall be blessed in his deed
, it is separating the man described from other saved men. The man described is whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work
. The true doctrinal meaning is that he must continue to do the set of actions specified as looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and.. doer of the work
as an ongoing repetition for the rest of his life. Someone who only does this action one time is not given the promise that he shall be blessed in his deed
.
Hopefully you can see how these things can help you better understand your Bible and get the blessing of God. A lot of my time is spent on this Study, which can be accessed from anywhere. I consider this to be my primary job for the Lord. It provides a lot of tools to help the child of God who is serious about understanding their Bible so that they can get the blessings of God on their life. Please pray about using the tools that are there and telling others about them so that you can help others to get God's blessings also.
Because of the large number of links, LJC1611kjv.com, pa-pame.org and ph-pame.org will not be returned by search engines such as Google. This is because the number of links gets my site to be considered as a spammer site. Therefore, people will only know about these sites if word is spread by mouth. Please check out these sites and tell others about them. In addition, to the things already mentioned there are over 50 Messages and several Subjects which contain multiple lessons each. Also, there are pages which allow people to find things by Bible book, verse and by word.
I have one more thing to mention about these sites before moving on. On the PAME Lessons site (pa-pame.org), I have a set of lessons for New Believers and I have a second set that has to be loaded to the site. We do not need any more basic lessons. However, we need more lessons with the meat of the word
which are based completely on what the Bible says and not including religious traditions. Please look at the lessons which are there and tell preachers and teachers about those lessons so that they can use them if needed. In addition, Please have doctrinally sound preachers contact me if they have lessons for the spiritually mature which they are willing to let me publish. Please be sure to tell them that we can not violate copyright laws. The owner of the material MUST provide the right for us to publish with the understanding that people will copy the material with no money returned to the owner.
Changing subjects, I finished teaching the Pauline Epistles in Bible College and will be teaching Romans starting this week. I need to add questions and answers for teachers to use, but, God willing, I will be able to publish teaching manuals for Romans and for the Pauline Epistles. These are not based upon the writing of other men nor on Baptist doctrine but based upon several years of my personal prayer and study which resulted in what is on LJC1611kjv.com. I have challenged preachers for several years to find ANY other place in the world, at any time, where every sentence, every verse, every phrase, every punctuation mark and every significant word of these epistles was interpreted and shown to be in complete agreement with the rest of the Bible. Even Mathew-Henry skips verses and many preachers complain that with everything published, there are certain verses that no one touches. When I finish these books for teaching these subjects in Bible schools, Please review them and let others know of their availability for free or a minor cost as I will put them on Amazon in the Kindle format.
While I could go on, this is long enough and I thank those of you who read the entire thing. There are prayer requests and reports of blessing contained within the body above, so I will not list them separately. I only ask that you and your church continue to pray for me and Please prayerfully consider providing the material requested as part of your missions effort.
Thanks and God bless.
I just posted several pictures and videos on my Facebook page. Please see them as you should find them interesting.
I took a trip to a mountain church which is supported by PAME and which required travel on the back of dirt bikes. A year ago this would not have been a problem but, because of the determination due to Post-Polio, I became too exhausted to do a repeat. Other preachers in the mountains wanted me to visit their churches also but I explained that I am no longer physically capable. Pastor Rudy is looking into having me teach the pastors at the church where we left the car with the mountain preachers coming down to where I can reach them. Over-all, this was a good last trip of this type. Among other things, you will see the parsonage and church bathroom (outhouse) which is a 2 inch high "toilet" set in the dirt. You will also see people praising God for what they have instead of complaining about what they don't have.
I also started developing a web page for the PAME (Philippine American Ministry Enhancement) ministry that Dr. Nono and I started at the beginning of the year. It has the web address of: http://ph-pame.org/. Many of the details are currently missing but are being gathered and will appear soon on that site. Please send any opinions, especially ways that this new site can be more effective. While I was at the mountain church I was asked to speak and was given a love offering of p200 ($5), which is probably a month support that the preacher had before PAME started to help. Many of these mountain preachers are working where Americans can't with little of no support. On the PAME web site is the address of a separate mission board which can send support to these preachers and churches. Little things like the cost of accessing Sunday-School lessons at an internet cafe or copying 20-page song books or similar "small ministry expenses" are beyond the reach of most of these churches which have members who work for $5-$10/day. While financial help will be greatly appreciated by these churches, your prayers will help more.
Related to this change, I also added a new MENU item to LJC1611kjv.com called "Missionaries Supported". It also is lacking details which I plan on gathering and adding in the future. What is there is minimum info on ministries which I visited since moving to the mission field, which I would not have known about if I stayed in the U.S. Please see the couple of mission letters which are already attached. Thanks and God bless.
I have been getting back into how things go here after returning. I started to go to the Sports Fest at La Carlota but got too sick from an infection that I picked up in the U.S. Also, my sugar jumped by more than 100 points and I had to start using insulin. That is still being worked on to bring it back into proper range. I spoke twice at the Preachers' Conference which followed. Yesterday I spoke for Pastor Jimmy Demafelis at First Bible Baptist Church, Hinigaran in the morning service and was invited to stay and speak again at the Sunday afternoon service. It was their Bible Sunday and I spoke from Ephesians on how the Bible teaches us spiritual maturity after our initial profession. 4 people made a profession in the morning service but I hope people understand the truth of Philippine professions. The church members had prepared the people with prayer and visitation (1Corinthians 3:5-9). In addition, they gave me a love gift that was 5 times his starting monthly support. As I told them, I pray that God increase their blessings from what they had sown (Philippians 4:11,17). They are trying to raise the money to sponsor a pastors' conference in February. If they do so, Pastor Demafelis wants me as one of his two main speakers. Please pray that this will happen so that more preachers will know about PAME and the help offered through it.
I am back in the Philippines from the U.S. It takes me 1.5-2.5days to travel each way. I was gone for 6 weeks and too busy to update this status. As mentioned before, pictures and some status can be found on facebook for Gerard Cotter. Also, the entire journal is on LJC1611kjv.com/Author/Journal of Philippine Mission.
I have to go to a "first-world" country twice a year to have a "Post-Polio doctor" fill out a report for the insurance company verifying that me dead nerves are still dead and that I am still handicapped. They prefer that I go to U.S. doctors but there are also some in Japan and Australia. I have to see a doctor next in March and if someone knows of a church / mission in one of those countries which I can be a blessing to, Please let me know at GCotter@AOL.com. Also, the same is true for other Asian countries as I seem to be visiting several.
I spent a day in Taiwan with my nephew David on my way to the U.S. I then chose the cheapest flight from there to Detroit and did not pay attention to where it was going. I flew West to a city in China then East to LA then to Detroit. If any of you fly to Asia try to avoid ALL airports in China with the exception of Hong Kong. They are as bad as U.S. only in a different way. They actually expect people to be appreciative of their abuse and have no clue about "customer friendly" to travelers who they want to recommend traveling through what they hope to into an airport hub. Returning from the U.S., the TSA made me remove my shirt to remove a security pouch which had only my license and credit card. They claimed that their4 body scanner, which was reported as pornographic in the details shown, was not sufficient to scan that pouch. They also insisted that my two pens, one with a tip for using on computer touch screens, had to be scanned separately. Those were never returned to me.
