In Jesus footsteps

The commands are:

1. Repent and believe

2. Be baptize

3.Love God fellow-believers, 'family' and neighbors even en enemies

4. Share the Lord's Supper

5. Pray and meditate on the Word of God daily

6. Give or tithe

7. Make disciples

In this letter we want to share some of the wonderful testimonies we encountered with our group in Ipil Beach. Initially when we started the group there were many members but the regular ones are Elvin and Cora, Lina and Benjamin Elma and Amy. After a year of building friendship we thought it good to start a group where we can talk about the Lord and also teach them the way Jesus want us to live our lives.

We started of by teaching the course" Following the Lord Jesus Christ". The purpose of this course is that you should help new believers to be real disciples of Jest's Christ, who will obey all Christ's commands, understand the fundamental doctrines of our faith5and be disciple makers themselves. The basic commands of the Lord are summarized in se\ en studies and it's a help for them to put into practice what Jesus taught.

These are not the only things we share to them for as we continue they start to ask for more light on different issues out of the Bible. At this stage they are very open and they want us to talk openly with them and also share their problems . It is wonderful that Pinoys started to open up for as you know Pinoy=s don't share openly towards foreigners. God is touching them in different and exiting ways . After the study on the Lords Supper ,there was a good response. They never thought that it could be so simple and that you can also do it with red juice and crackers. \With permission from Cora we will include pail of the letter she wrote:

Elvin and Cora want to learn more so that they can go and do some missionwork under the tribal people in their province. Benjamin also asked us. ''How will I be able to support my family if God want me to go into full-time ministry.@

These two families also want to join the International Bible School on video which will be held in MMC beginning September 1998. Please pray for them as they prepare for this.

A wonderful relationship started between the families and they are helping each other every day. We ask your prayer for these families . The goverment is planning to demolish the whole of Ipil Beach. Amy and several others were already relocated to another area. The group is visiting her and encouraging her to start a Bible Study group in her new area.

His approach was simple:

-Turn on the light and the darkness will flee -

Steve Sjogren

“By the way, I just want to share you something regarding our Biblestudy here in Ipil Beach. We have our Bible Study every Tuesday at 7:30 in the evening here in our house. Our preacher is Mordegai and Toinette and we really learned something regarding God’s Word or it enhanced our knowledge regarding what Jesus wanted us to be. Before we part they will give us some assignments for the following week and we loved and enjoyed it. It will reminds me of being a student before.

Last night we took up the Lord’s Supper (Pakig-ambit sa Balaang Panihapon). We celebrate it very simple but we learned more than that. I am wishing our praing to God that He will touched and enlighten our neighbour’s heart that what we are doing is it all about “God’s Word”. Yes, to be frank with it is very hard to follow the footsteps of Jesus but still we try or do our best to do what He wants us to be. And thanks to the missionaries for spreading the good news. They teach in a very simple way that everyone can understand.”

After the teaching of “How to be a cheerful giver”, this story came form Benjamin:

He decided to give away his nice woodsaw that he had to his friend whom he knew like it. When he made up his mind to give it to his friend he was dissappointed when he saw his friend did not appreciate it. He felt bad when his friend gave it away to someone else. Benjamin knew that this one also like to have his saw. After feeling bad and angry and thinking he made a mistake he saw how blessed the other man is with the saw. He felt better because he knew that he made the right decision by giving his saw and bless someone else. After all he could be a cheerfull giver. We had a good laugh at him because Lina, his wife, was very angry at him because now he must borrow a saw to work with.

At the same time Benjamin also donated some money to Cora and Elvin to bless them. Before they could spend the money someone came who needed some money to go and buy some medicine. They did not think twice but gave the money towards this person. So the money of Benjamin blessed 2 families at one time.

Thank the Lord, because some of these families don’t have food in their houses quite frequently.

Another testimony form Benjamin: He said that many people from the cults came and tried to teach them their ways. As Filipinos they cannot accept the ways of foreign religion. But they want to know more about what Jesus taught because it is from the Bible. This was a breadthrough for us to see that the Holy Spirit is working in their hearts