In July, we traveled up north to supporting churches. My (David’s) home church celebrated 50 years of ministry while we were there. Though small, this country church has still managed to train many Christian workers, and send out many missionaries over the years, including me!
On September 3, Joy and I will be in the Philippines to celebrate the 25th anniversary of one of the churches we helped establish. Faith Bible Christian Church was meeting in a small chapel on borrowed land outside of town when we joined the Diawa family in 1996 to help this church. As this church grew to its present location in the center of town, our vision was for it to be the sending church of many church planters and missionaries.
Today, our focus is on training workers coming from this church, its two daughter churches, and workers from the six other churches now being led by leaders we have helped to train. These workers are now being sent out to help start and lead new churches. The DNA we received from an American church now 50 years old, is being passed on to this Filipino church celebrating 25 years of ministry. In September, we look forward to starting training classes with a new batch of Church Planting Institute workers.
Packing for this flight on August 29 is a little more challenging than usual, since Joy is packing one-handed! If you have not received our email updates, Joy fell on a slippery flip flop on June 24 and broke her arm at the shoulder in three places. Thank the Lord, she has avoided surgery. The bone is knitting back together as it has been immobilized in a sling while it heals. She will be in therapy for several months to recover mobility and strength. She still suffers quite a bit of pain, yet is ready to be with all of our Filipino church family. We are praying we can guard her from undo jostling as we travel. (Sign up for email updates at weaverthreads.org. Just let us know when you sign up, so we can stop sending paper letters.)
Thank God with us for thoughtful gifts that have paid for one of our plane tickets and our housing for this trip. As God writes this tale of two faithful churches (and many more!), thank you for all the support and encouragement you give us to fulfill our role in His story. Your prayers are the key to everything working out as God has planned.
Servants together,
David & Joy & Weaver family
Praise
1) Faith Bible Christian church in the Philippines continues to grow after 25 years.
2) We have a new batch of workers to be trained in the Church Planting Institute.
3) Joy’s broken shoulder is mending without surgery. She is able to travel to the Philippines.
4) One-time gifts have helped with part of our trip expenses.
Prayer
1) Pray that we will be able to transfer the principles of multiplication to the church workers in the Philippines.
2) Pray that these new workers will be committed to learning and practicing what they learn in church planter training.
3) Pray Joy will be able to travel without hurting her healing shoulder.