Greetings! I would first like to share with you a personal testimony from Alvee.
I am Alvee, and I am 28 years of age from Barangay Alangilan, and I currently live with Pastor Raul Remada. I am a young person at his mission church in Purok 8, Brgy. Alangilan, under Pastor Jake. I come from a broken family. When I was young, I learned to work to provide food to feed my mother and a sibling, as my father was with his other family. We didn’t have a good life or a happy family, as we didn’t know Christ. I went to Manila for work because I was the breadwinner. My life there was not easy and I fell into different vices such as smoking, drinking, and even drugs. For years I struggled with these vices; and I thank God, for when I went back home, I was invited to church and I was interested in knowing about the Lord. I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior, and became very involved in all the activities of the church. Last April, I went with Pastor Raul to attend a youth camp in Bantayan Cebu; he was the speaker there. I was very involved at the youth camp, and I was challenged to go into the training school and become a pastor someday. I thank God that He is revealing things to me, to really live in righteousness. At the church, I drive the tricycle that picks up and brings members every Sunday afternoon for the outreach. I am thankful that I have been able to get a student driver’s license, at no cost to me. I am also thankful and praying that God will mold me and use me for His glory.
Monitoring five churches is not an easy job; I interact with different pastors and church members, and sometimes I feel burned out. I am thankful and happy though, as he has called me to this ministry. Currently, we are struggling with building construction difficulties, and some financial instability of the churches. My job is to look after and encourage the pastors; but sometimes when we have difficulties, it is hard to deal with, especially when members are disappointed in a pastor if they have made a mistake. My concern right now is the church in Alangilan. It has been half a year since the building was torn down, yet there is no development with the work, and there have been negative reports about the pastor. I was able to step in, to save the work and revive it. Sometimes it is just the motivation that counts; after a month of stepping in, by God’s grace, the members are ok with it and the building progress has started to move forward again. Another concern of mine is the work in Angela Hills, under Pastor dela Cruz. He was a lay preacher and I had encouraged him to attend a training or Bible school to continue learning, but he hasn’t been able to, as he also needs to work, making frames, to provide for his family. I am praying for more helpers as “the harvest is plenty, but the workers are few.”
- Please pray for God’s provision for the church building construction here in Talisay.
- Please pray for these two churches and for their needs to be met. Pray also for their pastors and members.
Our training school provides not only training for the ones called to be pastors, but also training to do household chores, gardening, driving, and construction. We also assist youth that have problems. Currently, we have two rehab students here. One is a youth who left schooling and has a computer game addiction and has other vices. She is my niece, and her father died when she was little. Her mother is in Malaysia working, and she was staying at her grandparents’ home, but was not guided properly. She was also was kicked out of the school, so took her to the training school. The other youth was a street kid, and his name is John. For many years he just stayed on the street and begged for money to feed himself. His father already had died and when his mom remarried, she married a drunk who always beat him. I saw him in Kabankalan City, begging for money, and I felt pity when I spoke to him and felt a burden. I asked him if he would like to go with me, and he did. I informed the DSWD in that place because he didn’t want to let his family know, due to the entire trauma he has had with them. He was 12 years old and couldn’t even read his name, and didn’t have any clothes. Right now he is in my custody, and he is happy. The students at the school are teaching him to read and write. I am very happy that last Sunday, he attended the Sunday school, and we saw that he was happy too. He doesn’t remember his birthday so we told him that the last church service of the year is his birthday, and he was excited about that.
- Please pray that God will continue to move and change John.
It was last August when we started the work at Hope Village, and both members from Talisay and Alangilan joined us and it was Pastor Ron and Pastor Jake who facilitated that. We have been facing opposition and persecution there. The house they were using every Sunday for service told them not to have it there anymore. However, this doesn’t stop us, and we continue to pray and I reassured Pastor Ron to not be discouraged. We continued the work in a different place and many children have come to listen to Bible stories. We are also able to feed them. Right now we just gather in a tree near the basketball court. We believe that the Word of God will not return void when we spread it. We love sharing the Word of God and even though we are challenged by persecution, we are encouraged not to stop. We are excited when we see the kids smiling and coming to us. We just pray that God will work on the hearts of everyone there and that their faith will grow.
Young people these days seem to be guarded because of the influences that surround them, and it is commonplace for them to be engaged in vices. It is our responsibility to look after them and we want to provide activities that will remind them of the Word of God to combat the worldly lust. Last November 27, we gathered our young people from five different churches and we were happy that they enjoyed the fellowship and the message from God’s Word. We also invited a pastor to lecture about love from a biblical view. It is a joy to see the young people here in Talisay, that were babies ten years ago (when we started the work), that have grown up and now help with the ministry. I have opened up a basketball competition in our subdivision and this has been one way of ministering to them. My main focus right now is soul winning, and I am thankful that some of them have already been in church for several months.
I have recently shared the gospel with Manang Jenny, a lady who has stage 4-breast cancer. She accepted Jesus Christ as her personal Savior, and she went to church and the whole church prayed for her during the service.
- Please pray for Manang Jenny, for comfort, peace, and healing.
- Please pray for God’s leading in opening a new work in Dapitan City, Zamboanga del Norte, next year.
- Please pray for more souls to be added in the church, and for the revival of all believers.
- Please pray for God to continue to use me in whatever He leads me to do.