Thank the Lord for a great start to the new year, with 1,687 precious souls professing faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour through the personal soul winning of our people! This includes the personal and scheduled soul-winning activities in our church, funerals and wakes, and 180 students and teachers in our public-school ministry.

We had an exciting Youth Rally with several decisions made for the Lord by our young people. We have a great group of young people and single adults.

I’m thankful for members in our church who not only attend church services but do much of the work and carry much of the responsibility of our ministry. We have young people and adults who teach the Bible in public schools, teach Sunday school, clean the facilities, go soul winning, decorate and cook for events . . . and the list goes on.

One of the highlights of the year is our Sweetheart Couples’ Banquet. This year we held it in a restaurant. We had a good-sized group, but there were several tables we didn’t need that were still open for business. Those other customers who were not part of our group also enjoyed watching the activities and listening to the short message to our couples. One of the fun things we did during the banquet was to open a time capsule from a Couples’ Banquet we’d had 15 years prior. It contained notes from husbands and wives to their spouses. Some of the couples shared the notes out loud—some were sweet, and some were humorous. Two of the notes that got into the capsule were from single ladies and were addressed to their future “Mr. Right.” Both of those ladies were at the banquet with their husbands!

I had the honor and privilege to teach and preach at the annual “Philippine School of Ministry,” conducted by Pastor Ken Anderson and Pastor Brian Evans from Georgia. There were over 200 pastors and full-time workers in attendance. It was obvious that God was working in a great way, and all in attendance were blessed, exhorted, and encouraged. A special thanks to Pastor Evans and Pastor Anderson for this helpful event.

The thing that excites me most about the Philippines is the potential to reach other countries with the Gospel, and the thing that burdens me the most is the need for Filipinos to surrender to full-time ministry as missionaries, pastors, and other full-time roles. For some reason, during the last few years, there has been a decline in young people enrolling in Bible colleges, not only in our Bible college but in others as well. Please pray fervently that the Holy Spirit would work in hearts and more people would answer the call. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”

Thank you all for your sacrifice to keep us in this tremendously white harvest field. We are truly grateful.

Yours for souls,

Courtney & Ester Godsoe