The task is to share the Good News. It is not to enlarge the church, that is the Lord's job. We cannot control the Spirit, we cannot move men's hearts, what we can do is to make the gospel known. We need to teach so the Spirit can illuminate the truth that the Lord plants in people's hearts through our efforts. We constantly thank the Lord for making this task clear. We are not in the mission field to create something we can be proud of. The Lord saves, we simply dispense His Word.
We have been going through the book of Matthew in the Presentacion assembly and after more than a year we are now in Chapter 13. It's a slow process but we know the Lord will bless us. We intend to combine this with book studies in the epistles in our home bible studies and hopefully provide the brethren with a good balanced diet of milk and a little meat. This assembly is only about three years old with half of the folks in fellowship coming for a little over a year only. Rikki's knowledge of the Bicol dialect helps a lot as most members cannot fully comprehend Tagalog (the national dialect). English is totally out of the equation.
It would be great if another family would commit to helping the Tienzos in serving God here in Presentacion. With Dinna and Dana absent most of the time, Rikki, alone, can only cover very little ground.
And there's the youth too....
Its been a while since we had baptism. Last year was good with at least 20 going through the water in the second half of the year. Please help us pray for more souls who would be lovers of the gospel of grace. From the center of the the town to where the gathering hall is located, families have had a chance to hear us. We have not exactly gone house to house but since it is a small town, everybody knows us and are at least aware of what we are sharing. Maybe a second trip covering this area will still produce result. AFter that, the part of town North of the gathering hall is untouched. We intend to start evangelizing this area going to the river. this may be a hundred families or more. Beyond the river is another barangay. Yes, we have not even reached a third of the whole population. By God's grace, the locals will be the next evangelists. All for the glory of God!
A local Baptist pastor has been working with us in reaching out to the kids in the neighborhood. The dear brother Rodel Buenaventura was trained in a Baptist Seminary and is helping his in-laws take care of a local Pentecostal group outside of town. He is very appreciative of our ministry that he sends his nieces to our meetings. He also organized an Evangelistic Youth Camp last year where he invited Rikki to be a speaker. This year we will be doing the Camp with the youth of Cavite coming over to help. We intend to present the gospel in the simplest and clearest way possible. Talks will resume in February and the target dates would be the Holy Week.
Please help us pray that the kids from Cavite will be free to visit Presentacion and enjoy a great time of service and fellowship. You see, this is actually a big task considering that it will take at least 24 hours for the Cavite folks to commute to our little town of Presentacion.
Dana is officially on her way to college. We have prayed for this for a long time and we have decided to let her attend a local university in Naga CIty, four hours commute from Presentacion. She will be taking Architecture in the University of Nueva Caceres. The cost of sending her here is like 1/4th the fees that Manila Universities normally require. That plus a very low cost of living will be a great help in conserving the resources for the Bicol mission.
Yes, she is taking Architecture just like her dad. Hopefully, this will be a great time for her to get to know more people who would be potential mission fields. That also include a possible Campus Ministry.
We also discovered that if Dana will be chosen to be a varsity player in their volleyball team, she will be given 100% scholarship. We are really hoping her asthma won't give her problems.
She will be taking her entrance exam on February. We will be praying.
It has been a consensus among the workers and elders of the Cavite Assemblies that there is a need to start a new assembly in nearby Dasmarinas City. The city is located in the middle of Bacoor, GMA and Amadeo where there are already assemblies. Dasmarinas is a large city that is growing tremendously. A home church strategically located in one of its residentail zones will benefit the believers there. Buddy Villanueva, the elder in Amadeo has tirelessly taught men from the company where he is a senor engineer. This has produced a pool of true believers all residing in the Dasmarinas area. In fact, one of the new believers offered a substantial area near his house to be used as a gathering hall.
There are a few men that the Lord may use in this area. Dino Tienzo, one of the elders in Justinville, Ike Villareal also from Justinville, Buddy Villanueva (Amadeo), Sonny Ayala (GMA) or maybe even Rikki Tienzo (Bicol).
We are excited as to how the Lord will work to plant this church.
We are still praying for the Lord's leading regarding the Bible Camp in Bicol. We already have the lot in mind. It is in Barangay Sigamot, in Libmanan, Camarines Sur. It is a property owned by the Ayalas (Rikki's Mom's family). Hopefully, the Lord will enable Rikki to do the needed legwork to have the property transferred in trust to C.M.P.I. so we can start developing it into a place where the Lord can work in the people's hearts just like He did in the churches in Metro Manila.