Yes, we are supposed to deal with trials with the Spirit of Christ. I confess to failing some of the trials, especially with TSA who are worse than any other country that I have visited (20) except for China. Their extra "stuff" does not increase security, as proven by many people, but only proves to travelers that they have sufficient power to make them do anything demanded of the traveler. To be honest, it would be easier to handle if they were like the Chinese and blatant about it being a control exercise instead of lying and claiming that it is for "security".
Enough complaints. I picked up the Tax documents for PAME (Philippine American Ministry Enhancement) and sent the documents to MI for the third time. Hopefully, they get things registered this time. After that, there are a few more steps in setting up the non-profit. Dr. Nono was in the U.S. for the first two weeks that I was there and he introduced me to 4 churches where I may be able to present PAME in the future. I also was able to show the presentation in my home church and Fellowship Baptist of Clark Lake, MI. Prayerfully, people will start supporting some of the Filipino preachers recommended by PAME through the Philippine American World Missions. That support will go for their medical insurance, cost of copying lessons for them to use when teaching their people and related ministry costs. Their personal support and costs of things like church buildings will have to come from their teaching their people God's principals of handling money. We hope to encourage people's dependence on God while avoiding their dependence on God's tools, which are the Americans that God sends support through.
We are deliberately keeping PAME separate from any financial support to missionaries, and their reporting back to their supporters. The Bible tells us to use "two or three witnesses" and PAME must keep this separation in order to be an independent witness. We hope, in the future, to establish a reliable ministry where American churches can have spiritually mature Filipinos go to the Asian ministries which are supported by the American churches and report how those ministries are truly acting when they do not realize that their supporting churches are receiving a report. The "Secret Shopper" program in America is Biblically based and that is part of what non-pastor missionaries are supposed to do. When the pastor of a supporting church visits, the ministry puts their "best foot forward". When a Filipino, who can blend into any Asian culture, visits, he is regarded as an out-of-town visitor in your church is regarded. He can report "how the mice play when the cat's away". Hopefully, PAME can develop this ministry and, hopefully, American churches will make use of this Biblically based ministry.
I also received a set of lessons for new believers with the legal right to copy it and distribute through PAME. That was written by Chuck Zonca of RHBC. In addition, Pastor Traxler released some of his lessons in the Psalms and all of his lessons in Proverbs with the stipulation that they only be published in Asia. We will be creating a web site for PAME with a restricted portion that can only be accessed by Filipino preachers who have been trained, and passed the testing, of PAME. The lessons from Dr. Traxler will be put there so that only those pastors can use them to teach their people. Please pray that we can get more lessons with the legal right to copy them and make them available to the Filipino people. We plan on separating these lessons by levels of spiritual maturity required in order to understand them. In 1Corinthians Paul said that spiritual "babes" could not handle spiritual "meat". Thus, we need lessons that people can handle at various stages of their spiritual growth. In particular, we need lessons on discipleship which are above the level of newly saved people but can be used with people who have been through the first level which we have from Chuck Zonka.
Please pray as I have been invited to other islands of the Philippines and to other Asian countries. I hope to introduce PAME to be a help in their ministries and point the people to PAME, and not me, as the ministry that God is using to help them bring spiritual maturity to their people. The desire is that the ministry continues to function even after I am replaced. In addition, the desire is to provide closer association between American churches and their Asian missionary works which will survive the passing of a particular missionary. In addition, we hope to provide the "second witness" that is Biblical and takes care of churches supporting "moochanaries" who have a good presentation in Americal but who are not really doing God's work on the mission field.
With that said, any help to Asian countries, outside of the Philippines, is only going through Filipino missionaries. We hope to avoid prior mistakes by American missionaries who failed to consider the various cultural differences and requirements when presenting all of the Gospel, including spiritual growth after salvation. After PAME is developed and working with Filipinos, it is hoped that it can become a pattern for other ministries which are sensitive to the variety of Asian cultures. However, for now, by restricting help through PAME to Filipino missionaries, we hope to relate to them within their culture and let the Filipino missionaries make the necessary transitions require to deal with other Asian cultures.
Finally, the Philippines is a spiritual growth area with the potential of reaching all of Asia and of the world. However, cults are growing like weeds because they promise to teach things in the Bible that many (most) Filipino pastors are not equipped to teach. Please pray that we can equip these Filipino pastors, who have a zeal, but lack knowledge, so that they can help their people to grow spiritually and so that they can fight the doctrinal error taught by cults.
Please add PAME to your prayer list. Also, I preached on Colossians 2, emphasizing Colossians 2:1-3at La Castiliana in the morning and La Carlota in the afternoon. Those verses are the first sentence of the chapter and introduce the subject of the chapter. The chapter teaches the saved person how to get God's blessings which are available only to saved people and only if they are truly maintaining their ongoing personal relationship which is "in Christ". All responded to the invitation at La Castiliana. In La Carlota Dr. Nono added several
the verses from Colossians which tell of blessings which are like the ones which I preached on. About 1/2 of the people came to the altar and 4 made professions. This is how Philippines and Americans can work together. I teach basic understanding, the Filipino preacher preaches the application to the Filipinos in their dialect and way of understanding and God uses the combination to bless His people.
I have not been sending a status for the last little while because I have been putting pictures in Facebook instead. I'm not sure if the last status was sent so Please forgive me if I repeat things from a prior message.
I will be in the U.S. on September 1 for a doctor appointment and will spend the first two weeks of September with Dr. Nono before he returns to the Philippines. He hopes to visit churches in Canada but a Filipino must have a visa to go into Canada or be with someone from the U.S. Starting in the third week of September I hope to get into churches to give a status on the ministry here in the Philippines. I will stay in the U.S. as long as I can get into churches and return to the Philippines after that. Please pray that churches will listen. I have been on the mission field for one year total time and God has used me to lead 344 people to make professions, most of which were done one-on-one witnessing or speaking in small missions. In addition, at least 43people were baptized and these baptisms were partially due to God working through me. While here I've taught a Hermeneutics Class in Bible School that 25attended and I am currently teaching the book of Romans in the Bible School. I paid at least 1/2 of the cost for two different missions trips with two different preachers each time. One preacher is planning on going to the one field (Thailand) and I will be supporting him. I am also starting support of Filipino missionaries in Vietnam and Cambodia and am already supporting a Filipino missionary in Qatar and over 25in the Philippines. Beyond these I currently support ministries in the U.S. and Belize. What many people fail to realize is that many churches take the amount required to support one missionary full time, and spread that support over several missionaries. I personally provide the amount required to provide the full support of many missionaries. I am firmly convinced that these facts are why I can give 133% of my regular income to missions and still have more than I had when I came to the mission field. Before I came, the best that I could figure I would have about 1/2 of what the Philippine government said that an American needed to live here. I have traveled between the U.S. and Philippines 8 times, moved and lived in 3different cities, traveled to other islands quite often and traveled to other cities on a weekly basis (or more often), furnished a 2-bedroom apartment and generally spent money with no regard for future needs. God has greatly blessed my finances because I came here with NO financial support beyond my regular income and what God provided.
