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Romans 8 is quite an encouraging passage of Scripture. It starts off reminding us of the work of Christ, then it goes on to exhort believers to live by the Spirit. Then it assures us that “our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” and ends on a high note saying that we are “more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Indeed, we are!
This passage couldn’t be more alive for the BCCL ministry in the past year. We stood firm in Christ, let the Spirit lead our steps, and by God’s grace we made it through a lot of challenges. As we look back now, we can truly say: “in all things, God.” He was our strength and guide as we went through a tough year of transition in 2021.
Y
ear-End Highlights
Romans 8 is quite an encouraging passage of Scripture. It starts off reminding us of the work of Christ, then it goes on to exhort believers to live by the Spirit. Then it assures us that “our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” and ends on a high note saying that we are “more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Indeed, we are!
This passage couldn’t be more alive for the BCCL ministry in the past year. We stood firm in Christ, let the Spirit lead our steps and by God’s grace we made it through a lot of challenges. As we look back now, we can truly say: “in all things, God.” He was our strength and guide as we went through a tough year of transition in 2021.
Year End Highlights
Ugay sa Ugay. This is a Christmas gift-giving
program for pastors that Mayette Bueno, the founding director of BCCL, started more than a decade ago. Pastors in the Philippines are usually bi-vocational since they usually cannot make ends meet with what little financial support their churches could afford to give them. In our Ugay sa Ugay (Blessing Upon Blessing in Filipino) program, we give out empty grocery baskets for members of churches to fill with Christmas goodies for pastors. Around 118 pastors were overjoyed to receive their Christmas groceries last December 13th which made their celebration with their families extra special.
Project Biyaya. By God’s grace, we were able to give out a total 1,265 warm food packs with Gospel tracts last year and our students were able to start Bible studies in 22 communities with the help of our Project Biyaya outreach ministry. Some of these outreaches are now on the verge of becoming house churches. Praise be to God!
On another note, super typhoon Rai (known as “Odette” in the Philippines) hit the Philippines on 16 and 17 December 2021 affecting 11 out of the 17 regions of the country. It affected 8 million people, destroying 1.4 million homes and displaced 198,652 people across five regions (source: UN Humanitarian in Climate Crisis, January 15, 2022).
Last January 9th, our missions teacher (and former student of BCCL) traveled to Surigao del Sur, a hard hit area in Mindanao, with a disaster relief team. She brought Project Biyaya relief aid, and in the process, she and the team was led to minister to an unreached people group called the Badjao tribein a place called Mabua, Surigao del Sur. There were 35 houses in the tribal area with three to four families in each home. The tribe was very receptive to the Gospel when the team shared it to them; the only challenge for follow-up is that they cannot read and write. We are praying that God would bring long term missionaries to help this tribe grow in their faith in Christ. We have contacted missions mobilization agencies to help send missionaries for this tribe as well.
We thank God for His continued provision for our Project Biyaya outreach ministry. In February 14, a team of our students will go to Abuyog, Leyte (almost 15 hours of travel from Legazpi city) to bring Project Biyaya relief packs (and other relief aid they have collected) and minister to affected communities in the area. We pray for a safe trip for them and that God would continue to provide and strengthen our ministry partnerships with our students through Project Biyaya.
First Class Done and More to Come
We’ve just finished our Homiletics class last January 10-20 with pastor Steve Anderson, a seasoned pastor and teacher from South Dakota. This was our first class of the year. We will be offering the basic course again starting this month. We will continue to do online classes until the COVID situation in Albay gets better. The province where BCCL is located has been on Alert level 3 with COVID for the past month now. We continue to pray that our classes would go on without interruptions and that our students would continue to apply what they learn in their ministry contexts.
In all of these, God be praised!
A. Claire Marker, BCCL Director
J Estevez Street Guevara Subdivision, Legazpi City 4500, Philippines
521 Virginia Avenue, Lodi, Ca 95242