The Latest News & Good News

Greetings from Leyte to all of our wonderful supporters. We have several items of good news to report. First, concerning our family, we have been notified that our visas have finally been approved and we will become permanent alien residents of the Republic of the Philippines. A few of you asked whether we'd try to become Philippine citizens. The answer is no - we are only seeking permanent residency. To become a Philippine citizen means giving up our U.S. citizenship and we do not want that. We will be traveling to Cebu City next week to receive our resident cards and (of course) pay our fees.
Other good news: the property purchase is complete now. At this time we are waiting to receive the title from the Land Bureau, which may take some few weeks. And hopefully very soon we just might be able to begin construction of some permanent buildings for Leyte Christian College (LCC). Of course, that is subject to funding. At this time, our operating fund is quite low from the purchase of the property. We continue to hope & pray some of you will be able to help with the building.
Activities for Project Philippines continue to keep us very busy. On the last Sunday of January, Johnny was invited to be the guest speaker at the 4th anniversary of the Carigara congregation. This very small 'house church' began in early 2005 when Charlie Sabado baptized bro. Leon (Nonoy) Rotiro, a retired army officer in the town of Carigara, about 45 minutes west of Tacloban City, where we live. This congregation has continued steady growth to the point that they number around 30-plus. We traveled there for their worship service and 4th anniversary celebration and I was given the honor of preaching there. Ironically, I was one of the first to preach there during my trip to the Philippines in early 2005, so it was a reunion of sorts for me too.
Other good news: we have received commitments from more prospective students for LCC for the new school year which begins June 2009. We are very excited about the prospects of having our second crop of students enroll. We continue to pray that LCC would grow and be more known among the brotherhood here and be able to train preachers for years to come. That's because of you, our great supporters. The month of March and the end of the school year is rapidly approaching, and our current students continue to grow in knowledge. We are very pleased with the wonderful growth we see from most of them.
More Bible studies and a few baptisms continue to take place regularly thru the efforts of Project Philippines team members. We are so thankful for the hard work of all the team, and also to you, our supporters, for allowing us this opportunity to work in the Kingdom.