“I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Acts 20:35-36

Praise the LORD and Greetings in the Name of Jesus!

In living up to this year’s annual conference theme of Doing More in ’24, I am so very excited to announce that we will be dedicating two new church buildings, one rural and one urban, when we travel back to the Philippines in October!

The beautiful Camotes Island is the rural home of the AIM Church and Christian school built in the 1980s by Elder Donald Lance with the help of faithful supporters. During the past 13 years the building has been remodeled and additional land purchased. But typhoons and an earthquake had damaged the structure beyond repair. So starting in January of this year work began to take down the old church and replace it with a beautiful new sanctuary and parsonage for the dedicated pastor, Willmore Licowan, and his faithful wife. The project includes a church kitchen, a large covered entrance porch to be utilized for activities and overflow church crowds, and a five-foot perimeter wall.

Our faithful and talented Apostolic engineer, Victor Augusto (who was instrumental in the major remodeling at the AIM headquarters) designed and built this beautiful tabernacle which will continue to honor the memory and burden of Elder Lance for sharing the Gospel of Jesus with the people of the Philippines.

Our urban church dedication will honor the vision and labor of Pastor Fred Gomez to relocate and build a brand-new home for the Apostolic Church of Busay on land he and his wife generously donated to the work of God. Completely self-funded, the new church is now easily accessible on a busy urban street where thousands of vehicles and pedestrians pass by each day. The former church was located on the side of a steep mountain and was only accessible by a challenging 10 minute hike through jungle terrain. This new location, with seating of up to 400, gives much promise for reaching the hungry souls of Busay.

In addition to these two new churches, with the aid of PhP 50,000 from AIM, an existing AIM church in Masbate is being expanded to include more seating for services along with fellowship facilities. Pastor Dela Pina gave us a tour of the work in progress when we visited last year.

And here are a few more of the beautiful Houses of Worship that have been built in recent times by AIM ministry with a burden to reach the lost.

Of course, every House of the LORD is beautiful because it is where the gospel is preached and where God’s Spirit comes down to receive our offerings of praise and worship, but as you can see in the photo below, there is so much more that needs to be done, with God’s help and yours too!

It’s been a lot of hard work and personal sacrifice. Many gave very generously at our home church anniversary services earlier this year to make the rebuilding of the Camotes church possible, and I’m sure the LORD Jesus is well-pleased with that! As I said, the needs are great and there’s plenty of room to jump on board the bandwagon and contribute to the Kingdom and the work for God in the Philippines.

We must work while it is yet day! To God be the Glory!