In addition, I have checked on 5missionary ministries which are supported by my home church. This is the Biblical basis for the "Secret Shopper" program that is used by businesses and is God's way for churches to avoid supporting "moochinaries". The current practice of having missionaries present their work in the supporting church service does not prevent "moochinaries".
The first 6 months that I was here I was searching for what God would have me do. Starting in January of this year (2014) God had me work with Dr. Nono to start a new ministry called Philippine American Ministry Enhancement (PAME). The entire purpose of this ministry is to enhance existing ministries by working with, and through, Filipinos to help other Filipino ministries which need help. Over 1/2 of the book of Acts is based upon Paul telling Barnabas that they need to go check on the churches they had started. Our New Testament is written to help saved people and not written to the lost. The Plan of Salvation is included as something that saved people are to take to the lost.
There are preachers here who are going out and starting churches with only $5/month-$50/month in support. They have a zeal for God but very little training, no helps such as concordance or basic lessons on doctrine and none of the things we feel are necessary. One church that I visited had no electricity, no Bibles, one song book and 24 people who were sure of their salvation. Other churches that we are helping have little more and they ask why the church of God is neglected while missionaries only start new works.
A major problem here is doctrinal error and cults because God's people don't know the things that the Bible tells us about and their preachers do not have access to these lessons, Bibles, tracts, song books and other helps of the ministry.
At least 6 preachers and churches have been converted to Baptist from other religions because of the truth that we showed to the pastors. Over 120 souls made a profession, 85children saw a doctor for the first time in their life and church members were trained in soul winning one week-end. About 40 preachers were trained and the majority started out saying that we could not help them and ended up praising God for the help we brought. More than one pastor had quit the ministry, or were actively looking for other work so that they could quit, and went back into the ministry praising God because we showed them how to get God's blessing on their ministry.
Out of about 40 which were trained, there are 20 whom we would like to recommend for people to pray about supporting. We tested them and can say that they passed God's test of faithfulness. Most missionaries go through several years of deputation before the missionary goes to the field where he has at least one year of further adjustment to the field (language school, etc). Here are missionaries already doing the work who have been tested and passed the test and who require only 10% (or less) of the support required for an American missionary. I do not ask people to drop support of American missionaries but pray about at least hearing about these so that the church can consider adding them to the missionaries which the church supports.
God bless and thank you for all prayerful consideration.
The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.Their conclusion was that I spoke the truth when I claimed that the way in which I interpret the Bible came from God. No matter what 'problem verse' they gave me I could show them that there was no conflict with any other part of the Bible and I could show them how to do an
every wordinterpretation with
every jot and titleconsidered in a way that
no man can do'except God be with him. This Doctorate of Divinity is a recognition of God working through me to give help to His people. Please pray that the work which God does through me continues to be a blessing by helping God's people to understand God's Word God's Way.
I just posted pictures and video of a recent medical mission trip that I financially sponsored. (Part of my ministry here.) 85children that had never seen a doctor before were examined and given medicines ranging from vitamins to scripts. About 50 went for soul-winning and there were 120 professions, one surrendered to go to Bible School to train as a preacher and many others at altar call.
Also, I applied to Beams over a month ago and just sent another email. If possible, I would appreciate any prayer help to get Bibles to these people who are too poor to buy their own.
There have been 85baptisms as a result of Youth Camp with several pastors of the larger churches not reporting yet. It is expected that the total will be over 110. In addition, I am paying to repair the baptistery and fill it at a local jail so that we can baptize next Wednesday. 20-25inmates are signed up for baptism. The Philippines is a different nation with different laws and ways to treat people. Inmates are given a bed made out of bamboo. They have to provide their own shelter with many having only a tarp (that they provided) hung by ropes from trees and their clothes and personal effects in a box or bag under their bed. Now imaging being in a rain that is far heavier than any shower I've ever been in and having it go for hours, even more than 24, with flooding. Now understand that if their physical needs are so poorly met, imagine how little their spiritual needs are met. I am trying to resolve some problems between the pastors who minister in the jails and the American ministries which were created to help prison ministries. Please pray that I can get help (bibles, study courses, etc) from the American ministries to these pastors.
I've been busy so this will be short. Two short videos posted on Facebook: one of decision time and another of rally time at Bible Baptist Youth Camp where over 800 youth and over 1,000 total from over 25churches attended. 800 at altar during this invitation. 84 professions total for camp.
I've been busy. I went to Thailand with James Nono and Jireh (Tata) Nono. There are basically 2 Visas for Filipinos to get into Thailand: student and work. Because of the culture, almost all find it impossible to get a work visa until after they have spent a year on a student visa in language school. The language uses 5tones and has totally different meanings for the same word said with different tones. The language can really only be learned within Thailand with a native speaker correcting the tone followed by everyday speaking with many native speakers. In addition, to the language, there are cultural differences such as Buddhist people getting irate and threating physical violence if you hit a stray dog that runs in front of your car. That said, we are praying for a team to form and go there with Jireh (Tata) Nono . This is the true Biblical plan for a living church to reproduce itself. The other mature Christians will be doing the work of the church such as: tithing, soul-winning, choir, fellowship, etc.
We also started what is currently called a 'Pastor Refresher Course' that runs all day every Tuesday for 6 months. Over 35pastors started, currently over 25are still going with others coming and going for various sessions. As one U.S. preacher (Daniel White)) noted: there are three parts to the Great Commission: (1) Get people saved; (2) Get them baptized and into the church as active members; (3) Get them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you"
[obey at a detail level], which causes true Christians to spiritually mature and become leaders. The Filipinos are great at the first two but fail at the third, which is why so many are turning to cults. They have zeal but not knowledge. Many pastors have gone to Bible school (and some did not even finish that) and then went out and started churches. The churches stagnate because they can't / don't preach anything but salvation. We are trying to give them more so that they can give their people more. I teach hermeneutics and provide them Book Studies of over 14 books of the New Testament with every verse/sentence interpreted. I also provide them many doctrinal subject studies such as 'Bible Econ 101'. There are also mature pastors teaching other subjects, such as Baptist History, the doctrine of the church, the doctrine of God's Word and more so that they have material to help their people grow spiritually. Dr. Nono is also bringing in mature U.S. pastors to help teach these pastors at the same time as they preach these tent meetings and other special meetings. God is willing, but we hope to properly follow His guidance as we try to enable these preachers to lead their people to spiritual maturity. I believe that part of the responses seen at the tent meetings is an evidence of God's approval on the attached work of enabling these preachers. We had at least 35preachers for each session of the 'Preachers Conference' during the La Carlota Tent Meeting and about 50 for the one during the La Castilina Tent Meeting. Please pray for this new ministry.
