The MalaBLOG » ares

Mars Hill Study Center

Nollie — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:28:51 +0000

Lord willing, Mars Hill Study Center will open its doors to the public on July 31, 2008. Since our target communities are in Pasig, Mandaluyong, Cainta, Taytay, and Antipolo, it will be centrally located in Ortigas Avenue Extension in the heart of Pasig. In reasonable traffic, it is only 20 minutes from downtown Antipolo and 15 minutes from Ortigas Center. Our address is: RCJ Building Room 305, Ortigas Ave. Ext. corner Countryside Ave., Pasig City, Metro Manila. See location map on the left. UPDATE: OPENING DAY IS JULY 31, 2008.

Our Name
Upon his arrival in Athens (Acts 17:16-34) on his second missionary journey, one of Paul’s first destinations was the Areopagus, the “Hill of Ares,” the Greek god of war, known by Romans as Mars. Proud of their great artists, writers and thinkers, Athens was also the cradle of democracy and the center of learning. It was in the Areopagus where the best philosophers of the civilized world – Stoics and Epicureans – discussed their “latest and greatest” ideas.

Sensing that Paul was bringing some new “philosophy” and “a preacher of foreign divinities,” the Athenians asked him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” And day by day, as in the synagogue and in the marketplace, Paul reasoned with them, using their own poets and philosophers to preach the gospel of the risen Christ against their many idols.

Our Purpose
Mars Hill Study Center is a Christian study and teaching center seeking to glorify God through pastoral education and training. Its primary task is to provide free resources to pastors in nearby communities, including:

Printed and electronic media such as books, commentaries, journals, magazines and periodicals;
Audiovisual electronic media such as DVDs, CDs, and tapes;
Seminars and workshops on various topics necessary to be effective in church ministry; and
Internet resources.

These resources will cover biblical, theological, and ministerial disciplines to help pastors to develop intellectually and spiritually as leaders. While the focus of the study center is to to educate and prepare men for office-bearing ordained ministries of instruction and leadership as pastors, it will also make its resources available for other men and women who desire to serve the church so that the whole body of Christ may be enriched through the diverse gifts bestowed by Godâ€™s Spirit.

The mission of Mars Hill Study Center is to assist churches in preparing and training their pastors for leadership and ministry by providing substantive resources and curriculum. It seeks to develop in its students a balanced combination of knowledge (scholarship) and zeal (Christ-like piety) by expanding their Biblical knowledge, stimulate analytical and critical thinking, and challenge them to cultivate godly and righteous lives in order to present a credible testimony to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You are warmly invited to visit Mars Hill Study Center: to glorify Christ, to teach his Gospel, to serve his Church. Tell your friends! Download an announcement or a needs flyer.

Third move in three months

Nollie — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 22:36:44 +0000

I’m finally able to get Internet, even though it’s still dial-up, and sometimes very slow dial-up.

As you can see, Rachel is wearing a school uniform. Faith Academy, for the first time in its history, implemented school uniforms. She has made some friends and had already her first sleepover since we came back. Their first long break is coming up starting this Thursday.

My semester break is only a week away, and during the break, I have a modular class to teach. Then, during the second semester, I might be teaching 3 or 4 classes, maybe a couple in each of the two seminaries. There’s also a pastors’ seminar that I’ll be involved in in November. I’m also developing a relationship with a group of pastors who are interested in starting a new federation of churches. Sometimes I have to travel five hours to a church up north of Manila, and a couple of hours to another one south of here. It’s very stressful driving in this place — the roads are rough, and driving is a free-for-all (lots of rules that no one knows or cares to obey).

We have moved again to a different place, a duplex, and our next door neighbor is a fellow Wycliffe family. We finally got a home phone too. Addresses are complicated here, so please use our office address.

The apartment that we moved into is a nice, roomy three-bedroom place about 15-20 minutes drive from Rachel’s school (Faith Academy). As you can see from the picture, it’s a two-story house: all the bedrooms are upstairs, and the living room, kitchen, family/dining room, and a 1/2 bath are downstairs. We still have to get a couple of bookcases and a few little things for our new place.

We also bought a three-year-old locally-made blue Toyota Revo (I call it a poor man’s Highlander), and we pray that it lasts longer than the one we bought three years ago.

All of these are possible only because God graciously gave us so many friends like you who gave generously for our travel, moving and vehicle expenses.

A million THANKS to all of you, and we hope to hear from you soon!

Travels and Travails

Nollie — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 22:04:41 +0000

There have been a few financial glitches in our plans since we moved. After the accident on June 21, we rented a car from Enterprise, and were told that the insurance will cover up to 30 days of rental costs. But the insurance company has notified Enterprise that rental coverage ran out on July 8 when we were supposed to receive the settlement agreement on our old car. So we have to fight our insurance company, since we haven’t received the check as of today.

To complicate things further, we found out yesterday when we tried to return the car in Concord that we can’t return it anywhere else except in the Southern California region. So on Thursday I have to drive 218 miles (3-1/2 hours) to Atascadero, the Southern CA location nearest to the Bay Area. Looking at it positively, this is much better than driving 416 miles all the way to Mission Viejo, from where we first rented it. I’ll be returning by Amtrak train to Martinez.

Evelyn, Rachel and I will be flying to Manila early on Tuesday, Aug. 2. We’ll arrive midday Aug. 3, so Rachel will miss the start of her school; we’ll try for an Aug. 4 start, if she’s over her jet lag. We have a rental house prospects which we’ll evaluate when we get there.

For those of you who are in Bay Area, I’ll be preaching 10 am and 5 pm on July 24 and 31 at Trinity United Reformed Church in Walnut Creek (1963 Tice Valley Blvd). These will be good opportunities to see you if you visit the church.