What a place! Sometimes it can be challenging to live in a foreign country, but the rewards are immeasurable! Praise the Lord for 833 precious souls saved during the months of May and June!
Our church folks had a wonderful time as we celebrated our 17th church anniversary. It’s such a joy to have people in our church family who have been with us for different numbers of years. In our evening service, we had members raise their hands based on how many years they had been in our church. For example, we had those raise their hands if they had been with us for 17 years, and then we asked who had been with us for 16 years and continued all the way to the folks who had joined in the past year. What a blessing—we had folks raise their hands for each number of years from 17 all the way down to the current year. I remember dreaming of the day we would have a mature church with old members and new members, and now our church is 17 years old. Some of the teenagers in the choir have parents who were teens in our church. I say with tears, God is so good!
Art and Liezel Rioflorido, the first couple I shared the Gospel with in the Dasmarinas area, are still with us. Their two oldest children, Charles Ace (CA) and Karyl attended our Christian school. CA graduated from our high school, then graduated from a maritime academy, and is now preparing to become a merchant marine officer. Art and Liezel also named their youngest child Courtney, who is a girl, after me—I have mixed emotions about that. In the picture, from left to right, are Carryl, Liezel, Art, Courtney, and CA.
In our last prayer letter, I mentioned a trip we made to the Pinatubo Region in Zambales in April. We were able to return in May for a more comprehensive four-day training seminar for the pastors in the region. We taught on the Holy Spirit, Baptist distinctives, and basic Christian essentials. We also brought four Vacation Bible School (VBS) teams, three of which stayed in villages in tents where they taught, and one stayed in the village where we stayed, also in tents. Pastor Welman Mutya, a friend of mine from another church, also taught in the seminar and brought a VBS team, for a total of five VBS teams. It was a wonderful week and an adventure for us all. Many were saved and taught in the Word of God. I brought my 2001 Suzuki Grand Vitara 4X4, which was a great help in visiting the VBS teams in the outlying villages. It was quite challenging off-roading, but the Suzuki performed remarkably well. It was actually a lot of fun!
Thank you all again for keeping us in this bountiful harvest!
Yours for souls,
Courtney & Ester Godsoe
From left to right, the Rioflorido family: Carryl, Liezel, Art, Courtney, and CA
