LINAO TEAM, Linao, Ipilan, Brooks Point, Palawan

On February 19-21, the last module of Linao team was held in Aborlan, Palawan. Ronnie was still grieving, together with the church planting team in Aborlan because of the sudden death of former church planting team member, Vivencia Amoto, who died on February 15 due to heart attack. However, the module went on as scheduled since it was the last month of the training for team Aborlan.

During that module, Ronnie reported that he was having difficulty on deciding whether he will stay in Linao or not after the training. He is praying for God’s leading as he also sees the need of going back to his mother church. At present, He still holds Bible studies every Tuesdays and Wednesdays and they have regular worship service on Mondays. Brethren from Ipilan visit Ronnie once a month and help him. The youth attendance every Sunday increased unlike the previous months.

The graduation of Ronnie and recognition for other team members last May 1, was held at the Christians Meeting in Gospel Hall, Brooke’s Point, Palawan. Let us pray for Ronnie and for the direction of the church in Linao. Pray also for the bereaved family of Vivencia Amoto especially for Carding Amoto who also suffered from heart attack before deciding to leave the team last year.

BENTAT CARIZ (Bintat Cariz), Guilingan, Rizal, Palawan

Eighteen tribal students were recognized on the end of March from the Bintat Kariz Iskula’t Palawan which the team started last June 2008. The students range from 5-14 years old. Anna Pearl and Analisa taught the children using the ACE curriculum. Every Friday, the parents of these children gathered in the school for fellowship. As a result, 90% of these parents started to attend the church service every Sunday. The parents of these children attending the school are very thankful because they see their children able to read and write. Because of that, even those on the other side of the river, more than 3 kilometers away, would like to enrol their children on the next school year. The couple Job and Ana and Popoy and Analisa pray for provision on the educational scholarship of the children. They also pray that they would be able to handle more students. As of now, they think they can only accommodate 30 students, yet many parents would like their children to be enrolled.

Recently, their village is suffering from drought. Many wells dried up. Yet, the team have a reason to celebrate since they discovered a spring of water just beside the chapel. They called it “Jacob’s Well”. Because of the drought many people came to the well to fetch water. They pray that the water could sustain them until the drought ends. Also pray for the provision for a school building. For the whole school-year, they are using the chapel as their classroom. Pray that the teachers and their resources could accommodate the students that are enrolling for the school year.

IBAAN TEAM UPDATE

The 5th module of Ibaan team was held on February 20-21 at ECPM office. The couple excitedly reported about what God is doing in Panghayaan. Through their BS, many neighbors and friends were able to hear the gospel. The community including their school recognized them as the couple continue to reach out to their neighbors.

Last February, they held a Valentine Fellowship for the couples in Panghayaan. They prepared a Christian film about relationship of couples and was attended by 8 couples that they are discipling at present. By God’s grace, the couple was able to establish four cell groups and each of them holds individual BS. Two live-in couples are scheduled to be married on May 17, simultaneous with the dedication ceremony for children.

On Holy Friday, April 10, the couple prepared a service that commemorated the seven last words of Jesus on the cross. Last April 12, a baptism was held and twenty (20) converts were baptized - 10 adults, 5 youth and 5 juniors. This is the first baptism that the team had during their two-year church planting training.

They are currently training two young people, Dave Roldan, who they train for leadership among young people and Ariel for the music ministry. At present the couple together with other believers hold their fellowship and worship service in a newly built, bamboo-structured chapel.

HIMAMAYLAN TEAM, Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

One BS group in HimamaylanThe couple praise the Lord for sustaining them in the ministry in spite of the many problems and challenges that they’ve faced. Last December, one of the team members, Bro. Manuel decided to attend the Bible School in Bulacan so the responsibility of leading the BS and discipling believers was given to Oscar. Sheralyn is on her way of delivering a baby this March which made it hard for her to help his husband Oscar in their ministry work.

During the regular visit of ECPM staff, Bro. Vic saw the need of the couple to learn more on the areas of discipleship and leading Bible studies. Bro. Oscar said that it was hard for him to think of new ideas or new approaches in teaching and evangelism. He was also having difficulty of applying the discipleship lessons taught to them.

Team Updates

Himamaylan Team

As of the moment, the team is now praying and preparing as they start a Youth Fellowship in the area of Himamaylan. Oscar sees this as an opportunity to reach out to the young people. After much time of building relationship in the area they have seen the potential of mobilizing among the youth and YMC will help the team in starting this work.
Sheralyn has shared that in the area, most mothers spend time playing cards and passing time by talking to each other near the base of the church planting team. This burdened the team and is now praying that through some livelihood seminars, they may be able to have the idle time of the community and serve as well as their strategy in reaching out to them. This is motivated by how some of the mothers have joined the team in their bible study groups instead of playing cards and just doing nothing by the sari-sari store.
The team praises the Lord for giving them four more bible study groups ever since their Saturday classes opened. They are continually praying as they see more and more parents willing to join their bible study groups.

