Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
It is hard to believe that we are past the midway mark of 2019! Truly God is good. He continues to honor us with remarkable opportunities, and testimonies of lives being changed. The various ministries he has entrusted us to be stewards of–Church Planting, Compassion, Education, and Social Enterprise–are growing and expanding. Several years ago we recognized this potential, and knew we needed to strengthen our foundation in preparation.
To help us prepare for this, we had to restructure the PFMI organization, which meant moving some people into the right places for the best fit. It was not always easy... but who says following God is easy? Now, as the fruit begins to blossom, we see how the people are well- placed to lead the respective ministries forward. In just one year, our Frontline ThreadWorks went from being “in the red” to being profitable–and actually donating 2 months of financial needs to our Reproducing Church Networks! This is the vision; a Frontline that is working together and helping each other, while impacting the nation of the Philippines and the world.
Although we are pushing towards financial sustainability within our ministries, we still rely on the graciousness and generosity of all our partners– like you. We covet your prayers and are very thankful for your financial support. During the summer months, as is usually the case, our financial donations drop heavily. We do our best to prepare for it ahead of time, but with all the growth, and ministries advancing, we find ourselves again in a place of needing God to provide for our general operational needs. If you would continue to stand with us in prayer and, if the Lord leads, financially support us, we would be thankful. We know the Lord will provide more than enough, because it is His ministry we are stewarding. As we read in Philippians 4:19, “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.”
Thank you again for your partnership, and for standing with us as we continually serve the Filipino people.
Working While it’s Day!
Michael Erickson
Executive Director
We step into the second half of the year with excitement. The Lord continues to show his favor and grace towards Frontline Worship Center (FWC). Some time ago, FWC sites collaborated in a quarterly event called “One Weekend”. This event introduces new believers to foundations of the faith, and aims to help them experience true freedom in Christ and ignite a fire to follow Him wholeheartedly. FWC’s Network Leaders Ptr. Ron Catubay and Ptr. Rolly Delmonte spearheaded this event, and almost 100 Christ-followers found renewal as they participated. Praise God!
God is allowing us to grow, and plant one church after another. Truly, “What is impossible with man is possible with God!” Recently, Sir Marwin Ilao, one of the teachers at Frontline Christian Academy, prayed about planting a house church in a local barangay. With some help from his team, and by God’s grace, 25-30 people now gather every Sunday to praise and worship the Lord together. They are now planning how to reach more families and share God’s word through practical means. Tent outreaches are also planned for the near future; these will need prayer and financial support. We encourage you to pray about partnering in helping to reach more for the Kingdom.
FWC, through its Student Community (StuCo) continues to partner with many public schools in the city, and was asked to speak to 400 students on the topic of “Choice and Decisions in Life.” The participants learned how to recognize their personal strengths, and were encouraged to make positive choices and decisions in life.
A training and development seminar for church-planting workers was held this past April, with the topic “Five Essential Practices for Leaders to Multiply Leaders.” The annual youth conference was also held in the same month, where about 200 young people from different sites assembled for the purpose of being equipped and trained to reach others with the life-changing gospel and love of Jesus Christ. We were blessed with the presence of international friends – Ptr. Jerry Chalk of World Changing Missions, and Melinda Ols, the loving wife of the missionary who, along with Ptr. Jeff Pessina, started the work that birthed Frontline here in the Philippines almost 40 years ago.
This summer, our friends from Ohio State University (led by Kayla Rowan) visited us again. They funded (and carried out!) the repainting of our “Church on the Hill” in the Atisan mountains. That was a particularly challenging day for them as they had to hike up into the mountains in the heat and humidity before painting all day! This particular church campus of ours just celebrated its 3rd year anniversary.
Looking forward, many pastors and leaders are excited for the next half of 2019, especially with the planned opening of Frontline’s Bible School that we hope will help to produce biblically sound leaders, disciple-makers, equipped leaders and healthy churches not just in the Philippines but around the world.
Thank you, dear partners and friends, for always standing with us! We invite you to continue to pray for us, and visit if you can. We also ask that you keep the on-going construction of the Training and Community Center at heart, and consider partnering financially as you are able. God bless you all exceedingly and abundantly!
Another school year has completed for the Face the Children within our care. Each one has successfully completed their studies and have advanced to the next grade level. Culturally, graduation ceremonies are held at three levels; Kindergarten, Grade 6 and Grade 10. Four of our FTC children graduated Grade 6 and two children from Kindergarten... our dear little Trixie being one of them.
Each summer, we conduct a summer program called “Step It Up”. This involves spiritual, educational and physical activities aiming to keep the children active during summer but also build core values and teamwork. A team from Frontline Worship Center led the program and it was a great hit! Step It Up culminated in a trip to a water park, where about 70 children and staff had a fun-filled day.
