Santa Rosa

Brian and I spent the last three days with Pastor Gerry at Christ Sanctuary Christian Ministries in Santa Rosa. Friday night we shared during a prayer meeting. Saturday we spent time visiting some people in the church and shared with the praise and worship team. Sunday morning we combined to give the sermon. We talked about discipleship and leadership with them and then Pastor Gerry followed up with a short summary of what we said. Sunday afternoon we had a youth fellowship where we were able to go into more detail about what discipleship is.

I feel like the church really understood the point that we were trying to get across. After the service on Sunday, the men met together and decided to start having monthly fellowships, which was very encouraging to Pastor Gerry. The youth we spoke to were actually more young adults and college students than youth, but they were very receptive to what we said. We gave them the opportunity to ask questions and that seemed to really help their understanding.

Please pray for their church that they would really adopt discipleship. Two young adults, Sister Sam and Brother Russell, both seemed to be very interested in discipling people. Please pray for them that they would continue with this and that God would give them people to disciple. Also, pray for the leadership of the church as at least two of the elders are gone for extended periods of time. One man works for an oil company in Libya and is gone for three months then comes home for one. The other man is a seaman and is gone for up to nine months at a time. Please pray that other men would step up to lead in the church. Also pray for the completion of their new church building and ABP 4. Construction is going well and both hope to open in August. Pray for the church as they get ready to be the host church for the new ABP.

Tomorrow Brian and I will go with Pastor Topher to minister to street children. We will also be looking for potential candidates for ABP 2 as there are three or four openings there.

On Thursday, Brian and I will head to Rizal for the Pastors' Family Retreat. We will be there through Saturday, before we head to Batangas City to help Pastor Celso. I believe that 13 of the 19 local pastors will be at the retreat with their families. Please pray that they would be encouraged, uplifted and refreshed while they are there. Please pray for Brian and I as we speak at Pastor Celso's church. There is a large group of young people there and it would be great to get them to start a discipleship program.