Beginnings

On June 21, 2008, as powerful Typhoon Fengshen was approaching Manila from the south, a new Bible study group of six young adults met at our home in Antipolo, Rizal, Philippines. We had an introduction to our Bible study and afterwards, a time of fellowship at the dinner table. Almost two months later, we decided to start meeting on Sunday afternoons for worship on a trial basis. On August 17, we started the Lord’s Day worship services that have continued to this day at the Mars Hill Study Center in Pasig City, Metro Manila.

The six who came were Albert Medina, Russel De Guzman, Maria Theresa “Mimi” Cadaoas, Jill Abarra, Joana Fe Cadaoas and Jeff San Jose (shown L to R in the picture on the left). All but Russel, who has a wife Donna and four little boys, are single. The De Guzmans have faithfully attended the services since the beginning.

Later, Janelita “Gigi” de Guzman (no relation to the first De Guzman family), an acquaintance from a different Bible study group, made it known to me her desire to have her infant daughter, Jessica Danielle, baptized. Gigi and her husband Edwardo “Egay” were catechized (Heidelberg Catechism lessons), and on November 25, Gigi successfully went through her membership examination with Rev. Napoleon Narag and Alfred Santiago, elders of the United Covenant Reformed Church in San Carlos, Pangasinan.

Thus, on Saturday, November 28, 2008, the mission church had a first profession of faith – Gigi de Guzman – followed by a first baptism – baby Danielle de Guzman – at the de Guzmans’ house in Cainta, Rizal, in the presence of all the regular attendees of the mission church. What a joyous day to witness a family initiated into the covenant community!

As Christmas was upon us, we had a Christmas fellowship at our house after the worship service on December 21. It was another joyous time of fellowship, games, singing carols, and of course, dinner, to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Continuing the Pilgrimage

Since then, Gigi’s husband Edwardo and two of her four daughters, Danielle and Julia, have also been faithfully attending the Sunday worship services.

Our Sunday afternoons consist of a worship service, usually about 75 minutes long, followed by a short time of refreshments, after which we begin a half-hour catechism class. We have finished Lord’s Day 25 out of 52 as of February 15, and we expect to finish in another couple of months. All of those who finish the class will be asked if they desire to make profession of faith, and those who do will also become members of the San Carlos church.

Visit by the RCUS…

Rev. Gil Baloy, pastor of Covenant Reformed Church in San Diego, California, and two other men from the Reformed Church in the U.S., will visit the UCRCP congregations in the Philippines next month. We are thankful that Pastor Gil agreed to lead our worship service and preach on March 15.

We will have an exchange pulpit on March 8, when I preach in San Carlos, and Rev. Edwin Puzon of Las Piñas will preach here in Pasig City.

By God’s grace, there will be a Philippine classis soon, with possible churches in San Carlos, Pangasinan; Las Piñas, Metro Manila; Calauan, Laguna; and Davao City. Lord willing, our mission church here in Pasig City will become an organized church in a year or two.

… and Mike Horton!

Dr. Michael S. Horton

Two days ago, I received a tentative approval of our invitation to Michael Horton, Professor of Apologetics and Systematic Theology at Westminster Seminary in California, to hold a Reformed conference in the Philippines. The dates are still being finalized, but will probably be in February, 2010. The conference place will be somewhere in Metro Manila. More details will follow in the next few months.

Summer Plans

We are planning a summer retreat for the group sometime in April or May. Stay tuned for more details.

It had been a good visit with family and friends, especially at the wedding, and here are some of the highlights:

Pampered: We had a taste of luxurious living for a week, staying in a lakeside condo in Santa Cruz and driving a Mercedes. Both were courtesy of a couple of friends from our church, Trinity United Reformed Church.

Family times: Since the condo was about 15 minutes from Tim and Chesney’s house in Scotts Valley and 45 minutes from Lem’s apartment in San Jose, we got together for some evenings together. We even babysat Caleb and Tyler one afternoon.

Disneyland: Lem drove with Rachel to LA to join Oli and Nem for a day trip to Disneyland. Although tired from the trip, Rachel thoroughly enjoyed her first visit back as a teen.

Wined and Dined: We’ve had several lunch and dinner invitations, and not being used to big meals have made us feel stuffed after the meals.

