Hello to all of our family, friends and faithful supporters. We pray that all is well in your lives and that you are enjoying your summer. Be sure to spend some quality time with friends and family, cherish the moments!
We are doing well and we thank you all for your faithful prayers. On July 15th we celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary. Sometimes it hard to believe that we were married 32 years ago here in the Philippines. We give thanks and praise to the Lord for His hand in this marriage.
We are still caring for two young boys and a teenage girl. We are also now caring for another young girl who comes to us from the Island of Mindanao. All of the children are now in school which started here in June.
While the Philippines is still recovering from super Typhoon Yolanda we are still working with “Grace Community Empowerment” and “Baybay Assembly of God” with the rebuilding 100 houses that were totally destroyed by Typhoon Yolanda. We also have completed several boat repair/building projects. All of these boats were either damaged or destroyed by Typhoon Yolanda and Typhoon Basyang.
As we said in the last newsletter we were looking forward to the month of May for the planting of two new churches. The church plants were to be in Panas, a Barangay of Maasin City and in Conception, a Barangay of Hilongos. Due to various reasons the church plants have been put on hold. The biggest obstacle is finding affordable property to buy or lease. We are now trying to locate affordable buildings or houses to rent or lease which would be used as a worship center. Please pray for the Lord’s will and timing in this matter.
We continue supporting our “Livelihood” Ministry. This ministries purpose is to help people become self-supporting by providing them with the needed tools, education and or materials/supplies to earn a living. In June we provided ten female piglets to five families and we also provided one 50 kilo sack of feed to each of the families. As we had stated before these piglets will be raised as mother pigs for the family’s future livelihood.
Praise the Lord she was hired! The mother who we helped this past year with the paperwork requirements needed to apply for a teaching position has been hired at one of the local high schools. It’s never too late, she was hired the day before the school year started. We have also assisted another mother with obtaining the necessary paperwork needed to apply for a teaching position. We are patiently awaiting the hiring process and believe that the Lord will provide for this soon to be teacher also.
Vicenta has also been working very hard with the livelihood ministry. She is now teaching various women in the local churches how to make simple but beautiful jewelry that they can sell to help their families. She spends many hours preparing and then traveling and training the women. This is a simple but effective way for these women to earn a living.
David has begun teaching one day a week at the Institute of Biblical Ministries School in Baybay Leyte. This is a church supported school that believes in training and equipping future leaders. The school is about 1 ½ hours from our house; David is teaching Old Testament Survey and Biblical Evangelism. All of the teachers volunteer their time to this effort.
We again thank all of you for your prayers and support. Please continue to pray for us and for the people of the Philippines!
Love David & Vicenta
Isaiah 58:7