Our Dear Co-Workers in Christ,

This is Paul writing this morning (normally Deb writes ?). We are back home in Australia at the moment and what a year 2020 was! People have had many different views of 2020, but for us and for the Talaandig and Higaonon works – although it was a time of massive upheaval that bought on great uncertainty and stress – it was a hugely good year!

• Many people were saved during 2020 and many of our churches experienced large influxes of people wanting the know about Jesus and the salvation He gives. We have had to extend quite a few of our church buildings.
• The Baongon region (our newest region) continued to flourish culminating with us sending 2 missionary families to live there permanently in November. This week (January 15th) we purchased land there and plan to build houses for these 2 families as they are living in very rough conditions and both are young families with small children. Also, we are going to need a church building.
• Our other regions are going well also – just recently we have had to purchase several additional motorbikes for our ever-growing team of Bible teachers to use to get out to the areas they are teaching in. The teams are currently evangelizing in about 20 new villages and people are wanting God’s word.
• We made great progress on our evangelistic teaching material which is now on-line. This is a great training tool for young up and coming Bible teachers and is in 3 different languages including English. Have a look at it and use it if you want.  www.paulanddeb.com
• We have also been developing the “tech” side of our work. We have purchased about 10 data projectors, we have about 40 computers throughout the work, and we continue working out different ways we can get connected to the internet in all the regions where we are working. Computer seminars are being held to train our personnel in computers. God has given Ernesto and Jane Lopez to co-worker with us and they have taken on a large portion of the “tech” side for us which has really been a HUGE blessing and has freed me up greatly to be able to spend more time in teaching material development. We praise God for Ernesto and Jane who have given their lives to take on this ministry.

What is in store in 2021 for us as a family

First of all, it has been delightful to be home – especially with Jubab. 2020 was a tough year for him, especially during the lockdown time. Since getting home we have been able to spend a lot of time together as a family and it has been so, so good. Jubab has a job now and is doing Uni working on getting his degree. We have been able to catch up with Deb’s family and my family which has been great also.

So although we can’t plan as well as we used to be able to due to the Covid complications, we plan on working from Australia this year and continuing on with the development of our evangelism material. It will take the rest of this year to see it completed and most days we work online with our team in the Philippines who are working on this material with us. There are about 10 of us in total working on this material. In addition to this, Deb and I are working continually with our missionaries in all six regions as they need us. Our band of missionaries who have been raised from the churches we’ve planted has now grown to 21! God has so blessed the work!

We are also planning on travelling to the East coast to visit our other family there and all of our dear friends who have so faithfully stood with us in the work amongst the Talaandig and Higaonon peoples. We so badly want to report to everybody about what God has been doing through our work — and to see everybody who we love so much ?.

And then we want to enjoy more family time also, especially with Jubab, and take some rest time while we are here so we can recharge for 2022 when we plan on returning home to the Philippines. (Both Australia and the Philippines are home for us! ?)

So this is just a short note to share how we are and what we feel God has for us this 2021 and I will also add some prayer points below.

Much Love, Paul and Deb

Pray

• The set-up for the Baongon missionaries and for their church planting effort – housing etc.
• Pray for all the Talaandig and Higaonon Missionaries as they labour in the regions.
• For Deb and I as we continue on with our Evangelistic materials.
• For us that we can recharge also and have some good family times and be able to travel east.
• For a deep well that we are drilling in Lapoc. It is at 300 feet now and we have hit water. Pray that it can end up being a good water source for a potential Bible College in that area.
• For Ernesto and Jane as they have a huge ministry taking care of all the tech side of the work, also they are leading a Bible study and encouraging the team. Pray for good health for both of them, joy, provision….. and for their paperwork at Immigration to be approved.
• Above all pray that God will give us wisdom as we serve. God’s plans are always the best.

Website  –  https://www.paulanddeb.com
Financial Support link –    http://www.paulanddeb.com/funding.html