Batangan

Greetings from Mindoro!

Praise God, the well is finished! After working on it for over a year, and
drilling for over a month, we finally are finished. The pump is installed
and we are getting consistent water. Thank you for your support of this
project! Praise God for His answer to many, many prayers!

I have good news on the church planting front too, we've been doing Bible
studies in the neighboring village of Layaban for almost a month now. Even
after the initial excitement wore off, a small group of church members have
been faithful in going twice a week and doing the studies.

We start a series of evangelistic meetings there on Sunday. The meetings
will go for two weeks. Please pray for the meetings, as I know you will.
This is a Satanist village. They are willing to listen to us as they insist
that their "religion" is only a club. They are even told by their leaders
to try to join other churches if they can, but retain their membership in
the club. So the people are glad to listen, but reticent to change. Their
leader is currently in jail for drug abuse, murder, etc. That, hopefully,
will be a door opener for some people if used discretely. Thank you for
your prayers!

Eddie has declared publically that he is through with us, and is planning to
join this same Satanist group that predominates in Layaban. I'm glad he
finally came out and was honest about not intending to join us. Since my
last update reporting his positive turn, I have had multiple people come to
me and tell me that they have witnessed him and his wife are practicing
witchcraft and working subversively against us. Normally I would have gone
and talked to Eddie, but I decided to take a more Tawbuid approach this
time. I decided to just drag my feet, and lay low, and see what would
happen. Sure enough, when Abel (the missionary who lived with him for
nearly 5 months) went to visit Eddie this week, Eddie told him outright that
he was through with us and was going over to the Satanists. May what he
finds there drive him to God finally.

More good news, though, is that we've received two more invitations to come
and teach, one of them from a highland village! My problem now is that the
church doesn't have enough people to go around. A group was supposed to go
have a quick visit with them this week before the meetings start, but the
trip fell through due to preparations for the evangelistic meetings.
Hopefully we'll be able to get up to them before the lead gets cold. Please
pray to the Lord of the harvest, with me, for Him to send laborers into His
fields!

Thank you so much for your prayers and support. The Tawbuid and I
desperately need your prayers, especially, right now. Thank you for
faithfully remembering us and interceding for us. May God richly bless you!

John Holbrook