Philippine Mission Trip Update (April 2019)

by Steve Clark

Our Flights Are Booked!

After some last minute changes in our itinerary, our flights to the Philippines are now booked!  The trio of travelers to the 30^th Annual Churches of Christ Lectureship in Mindanao will include Bro. Larry Miles, Bro. Joe Stone, and Bro. Steve Clark.

Our plans are to arrive in New York City on Sunday evening, April 14, in order to catch a 1:45 AM Monday morning direct flight from NYC to Manila. In case you are wondering, that is just under 17 non-stop hours in the air on a Philippine Airlines Airbus 350!   We will have traveled 8520 miles and crossed the International Date Line, so it will suddenly be Tuesday when we arrive.  After a 90 minute layover in Manila, we will board a 90 minute flight to the city of Davao, where Bro. Johnny Espinosa is the preacher at Boulevard Church of Christ.  The next morning we will take a 2-hour bus ride to the city of Kidapawan, where dozens of preachers and many others will be arriving to attend the Fellowship and Lectureship from Wednesday the 17^th through Friday the 19^th.

 

     The 3 day meeting will give us a chance to see so many preachers and church members in one place, and I am excited to get to hear our Filipino brothers and sisters as they sing in both Cebuano and English!  I really believe that they are encouraged by our presence, and we are also encouraged by their strong faith, but the meeting will be just the beginning of our trip!

 

2019 MINDANAO MISSION TRIP – What is still needed?          We want to thank our supporters for helping us make our 2019 mission trip a reality!  We have received enough support to purchase all 3 round-trip airline tickets from NYC, and also the domestic airline tickets from Louisville to NYC.  We also have enough set aside for our estimated food and hotel expenses.  Praise the Lord!      Our final need is for gifts to help Bro. Cyrus with the actual costs of the Lectureship.  With 150-200 attending, a school building has been rented and the classrooms will be used as sleeping areas for those come from outside of the immediate area. The bigger rooms in the school will be used for the nightly meetings and for small group classes.  An outdoor covered area behind the school will provide a place for the volunteers to prepare lunch and dinner meals for the attendees. The total estimate for the school rental and food is just $2500, and Bro. Cyrus has been able to raise about $500 locally from the preachers and others. It would be great if we could quickly raise the final $2000 to help him with this effort!  Please let us know if you can help.

     After the meeting we will travel by car for 9 hours with Bro. Cyrus Gesulga, crossing Mindanao on our way to Cagayan de Oro.  On Sunday we will worship there with the Capisnon church, and then the next week will be full of trips to various cities and churches and radio stations.  We will get to see the new church buildings, and we will do more groundwork on exploring the possibilities for the creation of a Church of Christ campground for children and adult activities in Mindanao.  Please keep all of us in your prayers as we continue to make plans for our trip.   (SPC)

Our  e-mail address is PhilippineEvangelism1@gmail.com   or you can e-mail me (Larry Miles) at larrymiles11952@gmail.com