We’ve also had some recent transitions at the FTC residences. When an FTC youth reaches 18, they move into what we call Independent Living. This can mean a time of reuniting with extended family, or simply moving into prepared accommodations we have within the Frontline Camp.
Two of our youth have recently entered this program, and moved into an apartment within the camp as they continue their studies at FCA.
Two new staff have been welcomed into our family several weeks ago. A former house parent resigned due to family concerns, and we soon after welcomed Sheralyn into our parenting staff. We are particularly excited about another new hire, Judea Delos Santos – whose name might ring a bell for partners who have been around for some time. Judea grew up at FTC and has recently graduated college with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
This time of year has become quite well known as “visitor” season. From May through August we welcome and host visiting teams from various countries. These friends of ours “do life” with us and participate in the various ministries of Frontline, such as feeding programs and hospital ministry. A recent team from Florida, after conducting a feeding program at the local dumpsite, went house-to-house to meet families, pray over them, and bless them with a small bag of rice and food. At one house they discovered two children who were vastly ill; one baby near the point of death. Action was taken, and the child was soon after transported to the capital city of Manila for specialized care. Thankfully, the child is now recovering.
There are so many more stories to share and to celebrate around the Compassion Ministries of Frontline. We thank you for being part of the reason these celebrations are possible. God bless you!
During the last few months of the school year, the students of FCA enjoyed numerous educational and recreational activities. The pre- elementary students went on a city- wide excursion, where they explored our very own San Pablo City, the “city of seven lakes.” The children visited City Hall, the fire station, the general hospital, and a local restaurant, among others. The trip culminated with a visit to a local farm, where the children got to feed pigs, see chickens lay eggs, and taste home-grown farm-to-table dishes.
The high school students attended the annual retreat, where teens had loads of fun during the team-building activities and games. But it wasn’t all fun and games; the students also heard about relevant and important topics such as peer pressure and social media. Students returned home physically tired, but [we hope] spiritually refreshed.
The school year officially ended last April 26. The annual recognition and graduation ceremonies were a joyous time of celebrating the students’ successes... not only academically, but in terms of character. The giving of Character Awards took up a large part of the programmes.
School year 2019-2020 began on July 15, and we are excitedly met new students, and families, and to be able to have the opportunity to impact many more with the love of Christ.
Project Update
The Steward Project is in full swing, with construction going smoothly. Phase 2A, which will be able to welcome up to 400 students, is hoped to be finished by December 2019, to prepare for school year 2020-2021. The contractor continues to be very kind, and gracious with FCA, allowing payments to be made over 2 years. 52% has been raised for this project, so the need is still great. Please consider partnering with us at https://frontlineacademy.asia/donate/stewardproject/.
This project phase can be fully funded with gifts of:
Thank you for your prayers and support. May God pour out His blessings on you and all that’s yours!
Here at Frontline we celebrate genuine advances in our social enterprise undertakings. Since choosing this as a strategic undertaking that we would commit to–some 15 years ago–it’s been an uphill journey; but an incredible learning and development experience. After years of “sticking to it” (which included many times of wondering if we’d ever be successful) God has been blessing our work and faith.
In our technology company, Frontline Business Solutions, Inc (FBS), we’ve continued to mature and develop as a company, expanding our client base, increase expertise and quality in our products and services, and maintain very high employee and client retention rates. FBS now has 23 employees serving a growing number of local and foreign clients; and while we are clearly a small company, we praise God that FBS is earning enough not only to take care of its employees, but to contribute financially to the mission objectives of Frontline. Besides donating to church planting needs, we have continued sponsoring 10 children from poverty stricken communities into our school.
Much the same is now true of our sewing project, Frontline Threadworks (FTW). The growth in the past year has been so much that we must register FTW as a separate business (as opposed to a “cottage enterprise”).
In just the past three months we have hired 10 new employees, bringing the daily workforce to over 50 people! We have added new sewing machines and cutting equipment, and produced and delivered nearly 50,000 products to our clients in just the past few months.
This too has meant that FTW can both take care of its employees, and begin sharing toward the other mission objectives of Frontline. For example, recently FTW contributed financially to our church in the mountains of Atisan. And after that, was also able to give a P100,000 ($2000) donation to the reproducing (church planting) fund of Frontline Worship Center!
We could not be more proud and thankful for these developments. We trust the Lord to continue to build our social enterprise team that leads us not only to grow, but to establish other enterprises to provide jobs in a godly caring environment, and to generate more revenue to sustain and grow our ministry outreach.
Prayer Requests:
Thank you for praying and partnering with Philippine Frontline Ministries!