Greetings from Bacolod

Hello everyone!

Paul and I are doing well and keeping busy here in the Philippines.  Our shipment arrived on Oct. 18th from Cebu and that was an exciting day for us.   It was so great to see the blue trailer coming down the narrow roads and watching the drivers determine how to get it backed up to the house!  We had 12 men (some were students from a nearby college) helping unload and place the boxes in certain areas so sorting would be easier at a later time. We had an assembly line actually set up where we opened each box and pulled out the clothing.  Then verbally told each student if the contents went upstairs or downstairs.  It was great timing when our container arrived because we had a semester break for 2 weeks and I could spend many hours going through the boxes. We have already dispersed lots of clothing, books, quilts, and teaching supplies to 2 orphanages. We visited a preschool today and took 4 boxes of books and teaching materials for the 29 students.  I am back in school now and enjoy being with my students during the morning and sorting through boxes in the afternoon. THANK YOU for your prayers for our time in customs and a smooth transition from the port to our home.  We are never sure what will happen with the customs process and we greatly appreciated your prayers and remembering us during that stressful time.

We are continuing to have construction work going on 6 days a week at our house/bodega. The workers are finishing up the water tank construction and making the foundation for the kitchen counters. We are trying to get a guest bedroom completed for John and Kathy Miller to stay in when they visit us for 3 weeks.  We are hoping to arrive at a stopping place very soon. It has taken so many months to get to the point we are at now. Things are just so SLOW here in the Philippines compared to the building process of the US.  There will be much to do in the future but we are trying to get it functional and useable for the present time.

We had a one day marriage seminar with Dr. Don Ott recently in our new classroom.  Dr. Ott is from Russellville, Arkansas and had a short visit with us between his trip to Bohol, Philippines and Sydney, Australia.. It was very enlightening and encouraging to the 14 couples who attended.  We provided several meals and enjoyed watching the movie, Fireproof, at the end of the session.  He had an early morning meeting for the local Pastors the next day and then departed for Manila on route to Australia.  It was great having him here.  The information made a great impact on many couples.

I am enjoying my Philippine drivers license and taking the Pajero to school.  We were given an older vehicle (automatic J) from a missionary returning to the states in June of 2010.  I never really had a need (or desire) to drive here before, BUT because of where we live now, it is much more difficult to obtain transportation to school.  Now I keep wondering why I didn’t do this 5 years ago!  It’s always “eye opening” to see how Filipino’s drive, but you learn to use the horn and go “with the flow”….ha ha    I think Paul enjoys not having to take me everywhere too………….

Thank you for your continued prayers for us and the ministry of Vision For Missions.  We appreciate hearing from you.  News from YOU, make our days extra special !

In His service, Mary Wilson

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October 21, 2010

Greetings again from Bacolod City, Philippines!

Rain, Rain, and more Rain!  This past week, a big typhoon hit the northern part of the Philippines.  We are located about 500-600 miles south of there, so we just had several days of heavy rain and wind.  Typhoons are common with an average of about 15 a year.  It is very horrible for those who are very poor and live with temporary or native constructed houses.  Many crops were damaged in this last typhoon.

Showers of Blessings!  We rejoice with the 29 people who were baptized this month at the new church building dedication in Palawan.  That was only part of the news, for there were 11 more who also made that decision and are being baptized in different services.  VFM has supported the workers, Abel and Nida Lobos, since this church was started a little over three years ago.  They are strongly committed to having cell group Bible Studies each week in usually about 10 or more locations.  These weekly studies in cell groups held for several months before this special day, had wonderful results!  We are so thankful for the nice property and church building project that the Christ’s Church of Yukon helped VFM purchase.  Three young men from this church are presently in Bible College for training and hopefully the starting of other churches on Palawan in the future.  The baptismal service was held in a park with a thermally heated pool and lasted over an hour.  What a day that I will never forget….  We are praying that this will be a mother church to several other churches on Palawan in the future!

PTL! We now have land for a VFM office and bodega/storage area.  We hope that some of this building can be completed in the near future so we don’t have to rent space again and this will be our final mission office move!  We have paid 1/3 of the price for the land as down payment and the rest can be paid as monthly payments instead of rent for storage space.  The property is mostly fenced and has the beginnings of a large structure but left vacant for 5 years.  The large office/bodega/home was left unfinished because of the death of the owner.  The family sold it to us for less than the current market value, because they were interested in it being used for ministry.  The good news is that foundation was done, the block walls were constructed, and much of the metal framing for the roof had already been completed!   The sad news is that it was never completed and some of the metal framing for the roof has rusted and must be replaced.  We are first finishing the block wall around the entire property, and welding a metal gate to stop the vandalism and for future security.  We urgently need help for putting a roof on this building.  It needs to be done soon so that the rusting of the metal framing will stop.   Later we can pour the floors, install windows, rest rooms, electrical work and finish the building as funding allows. The total size of the existing structure is about 4,500 square feet.  The first phase we hope to have a place for our VFM office, printing ministry, classroom and storage.  The second phase we will have a place for our home.  We have moved our office 4 times in the last 4 ½ years, hopefully this will be our last move since VFM will now have a permanent office/bodega. 

Mary continues to teach in a Christian ACE School four mornings a week.  She often travels with me on trips when possible and was able to attend the special week at Palawan.  Next week, we will be traveling to Samar Island and then heading to Cebu Island while school is on semester break.  We continue to be busy printing books for Leadership Training.  We rejoice that several more churches are using the TEE materials for the training of their church leaders.  Presently, we are finishing the printing and assembling of our first 300 books in the Cebuano language. 

Thank you for your prayers!  Praise God for the recent decisions that were made on dedication Sunday at the Palawan church and during the film showing here on Negros.  God is doing so many great things because of your prayers and support!

In His service, Paul and Mary Wilson