Good morning team,

It is Monday morning here in Bacolod. We’ve had lots of heavy rain over the weekend with plenty of power outages at several of the sites, but our courage is good. We’re now through the first weekend of meetings and things are becoming more and more routine. For each meeting we must haul our equipment to the meeting site, set it all up, test it, use it for the meeting, and then pack it all up when we’re done so we can take it back to our hotel. With several excellent helpers, things are going well and things are going more and more smoothly.

The weekend was a pretty busy time for many, since the college graduation was also held this weekend some 30 kilometers from here. The Sunday graduation meant that many of the conference folk had spent the day at the college, yet were still on hand for the Sunday evening evangelistic meetings. We appreciate being able to support the good work taking place here.

While there are other Quiet Hour-supported groups holding meetings across the Philippines, here in Bacolod area we have eight sites. One husband and wife team preach in two different sites here in town.

At another site, we have a whole family working together. Since the dad in the family had an unexpected meeting in Japan and was called away at the last minute, the son has stepped in, doing the preaching until his dad arrives later this week. The rest of the family handle the children’s program, the health talks and all the other details involved. This is a family “vacation” at its best where the whole family is involved!

We have a couple of other individuals who are semi-retired and simply love to be involved in sharing the gospel, as well as some who are using their holiday time to be here. We range in age from unborn (seven months) to the 60s and we’re having a wonderful time getting to know one another and sharing God’s Word.

In our morning planning meeting we heard of one family with the decision cards who got flooded out of being able to attend the meetings – and of course the meetings went on without the cards. In other places, there was no electricity the whole time, so without any light, decision cards would not have worked well. Another woman and her daughter wanted so much to attend the meetings, but were flooded in. Their house had water in it. The husband picked up his wife and daughter and carried them through the water to dry ground so they could proceed to the meetings.

I trust you are having a great week there at home.

Blessings,
Mike

From: Michael Porter
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 5:54 PM
Subject: The Quiet Hour rePorter Philippines #5

Team,

Good morning (or evening or whatever it is),

Here in Bacolod in the Philippines it is Tuesday morning, but Monday afternoon there in Redlands [California, The Quiet Hour’s headquarters].

In our planning meeting yesterday, with our interpreters, pastors and guest evangelists, we enjoyed some time to debrief after a very intense weekend. We heard excellent reports of attendance and decisions for Jesus. The conference president, Charlie Jondonero and I led out in the meeting where we heard plenty of interesting reports.

One couple from Arizona took a huge leap of faith when they signed up to hold meetings. They are middle-aged folk who have never preached sermons before, but felt led to join The Quiet Hour and ShareHim for these meetings. Susan lost her husband to illness several years ago and providentially met Jim, her husband-to-be, who was a long-term confirmed bachelor. The Vances celebrated their third wedding anniversary on orientation day. They preach in two different sites – she on the mission compound in the large English-speaking church, and he in another nearby church. She says she has no idea why she was placed in this church with her lack of experience, but she is feeling so blessed. Their love for each other and for God is so very evident and it is a joy to be with them.

The Waltons, also from Arizona, were involved in a serious accident on their way to airport to come to the Philippines. With their injuries, their travel plans were off. Their church has gone ahead with meetings, led by the interpreter. But each day they pray for a guest evangelist. Yesterday at the planning meeting, young Seth, age 15, agreed to preach at this site. Last night was his first night. He had some challenges with the equipment, but they have now been resolved.

We’ve had power outages the past three nights all across the city. This has meant that some had no power for the entire meeting and had to use either printed notes, or computer notes – without any projected graphics. Others have had generators that made it possible to continue. At my site, the power was off for the early part of the evening and we used a generator to keep going. Unfortunately, the generator was unable to handle the load of lights and the projector and kept shutting off – not good for the video projector, for sure! Eventually, by turning off all the extra lights and fans (it is HOT here!), we managed to carry on.

Last evening, our teams presented the longest prophecy – the 2300-year prophecy. This can be a complicated presentation and requires careful concentration on the part of both the presenter and the audience. As I made my way through the presentation, it was clear I had competition: a huge fire in a shanty village next to the church! The sky was bright orange as flames shot a hundred or more feet into the air. The five or six fire trucks and several ambulances, all with sirens blaring, passing just a few feet from the door of the church made for some interesting and challenging times. It was thrilling to see the audience respond to the good news of the judgment – where Jesus stands with us - in our place! After the meeting, we prayed for those who lost everything and will look for ways that we, as a church, can help.

We’ve heard reports from the Manila baptism on Sabbath of more than 1,300 baptisms with another several hundred in outlying areas. Praise God for what He is doing!

Keep us in your prayers please. We’re well into the first week now and I know God will bless.

Blessings,
Mike

Bacolod email reports: March 10-12 | March 16-17 | March 19-23 | March 30

Manila email reports: February 29 - March 3 | March 4-5 | March 6-7 | March 9-10 | March 11-13 | March 17