Family Radio Mission to the Phillipines

April 18, 2005




LETTER #1

"Study to prove thyself unto God, a workman that needeth not be to be ashamed , rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15)


Tuesday, April 19, 2005. Sixteen members of our group of twenty "Ambassadors for Christ" (12 men and 8 women) from various parts of the US and Holland arrived today in Manila, the capital of The Philippines, on another Family Radio mission trip.

We plan to proclaim the True Gospel of Christ to the people here during the next ten days by distributing 200,000 "Does God Love You?" tracts in the Tagalog (pronounced ta-GAH-lo) language and 30,000 in English. We will also be handing out over 1,000 Bibles and many booklets and CDs of Family Radio Bible-teaching materials in both languages. The tracts have been printed here and contain the current Family Radio schedules for programming from the 600-kilowatt AM facility on Taiwan (three hours each in Tagalog and English daily), School of the Bible information, and a reference to the multilingual Family Radio website.

The Philippines is a developing democratic republic located on an "archipelago", or group of islands, in the Pacific Ocean about 500 miles east of Vietnam. The country comprises more than 7,000 islands, of which about 880 are inhabited. Only about 7% of the islands are larger than one square mile, and only one-third have names. The overall land area of the country is comparable to that of Arizona. The total population is about 86 million, and the majority of the people live on just eleven of the islands. The major island groupings are Luzon in the north, the Visayas in the center, and Mindanao in the south. Manila is on the island of Luzon, and about 14 million people live in and around the city. There are eight major dialects spoken throughout the country, but the two official languages are Tagalog and English. The literacy rate is estimated at 96%, and the religious makeup is as follows: Roman Catholic 83%, Protestant 9%, Islam 5%, and Buddhist and other 3%.

We are thankful for the privilege of serving our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in this country; and we are praying that we will be faithful to God’s Word in all that we do here. May God grant repentance unto salvation to many of these dear people for His glory and honor.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005. After an initial orientation meeting this morning, we broke into teams of threes and fours and traveled by taxi to various locations in this teeming city. Acceptance of the tracts was very good (over 80%), very few tracts were discarded, and the people were cordial and courteous to us everywhere we worked. There was a fair amount of excitement and interest within the Roman Catholic community because of the appointment of a new Pope in Rome, but that has not adversely affected our work. We are praying that situation will cause the people here to be focusing on spiritual matters when they receive one of the "Does God Love You?" tracts, and that God will perform a mighty work of grace in the hearts of many in this city and country according to His perfect will. At this point, it certainly appears that God has opened a great and effectual door for the True Gospel of Christ in this country.

We purchased 1,200 Tagalog and 120 English Bibles (King James Version) with some of the funds donated specifically for that purpose, and we were able to place a number of them in the hands of people this afternoon.

The remaining four members of our group arrived today, and we are thanking God that our group is now up to full strength. Everyone is eagerly looking forward to what the Lord has in store for us during our first full day of distribution tomorrow.

"Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures." (James 1:18)


In Christian love, The Family Radio Mission Group in The Philippines


LETTER #2


"My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth." (1 John 3:18)


Thursday, April 21, 2005. Today was our first full day of distribution, and the work progressed at a rapid pace in all of our assigned locations with the same good results as yesterday. None of us has encountered any significant opposition to our work or the message on the tract itself. Sometimes we have been asked to leave certain areas by security guards doing their jobs; but, in general, that has been minimal and the guards and police have been very receptive to the tracts and supportive of our work -– even within the train system.

Manila has an elevated train system that moves millions of people daily, and several of our teams went to various locations by train today. Since the trains are quite crowded, we usually are able to give tracts to those sitting and standing within reach around us; and it is always a blessing to see many of them deeply engrossed in reading the True Gospel of Christ in the middle of their busy day. One young man offered his seat to one of our ladies, politely smiled and took the pack of tracts from her hand, and proceeded to distribute all of them in the packed train. He came back empty-handed, waved goodbye, and got off at the next stop. God blesses us with many of these kinds of incidents on these trips.

