Elizabeth, Kiah, and I praise the LORD for His faithfulness in sustaining us these last few days with a busy schedule while attempting to acclimate to a 15-hour time difference. God is good. We have traveled with Sean Ransom a number of times to different venues where he has taught different courses—NT survey and OT survey. Yesterday we had lunch (fried chicken—Filipino style!) with a number of pastors in the Manila area which was very encouraging. To hear the hearts of dear men who want to preach God's Word expositionally and who hunger for training on how to interpret and preach God's Word is so refreshing. These dear men are open to God's Word and what it has to say. They are moldable, shapeable, and willing to let God's Word guide them in their ministries. How amazing this is!
Today (I'm writing at 7:00am Manila time on Sept 11th but my computer time says 4:01pm LA time on Sept 10th) we plan to travel to meet with a different group of pastors who have been asking Sean to teach and train a group of pastors who want to be taught. They have begged Sean for quite some time to teach but Sean—the only current TMAI missionary on the field—can only teach so much in so many different venues. So we endeavor to hear from these men: what they want, what their plans are, how many pastors they can gather for the training on expository preaching, etc. I am quite excited to be a part of this meeting.
Tomorrow we have church at Greenhills Christian Fellowship and then we travel to Tanay which is about an hour east of Manila where I will be teaching a course next week on Hermeneutics—Bible interpretation.
God is good. We are sitting on the balcony of the missionary house right now in Antipolo overlooking a beautiful golf course and the Manila skyline. Quite beautiful!
I leave you with this final remark from Paul to young pastor Timothy that I've meditated on this week:
1 Timothy 4:12-16 12 Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe. 13 Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching. 14 Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. 15 Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all. 16 Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.
