updates

Servant Partners' church plant in Manila, Philippines is continuing to grow. Since its launching almost three years ago they have held several baptism services.

Our baptism service did not quite work out as planned this time. We held our worship service and the three candidates shared their testimonies. Joker shared how he attended last year’s evangelistic camp and was surprised to find out that his old drinking friend was leading his small group. After camp Joker decided to start attending church. This was the beginning of Joker’s walk with God. Joker is now growing in his faith. He has been sober for almost 6 months now which is a huge mile stone for Joker. Joker has a servant’s heart and it always willing to help in a variety of church ministries. 

Rolynda shared that she was the first of her friends to become a Christian. They used to tease her by saying “Hallelujah” when she walked by. She is thankful to God because those same girls are active in our church. Rolynda is a shy teenage girl who loves Jesus. She is committed to follow Jesus even if she is ridiculed for it.

Jio shared how he was interested in our church for a while, but did not think he would be welcomed because of his gang involvement. Eventually one of his friends invited him to a Bible study. He was welcomed to that Bible study and became active in our church after that. Jio is a former gang leader and is now a strong church leader. He is greatly respected by the youth in the community. His positive testimony has influenced many others to start attending Bible studies.

When we went to the pool where we planned to hold the baptisms, the water was green. We decided to try another pool, but that one was crowded with groups drinking. We decided to postpone the baptism service and simply have a church outing instead. God had a better plan. We had the baptisms during the camp in the ocean. This turned out to be a chance to let over fifty non-Christian youth from our community witness the baptisms.