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NEWS
SHINE KIDS
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The Shine Kids Ministry Team are so grateful and thankful to the Lord that we were able to complete another VBS (Vacation Bible School) this year. It was indeed a successful event for our kids ministry. We had more than 160 kids participate from our outreaches in Calapandayan, Wea, Baltao and kids from our own church. We were so blessed that the Lord entrusted us to share the gospel with these kids. Our theme this year was “Hope Garden (thriving in God’s care)”. We knew that the kids really enjoyed the 4 days of activities because they were asking when we will have our next one. The VBS would not have been such a great success had it not been for our ministry team and
Volunteers of which there were 40. We also had some volunteers come from our POCF daughter church in San Isidro and they were very dedicated and very patient with the kids. We are so grateful to all our volunteers. We were also very blessed with good weather for the whole week, especially as it was the middle of the rainy season. The Lord indeed met every need including all the snacks, materials, props, decorations, prizes and loot bags throughout the 4 days, through the help of generous donors and the friends and church members who supported our Christian Film showing fund raising event. On the graduation day, many parents and family members attended to support their kids. Pastor Dondie shared a short message encouragement too. All in all the VBS was a tremendous success and we give all the praises to the Lord.
- Tonirose Azuelo
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click here for a downloadable version and for the previous issues
WEA CHURCH UPDATE
Thank you all so much for your prayers for our church family in Lupang Pangarap (Wea). Whilst it is very tough for them at this time as it is rainy season and it is very muddy and slippery in their village while the road under construction and it is particularly hard for us as a ministry team as we have no church building in which to gather, we are hopeful that we will be given land in the future where we can re-locate. Until then, we as a team are determined to remain faithful in our service to the people in the village especially during this time of great trials. We send our church van and driver to pick up willing members every Sunday, so they can attend our church in Subic. But for those who are not able to attend, we conduct house to house bible studies every Sunday afternoon. As you know from our previous update, many people lost their homes and were given very little cash (just a mere £100) by the government to relocate. Yesterday we had our first home bible study in the home of one of the displaced families. It is really amazing to see the resilience of the Filipino people. Their new house as you can imagine with a budget of only £100 is very humble, but they welcomed us joyfully into their home with their home made benches sufficient to accommodate us all as the rain lashed outside. This family were not strangers to challenges in life. One of their sons was born with serious health issues and by the age of 4, didn’t have enough strength to even raise his head, much less stand up. They didn’t have any financial means, so they didn’t even have a diagnosis.
Whenever we had our bible study, he lay in a home made hammock as if waiting to die. With no financial means to seek medical help, Tina asked us to pray and she put her hope in God. We were able to help with supplying milk for nourishment and of course continued prayer. Now he is a typical healthy boy running around getting into mischief! So it was a blessing for us to have a bible study in their home and pray for the Lord to bless them. Tina shared how it had been hard for her because she hasn’t been able to hear the word of God for 6 weeks, because of their work and home situation so the home bible study was a welcome blessing.
- Chrissy
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prayer requests
We would value prayer for continued financial provision for the daily needs of the whole of POCM
We would still value your prayers for a new church lot and building for Wea.
Plans and Provision for Phase One (West Wing) of the renovation of the Future POC Christian Academy including the roof repair.
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POCF YOUTH CAMP
Every year the Youth Camp is one of the most anticipated events for all the youth in the POCF churches. We felt the Lord’s leading to have REACQUAINT, as our theme with a purpose of leading the youth in a path to returning to the warmth of the relationship with the Lord. This year’s camp was particularly challenging as we had 3 weeks to prepare (due to the Government not releasing the schedule for the closing of one school year and the start of the next). We also had no available budget, but we were not deterred as we knew the youth were so looking forward to it. It was surely God’s will because He did provide albeit on the last minute. We held our camp this year at a venue of New Tribes School of Missions in a nearby province. We had almost 80 young people and 40 young adults participate and with the assistance of our pastoral team, we saw things come together as the Lord willed.
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On the first day we could already see how the Lord was moving in their lives. Topics such as Assurance of salvation, living a holy life, declaring freedom from sin, all ministered to each of us. The young people experienced forgiveness, release, freedom and revival. We are sure that all those who attended would take the fire of the Spirit they experienced back to their churches. We offer our grateful thanks to all those who supported our youth camp.
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- Louie Bonilla
POC CHRISTIAN ACADEMY
It is currently the school vacation time, so it is the perfect time to do some building maintenance and sprucing up ahead of the new school year. Teachers are already preparing their classrooms with the additional help of some of the parents, painting the walls, putting up posters and generally tidying up ready for their students.
We have also done some maintenance in the administration/faculty office. Having rooms tiled (rather than our usual painted cement floors) makes a big difference raising the ambiance and making cleaning much easier, so we decided to make use of some left over tiles to improve our school office. We were able, through various letters of request to various government authorities, to raise funds to help with the cost of cement and other materials. So praise God everything looks much tidier ready for a New Year. Last week was enrolment. Whilst of course most of our previous students return to continue, the Nursery and Kinder are the most sought after places for new students, as we only having limited slots.
On the opening day of enrolment, parents were waiting from 5:00am to secure their children a place in POCCA. We had to close enrolment after only 2 hours of opening!! So we praise God that our school has a good reputation in our community. In fact we heard that one family moved into the area just so that their children could enrol in their school as they couldn’t afford a long commute everyday. We were also able to send a delegation of teachers from our school for the latest training by the Department of Education as well as our own in-house orientation to equip them for the New School Year and for them to be updated with latest government requirements and we are all set for another fruitful year. We in the faculty have taken hold of this vision and/or mantra for the school year 2024-2025 “Cultivating Culture” a culture of respect, discipline, academic excellence and of course love for our Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s go!!
- Aaron Perillo
MORE UPDATES
Though we had a baptismal service earlier this year where 22 went through the waters of baptism, there was a request at church by other members to have another. So we were so blessed to see a further 9 get baptised, 4 of whom were from the church in Wea who have been attending POCF Subic. One new believer could hardly hold back the tears as he testified to his new faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He and his elderly father-in-law have since been active in the men’s fellowship too. So that is a wonderful blessing to see fruit for our labour in Wea. God is good.
The prison ministry continues to be a wonderful opportunity to share the gospel to the people deprived of liberty, and share of the freedom that they can have in Christ. We have been overwhelmed by the numbers of inmates regularly attending the services. There seems to be such an attentiveness as we preach the word too. Of course we pray that there will be much fruit that will remain.
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I would like to thank those of you who offered up prayers for me personally. I have really felt the Lord lift me above the circumstances and He has given me victory. Thank you all so much for your prayers. God is so so Faithful. Thank you all too for your faithful love and support for the work and ministry of POCM, and we would appreciate your continuos prayer for our finances, we truly need it. Our prayer is that the Lord will bless you and continue to provide seed for those who have the desire to sow.
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Together Let’s Make a Difference!
Love in Christ God bless,
Chrissy, Dondie &
your POCM Family