III John 4 states: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” As a family, we will very soon be experiencing the stage of life of seeing our children leave home and go out from us. These days are definitely full of mixed emotions, yet from birth, God gave them to us to seek to raise and train them for HIM in however and wherever He would see fit. As I started this newsletter, it was on the day our eldest son John (our autistic son) had his 22nd birthday. Here is a picture of John in the Toronto Raptors shirt he got for his birthday!! Go Raptors!! (Okay, please don’t drop our support now! ) Our two middle sons, Luke (20) and Jack (soon to be 19), are both attending Bible college Stateside! We are proud of our sons and so long to see them grow and continue in the way and the will of God for their lives. Please pray for them as often as God would bring them to your mind.
Just a couple of weeks ago, our daughter Savannah, who is now 17, finishing high school in May, and going to Bible college this fall, got the assurance of her salvation and trusted Christ as her Saviour. Unbeknownst to us, she had been struggling with doubt and uncertainty about her salvation! Praise God, she humbled herself and came to my wife on Wednesday morning, February 10, and told her, “Mom, I need to get saved!” My wife went over the Gospel with her, and Savannah called on Christ and accepted Him as her Saviour. Shortly after, they came to me and shared this decision with me, and we rejoiced together. Savannah then said, “Dad, I would like to obey the Lord in baptism tonight!” I teased her and asked her, “In cold water?” We got the heater turned on in the water, and that Wednesday evening she obeyed the Lord in baptism! Praise the Lord!
Another blessing during our recent lockdown, where we could only have 10 people per service, was being contacted by a young lady who attended our church for a short time back in 2018. My sons met her brother on a basketball court back then and gave him a tract. He took the tract home and gave it to his dad, and as a result, the dad and his then 16-year-old daughter visited church. Back in September of 2018, the daughter, whose name is Peyton, raised her hand during an invitation, wanting to be saved. My wife shared the Gospel with her, and she got saved! Peyton and her dad attended church on and off for a while thereafter but never really became committed. They had talked of being baptized but dropped out of coming to church, and though we would go by and visit, they just fell away. A week or two after lockdown, Peyton contacted me and asked if a seat could be reserved for her to come to church. She came to church that week; the next week she came back again and obeyed the Lord in baptism! She has now attended about six to seven weeks in a row and has started a discipleship
course with us. It is such a blessing to see her being committed to and hungry for the Lord. Please pray with us for her mother Vanessa to be saved.
Let me close by asking you to pray for several others we are working with and praying for to be saved. Would you at least one time lift them up in sincere and believing prayer, asking God to save them! Dondi and Rizzy Garcia (Filipino couple), Henry Cuong (Vietnamese man who is a college student in our city), Whity and Jane and also Michele (personal neighbours of ours we so desperately want to see saved), and Janette De Wit (the wife of one of our faithful men who is not saved).
God bless you and keep you all! Jesus is coming soon! God help us to be found faithfully serving Him!
The Phil Powless Family
Galatians 6:9
-
- Our son John showing off the Toronto Raptors T-shirt he got for his 22nd birthday
-
- Peyton getting baptized
-
- Our daughter Savannah getting baptized after getting the assurance of her salvation
