The last two months have been filled with activity as we continue to get the Gospel out to our area, train our people to be soul winners, and prepare our college students for the life of the ministry.
In the first three months of 2017, the ministries of our church have recorded 1,594 souls saved and 79 people baptized. Some recent highlights include:
On February 18, we had a “Couples’ Activity,” where married and dating couples were broken up into teams and took photos at different city locations. We then ate a nice meal at Pastor DeMoville’s home, where everyone had a good laugh as the photos were shown to all.
On March 4, we encouraged our people to come out for a “Tract Distribution Day,” where we challenged everyone to concentrate in the area around our church and place directly into hands our new Gospel tract. Over 7,000 tracts were put into hands that day! My teen partner and I gave out 307 tracts to folks, and our church led 109 people to Christ as opportunities came up.
I take our college students to an area at least once a month where there are a lot of high school and college students in a public park. One day we saw 145 saved, on another – 175 saved, and on another – “only” 86 saved. We are very careful to give a full presentation of the Gospel that often takes 45 minutes to complete. It is great to have warm weather and open hearts all around us!
On one Thursday night church-wide soul-winning event, we saw 50 saved—while it was raining. On one Saturday morning general soul-winning meeting, we saw 41 saved. I am grateful to be in an area where there is religious freedom and people respect the Bible as God’s Word.
On a Thursday evening, I went out with a young man from our college to look for a particular visitor to our church. We could not find where he lived, but we did come across a young man, JonJon, who stepped out of his house to burn some cardboard infested with ants. While burning the ants, Mico shared the Gospel, and JonJon’s sister Windy came out to find out who the “strangers” were. Both were glad to accept Christ.
On a Saturday morning, I was glad to be able to speak to a lady expecting her second child. She lived in a building attached to a Catholic mission, complete with a statue of Mary prominently displayed. Even though associated with that mission, she gladly trusted Christ and rejected works to save her.
On another Saturday morning, I led Ron-Ron to the Lord. He worked for the government to give people rabies shots when bitten by suspected rabid dogs and kill mosquitoes in areas where there was an outbreak of Dengue fever. Never had that happen when I lived in the States!
I went out soul winning with Nelson, who is a city engineer in Dumaguete. He talked to an 81-year-old grandmother who told him, “I am afraid to die!” – but she was not afraid anymore when she asked Jesus Christ to save her. Right after that, I was able to lead her neighbor, who attends a local college, to the Lord. Soul winning works for young and old alike!
On a personal note, on February 3, my son Amos and his wife Lacey welcomed their first child into the world. They named her “Debbie” in honor of my wife, who went to Heaven one year ago on March 22. God is so good.
Thank you for your faithfulness in allowing me to labor in a fruitful corner of one of God’s harvest fields.
Yours for souls,
Scott Christiansen
