As We Look Back

Students at the home of former PBTS President.

Happy new year! 

We praise and thank God for the year that has passed. It seems so fast and we are now on our last few months of study. As we look back, the Lord has been so faithful in providing for us. One of the many gifts that we are so grateful last 2012 was our summer internship in Thailand and Myanmar. It was a great privilege for us as a family to travel abroad and serve in various ways. After the internship, we were also given the opportunity to visit churches in Baguio City, La Trinidad, Pangasinan and La Union  for ministry report and promotion. As of December, we have visited more than a dozen of churches. This year, we are looking forward again to what God has prepared for us, especially that we are graduating this March.

 Some of the highlights of 2012

Students bound for Short-Term Missions last  April.

Ministry report and promotion in Baguio City church. 

Faith Community Church's youth camp in Bokod, Benguet.

Teachers seminar in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro.

Ministry with children at the seminary.

Prayer Request:

1) Please pray for wisdom and God's guidance for the last stretch of our study. Enrollment will be on January 14 and classes will start on the 15th.

2) Please pray that we will be able to complete our requirements, especially Ef's research paper. In addition, our only laptop already shows some problem, probably with its video card. Please help us pray for a new unit.

3) We will serve as teachers/disciplers for Korean students' camp (high school and elementary) on January 7-11.
4) We are praying for ministry opportunity after graduation. Our initial plan is to serve as staff of YWAM Phitsanulok, Thailand in 2014 for their Discipleship Training School. The link below is a short video about YWAM Phitsanulok.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMyR40M-cF4

Thank you so much for your prayers.

Just Finished Second Term

Students from Visayas-Mindanao during the Spiritual Emphasis Week

Thanks God! We just finished another term. We are now in a short rest after 8 weeks of seemingly unending reading and writing. By God's grace we finished all our requirements before deadline :).

Thank you for your prayers!

There were two special events that took place here in the seminary last term. First, the annual Spiritual Emphasis Week held last September 18-21. This year's theme was "God's Servant and His Calling." Rev. Ted Ribo, a pastor of a church in Marikina City helped us a lot to reflect in our calling as servants of God. We were grateful for the time of reflection, teaching and strengthening in our relationship with Him and his direction for us, especially when we graduate this March.

Together with the 8th president of the seminary (4th from left).

The second event was the installation of the new and 9th president of Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary. Students and staff were asked to wear ethnic dress to show diversity of culture in the seminary. It was a colorful and happy inauguration day.  

Prayer Requests:

1. We continue to visit different churches every Sunday for missions report and promotion. Please pray for our team (under PBTS-Asia Vision Short-Term Mission).

2. I (Ef) am leading the Seminary Student Council for this school year. Please pray for God's wisdom.

3. Elena is now in their homechurch in San Jose, Mindoro Occidental for a short ministry until October 14. Pray for a fruitful ministry and safe travel.

In His grip,

Efraem, Elena and Ian Carlo

Only Three Terms Left

Praise God! We just finish first term* of this school year and we are now on a short break. Elena and I are already counting our remaining terms here at the seminary. There are only three terms left and we'll reach our goal of finishing "the race marked out for us!" Again, we would like to thank you for all your prayers and support. You are all our living "cloud of witnesses" that encourage us. Each day we are blessed with strength to run the race with perseverance.

This term was a great ministry opportunity for us to work with PBTS-AVSTM (Asia-Vision Short Term Mission). The Lord has wonderfully blessed us with a team of fellow students with the same passion for missions. In the last two months we have visited 6 churches - doing ministry report, sharing our stories from the field and preaching the word of God. It is our prayer that out of these churches God will raise up missionaries. 

*a TERM is equivalent to 8 weeks of classes. 

Please pray for Filipino churches to send out more laborers into His harvest field (Matthew 9:38).

