It has been an exciting time with the end of our summer and the beginning of another school year. We joke that we have two seasons here: “hot” and “hotter”! We are now past the “hotter” and are into the rainy season with its “cooler” weather and threat of typhoons.
A New School Year
Our Bible college began a new year in the first week of June with 18 students, an increase of 4 over last year. I wish you could see the growth of our students as they mature in their walk with the Lord. After an orientation week, I have been able to teach the courses Counseling I, Church Education I, and Names of God and Christ. As part of their training in soul winning, I take our students a couple of times a month to a city park bordered by several thousand high school and college students. We usually see over 100 people trust Christ in a day through personal one-on-one presentations of the Gospel! On one of these outreaches, I was able to lead 4 college students to the Lord right after they had visited a Jehovah’s Witness booth and with JW material in their hands. By the end of July, our church has seen 5,363 saved and 183 baptized so far in 2014! Soul winning still works!
A Great Dane
Being 25% Danish, I took a particular interest in a recent visitor to our church in May. He moved to Dumaguete to work at a Danish telemarketing company in our area. He was saved in Denmark by watching videos and listening to sermons by Dr. Jack Hyles! He could not find a fundamental Baptist church in Denmark. When he moved here, he found our church website and visited. He was eager to get baptized on his first visit and has been out soul winning with us ever since. His mother and brother visited him in July, and his brother, who was already saved, was baptized at IBC. I witnessed to his mother through an interpreter for over three hours, and she is close to being saved. Please pray that she would take that final step of trusting in Jesus Christ alone for her salvation. Soul winning still works!
Family Members Being Reached
On Thursday evenings our church goes out into the dark to reach family members, especially fathers, who are working 10 or more hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week. We have seen many family members of visitors saved. Also, our new converts are reaching out to their families. Recently we have seen a father saved who was home because he was ill and another father saved through the efforts of a daughter he abandoned many years ago. A new church member went to family members on a Sunday afternoon after hearing a message on Hell and saw 7 family members saved; a college student visiting family in a city nearby led 7 members to the Lord. Soul winning still works!
Thank you for your faithful support that allows my wife and me to work with our team and see so many lives being impacted for eternity. We are praying and working towards seeing many trained to be fundamental Baptist pastors, missionaries, and Christian workers who will impact unreached areas in the Philippines and throughout Asia and Africa. We pray God will also bless you in your efforts to reach your part of God’s harvest field. Remember, soul winning still works!
Yours for souls,
Scott Christiansen