An Answer For More Laborers

I barely had three hours sleep the previous night trying to meet my submission deadline. I got to leave work by 430 AM and was blessed to arrive home safely by 6 AM with just enough time to prepare and leave again for our 8 AM meeting with the church at Batia, Bulacan. The church had been looking forward to this day for three weeks, as this was to be the very first official public ministry of this young gathering. God has so graciously worked his spirit in the believers that they saw the call for more laborers in the Lord's vineyard, and the Lord has since endeavored to form in them the zeal to pursue the need.

This was doubly a special day for me as well, as this is also the very first time that my beloved wife unselfishly offered herself, despite her apprehensions and fears, to read God's word in public. I have long imagined this day. How glorious to have seen it come to pass. She read for as long as she can till she lost her voice. It was such joy to hear her voice lifting up the Lord. I am at a loss to even describe it.

 

We have been much humbled and privileged to have partaken in the grace bestowed upon this small body of believers whose untainted zeal led to this day, despite being admittedly afraid. There were some who spent the preceding week in fasting and prayer, 4 AM devotions, in preparation. It is no small matter to stand in public and proclaim the Gospel, for how can we do so without being sent? Setting out in the arm of the flesh would reduce all efforts to nothing but empty air. It is the Holy Spirit that gives life, not the person of the speaker, or the efforts of the believers.

 

 

Tuesday is flea market day in this area of Bulacan. This meant double the number of people today compared to any other day. The stalls were full, and a great number were able to hear the preaching of the law, accountability, the exceeding sinfulness of sin, death and hell, the wrath of God against willful sinners, the day of the Lord's promised return, and more importantly, the saving power of God through the death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. There were not a few, even from the distance, who stopped what they did, deliberately missed their rides, sat down, and listened. 

Lola Norma, (lola is a Filipino term of endearment for an elder or a grandmother) traveled all the way from the city just to join in the work this morning. She has been longing to partake in public ministry, and the distance she had to cover is nothing to her, compared to the joy she knows she will be rewarded with working in the Master's vineyard. Her daughter, my dear sister Merlyn, (in green) is a tremendous blessing to me as well. They both walked far from where we were to minister to people and pray for, or with them. 

 

There was probably no happier person here today than I was. To have been granted the privilege to guide this beloved body of Christ into his own work: this far surpasses whatever pleasure I obtained working for more than 20 years for myself. The effort, the strength to do so, every breath, every beat of my heart, comes from the one in whom I know I have believed. To stand here with Christ's beloved, to minister with my family: I am complete.

Please keep this small body of Christ in your prayers. May they remain untainted from popular "christianity", and remain steadfast in genuine zeal and love for the Lord Jesus Christ and for the lost.

There is no greater joy, than to realize how good Father has been to me, to reward me kindness instead, for my hideous crimes against him, by enabling me to serve him with my children and my wife. No worldly achievement can equal this. I pray the Lord would have mercy to grant that I would be able to offer these lives back to him, and that I would lose none. 

Isaiah 54 : 4

Do not be afraid, for you will not be ashamed anymore: 

neither will you be confounded; for you will forget that you 

have betrayed your spouse, nor will you remember ever again 

how you mourned your isolation.

May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward for his suffering.