We recently made a trip to see Czarinna’s grandfather, who lives on another island called Bohol. It was a very timely trip because nearly two weeks later, he would pass away. We ended up going back to Bohol to attend his funeral. We rejoice that Czarinna’s grandfather trusted Christ several years ago when he attended the funeral service of his late son, Czarinna’s father.
December was our Missions-Emphasis month. Our church has been faithfully supporting six local missionaries and five foreign missionaries. It is so great to know that our church can make a difference around the Philippines and worldwide through the missionaries we support. Also in December, we hosted Christmas parties in an effort to reach some local children. By providing treats and candies for the 3 different parties, we had the opportunity to tell Bible stories and present the Gospel to those children. We averaged 65 kids in those 3 areas.
As December wrapped up, we attended a Family Camp with our church. We had 115 in attendance, and we were able to see 4 people baptized before the week was over. We also got to witness a wedding proposal from a young dating couple from our church.
As we welcome 2024, we praise the Lord for everything He has done for our family and church here in the Philippines. For 2023, our church had the privilege of seeing 1,336 souls saved and 37 baptisms! We are so blessed to do the Lord’s work here in the great harvest field of the Philippines. We are also thankful our children are adapting well to the environment and culture in a new country for them.
We look forward to more opportunities that God will give us this year to serve Him. Please continue to pray for the building construction on our new church. We are planning to have a Dedication Service for the new church building on March 10. This is also when we have to vacate our current church property, which we have been renting for the past eight years, because it was just sold to a new owner. Please pray for a smooth transition, as we believe this is God’s time for us to move forward. Please also do pray for our upcoming Tent Revival March 10-12, as we prepare to preach the Gospel to more than 2,000 people.
Our heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Philippines is, that they might be saved,
Ian and Czarinna Vincent