{"id":11480,"date":"2020-05-12T12:24:47","date_gmt":"2020-05-12T18:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friendsmission.com\/?p=11480"},"modified":"2020-05-12T16:02:03","modified_gmt":"2020-05-12T22:02:03","slug":"philippines-update-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendsmission.com\/en\/news\/philippines-update-2\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 Philippines Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

So far we have been able to send emergency funds to one ministry and five yearly meetings to help with needs created by the spread of COVID-19. One of those yearly meetings is the one called PEFIM in the Philippines. Their director, Pastor Crisanto de la Cruz, sent us the following report that shows how COVID-19 is affecting the yearly meeting as well as how the emergency funds are being used.<\/p>\n

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\"\"Pastor Cris writes\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cOur churches here in Metro Manila and Luzon area\u00a0have ceased gathering for worship\u00a0in our worship places for almost two months now. This directly affected\u00a011 churches since the beginning of lockdown. Unfortunately, in\u00a0the last two weeks our churches in the Visayas have also been ordered to stop gathering for worship. This affected another 7 churches.\u00a0I am leading worship every\u00a0Sunday\u00a0via livestream for all our churches and members.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The Lord is really good and enabled us to bring His message to wider and more diverse audience through our livestream. I\u2019ve been getting very encouraging response from our weekly audience from\u00a0both members of churches belonging to PEFIM and others who have just heard the message watching us through Facebook.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

But the fact that we cannot gather together\u00a0for worship in our local churches meant that Tithes and Offering has effectively ceased for all our 18 churches. That includes our main church here in Pasig since we do not have the means to effect online giving. Needless to say, our Pastors have lost their significant source of income.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Since the beginning of the lockdown on March 14, PEFIM has provided, in two occasions, Emergency Financial Assistance to the pastors and workers of the first eleven churches that were directly affected. It also enabled us to extend financial assistance to nine stranded students and faculty staff from a Bible School in Samar.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Our churches, particularly Community of Hope Fellowship, Midtown (Mabuting Katiwala)\u00a0Friends Church\u00a0and Philippine Evangelical Friends Church, have provided and are continuing to provide financial and food\u00a0assistance to\u00a0our members and\u00a0the poor and\u00a0vulnerable\u00a0in our respective communities. We endeavor to extend God\u2019s love and the\u00a0gospel of Jesus Christ through our practical service.\u00a0We are exceedingly grateful to the Lord for His provisions in many ways and\u00a0through EFM\u2019s continued\u00a0partnership with us.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

With the funds you have sent us we are able to do a\u00a0third batch of Emergency Financial Assistance for our pastors and leaders, this time for all 18 of our churches. The beneficiaries\u00a0will also include a group of 13 laborers from Calbayog, Samar who has been stranded in Manila since the lockdown.<\/em><\/p>\n

Our good Lord reward you for your generosity and care for our people.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

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Your fellow servant in Christ,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dan Cammack<\/p>\n

Executive Director of EFM<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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