PFM

The church continues to experience growth both numerically and spiritually; it seems many have been inspired by our theme this year and are “Getting on Board” through ministry opportunities. Because of the ongoing outreach efforts, average weekly attendance is approaching 500; each month we are baptizing adults and teens as new Christ followers; and each Wednesday about 60 people are attending the ongoing leadership development sessions. Children's church has grown to 70 kids, and the Friday night youth group continues with about 80 teens and young adults. The number of Life Groups has increased to fifty, with nearly 800 people among them being ministered to each week!

Greetings from the Philippines, where God is at work changing lives. Our theme for this newsletter is GROWTH because we are experiencing so much growth in so many areas here at Frontline. While this is all good, we've also experienced the reality that growth creates the pressures of more activities, busier schedules, and greater financial needs.

It seems clear enough that the world is experiencing increasing troubles, and that the coming of Christ is near. Almost everywhere there is stress or outright distress. Rapid weather changes, droughts and famines, entire species disappearing from the earth, an increase in natural disasters, economic upheaval, corruption, war, terrorism... and all this running alongside a decrease in both morality and Christian influence in many parts of the developed world.

The poorest countries are hit the hardest. Gasoline is now nearly five dollars a gallon here, the cost of electric is second highest in Asia (after Japan), and the cost of rice has doubled in the past six months. Because of the sudden food crisis, the Government has made new contracts with other Asian nations to import more rice, making the Philippines the largest rice importer on the planet!