It’s almost the end of 2023! God has been so gracious and good to us. Just recently in September, we celebrated Edward’s 4th and Franco’s 1st birthdays! At the same time, we also did a Child Dedication for the two of them with Czarinna’s old pastor here in the Philippines.
We praise God for continuing to use His people to provide for our church building’s construction needs. As this year comes near to an end, we are praying that we can have our first service in the new building on the first Sunday of the new year!
In October, we have started a Fall Campaign called “Each One, Reach One,” in which we have encouraged church members to bring at least one visitor every Sunday. Then at the month’s end, we drew several visitors’ names and gave away 5 kilos of rice to the lucky visitors. This promotion increased our church attendance by about 20-30 additional visitors most Sundays!
October is also the month for honoring teachers here in the Philippines. We had our “Teachers’ Sunday,” honoring and giving gifts to teachers who are members of our church, along with visiting teachers. Praise the Lord, 28 teachers joined us for this particular service. Some of these teachers are kind enough to allow us to enter their classrooms, preach the Gospel, minister, and encourage their students as part of their school’s Moral Values Program or Homeroom Guidance Program twice a week at our local senior high school, which has over 1,000 students.
Our Children’s Ministry has been thriving lately, and we are glad that our family can take part and be a blessing in this ministry. Every Saturday, we go to three different areas of our town that are mostly remote, gather the children together, and teach them a Bible story. This is what we call our Bible Extension Classes. The idea is to reach the kids that don’t have an opportunity to go to church, so we go to where they are and bring the church to them. This has allowed Edward to be involved in these Bible Extension Classes. Just this month, Czarinna and I decided to purchase two made-to-order bamboo benches that we can carry at the back of our truck to take and use in our assigned areas. It’s amazing how resourceful Filipinos are by just using rocks and logs to sit on, but these benches will allow more kids to attend and sit more comfortably! Our church workers and members do about 15 Bible Extension Classes, and we have an average of about 300 kids who get an opportunity to hear the Word of God.
With many souls saved, we are grateful that you have partnered with us as we reach our town for Christ.
Each one, reach one,
Ian and Czarinna Vincent