The Tent Meeting at La Carlota saw over 1650 professions. Pictures and videos are on Facebook. There were over 1500 professions at the La Castilina Tent Meeting. Pictures and videos are on Facebook. There were over 20 professions one time and about 40 another time when I preached at a jail ministry and there have been several professions during one-on-one soul-winning. At the same time I keep having people attacking my money. This must be the devil because this money is used for missions support. One bank added repeated charges to a closed credit card after I had proved that those charges were fraud. They demanded I pay for these ongoing fraudulent charges made against a closed card plus interest and penalties. They refused to back down until I got the government involved. Then the Philippine Phone company tried to charge me twice for my iphone, tried to charge me multiple times for phone charges over $300 which were invalid. They are the only company available and, therefore, think ongoing poor quality service and fraudulent billing is OK because they can get away with it for now. They refuse to understand that a competitor will come along and take away their customers who will refuse to return, no matter what they offer, because they are taking advantage now. Then the main decent store has tried several times and ways to charge me for items that I did not receive. I can only believe this is from Satan trying to get me to stop financing mission efforts in the Philippines. Please pray that I use God's wisdom as I deal with these things so that I don't react in my flesh and hurt the testimony of God.
I am not sure if I mentioned it but I finished my Book Study (line-by-line) on 1Corinthians last year. I am going back through the Book Study on Galatians and filling in details like adding Word Studies or links to where Word Studies exist in other places on the web site. Also, other studies have been added or updated. Please visit LJC1611kjv.com for these updates. Also see the HELP page (accessed from SITE menu) for how to download a copy of the site, or updates to your copy, so that you have a copy which runs without being connected to the internet.
I am moved to Bacolod. I moved from a furnished apartment in Iloilo to an unfurnished apartment on another island. At the moment I am waiting on hand-made beads to be delivered. Furnishings are spare but I don't have that many visitors and most are Filipinos, so what I have is completely acceptable. I will get more but probably not much. My nephew David visited from Taiwan for 3weeks and he thought my apartment was a little too spare since there was no mirror, not even in the bathroom. I explained that I had not had the time to shop yet. Anyway, he is gone home.
We started the new ministry for helping preachers of small churches. The papers with the government still have to be filed and while I was told the name, I forgot it and will send it later. Please pray for this new ministry which is 8 hours every Tuesday for 6 months. Pray for the leaders and teachers.
I went to Handumaman prison with Gene Garcia this morning. Attached is a picture of 40 who raised their hand to receive the Lord as their personal savior.
Please pray as Janes Nono, Jiren Nono and I go to Thailand to see where the Lord wants Jiren to work as a missionary. If any know of a missionary currently in Thailand Please send his contact info to me for us to visit. We will visit 1020-2014 through 1-26-2014.
I seem to have lost my copy of my Philippines journal, at least temporarily. I will continue from what I remember reporting last. I am in a hotel taking a short break in a very busy time.
I had returned to the U.S. and the disability insurance people decided to stop making excuses and pay my short-term disability when I reached Chicago airport. I had several people praying for God to change their heart but I also was doing my part such as pointing out how they had deliberately broke the law at least 6 times. I told them that this was enough of a pattern for my lawyer to show that this was a deliberate attitude of business fraud. With that established, I would have him demand that they give us access to their records, during discovery, so that we could find the evidence to turn it into a class-action suit. I'm sure a lot of people are aware of how insurance companies try anything to avoid paying claims. They were looking at setting a legal precedent that would stop a lot of their methods of denial, and decided to drop the fight. After that there was a fight for the long-term disability but they only put up the minimum fight in order to save face. I have ongoing paperwork, but am receiving payments.
I had returned to the Philippines for only one week and received a text that my mom had died. That required last-minute (high cost) plane tickets. Three trips of 1.5days travel each took it out of me and I was wore-out for at least a month. However, I needed to find an apartment in the city of Bacolod so that I would be able to travel to churches easier. James Nono helped find the apartment and several people helped me to move which included putting a truck on a boat so that things could be moved to-from the port and across the water. Also, at the same time, goods to help the typhoon victims were also shipped from one island to another. Filipinos provided the help, I only told James Nono and others where to send the goods that they collected. They had 6 large (2ft cube) boxes of goods delivered to Rick Martin who was sending out teams to help with relief for the victims.
I only had a few hours to set things up in my new appartment and then had to travel more. On Sunday I preached at a small church (30-40 attending) where 10-15people made a profession. Starting on Monday, Bible Baptist in La Carlota had their mission's conference where I talked a couple of times about a new ministry that Dr. Nono and I are starting. Then on Sunday I preached in another church (about 40 attending) where no one made a profession but 3/4 of the people came to the alter to seek personal spiritual maturity. The pastor wants me back to teach more about how the people can mature spiritually.
Between the mission's conference and Sunday I returned to Iloilo from the other island, and picked up my nephew David from the airport. He teaches English in a Buddhist country and wanted to spend Christmas in a Christian country. He will be here until 1-3-2014. Right now he is with a Filipino preacher in the mountains hiking while I am catching up on records in the hotel. He saw lots of Christmas lights, nativity scenes, attended a Christmas play in a foreign land, went scuba diving, attended a Christmas party for worldly people in a resort, attended another with Christians in a camp (saw the contrast), went shopping, went mountain hiking and more. Probably the most significant thing that he noted is that he has only made 1 friend: a girlfriend, in more time than I have been in the Philippines. I have been here about 8 months. I introduced David to friends who were willing to make time to help him in three different cities and the people that I introduced him to came from more cities than that. I made these friends through true Christian churches. David has seen how God's people truly care for saved even when first introduced and how they are willing to help others, especially other saved people, like no other people will do. David has a Buddhist girlfriend but is looking for a good Christian wife. Please pray that he returns and seeks a wife from God's true Christians.
The last significant thing that I want to mention is this new ministry that is so new that we have not yet settled on a name. This is a major prayer need that will be ongoing. While I was in the Philippines for the first 6 months, God showed me that He had already provided for all of my needs. I don't need any more money but did not realize it until after I obeyed God (Who spoke to me through his preacher) and moved to the mission field. Therefore, when I received the disability money, I had to clear up a lingering mortgage on a house that I rent out and had to deal with all of the travel expenses but mainly God showed me that this money ($50k/year) was to go into missions. God takes care of my needs because I handle God's money God's way.
There are a lot of Filipinos who are zealous for the Lord. They get saved, baptized, active in church, go to Bible school and then go out and start a church. Some don't even wait until they finish Bible School. They get people saved , baptized and to join their church, but don't know how to teach them to grow spiritually. For example, many of these preachers do not know enough Biblical financial principals to have a savings account or keep records. Obviously, they can't teach their people about Biblical financial principals if they don't know them well enough to follow the principals themselves. They have lived in a hand-to-mouth culture for so many generations that they don't even know that there is a better way. In addition, zeal without knowledge leads to fanatics and the cults are flourishing. As a result, a major need is to give further education to these preachers so that they can educate their people. This was a need that I saw while here for the first 6 months. It is a need that Dr. Nono has prayed about for over 10 years. God is using me to provide the money and using Dr. Nono to organize and create a ministry to train these preachers. They will be required to keep records to show improvement brought by this ministry and to teach them to keep records. Dr. Nono will be bringing in pastors to teach them things like pastoral counseling and other advanced topics. I will teach hermeneutics. Other help will also be provided like taking Bible School students to evangelize the area of these churches. All in all it is aimed at making pastors more effective and lest frustrated in their ministry for God. It is aimed at fulfilling the third part of the 'Great Commission': Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you
.
