“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Proverbs 22:6
We are grateful to the Lord for the opportunity to minister to forty to fifty kids every week during our weekly feeding program. We praise God for His sustained strength, guidance, and wisdom, especially for our youth volunteer teachers and parents who cook their meals.
The kids are always excited and looking forward to our meetings especially since it is their vacation time at school. Their excitement cheers us up and brings joy to our time of teaching. Handling children’s ministry can be challenging and requires more patience and wisdom, as well as the ability to be creative to make their learning enjoyable and applicable to different age groups. We praise God for His sustained wisdom and patience being granted to the main teacher who is my wife, and our seven youth volunteers.
This month, we had our focus on nutrition month, and we fed the children nutritious meals with fruits and vegetables at every meeting. They also were fed spiritually through the Bible lessons and stories during the story and worship time. The kids are taught memory verses and prayer. Many times, if the volunteers forget to pray before the program starts or before eating the meal, the kids are quite happy to remind the teachers. Some of the parents share that their children are always excited and ask them if it is Sunday, because then they can play, learn, and eat delicious food.
- We are hoping to gift school materials to the kids at the start of a new school year; pray for financial provision.
- Pray for the children to grow in wisdom and Godly fear as they come to know Jesus.
- Pray for their parents, that through this ministry and as they watch and accompany their children, to also grow in knowledge and understanding of God.
As I plan to proceed in continuing my theological studies this school year, we are praying for another full-time worker in the church who can manage and handle the church as I will be studying full-time. We are praising God for giving us two couples to be trained for leadership and ministry work. We are continuing to prepare Paul and Ivy. Another couple are now training, Ron and Mary.
I praise God for the eagerness and confidence that He has provided to Ron. This month, I gave him the opportunity to practice what I taught him. On Sunday, he preached the Word in our worship gathering. We studied the passage together, wrote the sermon together and Ron delivered the message to the people.
- Pray for these couples to have wisdom and discernment. Pray for the Lord to speak to their hearts and for them to be used for the advancement of His heavenly kingdom.
- Pray for God’s leading for the church this next year as my wife and I step down from leadership.
- Pray for the leaders of the church as we make plans for the ministry.
- Pray for wisdom on managing my time as I continue my theology course as a full-time student.
- Pray for wisdom for my family and me as we lead and prepare the church for this transition.
The school year has come to an end, and we praise the Lord for the lives of our young people who have all excelled in their schools. Cony and Genevieve graduated as seniors in high school. Christine, Angela, Chamie, Eunice, Carlos, Ashly, and Ivy are all academic excellence awardees. And my wife graduated with her bachelor’s degree in Christian education. As a way of celebrating their achievement, we gave them a simple treat to let them know how proud of them we are. We had a snack fellowship after our worship service. They had a great time talking and sharing experiences and plans. We are always encouraging them to do their best in their studies.
Cony and Genevieve are at the age to enter college. Cony desires to be a teacher and we encouraged her to study at the Bible school where my wife graduated from. They want to pursue college but because of their recent family situation, their father lost his job and as the two eldest with five siblings to support, they are planning to work to help their family. They are now looking for a job and want to find one that gives them Sunday off so that their commitments and responsibilities in the ministry will not be affected.
- Praise the Lord for the passion and boldness of these young people to be used by God in the ministry.
- Pray for guidance and wisdom for Cony and Genevieve in their desire to work.
- Pray for provision for the family.
- Pray for spiritual maturity for our young people.
- Pray for wisdom and strength for the youth as they handle the children’s ministry.
- Pray for our upcoming young fellowship. Pray for provision for transportation and registration for our youth.
Ministry Call
Pastor Alvin and his wife Melchora. His children Eunice, Carlos, and Ashly.
After my conversion, I became active in church ministries. I had the desire in my heart to work in full-time ministry, so after I graduated high school I continued my study at the Evangelical Theological College of the Philippines in Cebu. But sad to say, I was not able to graduate during that time. I was very immature and my life was controlled by feelings and emotions that led me to get married at an early age. I went back to my home town in Surigao and stayed there with my family. But I continued to have a burden in my heart for full-time ministry. So, my wife and I decided to go back to Cebu and continue my studies. I worked as a full-time worker in a secular job to support the needs of my family as I continued my studies in His word. I get so much joy in studying God’s word. During our church plant class at ETCP and even right after I finished the course I said to myself and expressed to God, “Lord! Many people can do my current job as a salesperson, but only a few can commit to church planting work.” Also, God’s word says in Matthew 9:37 “then He said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few”. So it is the desire of my heart to be a church planter, this is my commitment to our Sovereign God.