Chemo Update

The summer months have ended, and we are enjoying the start of fall weather here in Cincinnati. Our girls have begun school again, with Julie excited to be in kindergarten. Jonathan is doing well overall and is in the middle of his 9th cycle of chemo, with just two, 48-day cycles remaining. Lord willing, he should be finished by February 2018. We are prayerfully planning to return to the field with our entire family in June of 2018.

Laborers Arrive and Laborers to Train

The Boltons arrived once again to our ministry the first week of September. We are very thankful for their partnering with us at this time. What a blessing to see the Lord take care of His church. They have been averaging 10 members out soul winning and visitation each week on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The church plant, Harvest Baptist Church Southpoint in Bago City, being pioneered by Pastor Jessie Leones, our former assistant pastor, has also been growing, averaging 40 in Sunday morning attendance. They are also conducting weekly soul winning and discipleship and have seen 52 souls saved during the months of August and September. He has 4 men who are seriously praying about God’s call to preach. We have men in our main church plant who need to begin their training. Please pray with us, as we hope to get our Bible institute up and running again in 2018. The main church has seen 152 souls saved in personal soul winning and 16 first-time visitors.

Building Permit Days Away

Please pray that we can finally get our building permit released from City Hall for the construction of our much-needed Sunday school building. Things of this nature take time, but we are doing our best to follow all the rules and do things the right way to maintain a good testimony in our city. We have paid several different fees and have been informed that the release is just a few days away.

Will You Help Us Build?

We have installed the septic tank and next will pour the footers. We are still in need of funds to purchase materials for the 20 columns for the first floor. If you would like to donate toward a column, the cost is roughly $435 in materials for one column. Please just indicate “Columns” in the memo.

Meetings

With Jonathan’s treatment schedule beginning to have an end in sight and in faith and hope of life beyond this trial, I have been contacting local pastors to book meetings for spring 2018. I was able to preach and update in a supporting church in September and also dropped in to two local churches where the pastor had me give an update. We have two meetings booked for October, and one is a local missions conference. Audrey is also due to have our fifth child in October. As the birth of our baby approaches, it is important that I stay in America, so as of now, I do not have any trips scheduled for the Philippines. I do plan to make another trip in early 2018. The first week  of September, we sent 10 balikbayan boxes to the Philippines full of ministry supplies, as well as household items that we will use upon our return. We would like to thank Pastor Matt Hinkle and the Faith Baptist Church of Franklin, Ohio, and Pastor Lonnie Mattingly and the North Harrison Baptist Church of Ramsey, Indiana, for VBS love offerings, which helped us ship our boxes.

In Christ,

Nathan Goodpaster