Linao Team
Among the native people, sharing God’s love is sometimes very hard to do. But the team uses film showing still as a tool to visually relate to the Palawano people in Linao the importance of having a founded faith in God. The film showing usually relates to their daily living as natives in the rural set up and relating God’s role in their daily living.
The team’s passion for music and singing has captured the hearts of the many singing Palawano people and it is nice to see them spend time with each other at the team’s home base just singing after each bible study lesson.
The team has enhanced their evangelism strategy by participating in the recent Christian Training Camp held in Labog Palawan. Right now, the team will continue their bible study lessons focusing on truly making the Lord as their personal Saviour and assuring them of this as well as starting discipleship lessons that will eventually lead to baptism classes.
Please include in your prayers the health of the Linao team as well as their protection and safety. Most of all, please pray for the area of Linao as they get deeply rooted in the word of God.

CATBALOGAN TEAM

Ellen & Vida had the chance to visit the team and they are presently establishing their Children’s Ministry. Eugene and Mean teach the children in their neighborhood including hygiene, proper grooming, communicating and relating. Jose and Diego’s daughter, Ruth & Dorothy respectively helps in teaching them.

While Diego & Jose are very focused on reaching the student’s parents among the community, they continually pray for the adult contacts they have in Guinsorongan.

Eugene and Meriam were allowed by Guinsorongan Integrated School(GIS) as volunteers where Euguene designed the stage of the school and Meann will be teaching computer classes, by God’s grace, she will formally start these classes this June 2008
Please continually pray for the team as they work together in the area and pray for protection from what the enemy could be planning to do. Pray also for the barangay officials and community of Guinsorongan that they will come to know the Lord through the team.

Bintat Kariz
As an update from one of the planted church in Rizal Palawan, Ella had the chance to visit Bintat Kariz (church planting team ‘05-‘07) congregation during the wilderness camp in Palawan. About 30-40 people, adult and kids are now attending the Sunday services and they have opened a bible study in another tribal area.
This June, Job and Anna Lagrada will be pioneering a pre-school in the Bintat Kariz area using the ACE curriculum. This is a praiseworthy item as literacy is very much needed in the children among the area.

Linao Health Seminar

The Health Seminar, led by Couples Celso & Raquel R.N. with daughters Racel & Tin (both nurses), aimed at teaching basic & practical steps of having a healthy body. This was also seen as a help in preventing Malaria in ways the community of Linao could practically do. One very helpful thing was how the team, taught alternatives for tootbrush and toothpaste. I never knew that the end of a guava stalk, when pressed, could be an alternative for toothbrush if in case the ones we gave out during the seminar wore out. They also explained how to use the salt as an alternative for toothpaste.

We gave out nail cutters, hair combs & clips. The team explained how to keep the body clean specially for the women. We demonstrated how to simply tie the hair of the little girls and they were all happy and smiling.

TOPICS: ◦ Basic Food Groups
- what are the food groups
- what do they do for the body
- example of the food groups found in the garden

◦ Good Grooming
- Brushing our Teeth
- Washing and Bathing
- Keeping clean (hair, fingers & toenails)

◦ The Story of Enteng Ebak
- Proper toxic waste disposal
- Practical Steps to keep food away from mosquitoes & fly
◦ Basic Herbal Treatment for common illness/diseases

On to Discipleship...

Moving in the area of Quezon, the Polillo church planting team has just finished their 4th training module lead by Wilson Tayaban & Dado Alcala. Majority of the subjects tackled the transition of the bible studies to regular fellowships. This coming October, the team will be having their 5th on-site training module.

Presently, the team handles 12 bible studies in salipsip with an average of 4 adults regularly attending the study group. 40 attendees of these bible studies claim that they already have assurance of salvation. This is not the team’s work but God’s alone and we are really amazed at how He works in each area of church planting. There maybe some setbacks in each of the teams but still God continue to watch over His flock.

Polillo team, and ECPM as well, are thankful for their good physical & spiritual conditions. Please join us in upholding them through prayer that they continually strengthen their faith, hope and trust in God’s mighty power and that they continue to focus on His grace specially in times when life is hard & despite discouragements.

As the bible studies are now established, the team is preparing to conduct a series of fellowship among them. Also as a part of their goal for July to September of this year, they will be starting the training and discipleship of the new believers. Coinciding with these, they aim to hold baptism classes and hope to conduct water baptism by the end of the quarter.

But evangelism doesn’t stop there. The team lead by Nilo Gunio is praying to add 1 bible study group per month for the next 3 months. Let us join them in praying for possibly 3 new bible study groups. God surely has great things in store for the team for the advancement of their kingdom.

Prayer is the backbone of every ministry. And we thank the Lord as well for people like you who take time in praying and supporting the church planting teams. Please continue to pray for the strength and the lives of the Polillo church planting team. God bless you.

