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On October 22, Typhoon Kristine dumped three months’ worth of rain in the Bicol region in just twenty-four hours. The BCCL campus sits adjacent to a river. The water swelled up and broke a concrete barrier; flood waters burst and overflowed the nearby bridge and submerged the campus in hip-high muddy water.
High flood waters nearly reach the campus generator.
By midnight, we were nervously watching the water, praying hard it wouldn’t reach “Big Blue,” the campus generator (donated by some NAB churches) that is such a big help for the brownouts we experience daily. Thank God it didn’t! By then we’ve worked non-stop to raise up important appliances, furniture, and food supplies at the campus’ missional café. We also tried to help some people trapped in the flood. By God’s grace, we were able to rescue the pastor and his family and ten pets from the next-door church and let them stay at the guesthouse during the flood.
Since then, we’ve experienced two more typhoons, and there are more coming. We talked with an engineer for flood control mechanisms for the campus – like reinforcing walls where the river directly flows through, concrete and metal barriers, a sump pump system – and the quote was around $6,000 or more. Please pray with us for God’s provision on this need.
Bible Storytelling Class. Our students enjoyed learning to share about God simply by accurately telling stories of accounts in the Bible. It is said that around 80 percent of Filipinos are oral learners. They would rather learn orally than read. Another factor is that not everyone gets the opportunity to go to school. Poverty-stricken communities don’t have much access to education. That’s why the orality method is more effective in such communities in the Philippines.
A wonderful example is the chieftain of a tribe in Mindanao our mission students served last May. He was the pastor of his tribe, but he did not have much education. He could not read or write and is almost blind. So how does he prepare for and deliver a sermon each Sunday? Thank God for audio Bible translated in his heart language. He received a radio that would play narrations of Scripture from a Bible translation ministry, and this oral learning of the Bible has helped him grow the faith of his tribe!
Our students appreciated how easy and enjoyable this way of sharing God’s Word is to reach communities for Christ. We remember how Jesus just told stories to teach biblical truths in the Bible. Our mission students are excited to share about God using the orality method to our Indian friends in our upcoming sangati (gathering) with them. We thank God for the local team of equippers who came and taught this course. We look forward to more equipping ministry partnership with them in the future.
Tight little classroom. It’s been a challenge to do class activities.
We would love to do interchurch mission mobilization events, but it is expensive to rent a place outside our little campus. We tried to do one last year where we squeezed around a hundred people at the campus café that can comfortably accommodate only fifty people without tables. It was so hot in the room, but the people, in their desire to learn more about God’s heart for missions, stayed until the end of the event. And because there wasn’t enough space for everyone, we had to send our students to a classroom where they watched the event taking place just next door on live (but slow) stream!
We will continue to find creative ways to accommodate our various ministries in our tight spaces. One good result of our lack of space, though, is that it forced us to move our monthly interchurch prayer gathering for missions to the churches. It was a good surprise that churches offered to host it. This is another great opportunity to mobilize more churches for missions.
We continue to be thankful to God for everything. We believe he will provide a bigger, more suitable, and efficient ministry facility for BCCL’s growing ministries in the future. Please pray with us on this.
Dealing with Deaths. Claire’s dad died August 18. We are taking care of her 84-year-old mom amidst the demands of ministry. We continue to thank God for sustaining us in this difficult time. But it seems like God has been reminding us how short life can be. One of our staff lost three family members in a span of just a few months (an aunt, older brother, and a 19-year-old niece). We just came from the wake of a church friend’s mom. Two days later, another church friend lost her dad.
One sadness after another, but it is so comforting when the people we send off have believed, known, and loved Jesus when they were still alive. We simply remember their life of faith and are encouraged to move forward from the loss.
Thanks be to God for this borrowed life. May Jesus be revealed and glorified through our remaining days and years. A blessed Thanksgiving to everyone!