When thelegal requirements are fulfilled and we have an official name I will pass it on. For now, call it 'Iron Sharpeners' (Proverbs 27:17) and Please put this new ministry on your permanent prayer list.
I apologize for the delay in this message and offer no excuse but say that at times I am an airhead. God sent me a reminder to 'wake up'.
My apartment and the part of Iloilo that it is in suffered no damage in the recent super-hurricane that caused many disasters in the Philippines. The two main churches that I have been dealing with suffered no significant damage. While I am not sure what relief efforts are going out of Bible Baptist Church, La Carlota (Dr. Nono), I can report that a lot of relief effort is going out from Iloilo Baptist Church (Rick Martin). Further, Rick Martin and his ministry are taking funds that are critical to their family / ministry and putting them into this relief effort with the faith that God will motivate His people to replenish those funds and, thereby, participate in this relief effort. In addition, any funds sent to his ministry, which are beyond replacing critical funds already spent, I am confident will go directly to the relief effort.
IBC has been sending teams of Bible School students and church members into the disaster areas to help with basic things like distributing food, water and clothing. While there is normally plenty of fresh water, many of those supply sources have been polluted by sea water or mud and other things in a land slide caused by massive waves from the ocean. In addition, to water damage Rick Martin has identified at least 150 churches where the church and/or parsonage were severely damaged or destroyed. As these tend to be cement buildings, local housing and businesses in the same areas, which are built out of lesser materials like bamboo, have been totally destroyed. Thus many of the survivors have only the clothes on their back. As I hope everyone understands, relief distributed through these churches goes to all in need without consideration of which church someone may or may not go to.
As I understand it, Rick martin has already spent several hundreds of thousands of dollars and there is an immediate need to replace those funds and to supply more. While people in places like the U.S. can't personally help, they can help send local people. That said, Please understand the cultural differences from conditions within the U.S. which contribute to the need. For the most part, these people do not have insurance and the government cannot / will not provide anywhere near the level of help that people in the U.S. could expect. In addition, many of these people live hand-to-mouth and don't get paid if they don't work. That means that they cannot provide food for their own families while they are going to help in the disaster areas.
Another consideration is that $1 = about 43pesos. While things like gas and electricity cost as much or more as they cost in the U.S., $1 can but 20-40 times as much of many basic things like basic foods (rice, fish, etc), basic manual labor and basic clothing. Thus, people in the U.S. can figure that their disaster relief dollars will be at least 20 times more effective in the Philippines as they are in the U.S. In addition, there will be "Charity Overhead" for funds sent through Rick Martin. As a final note, since funds would be sent through a recognized charitable organization, all gifts are tax deductible. Please send what help you can to:
Baptist International Missions, Inc.
P.O. Box 9215
Chattanooga, TN 37412
United States of America
Please designate funds for: Disaster Relief c/o Rick Martin in the Philippines. (Far East Project Fund, Account #954).
Please see http://www.bimi.org/philippines/home.php for more details. Please also pass this on to anyone who would be interested.
Thanks and God bless you for any consideration given.
I was asked to go to Isabella to speak for the pastor of a 'grandchild church' from Br.
Gurley's ministry. As I understand it: he led Raymundo Zacal Jr. to the Lord and trained him as a pastor. Pastor Zacal trained Japeth Ladau, who started Counselor Baptist Church in Isabel. His church supports 6 mountain missionaries for $7.50 per month. He asked me to come speak to him and his missionary pastors and other pastors from his city. There were about 30 there for the session and at the end of the day, all of the pastors wanted their picture taken with me.
I traveled to La Corlota on Thursday and Hermoso rode me there on Friday. Although he insisted that it was too much, I filled his motorcycle gas tank. After I introduced him as the pastor in La Castelina, he had to leave. In text messages before I got there, the pastor had laughed at the thought that I could speak for 2 hours. However, he said they would listen as long as I could talk about the Bible. He told me that pastors from the mountain had traveled for an hour to get there. With a 1 hour break for lunch, I spoke from 10 AM till 2:30 PM and quit when several seemed to hit their limit of listening. I can't imagine a U.S. group sitting for so long. I think everyone said thanks for what the Lord said through me. On Saturday, Hermoso was supposed to pick me up for the baptism of a couple that made a profession when I was with him the prior week, but Hermoso didn't get me. Still, praise God for a couple who not only got saved but traveled an hour to church and then wants to get baptized.
I was asked to do a rotation with the preachers at Dr. Nono's while he was gone and I was here. The first Sunday I was going to present the 'Great Commission', but James said that he was doing that and asked me to speak on money. Several people raised their hand to show that they would start tithing, even though there was not an altar call. Then James said that several people asked for me to speak more on that next Sunday. So, I won't be rotating when I speak but will be speaking on Sunday afternoon and James indicated that they might want several messages on finance.
I am in Kabayan hotel in Manila waiting for Bishop Andaya to pick up Ulysses and myself for some touring of manila on the way back to the airport. Last week I bought airplane tickets that were supposed to be for next week but the lady chose the wrong dates and I didn't catch it until later and didn't fight to correct the dates. Therefore I didn't have the necessary time to plan things but God made them work out anyway.
I was busy finishing up the study on 1Corinthians 9and it took me longer than expected. When I finished it I went and bought 12 more USB drives and copied my site to several before I had to leave for the boat to Negros (Dr. Nono). He picked me up there and I spent Saturday catching up with him and then finishing copying my site. I had to be on the bus at 7:30 AM Sunday to return to Bacolod where I preached for Gene Garcia. There were about 60 in the morning service. 3were saved and many more came to the altar. He gave me a Philippine formal (preaching) shirt and took me to lunch where we met Pastor Fernando Magallanes. Pictures of his church, which is under construction, are posted on Facebook.
Upstairs, at back of the church, is a very neat and orderly house made from cement and tile. For example, they cannot afford a fridge. They built the church and house using only support from poor locals. Part of the concern that Pastor Marciano expressed is the fact that he, and other poor Filipino pastors, are training missionaries and have qualified people willing and able to do the work but they cannot get support from places like America. The missionary in Viet Nam came from his church. Another man was working a job as an engineer and went to Bible School and received training and experience under Dr. Nono. He wants to be a missionary and is considering trying to get an engineering job on the missionary field to support the work. However, for $300/week support he could be full time.
I discussed the problem with Dr. Nono and he said that he will try again to raise support for missionaries from third-world countries who are trained and capable and willing to do the work far cheaper than American missionaries. They also can go where Americans can't, such as Viet Nam and China, as pass as natives where Americans are obvious foreigners and watched closer. There are also many other advantages but two main roadblocks. First is the problem with reporting from the mission field which has questionable reliability. The second is based upon the first and s a mindset that the missionary has to personally present his work to the church. These poor third-world missionaries don't have the funds. However, while there is a Biblical requirement for two witnesses, there is another possibility that I would like people to pray about.
