Good Afternoon,

This has been a difficult season for us. In February we faced a lot of battles but now see some hope… Only God is on the throne. I have delayed in reporting because I did not want to sound like I was complaining.

Romans 8:24-25 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

In Jagna, we have to move our church before June 1. The church is located in a small fishing village along the shore. Some of the church members were living near the church but the land they were living on was sold. In one case the family had been living there for more then 40 years. They were given about 2 weeks notice to move. Their houses were razed to the ground, this is a real tragedy. Also the property where the church is located has been sold. We have a lease, so we have until June 1.  And since January the fishing of manta rays has been recently outlawed. That is a major source of income for many of the fishermen. The people of the village are in despair. This was once a vibrant area for fishing, migrant fishermen would come from other provinces to fish for manta ray, because that commands a higher income. And we have strife and fighting among the church members because of the controversy in the settlement of the land. Thankfully one of the members has donated property to build a church. This is located about 1km, further up the road near the local high school. But the paperwork for the donation of the land had been delayed because of a corrupt lawyer and local official. After much difficulty and delays we have begun building the church. We received some donations and have started but we are out of money. We have struggled to get the walls up, the posts, and a roof.  We have credit to try to finish the floor. In the first week of April we received a large enough donation to help finish the roof. We were amazed at the provision of God, completely astonished that someone from the US had a burden to help with the church. When we move,  we will no electric, and no bathroom. We also plan to build a pastors hut and a dirty kitchen (an outside kitchen).  The pastors hut is going to be about 10 ft x 12 ft. If we can move the pastors we would save about $40 a month.

The church in Ubay is looking for a church building and a pastor’s hut. We lack the necessary funds to begin. The church in Ubay has a lot of potential. Pastor Robert and Pastor Eric are there.

In spite of all of these setbacks the church members have been giving more in tithes and offering. In the past maybe just the equivalent of $2 would be given. Now the members are giving up to $12 or $15 a week. This is a real miracle for us to see.

Our Bible study in Dauis continues to flourish. In this Bible Study we have a family of muslims and other families. This Bible study takes about 3 hours. The people are so enthusiastic to learn, so excited that they will ask a lot of questions. And they will ask hard questions. Please pray for these families that they will be born again. We believe it will happen soon.

Our businesses has been slow. Too slow. Last year I had borrowed half of my retirement. This month we had run out of money. I had to borrow the other half of my retirement. But to get that money over here has been a real struggle. A process that should normally take about one month has taken three months.

We have continued to trust in the Lord to supply and we continue to believe in a miracle in our businesses and to believe in a miracle in the provision of the churches. We see a glimmer of hope of God’s provision. Last year I had developed an application. In November we had tried to sell to a local association of resorts and restaurants. We had heard nothing for almost 3 months. In the last week of February we had received an urgent request to get the software delivered. The problem was that my hard drive had crashed the week before and I had lost months worth of work. I had to work 18 hour days for about 6 weeks to try to recover the software. The good news is that the application was seen by the governor, he has adopted the app as the official app of the province of Bohol, the app is called Behold Bohol. The app has been picked up by the national tourism promotion board. A famous movie actor, Cesar Montano has endorsed the app and will run promotional ads for free for us. All of the good news has happened this week. Yesterday the bank called us to tell us they could release a very small portion of our money, but enough to pay some bills. They claim there is some kind of computer glitch. We have survived and are so thankful for what is happening around us. The churches are slowly being built. The people are starting to respond again. We are praying for a bountiful future.

Our family continues to thrive. Last week we had friends from the US come visit us over the Easter holiday. Our girls got to see their friends from Maryland. The Shindle’s and the Clyde’s family visited us. They were a huge blessing to us.

Let us not lose hope. Always press toward the mark. We have too many needs to enumerate. But if you find God speaking to you, help us finish the churches. Or you may want to be blessing to the depressed areas and we will be do a feeding program in the near future.

May God richly bless you all.