PBTS Chapel Service

Short-Term Missionaries 2012 singing Grace Alone. 
click picture for bigger size

      
      Last July 10 was a momentous event for students and faculty of the seminary as STM 2012 was officially closed and STM 2013 was inaugurated. Dressed in different Asian costume, we sang our ministry theme song Grace Alone (by Scott Wesley Brown and Jeff Nelson). The song reminds us that it was through His grace that we were able to minister to at least 7 countries in Southeast Asia last April and May. Everyone of us has his/her own memorable experience of His grace while in the field. During the service, five students shared their ministry experience in Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos and Thailand. 
      We ended the chapel service with a challenge for another batch of short-term missionaries next summer. Many said that they were blessed and challenged after hearing our different stories.

with Inae Lee and Dadai Dela Paz (Thailand & Myanmar Team)
click picture for bigger size

      Though most of the time Thailand was our country of ministry, here, we are wearing the traditional dress of Myanmar.

Here is the chorus of the song Grace Alone: Grace alone which God supplies. Strength unknown He will provide. Christ in us, our cornerstone. We will go forth in grace alone.


With much joy and thanksgiving,
Ef and Elena

Back in PBTS, Baguio City

Together with students from Bangladesh
during the PBTS acquaintance party.

We are now back again in seminary life after two months of short-term ministry. First week was a difficult adjustment. It was like our minds were not ready yet to engage in study. Thanks God we are now quite okay. Thanks God also for what had happened in the last four weeks since we arrived here in Baguio City. We were given opportunities to share our report and testimonies about our internship in Thailand and Myanmar. We are now part of a team (PBTS-Asia Vision Short-Term Mission) that visits different churches here in Benguet to give report and share our ministry stories. This is a new and challenging ministry for us because in a way we are mobilizing the churches for missions. Many churches are still yet to be involved in missions and we are glad that our stories can be used by God to a spark that desire on them. 

Prayer Requests:

1) Please pray for our team. We will be in the ministry of missions mobilization for the whole school year of 2012-2013.

2) Please pray for opportunities to conduct missions education in churches especially among pastors and leaders.

3) Please pray for God's guidance each time Ef preaches in churches.

Thank you so much for keeping us in your prayers. Kop kun kha/krap (Thank you in Thai).

Ministry in Phitsanulok

Pilgrims all over Thailand come and visit this temple in Phitsanulok.

Phitsanulok is the capital city of Phitsanulok Province located between Bangkok and Chiangmai. It is one of the oldest cities in Thailand founded over 600 years ago. According to our host the population of the city is more or less 1 million people. We stayed in Phitsanulok from May 23-31 in the house of Youth With A Mission (YWAM) staff. Taa (pronounced as Ta), our Thai host introduced as to the city through prayer walk. Four of us including IC, beat the heat of the day as we walked around the city, visiting major religious places. Phitsanulok is noted for the presence of the second most important Buddha image all over Thailand. While inside the temple, we can really feel the spiritual blindness of Thai people - "they need to hear the good news," we cried in our hearts.

This is Taa, he started YWAM's ministry in Phitsanulok among breakdancers and skateborders two years ago. He wants to see a new generation of discipled believers starting new churches in Phitsanulok and the surrounding provinces.





During our stay, Taa involved us in discipleship/mentoring of new believers, home visitation, prayer gatherings, church service and jail ministry.

Jail Ministry

  
< We went out from this jail overwhelmed with joy that God opened a door for us to proclaim the gospel among teenage prisoners.

Prayerwalking in Myanmar

Female monks on the street of Tachileik.

We went back to Myanmar last May 18-20 for visa purposes (just the three of us). We need extra days in Thailand so we have to cross the border and go back again to obtain another 15 days of stay. While in Myanmar, God prompted us to explore the town and pray for the people. So we went to some of the key places of Tachileik, like temples and pagodas. There are two areas that we felt God want us to focus during our prayerwalk. We have to pray for the people - those who are yet to hear the good news and for the Body of Jesus to be the light and salt of this town. As we walked one early morning we were greeted by the sight of young female monks lining up the streets of the town. It was notable and heartbreaking at the same time.

It was also an opportunity to encouraged IC to pray for the children. Even at his age we want to teach him that children need to know and worship God.

                                                                             




This is the Tachileik Shwedagon Pagoda located on top of a hill overlooking the whole town. We went inside the premises and spent time in prayer as our eyes observed how people revere the place.