Think about the the words see / sight
secret shopper' program. It is pretty much unknown in third-world countries. On the rare occasion when a pastor visits a mission field he is given the VIP treatment with a show of the best the missionary is doing. When someone like me visits people are not sure what to do and while I am treated somewhat better than a local, I am not given a VIP show. I see a more honest picture. I not only can give an independent report of these third-world missionaries, but I could be used to build a pattern that other non-preachers could follow. For example, while I have not sent any negative reports, I definitely would not recommend people coming out of some supported works. (Those details would only be supplied to people with a the words see / sight
need-to-know'.) Many missionaries want pastors to come and see the work but for many reasons that is not happening. However, spiritual lay-people could provide reporting and, if a proper program with guidelines were created, those reports could be shared between churches. This would provide the the words see / sight
second witness' and, possibly, enable some support to third-world missionaries. Please pray about the possibility of helping to create such a program. Please see Facebook (Gerard Cotter) for pictures of this work.
After Sunday in the two churches I found a problem that I had to spend Monday fixing and then prepare for the first class on Hermeneutics that ran 5:30-7PM. I was told to expect about 20 and we had 32. I also expect a couple more to start next week. Please pray for this class which is every Monday night till I return to the U.S. for a doctor appointment for my Post-Polio. The insurance company is still denying that I am handicapped. God is providing for my needs and this money is dedicated to missions support. Thus, they are taking something that has been sanctified.
Pastor Nono said many people were excited and blessed by the first class and he expects it to be a real blessing to those attending but that depends upon blessings from the Lord.
returned by boat to Iloilo Tuesday (3-4 hour trip) and took care of a few things before flying to Manila. The hotel by the airport was $75. He next day we got ahold of Brother Andaya and he got us a cheaper hotel for the next two nights. He also showed us his work and let me testify in the evening service. I understand that he is praying about making my work available to his people.
nstead of building a large work he has trained and sent out over 30 men to start independent works in the area. When a man is a leader of leaders he is called Bishop here, and that title is Biblical. In addition, he also has the title from governments. (Ask him for details if you wish.) He led his people to sell their property, to be debt-free, and used the remaining cash to buy a lot. They are renting a building and building a new church as they raise the cash. Their new church is 1-2 blocks from 3schools and another is less than 1 mile away. While I was there a teacher from the one school stopped by to thank him for putting a church there as many school children are known to be Christians and the government and schools want the church influence in the schools.
Please see Facebook (Gerard Cotter) for pictures from Bishop Andaya's work.
On Thursday Bishop Andaya had a member who was a taxi driver take Ulysses and me to find the Gormley. Their mission board, email and phone had all changed since the prayer card, that I had, was printed and I had no other way to contact them. They have a large school but we did not see it. Was busy showing him my site till we went to lunch and then had to return to the hotel. He plans on contacting me to return and present my work to his church and Bible School students. He has tentatively scheduled for me to teach a Hermeneutics class for him and another pastor starting in November after I return from the U.S. Please pray for the future meeting and future class.
Below are IDs of the photos posted on Facebook.
Pastor Magallanes church which he built over several years with only about $25/week support. He runs about 60 regular members and is trying to raise support to send another missionary to a country where Americans can't get but which Filipinos can. Front of church building, inside compound with temporary buildings that need replacement to continue to offer a school, from stage inside church with plywood walls on new constriction upstairs, Church stage. He lives upstairs at back of church with a gas stove but no fridge, no toilet paper or other things that take money from building the church.
Pictures include:. Bishop Andaya's work in Manila, Philippines. New stage, from stage, balcony under construction, building poster, church front, map of daughter churches, me with Bishop Andaya, rented church, Bishop Andaya, me. Work of Brother Gormley in another part of Manila: His board of missionaries supported; partial front of building; Ulysses, me, driver June, Br. Gormley; Myself, Br. Gormley and Ulysses outsider of church. June told us about his daughter being possessed by a devil for 19days while Bishop Andaya's church prayed for her. She is OK now and mother of 2 children. Hotel we stayed at in Manila. Compute the cost of food with $1=43Php. Ulysses outside hotel. 'Light' traffic in Manila. High rise that is rare in the Philippines. Church with Jeepney in front. Part of National park downtown Manila at bay. Typical store with high rise in back. These contrasts are normal in a third-world country. Part of national park. Front of Grand Hotel where VIPs stay. Stadium at National park where the president has a rally, like in front of White House. U.S. embassy. Cultural Center building. National park. Convention Center. High rise apartment for foreigners. Tourist trap. Typical neighborhood for servants of foreigners. Mall of Asia: supposedly largest mall in Asia. Pictures of mall; Br. Andaya, wife and Ulysses; ice skating rink in mall; electric cart they got for me when I was tired from walking with my cane; Starbucks for revival; outdoors within mall; 4 for more coffee in tex-mex restaurant; more outside of mall; airport(this was Ulysses first airplane ride).
I was invited to speak for Pastor Irendo Bugtong at Bible Baptist Church in Molo, Iloilo Philippines. There were about 60 present in the meeting and about 12 came forward and at least ' told me that I was a blessing. I felt like I dropped the Ball, but (I hope) the Lord Jesus Christ could use what I said to help the people. In particular, while my delivery needs improvement, I believe the message is one that a lot of God's people need.
Before the meeting I was able to encourage a missionary to SW China who has had an illegal home church there for about 10 years. He was home visiting family and his home church. After the meeting he said that I helped him a lot and (based on the things I had told him earlier) that he believed the DVD with a copy of my web site would help him a lot, since I assured him that the things which I told him were on the web site in greater detail. In addition, the Pastor said that I helped him a lot in our fellowship after the meeting.
He said that he took over this church about 7years ago. Apparently it was a lot like the church at Corinth when Paul wrote 1Corinthians. The prior pastor had 'preacher boys', but wanted to bring in 'new blood' to end the disputes. Pastor Irendo Bugtong's main focus has been on getting the church united and personally following the leadership of Jesus Christ instead of following men. Now that their focus in on the right person, he hopes to get them moving forward in action. One of the things he is teaching them is how to get God's blessings, which is why he said that it was important for them to give, and for me accept, the love offering. It is only $37.50 US, but a large amount for a lot of these people. He is teaching them the truth of Phil 4:15-19. He tells his people to not assume that someone does not need support just because he is an American. In addition, our giving is not based upon their need but in obedience to God so that God may bless us and bless others through our life. This matches what I tried to tell them.
I told them that they had to do the things to maintain their personal relationship with God, in addition to being personally involved in the ministry and using the correct interpretation of the Bible. I also emphasized that having one of these three correct does not prevent you from making an error in another of the three. The explanation on the differences between our three areas of responsibilities to God, and how the results of each one is independent from the results of the other two areas, was one of the greatest helps that I gave to this pastor and the missionary.
