Mission Partner Update – Prayer requests from The Howells

It is quite early here on Wednesday morning (June 15) and we have been home now in the Philippines for 2 months and boy, what a whirlwind it has been! But overall we are thrilled to be back home and immersed in the work that God called us to more than 35 years ago. Praise His name and thanks to each of you for praying for us.

I guess I just wanted to let you all know about how we are going – in a bunch of 1 liners so you can pray for us here.

-I have been teaching the book Revelation to the churches over here via zoom in the Talaandig language (currently in chapter 12). Zoom is good as we connect to about 8 churches each Sunday and then we record the message and it goes up on our website where other of our churches who have no internet connection can access this material and use it in their churches.

Goal – teach the whole NT and record the teaching as a resource going forward for the churches.

Timeframe – Only the Lord knows but we will keep chugging along and please pray that we will be able to teach EVERY Sunday as it takes us a long time to prepare each week including producing visual aids (With which a lady called Tina helps with also). So it eats Deb and my week up pretty quick. Then there are other things that come up as well.

-Each Tuesday Allan, Jojo and Jan come here to our home at about 8AM and while here work on producing the “He Wants You” episodes in Higaonon. They are up to about Episode 25 (of 27) so will be coming for the next few weeks. Once Deb and I get finished with Revelation we plan to complete the “He Wants You” material in English and Talaandig and then Allan, Jojo, Jerrum, Mario and Jan will work at our home a few days a week to put it into the Higaonon language and Cebuano language. Sometimes we get a bit confused as we flick from one language to another so please pray for us that we can keep organized in our minds.

-Jerrum, Mario and Jan come to our home each Thursday to work on Revelation materials in Cebuano. Our team in Lapoc translate my Revelation material from Talaandig to Cebuano and then the team work on getting the teaching into video format each Thursday.

-Pray for Ernesto and Jane (some of our co-workers in Lapoc) who each week update the website with all the new materials that are being produced. They also do all the tech work on our computers throughout the entire work (about 40 computers) and also all of our data projectors. Adding tech to our work has really been beneficial for the spiritual growth of our churches.

-Pray for James as he updates our Apps on Playstore and iTunes. We have about 7 Apps now.

-This Saturday June 18 Deb and I go to Balintad where we will be opening a new church building. I will be speaking and we will have a feast. This building we have not mentioned to you all in the past — but it has been in construction and completed now. Maybe they will ask Deb and I to help them get a few things such as a sound system for the church. We like to help the churches with their needs when God makes it possible for us to do it.

-Next week (June 22-24) Deb and I are going to a youth conference in Lapoc. 400 of our youth will be gathering for this conference. I will be one of the speakers. We have not been to Lapoc yet so we are looking forward to getting back up there and seeing everyone.

-The San Miguel church that Doydoy and his companions have planted is about 3-4 years old now. It is OVERFLOWING – they now have 270 believers there and this number is growing. We gave them $2,000 last week to help them with an extension, many of the believers in the mountains will also contribute but Deb and I will help more as they build. It is cold up there so this building is important as when they overflow to outside it can be cold and wet sometimes.

-Baongon church building construction continues and is progressing quickly. The work in Baongon is also going well and our 2 missionary families there seem to be encouraged and working hard. Hopefully Deb and I can get up there sometime in the next month or so.

-Deb and my house/office project here in Cagayan is ongoing. We are making the floorplans now and getting government approvals for construction which hopefully will start within a few weeks to a month. Please continue to pray for this project.

-Covid seems to be a non-event over here these days. Don’t hear much about it any more and I don’t know anybody who is sick. Face masks are still mandatory though outdoors and indoors. It is not comfortable — but it is okay. A small thing that the Philippine officials are asking us to do and we are happy to comply.

-Mainly for me and Deb – again — please pray for our Bible teaching each Sunday and our preparation. We want this project to progress most every Sunday. In our minds this project is front and centre for us.