Last February 9, we had a great time conducting a biblical evangelism seminar at Dasmarinas, Cavite.  Hosting the event was Heavenly Peoples' Church.  This church who has many college students as their members were the ones that organized this event where Living Waters Asia is the main facilitator, because they desire to equip themselves for youth evangelism.  Attending the event were not only the members of the said church, but Christian leaders from other churches from the area as well.

The result was so encouraging.  There were several attendees that commented that it was only in the seminar that they learned about the reality of false converts.  And then there were those who gave a thumbs up for the principle of evangelism that was discussed which is "Law to the proud, grace to the humble".  You could see that God kindled the fire for the Great Commission from those that graced the event by the many questions about evangelism that were asked.  The evening after the event, we even received a message from one of those that attended asking how she could share the principle she learned to their pastor.

The host church is already looking at the possibility of inviting Living Waters Asia again in the middle of this year, this time, for a seminar on apologetics. 

Living Waters Asia, together with partners, Banner of Truth Independent Baptist Church (BTIBC) and Notre Christi Academy of the Philippines (NCAP), yearly hold a Christmas outreach to poor communities.  If you remember, last year, we went to an island community in the City of Malolos and brought food and medicine supplies, as well as installed a source for clean drinking water to residents of this area.  Of course, we delivered the Gospel message there.

We did this outreach again today, and this time, the recipients were poor families of barangay Bagong Nayon of Baliwag, Bulacan.  From the generosity of members of BTIBC and pupils and students of NCAP, LWA was able to pack boxes filled with canned goods, noodles, bread, coffee and sugar which they distributed to families chosen by the community leaders. 

The leaders of this community (barangay), chose 100 families to be recipients of the gifts we prepared.  And so, during the event, there were about 100 people who represented their respective families in attendance.  LWA volunteers and BTIBC members were present to assist in this outreach.

Before we distributed the gifts, we spent time declaring the Gospel to everyone.  The LWA director spoke about how the events surrounding Christ's birth showed that God is extending an invitation to everyone to receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life in Heaven from Him.  But it was emphasized that this invitation will expire either by death or when the Savior returns, that's why it is of utmost importance that we grab the first ever opportunity God is giving us to get right with Him.

After that, we gave out the gifts to the recipients.  But while several of us were busy distributing the gifts, others from the LWA team and BTIBC members went around the community to distribute Gospel tracts. 

This outreach blessed our hearts tremendously as we experienced the hand of God all through out, from the preparations all the way to the actual event.  We praise the Lord for this.  We also would like to thank the community leader of Barangay Bagong Nayon, Capt. Angelito Dantes, together with his councilors and assistants for opening a door for us to share the love of Christ.

Please continue to pray for everyone who heard the Gospel through this outreach.

As many of you know, every year, Living Waters Asia holds a special Christmas party for the residents of the provincial juvenile jail of Bulacan, Tanglaw Pag-asa (Ray of Hope), where we have been conducting a weekly Bible study for the last twelve years.  We again held our Christmas party there last December 3.

The usual games, Christmas carol singing, special numbers from the residents and food were all present in the event.  You could see the smiles in everybody's faces during the program.  Even the social workers of the facility watched during the party.  But of course, the highlight was the Christmas message.  The director of LWA talked about the shepherds and the wise men, making the emphasis that God's offer of salvation is for everyone.  The shepherds were seen insignificantly while the wise men were for sure esteemed highly from where they came from.  The shepherds were poor people while the wise men, judging by the gifts they brought, were materially blessed.  The shepherds, we can assume, were Jews, while the wise men were Gentiles. God showed that He wanted both to know the Savior because they have one thing in common... both had sinned against Him and badly needed salvation.  And so, both were led to where the Savior was.

Sin is also the reason why the people of today also need to know the Savior.  The message closed by the declaration of the Gospel which we hoped everyone in attendance in our event took seriously.

After the program, this young man in the picture talked to  the LWA director.  He shared how the weekly Bible study we conduct there has been a source of blessing to him.  He said that through it, he came to know the Savior deeply and has helped him understand that God had a purpose for making him end up in the facility, and one of those is to lead others in the facility to Christ.  He even learned to accept difficult circumstances he experiences there like when the freedom he was expecting to be granted to him a few months back was denied with very little explanation as to why. He learned to bring every difficulty to Christ because of the time we spend studying God's Word. He voiced his desire to someday study theology once he gets free from Tanglaw Pag-asa and serve God by sharing the Gospel to others.

Please continue to pray for everyone in this facility.

You all know that from October 22 to 26 Living Waters Asia was at the province of La Union with our yearly evangelistic mission trip which we call GOSPEL BUZZ.  This is the 13th outreach of this kind that we have done in LWA's 12 years of existence.  We've gone already from the northern to the southern part of the country for this outreach and we are so happy that God has allowed us to do this on a yearly basis.

For this year's BUZZ, we were able to have our presence felt in six towns of the province of La Union (Agoo, Bauang, San Fernando, San Juan, Bacnotan and Naguillian).  We were out in the streets in the morning, then in the afternoon, and even in the night time.  We were distributing Gospel tracts, conversing one-to-one, and preaching in the open-air.  We made sure that every corner of an area we were at had someone from the team delivering the Gospel.  By the morning of our 4th day, we've already given out all of our 20,000 Gospel tracts, leaving us confined to conversations of the Good News from that time on.

God was so gracious in allowing no interruptions and serious hurdles to our goal of heeding the Great Commission on this outreach.  City officials willingly gave us permission to do open-air preaching events in market places.  Securing permissions to open-air preach took only about five minutes in average.  And the weather during our time in La Union was so favorable, not to hot and not too cold.  But that's not the case anymore.  As this news article is being written, the province is under typhoon signal #3, and news feeds show so much damage in the area.

Members of the LWA team is still in deep gratitude to the Lord for what He had done during GOSPEL BUZZ 2018.  He has filled our hearts with joy for the doors He had opened for us there.  Please continue to pray for everyone who received the Good News in this year's mission trip

We thank everyone who had prayed and financially supported this outreach.  Let's do this again next year with GOSPEL BUZZ 2019!

Every year, Living Waters Asia, for more than a decade already, facilitates the annual retreat for the grade 10 students of Notre Christi Academy of the Philippines.  That's exactly what we did last September 12-14.  The LWA team had the chance to give godly guidance to the participants on how to focus on their studies in college, at the same time, deliver the Gospel message.

Early on that week, a super typhoon threatened to cancel the retreat.  But God heard our prayers.  For the days of the retreat, we only had drizzles of rain which did not really affect any of our activities.  The typhoon was felt, the day after the retreat.  Now that's what you call a "miracle from God".

The venue was at Grass Garden Resort at Plaridel, Bulacan.  Here, speakers from LWA delivered topics on the greatness of God's creation of man, hindrances to glorifying the Creator, the value of the Bible to a person's life, and of course, the very Gospel message.  These topics were delivered in between the usual fun activities that you expect from youth retreats, like games, food and lots of swimming.

We trust that by God's grace, we were able to deliver a clear message... that everyone is a sinner badly needing a Savior.  Please continue to pray for the salvation of everyone that was a part of this evangelistic retreat.