On July 25, our church in the Philippines celebrated its anniversary! How we wish we could have been there celebrating with our people. We have now missed our church’s anniversary the past three years. We could have been there in 2020, but we had to fly back to America just two weeks before the church’s anniversary. It was a bittersweet moment, because at that point, we had stayed an extra unplanned and unscheduled four months in the Philippines because of the Coronavirus outbreak and ensuing lockdown. It would be nice if we could finish our deputation and be back in the Philippines for next year’s church anniversary, but that might be too soon. Our goal is to finish with deputation and get back to the Philippines by at least the end of next year.
Praise the Lord, over 260 people were in attendance, and 16 people were saved! For this year’s church anniversary, we all decided that a digital piano would be a great short-term goal for the anniversary. As you can see from the bottom two pictures, we reached our goal! My family and I committed about $200, and through the sacrificial giving of the church members, they raised the remaining $942 for a Yamaha digital piano! God has been so good and gracious to our church!
Please pray that God would raise up a permanent piano player for our church. We have six young people in training right now. For several years now, we have been using pre-recorded videos with piano music and lyrics displayed on a screen for our congregational singing.
I had mentioned in one of my previous prayer letters that we were trying to have a groundbreaking ceremony for our church building on our new church property; but, unfortunately, we were not able to make it. Please continue to pray as we go through the long process of starting the construction of our church building. Currently, our building blueprints have been accepted by the subdivision office, and we are now awaiting approval from the Town Hall. After the Town Hall’s approval, we should be able to have our building permit, and we can finally start construction. I look forward to the many more years of fruitful ministry that await our church.
For Thy Word’s sake hast Thou done all these great things,
Ian & Czarinna Vincent
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- Our church in the Philippines celebrated another anniversary!
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- Everyone pitched in to purchase a new Yamaha electric piano for the church to celebrate the church’s anniversary.
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- Enjoying our new piano during the congregational singing
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- Our church is growing!
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- Our church anniversary