One team ventured out early today to one of the poorest areas of the Philippines, and the team leader provided this report: After a one-hour ride through Manila's dangerously congested traffic, we had to travel another half hour to reach our destination. Most of the people and their pets were living in a vast stretch of overcrowded, dilapidated, one-room shacks on narrow alleyways that formed a huge maze. The alleys were often dark and slippery due to a lack of electricity for lighting and the residents’ washing clothes and bathing on the walkways. Little children were playing in the dirt and squalor and scavenging in the garbage piles for anything that could be sold or recycled. Alcoholism and drug addiction were rampant, and many of the men and women were just lazing around drinking or gambling to pass time away. Needless to say, they were quiet surprised to see us, but they were very polite and the acceptance of the tracts was close to 100 percent. About 50 Bibles and other materials were given out, but the need there is very great, and we hope to revisit the area with several hundred additional Bibles and more teaching materials.

A woman mentioned that she teaches a large group of children from the Bible, but the children do not have any Bibles to follow along during her studies. We gave her a few Bibles and some more study materials and intend to provide her with more later.

The weather has been hot (mid-90s F) and humid since we arrived, but we have received no rain that would hamper the distribution work. We thank God for that and the fact that our group members are adjusting to the time and weather changes quite well.


"He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." (Deuteronomy 32:4)


In Christian love, The Family Radio Mission Group in Manil


LETTER #3


"Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever." (Psalm 119:160)


Friday, April 22, 2005. By God’s wonderful grace, today was another good day of distribution. We had excellent results in many new locations from the standpoint of high acceptance and throngs of people. We worked at a large, public general hospital where there was a constant flow of people coming and going all day long, and several people asked for additional tracts to take inside to patients they had come to visit.
We also had teams working outside of a few huge shopping malls, and we obtained permission to distribute inside some of them tomorrow (Saturday), which is usually the busiest shopping day of the week.

One team went to a large waterfront park and came upon a stadium with hundreds of teenagers practicing for a youth festival. According to God’s perfect timing, our team arrived just as the practice session ended and was able to give tracts to everyone there as they stood in lines on the field and sat in stadium seats.

Saturday, April 23, 2005. We put the "Does God Love You?" tracts into the hands of many thousands of people at a rapid rate again today everywhere we went in Manila. Our teams worked at busy bus stops, markets, and shopping malls, and the acceptance of the tracts continued to be excellent.
In general, the people here have been very polite and cordial to us, and we continue to experience very little, if any, negative reaction to the tracts. Many people have shown an interest in learning more about the Gospel, and that gives us opportunities to provide them with Bibles and teaching materials. Because of the Spanish history of this country and its Roman Catholic background, the attitude of the people to the tracts is similar to what we have encountered in many Latin American countries in that the people tend to have a deep respect for Jesus Christ and the Bible and show a willingness to learn more about the Gospel. It is always a great pleasure and blessing for us to hand out the tracts when almost everyone takes them and keeps them. We continue to see many people sitting and standing around reading them intently, and we pray that God will open the spiritual eyes and ears of many to the True Gospel of Christ. We had some guests attend our Bible study tonight, and we are praying more will come in the future.

Sunday, April 24, 2005. Our teams spread out to several large churches and the adjoining market areas today without any problems with the religious leaders as we experienced on other trips. One team left early today to visit the largest men’s prison in this country, which is about one hour away by taxi, and the team leader provided this report of their activities: We had an appointment to meet the Director of Security, who personally escorted us around that vast complex housing over 20,000 inmates. Prisoners from all over the Philippines are held there. It has maximum, medium, and minimum security areas, which required various levels of security checks of our people. We were then allowed to visit the different areas to distribute over 20,000 tracts, 500 Bibles and many Family Radio booklets and CDs to the inmates and staff. One woman employee approached us as we were leaving with a tract in her hand and said, "I am a Muslim but I really would like to have a Bible and some booklets so I can learn more about salvation". We were happy to grant her request and are praying that God will allow her to experience salvation on a first hand basis.

Today was a family visitation day, and we were able to give tracts to many of the visitors who came from all over this country. Whole families came the day before and stayed in nearby motels or camped out in order to see their family members and bring them food and other necessities. There is a great need for Bibles in that institution, but the best we could do was to leave a few in each small cell packed with up to 100 men. They were extremely grateful for the materials, and we were blessed by the opportunity to share the True Gospel of Christ with those desperate men, many of whom are dying of AIDS and other diseases. There is also a large death-row population that was given tracts, some Bibles, and teaching materials. May God have mercy on those poor souls and grant them repentance unto salvation according to His perfect will. Please pray that we can make the necessary arrangements to visit the women’s prison before we leave.

Please continue to pray for our work here and for God to do a mighty work of grace in the hearts of many of these dear Filipinos

"For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations." (Psalm 100:5)


In Christian love, The Family Radio Mission Group in Manila