Unexpected gifts: I visited Harris & Associates, the company I worked for temporarily in 2005 and 2006, and the IT Manager, Ramon Guiao, promptly donated a couple of their spare laptops after I talked to him about Mars Hill Study Center’s needs. How God’s providence works. Thank you, Ramon and Harris & Associates!

New mission organization: We’re finally coming close to finalizing our affiliation as a tax-deductible foundation under Congressional District Programs. Details are forthcoming soon, hopefully before the end of November.

Preaching: I’ll be preaching this Lord’s Day, November 9, 9 am and 5 pm services, at Trinity URC. My texts will be Psalm 46 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.

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Announcing the launching of a new Website called “Mars Hill Study Center.”

This is the official Website of the study center, a free resource and teaching center for Filipino pastors and church workers from nearby communities.

You can enjoy browsing the site now, but there will be some pages that are still under development or needs content. Of particular interest for some will be the “Forum” where people can discuss various topics of interest.

Please feel free to make comments and suggestions, and if you find bugs or broken links, please report them to me.

Mars Hill Study Center is offering a class in Biblical Hebrew. Details are as follows:

Start: August 22, 2008 Days and times: Fridays, 10 am-11:30 am Fees: Free tuition; approximately 10 pesos for class materials. Who may attend: Pastors, church workers, college students of all levels of Hebrew language knowledge Lecturer: Mr. Michael Millier, Asian Seminary of Christian Ministries, Manila, Philippines

A quick series of exciting, happy, and shocking events in our family’s life. (Photos at the end of this post.)

♦ July 31: Opening of Mars Hill Study Center. Few have used it so far, but we anticipate that through word of mouth, and when our front signs are up, that more people would start coming. We now have a phone number () and a DSL line. We have also added a smaller folding table. We’re anticipating a box of books from California in about a week. And watch for a new Website.

♦ August 10: First Reformed worship. Our small Bible study group started meeting for afternoon worship services on August 10 at the study center. We finished studying the doctrines of grace (some people call it TULIP), and I started preaching on the nature and attributes of the church: “The Unity of the Body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:1-16) and “How is the Church Holy?” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). We had 10 people both Lord’s Days, but we haven’t had a full attendance yet. There’s only a couple of families with children, while the rest are college age and young professionals. Obviously, we don’t aim to be a megachurch.

♦ August 13: Rachel’s first day of high school. Rachel came home from school on August 13 full of stories of her first day. She has a mixture of excitement, feelings of being intimidated by upper classmen and scary teachers.

♦ August 14: Tim’s car accident. Our oldest son Tim had a bad car accident on I-5 near Modesto, California late Thursday night. Here’s the official account from Chesney:

As some of you know Tim was involved in a bad car accident. He was on the way to LA to go to his brother Oliver’s badge ceremony (LAPD) when his car started swerving and went out of control and rolled over a few times. He isn’t sure what made it swerve and has some memory loss around the accident.

The car is totaled but Tim looks like he will be fine. He was airlifted to a trauma unit in Modesto, where he got 9 staples and many stitches in his scalp, by his right eye, and on one finger. He also broke a bone at the base of his thumb. However, the good news is – he did not get a concussion, was conscious and alert the whole time and the break in the thumb looks like it won’t need surgery. So lots of bumps and bruises but nothing long lasting… so God was definitely watching out for Tim. He was released that night and we brought him home. The next day we went to see our regular doctor who said that the ER did a really good job of stitching him up. He then referred us to an orthopedic surgeon to look at his thumb since it was diagnosed as a serious break. There the x-rays showed it was a minor break and he put a removable splint on it and even told Tim he could be back playing hockey in as little as 3 weeks if he wanted to. He’ll be off work for at least a week when most of the stitches will be taken out.

So pray for Tim’s continued healing, the insurance & car issues, and that Caleb will not get too worried about riding in cars. Caleb knows that we won’t have that car anymore and he knows that Daddy has a lot of owies but he doesn’t know why and so far hasn’t asked us. <snip>

Also praise God that Tim’s injuries are not too serious, especially in such a serious accident. We thank God for seat belts and airbags and His grace toward us all.

♦ August 15: Oliver officially an LA Police Officer. As mentioned above, Tim had his car accident on his way to Oli’s badge ceremony. Oli sent us a few pictures of the ceremony, and after this, his graduation from the Police Academy will be on September 12. Evelyn will be attending his graduation, together with Tim and family and Lem. Oli and Nem will tie the knot on October 25 in Anaheim, California. So, many things are happening in his life.

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