I recently had a talk with a man at Rick Martin's church (IBC) who is there because of problems with the Philippine government. He is quite frustrated at the lack of progress in the direction that he is sure that God will force the government to take.
He was born and raised a Filipino, but spent 25 years in the U.S. Navy and is now, culturally, an American. He walked away from me saying 'we are going to have to agree to disagree'. He is having problems in his life in the areas that God is blessing me in, but he is sure that he is right and I am wrong about how to get God's blessings.
He quotes the popular saying of 'Everything rises and falls on leadership' and, like a lot of saved Americans, he lets this saying from a preacher correct the Bible. I told him that I had a pastor who was convicted for a felony and is currently serving a multi-year sentence. He definitely 'fell', but I did not fall. Therefore, everything was not forced to fall with leadership. However, he's sure that his doctrine from this preacher is greater than facts of life that he can verify. I also pointed out that there is no leader who will 'rise' more than Jesus Christ did. Yet the 'rich young ruler' (Mark 10:17; Luke 18:18) walked away lost. Therefore, everything was not forced to rise with leadership. However, he's sure that his doctrine from this preacher is greater than truths from the Bible. Then I told him about the 'watchman' (Ezekiel 3) and how God held the 'watchman' responsible for his influence (give a warning) but held the individual people responsible for the results in their personal life. I told him that the way people use that saying today ('Everything rises and falls on leadership') matches the devil quoting scripture to tempt Jesus. Nothing wrong with what was presented, the error was in what was left out.
In the case of this saying, people leave out the personal responsibility that we each have towards God. Preachers like that saying because they can claim credit for things going right. People like that saying because they can blame the preacher when things go wrong. This man brought up First Baptist of Hammond IN and insisted that they chose the wrong leader. I told him that I had been there and heard from many people about his leadership and the results of his leadership. Those results were all fantastic. Where he sinned was in the personal area of his relationship with God. The error which led to his sin was believing that being right in the ministry mad up for neglecting his personal relationship. I told him that we have 3separate areas of responsibility to God and being right in one of them does not make us right in the other areas. We must each maintain each of these areas of our relationship with God or the neglected area will lead us to a fall. At that point he rejected what I said and left. This is the opposite of the reaction of Pastor Irendo Bugtong and the missionary to China. They found this helpful and believed it explained why some of their people were doing good in some areas of their life but having problems in other areas.
This man was sure that God had to bless him because he was attending the church with the best leadership and reading through his bible several times a year and support5ing his understanding of doctrine which (supposedly) came from great Baptist preachers. I'm not a preacher. I'm not even an ordained missionary or Bible School graduate. I'm just someone enjoying great blessings from a great God.
After being at IBC (Rick Martin's church) for about 6 weeks and after hearing Rick Martin preach a couple of times, I can say that he is not that great of a preacher. The preachers in his ministry are better at delivering moving messages. Yet his ministry produces results. Reportedly, several hundred churches have been started because of his ministry and thousands saved. Almost every service has 10-30 people come forward with professions and over ' get baptized. The secret, from what I see, is that he has over 200 people active in Wednesday Soul Winning and at least as many involved in Saturday Bus Ministry. These people are (apparently) acting upon a personal conviction that they will personally answer to God for the actions of their personal life and that the actions of their leader or of their church will not be accepted as a replacement for personal obedience to the 'Great Commission'. The man having trouble with the government is sure that personal soul winning is not commanded by God.
May God bless your personal ministry for our Lord and God.
On Tuesday Ulysses and I went up to a mountain church that is reached by taking a Jeepney to Leon, Philippines and then switching to another that is capable of traveling roads that are considered to be forestry or lumber roads in places like the U.S. The road started out being paved interspersed with gravel sections, once out of town, and deteriorated to being dirt with a little gravel and pavement only on steep areas because in the rainy season these roads become rivers and the steep areas would be completely eroded away without pavement.
This is the area where the armed communistic rebels were active until recently. From where the church is to the top of the ridge is an eroded steep dirt road that is best traveled on foot or with 4-wheel vehicle and if traveled by motorcycle then best with only one person because of all of the maneuvering required and all of the possibilities of a spill.
The pastor I met understood English but was uncomfortable speaking it. He grew up in a mountain village, got saved in a mountain church, attended a mountain Bible School and has started 3mountain churches and is starting another. He gets people saved, trains them, trains a man to take over the work and then starts another work. He has no support while doing this. He has no books or other materials except a worn our Bible and 6 song books. He makes his living doing various farm jobs such as planting and harvesting. He cuts trees since he is one of the few people with a chain saw. His family has a small plot where they raise bananas, chickens, eggs, ducks and a goat. His church is mainly cement with a tile floor and rough sawn lumber that he harvested from the mountain with his chain saw. His house is attached to the back of the church and built from rough sawn lumber that he personally harvested. You can see the chickens below the house through the bamboo slat floor. His bed is bamboo slats with no cushion. His wife cooks on a wood fire with only 4 pots and has that many to feed visitors. The bathroom is only a toilet bowl with everything else being cement including the water tub that you get water from the flush the toilet or pour water over yourself to bathe. Forget toilet paper, doctors, dentists, most medicines and other things that most people think are required. He has a guitar for music and his children have a 25 year old video game that they play on a 15inch TV. They have 6 song books for a church of 60. They all wear used clothing that is imported from U.S. second-hand stores and sold in town. Clother washing is by hand in a tub.
These people make excellent missionaries to places like Africa and Communist countries because they are used to almost as bad of conditions as the worst available in the world and yet still sere the Lord.
He went on a one week trip and when he came home the members of another religion had stolen the metal roof off his house so that they would have no shelter in a rainy season that turns roads into 1 foot deep rivers. Then these other people skipped their own religious services to throw rocks at people during the preaching service. While I could name the religion, the fact is that most, if not all, religions that tell people to trust the religious leaders present one face to first-world countries and another to third-world countries. Even Bible-toting Baptists do the same when people only look at their Bible for the text verse in church and do not verify the message against the context of the text verse after getting home.
I have personally seen these types of attacks before and seen the need to carry first-aid kits for people on mission trips because of the reaction of religious people when faced with God's truth from a written Bible. So, while I could name the religion, Romans 2 makes it clear that that the error is not the doctrine of a particular religion but the error is condemning the practices of another religion and then doing the same thing. When you condemn another religion, you prove to God that you know that this action is wrong. Many people condemn religious terrorists as fools for believing the lies of their religious leaders and then condemn themselves before God by refusing to verify their own religious doctrine by at least reading their Bible for the context of what they are told comes from God.
This brings us back to the mountain preachers who come from the poorest of people and yet are sending out missionaries with no more support than prayers because they don't have more. Search the book of Acts for the type of people who were commended by God for their giving and then read what it says actually happened to the rich people in Jerusalem who sent out preachers with doctrinal error but who did not help the people that actually preached God's truth. Search how it says that the 'pew sitting people', from these poor areas, were personally involved in spreading the gospel while the Jerusalem church condemned even Peter and Paul for going to non-Jews and for not preaching religious doctrine 'approve by the home church'. Look at how God protected these poor people while He sent the Roman Army to kill the people in the Jerusalem Church, and tear down their Temple, because they would only send our preachers who were trained on 'the approved religious doctrine', which just happened to and a 'few minor' differences from what the Bible actually says.
