Praise the Lord! We are back in the Philippines! We were able to keep in touch and lead our church and ministry while we were in the States, but it is so good to be physically here with our dear people once again!
We arrived in the Philippines on January 25, and then, after hotel quarantine in Manila, we got to our church on Friday night, January 28. It was a happy reunion with our people. They had a welcome service for us after our Sunday evening service, with a lot of food, an important part of Filipino gatherings. It’s good to be back!
The year 2021 was a productive year despite the restrictions due to COVID. Following are a few highlights of 2021:
• We had a “Friendship Day” during a time when restrictions were laxed, with 72 attendees and 9 people saved.
• We resumed house-to-house prayer meetings.
• We had a virtual wedding for our music director and his bride while we were in the States. They FedExed their marriage documents to me; I signed them after the ceremony and FedExed them back to the Philippines.
• There were 3,540 precious souls saved during 2021.
• Our preacher boys were able to have street preaching and saw 37 saved.
• We resumed our Bible college classes.
• We started an online Bible institute.
• We resumed services in our outreach work in Lipa City, Batangas.
• Two new families became part of our church. One of the families joined after we got back, and I baptized them.
We are very happy that, a few days after we arrived in the Philippines, the COVID “alert level” was lowered from Level 3 to Level 2. This increases the allowed church attendance/capacity and eases restrictions for going out and visitation, etc.
We had a baptismal service and a church outing on the ocean on February 25, with 18 folks getting baptized. We baptized another lady in our church baptistery the following Sunday.
Congratulations to our newest married couple, Mr. and Mrs. Jayson (Daisy) Guillera. It was a joy to marry them 19 days after Ester and I returned to the Philippines. They were both reached in our ministry over 14 years ago, graduated from our Bible college, and now serve on our church staff.
We would appreciate your prayers for help and wisdom with our building program. Please pray also for this pandemic to pass so we can have our Missions Conference and other activities.
Thank you for your prayers, encouragement, and financial support for all these years to enable us to be in this tremendous harvest field. Only eternity will tell the impact you have had.
Yours for souls,
Courtney & Ester Godsoe
Our newly married staff members, Jayson and Daisy Guillera