One of our early converts, Jeo Flores, was married to Arlyn Morales at the beginning of September. We nearly missed being able to make the quick, five-hour drive through the mountains for this wedding. At one point during the extensive process of securing our Philippines National Police Travel Pass, a healthcare worker told us to reschedule the wedding, as he thought it would be impossible to get all of the paperwork done in time. We serve the God of the impossible. By God’s grace, we successfully passed all of the inspections, including chest x-rays, blood tests, urinalyses, Barangay Captain’s letter, and the city government doctor’s signature. It was a quick, one-day trip, but acquiring the proper paperwork took a full two days of running all over town. Overall though, it was a great blessing, especially driving Jeo’s parents, who nearly missed their own son’s wedding due to all of the restrictions. It was a beautiful wedding and a very memorable experience. We are very excited for Jeo and Arlyn’s future together.

What a blessing it is to see the next generation of youth serving the Lord. Nine years ago, two grade school boys were saved and began faithfully attending church. Jonjon and Wendell are now being used by the Lord to reach the next generation of children. They have both been involved with the orchestra for several years, and at the end of 2019, the Lord started working in their hearts to step up and lead. They had a vision and ran with it. At the time, we had no idea what was in store for 2020. By God’s grace, the orchestra has doubled in size this year.

We added music teachers and have been providing weekend training. They enrolled a new set of beginning musicians this past July. We have 8 teachers and 16 students. Every month they also do a recital in the church to show how much they have improved and to demonstrate that they are practicing. By God’s grace, they have an extensive Christmas Cantata scheduled for this coming December 13. Over 30 church members will be playing an instrument or singing, and an additional 20 will be working behind the scenes in various capacities to help ensure a smooth cantata program. These young men have done all of this on their own. It’s been very encouraging to give leadership opportunities to growing Christians. We are blessed to see the Lord working in their lives. They are very faithful laymen for Christ.

In Christ,

Nathan Goodpaster