The Community in Linao

Linao is a barrio In Ipilan in the town of Brooke’s Point, South of Palawan. There are at least 60 families in the area who lack education in hygiene and health precautions when it comes to the issue in Malaria. Having a church planting site in Linao, the team was able to see first hand the situation in the area.

What actually is MALARIA? It is a parasitic infection transmitted to human through the bites of infected female anopheles mosquito. The resulting disease in human could be devastating. After spreading rapidly through the bloodstream to the liver, the parasite emerges again into the blood stream, finally to settle in the red blood cells, where it multiplies and emerges in bursts of new organisms. These parasites, because of their large numbers, can cause particular damage to the nervous system, liver and kidney. In the absence of immunity or drug treatment, the parasites are risks to the people’s immune system.*

Though we could not all solve the issues of Malaria in the area, the team was burdened to help them through health education and other practical ways to at least assist in preventing Malaria. The Team has listed the needs of the community that they are now praying for. ECPM, with much intercession has sought other means to help the team as well with this burden.

Aside from that, let us together pray for the provisions for their planned actions in reaching out to the community for evangelism through:

● Community Development
- Deep Well
- Health Education
- Medical & Dental Mission
- Mosquito Nets (60 families)
- Literacy Class
- Used Clothes for Palawanos

● Direct Evangelism

- Video of Burning Hell

- Generator for film showing

- Mass Wedding

- Medicines for farm animals

- Sports - Playing court & equipment (basketball, volleyball, ring etc)
- Feeding Program

We at ECPM are continually praying for these needs of the Linao team to make a difference in their battlefield – the community of Linao.

As of now, a family of nurses in Sumapa Christian Church are praying to come to Linao this August for basic health education applicable to their culture and community. A board member of ECPM is also praying to have a medical mission by that time.

We praise God for the 4O pieces of Mosquito Nets (Family Size) that were purchased in response to this specific need in Linao. As of the moment, the mosquito nets are being prepared to be immersed in anti-mosquito medicine before giving them out to the community. We are still praying for 20 pieces of mosquito nets.

Please do help us pray for these provisions. You in your own way could help the community in Linao and be a part of kingdom building.

Blessings for Bentat Cariz

The Bentat Cariz Team with team members, Jacob and Analisa Favila and Reynante Alvarado had finished the two-year church planting training on the second week of April 2007. The believers felt very sad when the team had to return to their sending churches. Yet the team promise to visit them regularly. They still had to wait for their respective churches’ decision on who will be sent to Bentat Cariz to assist the new leaders on the newly planted church.

On May 6, 2007, the team’s graduation was held on Iniaran Gospel Hall, the sending church of Jacob and Analisa. Almost 40 people witnessed the graduation who came from the different assemblies in Sofronio Española and Brookespoint. The team leader, Jacob Favila, shared the how the team started and the things that they have gone through as a team. It is indeed only by God’s grace that they were able to reach out to the people in Bentat including the chieftain. Their experience together, made their faith in God stronger. Faith that God would provide all their needs in spite of all the needs they saw around them. They saw how God worked in them and through them. They were able to reach out to people beyond their expectation. Reynante and Analisa also shared their testimonies on how gracious God is who very patient with them, molding them in His image whenever there are issues in personality differences, and conflicting issues in their community.

The brethren in Iniaran, including the leaders expressed their appreciation on the partnership and the relationship established between them and ECPM. They are grateful that the trainees they’ve sent has been developed and leadership abilities has improved. As a result, they expressed their desire for possible partnership in the future.

Polillo Team Update!

Responding to God’s call of proclaiming the Gospel and to minister the residents of the agricultural and fishing village of Salipsip in Polillo Island is what brought the five team members of the ECPM team in Salipsip. The team is composed of two couples and a 56-year old widower namely, Anthony and Heldy Sabudugo, Homer and Elizabeth Boragay and Nilo Gunio from Floodway Christian Church in Cainta, Rizal. The two couples came from the partnering church in Polilio Island “The Church of the Good Shepherd”. They had their first training module last August. They are now settling in the target community with the purpose of establishing a new assembly within 2 years.

For their 7th month of stay in Salipsip, the team has established more than 40 contacts and has started 11 Home Bible study. Part of relationship-building is helping their contacts in building and repair of their houses, helping in gathering copra, fishing with the fishermen and burning coal which is the common source of living. They found this method effective especially to the men which generally would like to provide for the family. They simply could not resist the help offerred to them, and thus, made a way for a good friendship. The women in the team build friendship in the community by visiting them in their homes and introduce themselves as new neighbors. After some time of acquiantance, they eventually became friends with the woman in the community. They can now openly talk about raising kids and the joys and pains of married life.

Last February 15, the team organized a parenting seminar to teach on how to raise their children in discipline and fear of the Lord. The team find this seminar very helpful as most of their contacts has more than 2 children.

The goal of the team for their two-years training is “To have 50 baptized believers attending the newly planted church at the end of August 2008.