The true main religious export from America is doctrinal error because Americans support 'a good man of God' and don't verify the 'truth' he preaches. I say this based upon looking at the variety of 'Christian missionaries' that I have seen in the 9countries that I have personally presented the gospel in. I also offer the evidence of the variety of doctrines that come from 'good godly Bible believing KJV1611 only fundamental Baptists' when the KJV1611 says that we are to have 'one Lord, one faith'.
$200/month would fully support these preachers and even give them some help for ministry supplies like song books and Bibles. Forget about tracts and buildings. Even $25/month would be a large help in their providing food to their families while they try to reach a hostile neighborhood. I imagine that if someone were really interested in helping these preachers, they could contact Rick Martin (BIMI) about supporting missionaries from his Bible School or even missionaries, like this mountain preacher, who are trained by people that he already sent out like Pastor Billy in Leon. The particular pastor that I visited is Pastor Rodrigo Cabaya; Lacondon Baptist Church; Burcari, Leon, Iloilo, Philippines 5026'. Please see Facebook for latest pictures and a video.
God is no respecter of persons. (Acts 10:34). That means that it makes no difference to God, He is just as ready to save the American as He is to save the Filipino. The differences must be within the people involved. The last 6 months that I was in America I tried to encourage people to pray about, and make a commitment, to go on a mission trip. With the exception of one person, the answers that I received matched two of the four types of soil found in the Parable of the Sower. Some were afraid of third-world countries. This fear matches what Jesus said was represented by the stony ground. They sprang up quick, and had lots of evidence of Baptist religion in the US, 'Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.' The second answer matched the ground full of weeds ('He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.'). They couldn't possibly plan on taking a week off a year in advance and couldn't help a poorer brother to go on a mission trip. It is my experience that when most people go on a mission trip, the circumstances are different enough that God can get them to actually respond to the promptings of the Spirit. They don't have to get home to see some favorite TV show. They don't have to meet with their friends. Some actually think about the time and money spent to get there and figure they might at least try to tell someone about salvation because even if the person gets upset, they can walk away and never see the person again. Besides, foreigners are always strange. Therefore, people usually aren't as offended by a foreigner doing something that society ('the world') doesn't want them to do. A native person is expected to know better, but a foreigner can be forgiven for not knowing the rules of acceptable behaviour.
Please pray that I don't become like some people and start growing a weed garden in this foreign soil. God willing, I will continue to be a 'stupid American' who doesn't learn 'the world's' acceptable behaviour but continues to daily ask myself 'What am I doing here? Why am I living so poorly when I could have more?' and then go out daily to tell someone the Gospel and search for effective mission efforts to support.
The other person in the equation is the listener. Many Americans have blocked their mind and, while others can get through that mental block, I have a harder time (Dan 29:4; Ezek 12:2). I need 'easier soil to work' and the Filipinos are willing to listen, and consider, spiritual things that many Americans will not consider. Thus, when I tell a Filipino that they must 'receive Him' (John 1:12-13) like a man and woman 'receive' each other in marriage (Ephesians 5), they understand this and are willing to accept it. They find it amazing that so many Americans believe that they got saved (past-tense) and that it no longer affects their life, beyond limited religious activities, unless they agree to let their salvation do so for some special occasion. Filipinos understand that marriage affects every part and every moment of their future life and are amazed that anyone could be so foolish to believe anything else. Therefore, it makes sense to them that salvation also changes every part and every moment of their future life. Thus, it is easier to show Filipinos Bible truths which are rejected by Americans, such as the fact that if they fail to personally 'persuade men' after they get saved, they will personally receive 'the terror of the Lord' in Heaven at the 'judgment seat of Christ' and have 1,000 years of tears.
The conclusion is that Filipinos are getting saved in greater numbers than Americans because of the differences in the hearts of the people involved with no differences in God when it comes to the two sets of people. Joanne Barroquillo at the Iloilo Tourist Center made a profession today.
I somehow destroyed my document with earlier entries. So, I am starting over and creating this on 3-15-2013. I have been here 1.5weeks. I've been to the Post Office 3 times and still have not met the Post Master so that I can get a PO Box. No house addresses here. I tried 3VOIP services and 3phone services (different SIM cards). Today was the first time that I was able to leave a voice mail message to the US. Hopefully, my brother Kevin gets it. The phone service insists that the number that Steve has had for about 30 years is not assigned. I burned up a 220-110v power converter and extension cord before finding out that my computer supplies can handle 110v through 240v input. It took several tripe to the hardware to get what I needed for electrical. Most are a ' day trip or more. This is living in a third world country. I sometimes have poor internet service and must go to the church to get decent internet service. It has cooled down to about 85degrees as the sun starts to set. A lunch that lasted for 3meals cost $2.50 and getting a week's laundry done excellently and ironed (including underwear) cost $2.50. The people tend to be very happy and willing to spend time considering spiritual matters and they have little physical distractions like in America. However, they also value life lowly. Pastor Nono tried to advice an ex-military American who was fighting with a neighbor. He would not listen to the fact that the man quite likely would try to kill him over a small thing and if the American prevailed, the Philippine court might reject his claim of 'self-defense' since he is a foreigner fighting with a native. So, the main lesson is to adjust, give no offense, and concentrate on the spiritual possibilities. I have led 2 people to a profession of salvation and hope to lead more. I have taught 2 Sunday-School type of lessons and several preachers and non-preachers said they were blessed and encouraged to study their Bible more. As that is the main thing which drew me here, I find it to be encouraging. Satan is fighting and causing trouble in the physical reality while God is blessing in the spiritual.
Please also see the pictures that I posted on Facebook (Gerard Cotter)
The day started with 5AM prayer meeting and then visitation. Visited young people who attend 'daughter church' with Heresemo. Sent Bible study responses to David II and Jay. Sunday presented 'Basic Worship' in Sunday School at 'daughter church' and at afternoon service of main church. Second Sunday in a row allowed to do so. Prior Sunday was 'Basic Plan for Spiritual Growth' with this Sunday being ' of First Step in prior week.
The Missions Pastor at my home church told me to pray about the Philippines while we were on a mission trip to Costa Rica in 2012. The Bible says to Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
. (Hebrews 13:17). I didn't want to do what he said, but I obeyed and one thing led to another with my giving away most of what I own and comming to the Philippines while trusting God for my needs. An insurance company is supposed to be paying me disability, but claims that I can't be disabled because i did not see the doctor often enough after becoming disabled and because I am mot in a non-existant medical program to revive dead nerves.
While here I have been at several churches doing the work of an evangelist and teacher and other things, but God has not led me to join any work here (yet). So, my membership is still with the church whose web page link is found at the bottom of all of my web pages.
After getting here I sent emails to people and, eventually, started putting them into a journal. Then I decided to copy the journal here.