Hi All,
Here is another update. Photos will follow when we get them developed.
SPECIAL PRAYER REQUEST: My friend, Erick Danielson (his father is Jim, board member of Payatas Mission Outreach, Inc.) recently underwent surgery for a tumor under his eye. He is now recovering but can only see sillouettes. Please pray for his total healing. Please don’t stop untit he has been healed. Thank You.
Special thanks to those who have answered our request for financial help. We appreciate you very much. We are still short of our goal to equip our church for use and ask your prayers in this matter.
D. L. Moody said, “Trust in yourself, and you are doomed to disappointment; trust in your friends, and they will die and leave you; trust in reputation, and some slanderous tongue may blast it; but trust in God, and you are never to be confounded in time or eternity.”
Since the last writing, we spent much time trying to get our building ready for service. We were ecstatic to see our beautiful 7� x 3� lighted sign go up on the front of the building. That sign is a beacon of hope to the Payatas and everyone who passes by, stops to look at it. Now if it was in the states, the sign might not even be seen, but here it is one of it�s kind for a long way.
We then had a problem getting the electricity. The meter had been removed, (I never did understand why) and the owner had to schedule the inspector to come to have it replaced. When he finally came he said that the owner needed to paint two feet of ground wire white before the meter could be installed. Then the inspector had to come out again to make sure it was done. Well, it was Friday the 3rd, and Malou�s Birthday. I went to the Church and noticed the meter had been installed. I went inside and hit the switch and; oh no, nothing happened. I tried every switch in the place with the same results. I thought that perhaps they left the service off and I would have to sign up and give a deposit. That would have been tragic as the bank is $9 to the negative and waiting for a $35 overdraft charge. I thought we will just have to cancel Sunday night service. Prayer always happens to change the bleakest of situations. The landlord�s nephew tested the circuit breaker box and there was something wrong with it. By this time it was Saturday morning and there were 12 of us (praise God!) ready to go Tao Po �ing (Door Knocking).When we finished up, I locked the church and thought the worst. Glory to God, Sunday morning came and when we arrived at Church, the electric was working!
It�s been difficult but rewarding. Saturday was the last day we had the benefit of the van that the Galans had so graciously provided for us. Now I was going to learn how to suffer.
We gave up the van to the driver at our Church on Saturday and so to get home, we had to take a Jeepney in the wrong direction so we could get a seat on one going back in the right direction and after that, take a tricycle the rest of the way home. Now the Jeepney is bad enough because they make sure it is completely packed with people before it takes off. So you sweat waiting for it to move as my wife had Laura in her lap and I the baby (or else we have to pay for them) we pray for the vehicle to begin to move so that we can catch a breath of air. Notice I didn�t say �fresh air�. That�s because there is not a drop of air in Payatas that is not polluted. If you do not smell the garbage all along Litex road, you smell the black fumes from the Jeepney in front of you. This I had never noticed (at least my nose never noticed) when I was in an air-conditioned vehicle.
After the Jeepney, we had to take a tricycle (a motor cycle with a side-car) the rest of the way home. My wife and kids get into the side car, while I sat side-saddle on the back of the motorcycle seat. Well, there is a hill before you get to my house and when the driver down shifted to help get us up the hill, he popped a wheelies and almost threw me off the back and bounced the rest of the family around inside. Then the thing just was not going to make it up the hill so some men ran over, I jumped off the back and we pushed it up the hill. Ya think the guy would have taken a few pesos off the fare???? Fat chance.
We still have no water at the Church as the water company wants to charge the landlord some 50,000 pesos for water that was used by the builders before she bought the place. I am going down to put the pressure of the Holy Spirit on them tomorrow. (Pray) So we have a 50 gallon drum and a bucket, and a tabo� We can make it! As the song says, �all I have needed thy hand hath provided,��
So now Sunday the 5th of November is here. The big day! First, my Pastor friend who is supposed to interpret and bring a digital camera to photograph the event can�t make it. Malou will have to interpret. Malou does a pretty good job but sometimes as she is listening to me preach, she is so interested in the message she forgets she is translating and I have to remind her that she needs to interpret. It�s certainly a compliment but it�s a bit distracting. Also, with a woman interpreter, I don�t want someone to think she is writing the sermons! ?
Of course we have only 10 chairs owned by the Church and four borrowed. There is no pulpit, communion table or any other sign of furnishings that a normal church would have. Upstairs where the children go, it is lacking a wall and so the teachers have to sit to block the open staircase so the children don�t take a nose dive down the stairs. My office, also upstairs, needs part of a wall, a door, some bookshelves� I have to admit, with all this I was a bit embarrassed before the service started but then the Lord spoke to me and I realized that everything was like it was to serve some purpose and so I relaxed.
We had a great service and I love my people. One woman walked to Church (about a mile) she had no food for the day and so another family shared the little they had with her. Our people stick with each other. The people here are so very poor but they are very loyal. They walked to Church for Wednesday service, even though it rained hard, they came. It should be a lesson to those blessed with transportation in the States and yet fail to come to Church on Wednesday and Sunday nights. We have testimonies at every service and it is so good to hear the people say that they were backsliding before this Church started but now they are encouraged and faithful. One lady said she sometimes gets down (depressed) and when she does she goes to the Bible and gets renewed! These are wonderful words for a Pastor to hear. We have decided to have short lessons on Wednesday and Sunday nights and spend the rest of the time praying together. I am sure we are going to move mountains.
We had no fans in the Church because we had no vehicle to take the two fans from my house to the Church so there were many bulletins waving during the service. Subsequently, we had to have all the windows open and so the smell of the garbage and the extreme noise of the tricycles was mean competition for my sermon. Well, everyone that knows me, knows that I can be pretty loud myself and so I preached loud and we sang loud and God ruled the day as 41 people (most standing) had a wonderful time in the Lord.
One of our visitors is a S.S. teacher from another Baptist Church. So she volunteered and we gladly accepted her offer to not only teach the children but to teach our two young ladies to be teachers. She is also working it out that my wife and daughter will be getting free piano lessons! She is also a school teacher and when we are able to start our school, she will volunteer.
One visitor had a camera and so we were able to get a couple of photos of the Church. (God always comes through!) I also had a drop in visit from a Pastor who has a small Baptist Church nearby. It turns out that there may be 3 or four of us in Payatas who are Ind. Fund. Baptists. We agreed to get together for prayer each Saturday morning before door knocking and also we are planning to have a joint evangelistic event at the local arena (Basketball covered courts).
The last thrill I can report is Pastor Borja of Katapatan Baptist Church Cabuyao, Laguna operates a radio station at his Church. He recently had me record a salvation message on cd which he plays on the air every day. He recently made a hook up using short wave where the message will be played all over the world. All I can say is what I always say as is found in 1 CO 1:26 for ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: 1Co 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
Continue to pray as there still are many to be saved and our needs are many.
God bless you as you bless others. Pray for us as we pray for you.
Pastor Jack
Payatas Baptist Church
Pastor Jack Wilson