November 2007
Dear Friends and Family,
“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing,” Rev. 5:12. Our God truly is almighty and powerful. This past month and a half has been filled with various activities, and the Lord has given strength to accomplish each task at hand.
Our first semester at BJMBC finished on Friday, October 12. Students and teachers enjoyed a three week break from studies and teaching. These few weeks were a very busy time for me. I was able to spend much time composing, editing, revising, and compiling many piano arrangements. The first books to be completed will be four books of varying levels of Christmas songs. The other books will be four books of varying levels of hymns. Please pray for the workers at New Song Ministries as they spend much time preparing these books for publication in the Philippines. Please pray also for me for wisdom as I continue to work on the hymn arrangements for the upper level books. It is exciting to be able to provide more music resources for the students. These hymn arrangements will be an excellent tool for shaping young people for ministry in their local churches.
Second semester began on November 6th. The Lord has seen fit to increase my teaching load to 35 piano students in addition to my regular classroom responsibilities. Mr. Bachorik encouraged me to combine some students into group classes to free up my schedule a little bit. The Lord enabled me to organize curriculum for both classes and begin teaching them immediately.
BJMBC celebrated its 22nd anniversary on Friday, November 16. We had around 350 people attend our anniversary concert and preaching service. It was exciting to be able to sing with the choir and play an offertory for this service. Dr. Kamibayashiyama gave an excellent message from II Cor. 5:13-15. I did not realize until after the service that my Korean friend had accepted Rachel’s invitation to attend the concert. Please do continue to pray for Sarah. Please pray that she will see her need to trust in Christ as her own personal Lord and Savior.
Prayers and Praises:
1. My health: I praise the Lord for granting strength to teach each day. During the break, I fell down the stairs in the mall and hit my head. The Lord has been gracious to allow me to recover quickly from the fall and return to my teaching responsibilities in good timing.
2. Tess Brosoto: She is one of our two secretaries for BJMBC. She is in need of hip and knee replacement surgery. If she does not have the surgery soon, the doctor says she will become crippled within the next few years. She recently fell down the stairs also, making it more important to have the surgery now. Please do pray for the Lord to provide the funds that are needed to make this miracle possible.
3. Opportunities to witness, Spiritual Growth, wisdom in teaching
4. Salvation: Leah, Sarah, Marilou, Christina (the lady who sat next to me on my flight over in June), Mrs. Loyola.
5. Spiritual growth/Church attendance: Angelita Hipolito, Marilyn Dayao
May God bless you as you serve Him.