Philippine Evangelical Friends International Ministries – PEFIM

Our PEFIM BOE together with myself and Sonia arrived here last Friday to visit and lead an overnight Youth Camp in Danao II. It was attended by 42 youth from our churches here in Calbayog and a guest church.

We had Spirit-filled worship in the evening and powerful preaching of his word. Sister Marie led some games in the mornings and the following day I once again preached a message from the life of our Lord Jesus Christ from a passage in Luke chapter four.

At the end of the event, we distributed dental kits and school supplies for children and students ranging from elementary to college. One hundred children and youth received these blessings!

On Sunday our team was privileged to participate in three different worship services from our churches here in Samar.

Sister Betty joined Marcatubig Evangelical Friends Church with Pastor Joseph, Pastor Memma. Sister Marie joined with San Joaquin Evangelical Friends Church with Pastor Esmer and Pastor Cris. Sister Sonia and Brother Jeff joined with Higher Ground Evangelical Friends Church in Danao II with Elder Dioscoro.

We praise and thank God for the favorable weather and plentiful food during our stay in these different churches. We were exceedingly blessed with our fellowship with our brethren as we study God’s word together and sing songs to him. God is doing great things in these churches that we visited.

The passion of our brethren in serving the Lord is truly inspiring. They faced many challenges during the two years of strict lockdown but their faith in our Lord Jesus persevered.

They still face many challenges even today owing to the economic downturn as a result of the pandemic.  Together we learned to depend on the Lord alone and to trust him even more in the face of difficulties and challenges.

Thank you very much for your continued prayers and partnership with us. We appreciate very much your prayers and partnership with us in the work of the Lord here in Samar! Our good Lord bless you as well as much as he has blessed us in this mission trip!

Our good Lord bless you, your family and ministry!

In Christ’s love and service,

Rev. Crisanto Dela Cruz

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The post October 2022 Prayer Letter first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

In the Philippines I appreciated working with some amazing Discipling for Development (D4D) International Mentors- Gary and Merri Lee Hipp who coached us for eight years in Rwanda, Wency de la Viña who heads up the Philippine Navigator D4D work, Ronald Mazune from Mission: Moving Mountains Uganda who was also one of our coaches in Rwanda, and my fellow coach to Thailand Scott Purser. I enjoyed being able to bring stories from our experience in Rwanda to highlight various lessons with examples of how D4D works within a church setting.

Every morning we walked or jogged to Clark field in the town of Los Baños in the middle of a university campus with other people doing their morning exercises. For three of the mornings, I walked to the middle of the field in the bright sun with my flags. I love sowing hope, by declaring God’s purposes in various situations I am interceding for and by swinging my flags! I feel Papa’s pleasure and I love adoration and declarative, breakthrough-intercession before God’s throne.

Scott facilitating with Jason, Pleo translating, and Manat scribing.

Scott explaining to Chalee what we have studied so far.

In Thailand Scott and I had five wonderful days of coaching together. Yosapa and his team caught us up to where they are at currently. They also asked good questions. I wanted to give our Discipling for Development team an example of what it looks like to go through the Mobilization Phase that they have begun.

To do this I led the Way Foundation staff through a one-day simulation, which in a community normally takes nine months. In our D4D work we train leaders to take whole communities through this process, For this simulation, the families of The Way Foundation staff were the community. We took them through lessons (gathering all the data of their strengths as well as the barriers impeding their growth, analyzing this data with root cause analyses and force field analysis, then prioritizing the list and discovering their curriculum). This was Scott’s first time doing this as a simulation, and he said, “I’m with you, Dave, and if this ships sinks, I’m going down with you.” He was able to support me well and take some of the lessons, so it didn’t all rest on me.

The day went well, and we finished with a good syllabus (list of topics) the Way Foundation families can study and be discipled in over the next year or so.

One of the ladies here, Majise borrowed my flags during worship on Wednesday. It was her first time to use them. It was so fun to watch her worship! Scott and I went in together and gave her the flags on the day we left. She was so happy! May they bless her as much as they blessed me!

I had a great 2nd day with the whole Way Foundation group! People connected the scriptures well with our process. Jesus’ main message was “repent for the kingdom of heaven is near!” Repent means “have a different thought,” “change direction,” recognize thinking that causes us to “miss the mark (sin)” and change it! Romans 12:2 says, “do not conform any longer to the pattern of thinking of this world, (holding us down), but be transformed by renewing your mind, then you will know his good pleasing and perfect will.” This work of coming to understand our faulty thinking and choosing better thinking combined with our heart’s cry to see God glorified, to see his kingdom come and his will accomplished in our lives as it is accomplished in heaven, doing this moves us into the abundant life purposes that God has for us.

I ended with a short testimony of our community of Musovu, in Rwanda and how they discovered and determined their syllabus plan for discipling their church community, and the amazing results that are still ongoing. Then we laid hands on Yosapa and Manat our Discipling for Development leaders working directly in three villages and prayed for them.

