Saturday, October 21, 2006

Missions Week

Missions Week is always one of the highlights of the year at ISOT-Asia. It's a time to focus our eyes on the unfinished task of bringing the Gospel to the whole earth. We had special speakers at Chapel each day, and last evening we ended with an International Food Festival outdoors (all wearing our costumes, of course). One of the sessions I enjoyed most was a video telling us that the task is overwhelming -- so the speaker gave the following advice: Aim lower, think small, give up, and go have a cup of coffee.
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Ha! That got our attention! Then he explained that the majority of people who become Christians do so before the age of 20. We need realize the importance of working with children and youth. It's more strategic to share the Gospel with younger people (Aim Lower!!) In order to reach them we need to think of training other young people to reach their peers. Kids can be evangelists (Think Small!!) Then he explained that when we are serious about devoting our lives to missions, we have to be willing to sacrifice for the cause, and to give up other things. (Give Up!!) And finally, we need to network with other believers who share the vision. Connecting with others in the body of Christ who have a similar focus will result in better use of resources. He suggested we start by meeting together with believers from other churches to discover how we can work together. (Go have a cup of coffee!!) It caught my attention and has made me think!
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Saturday, September 30, 2006

Davao Flowers

I have to show you the beautiful flowers of Davao! We went to an orchid farm one afternoon. If I were to buy an orchid and take it home, it would be dead in a week (I don't have a green thumb) so I will content myself with taking pictures.
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Saturday, September 23, 2006

One Kind of Ministry Week

This is a photo of James and his team in the ISOT parking lot, preparing to leave for Ministry Week. Twice a year all of the ISOT students and faculty head off to "the province" -- that's how we refer to anything outside Manila. The team spent the week working with a church in the province of Batangas, helping them to do evangelism in their community. Pictured left to right are James (from Canada of course), Thu Thu (from Myanmar), David (from the Philippines), Florin (from Romania), Seth (from Vanuatu), and Arnold and his wife Nomi (from the Philippines). They had a wonderful time and found many open doors to share the Gospel with high school students. The photos below show them in Batangas.