On Thursday we took an in-depth look at the negative fruit of the tree of bad financial management. Then we looked at the root causes. Afterwards we went through The Problem-Solving Process on financial stewardship.

Manat and his wife working through their financial stewardship plan.

Cutting up pineapple for the break.

I especially enjoyed leading with four people: myself facilitating in tandem with Pleo, an energetic young lady translating between Thai and English, Manat scribing in Thai, and Jason helping Manat with the Thai and then scribing in English (so I could visually know what is happening). It was a dynamic, fun and insightful process!

Before I left for this trip a friend in a prayer meeting said that I would operate in a new kingly authority. I felt God’s grace and I functioned in a new level of kingly, confident anointing. It was good to experience this. Thanks for praying for me and being part of releasing this gift for me!!!

David Thomas

The post David Thomas Prayer Update- June 2022 first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

Join me in praying through my trip in this month of June! I fly out Friday, June 3 and fly from Manila to Chiang Rai on Friday, June 10. Scott and I fly back on Saturday, June 18.

I would love to have your prayer support over the next two weeks as I travel to the Philippines and Thailand. In the Philippines I will be joining our Navigator Discipling For Development team for two days as a part of their trip focused in the town of San Pablo. They have an independent group of churches who decided to join them. I’ve got experience in Rwanda with rolling out D4D in a church as a community setting. We will have a big coaching group, including, Gary and Merri Lee Hipp, who coached us in Rwanda, and Ronald Mazune who began his coaching with us from Uganda will be there as well as my fellow Thailand Navigator coach Scott Purser. We have one day for preparation and two days for a vision-casting seminar on how to disciple our local churches holistically.

Scott and I have a week in Thailand. We arrive late Friday night and have some time on Saturday to rest. Sunday I’ll give the message in Chalee’s church. Monday morning Scott will share a devotional message with the all The Way Foundation staff. Then we will meet with the smaller D4D team to get an update on where they are at, and what their main questions are. Tuesday is with the D4D team leaders and those who work with them in the communities.

Wednesday and Thursday we have the larger D4D and Way Foundation team together. My ambitious aim for these two days is to give them an overview of the Mobilization Phase by experientially leading them through the process we take our communities through. This process normally takes a year or more, but I want to do this over a day and a half. I plan to finish with a few hours on Thursday focused on working through the Problem Solving Process on one specific topic they have already been working through (financial stewardship). Friday will be focused on the D4D leaders again, making sure we have a good plan for the next four months.

Pray for excellent translation in English and Thai. Pray for Scott and I to do well on our feet, thinking clearly and communicating clearly! Pray for quick time-zone adjustment. Pray for sensitivity to Holy Spirit all along the way! Pray the Philippines group could catch a vision for Discipling their churches and surrounding communities, and that they would finish with some clear next steps.

Thank you for praying for me!

David Thomas

The post David Thomas June Prayer Update first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

Philippine Evangelical Friends Church (PEFC) celebrated Christmas by remembering the greatest gift humanity ever received in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ! He is the real reason for every celebration of Christmas. It is also through the example of Jesus when he gave his life as ransom for the forgiveness of sins of those who believe that PEFC extends a generous attitude toward its members and the community at large.

We praise God for the generosity of our members who faithfully bring their gifts, tithes, and offerings to the church to meet its every need and be able to respond to the need of others as well. As the church celebrates Christmas we were able to bless our church community and others with significant gifts that provided food on their tables on Christmas Eve!

In all these, we give God the praises and glory for his faithfulness to his people. We continue to lift our church family to the Lord for his protection, continued favor and provision in 2022!

Praise God for the successful launching of Taytay Evangelical Friends Church (TEFC) located in West Bank, Floodway, Taytay, Rizal. We are exceedingly grateful to the Lord for his faithfulness and grace that he established his church in the challenged area of Taytay. He raised faithful leaders who passionately share the gospel and extend the love of Christ in their community through preaching the holy scriptures and in many practical and tangible ways.

In partnership with faithful Friends and partners in the ministry TEFC was able to give Christmas gift in the form of grocery items to poor families in the community. A delightful fellowship over sumptuous meal followed the worship celebration. Children were given gifts and meals the previous day (Saturday) during their Christmas celebration.

Jesus himself taught his disciples that whatever they do to people in need around them, they do to him as well. Looking after the welfare of the church and its surrounding community is part of the mission of “discipling nations” that Christ himself instructed his disciples.

Please continue to pray for this newly established church that it will effectively proclaim God’s glory in Jesus Christ. Pray for God’s wisdom and guidance as the leadership composed of relatively young elders. They may be young in age but certainly mature in faith. Thank you for the presence of Pastor Memma Necesito Abella and Marie Anb Ezeonyilimba who represented PEFIM BOE. We appreciated your presence very much!

Sa Diyos ang Papuri! Soli Deo Gloria! God alone Be Praised! Be blessed Friends!

Rev. Crisanto B. Dela Cruz

Click here to download full prayer letter…

The post February 2022 Prayer Letter first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.