We celebrated the 120 house churches planted during the pandemic, and recognized the hard-working house church leaders. The past two years of lockdowns and unrest have turned into a movement of bringing the church to every household, each home becoming a place of worship and fellowship.
During this event, we also launched our all-tagalog Praise and Worship album: “Sama- Samba” , and officially ordained 3 of our pastors as reverends.
The Lord is adding to his fold daily - more weekly gatherings are opening up through feeding programs and outreaches. We recently baptized 119 new believers! So many people are searching, and we are thrilled to be a part of showing them the way to truth and life!
We have 2 more church-planting catalyst seminars planned for this year, which we hope will continue to inspire people to plant churches wherever they can. We also ask for your prayers and support in continuing to complete our Training Center/Hub facility. In the previous newsletter we announced a need of $7,000 and are pleased to share that we have raised $5,000! If you’d like to help close the gap of the remaining $2,000, we would be so grateful.
Thank you for your continued prayers and support. May the Lord richly bless you!
Max BelosoAt the end of February, the Philippines suddenly opened again to international travelers, and I quickly took the opportunity. It had been two years since being on the ground at Frontline.
“There and Back Again” is also about actively engaging in the battle of good overcoming evil. The apostle Paul wrote, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Actively engaging in Compassion ministries requires us to get out of our comfort zone and overcome evil with good – whether that is the rescue of abused, abandoned and dangerously neglected children, or community development programs, or alleviating the suffering of the sick, injured, and hurting.
The labor can be tiresome, but the reward is worth it. We invite you to celebrate the fruit of our labors with us.
At FTC, our residential child-care program, two of our children graduated from Grade 6 in April. Four former residents have graduated High School and are enrolling in college. One former resident is graduating college in July. Many of our children are now part of the worship team at a local church. And in April, 13 of our children made the decision to publicly declare their decision to follow Christ, through water baptism. What a great cause for celebration!
Our eight community development programs (weekly times of sharing
meals and the love of God with the needy community) are continuing
full force. One of our programs has
recently become a house church, regularly meeting 30-50 people.
Praise God.
Our hospital outreach ministry is still a challenge due to limited hospital access. But we are still able to help those who are unable to access medical care or purchase medicines.
“There and back again...”
After being in the Philippines for 3 months, I have now returned to Canada to make preparations for my wife and I to travel together to the Philippines. May we continue to be stretched out of our comfort zone, and actively overcome evil with good.
Thank you for continuing to partner with us. God bless you.
Michael Gordon
Summer classes started May 30th. As we watched the toddlers fumble
through the front door, our hearts were filled with joy! I was
almost moved to tears. This day couldn’t come soon enough!
We are one of the only schools in the city offering in-person classes and workshops (playschool, baking, painting, music, dance)– and the kids and teachers are having a blast!
Even though FCA has been around for several years, it feels like a
new experience for us. This is the first group of students who
have emerged post-pandemic, from behind their online schooling
screens, and into our brand new facility. We are eager to learn,
grow, and enjoy this new journey throughout this coming school
year.
We currently have 29 new students enrolled. Would you help us pray
for at least 210 total students? We need this increase to be
financially sustainable. As you know, nearly half of our students
ended their enrollment at the onset of the pandemic.
Besides prayer, there are still several opportunities where partners could help FCA succeed as we prepare for in- person classes in August:
We are hopeful that there will be no more lockdowns, and that our enrollment will increase this school year. Please pray for the Lord to give us wisdom in navigating this new season. Thank you for your prayers and support! God bless you all.
Thank you for your partnership in prayer and finance. May God bless you abundantly.
Rhoda Lynn Pessina-DayoPeople do have spiritual needs, and the gospel is critically important. But people also have other needs that God cares about. And recognizing that led us to strategic decisions of pursuing other ministries, including social enterprise.
Of course, business represents the potential to generate revenue to sustain and grow our mission. But more than that, business too can reveal the goodness and love of God to all involved; and that is exactly what we see happening.
Frontline Business Solutions, Inc. (FBS) – Our beloved FBS – is growing. We recently conducted a much needed strategic planning event, to define and refine our vision, mission, and values as we grow. We had a very successful and productive time, and it has led to more clarity and excitement in our office.
On Mondays and Fridays we have company devotions, with reflection and discussions. This has been loved and valued by everyone, and serves as part of character development time.
We also started a monthly employee fellowship (including our on-the-job/OJT students) for relationship building. This has been a lot of fun, great for bonding, and is increasing teamwork and joy in the workplace.
We are also happy to report that, because schools are reopening, our student immersion program is restarting. And FBS has become the go-to place for graduating IT students needing a legitimate and useful OJT experience.
As a result of all this, we are quickly out-growing our current
office space, and need direction to either lease more office space
elsewhere, or put up our own workplace venue.
Over the past few months we successfully completed all compliance needs of the newly built, and growing sewing factory. It required a six-month hiatus, but finally all registration documents and permits were completed, and we were able to open the doors and receive new work projects.
We recently acquired some large sewing jobs, and connected with
some new clients that seem quite promising.
There are now 20 happy employees working full time. And we are
interviewing new applicants in view of building up a work force of
150 people. Besides profitability, providing jobs to people in
need is exciting and rewarding, especially since we can do so in a
way that exalts and honors the Lord.
Would you please pray with us for the following:
Thank you for your prayers, and your partnership with us in the Gospel!
Jeffrey Pessina
Founder
USA Donors:
Make checks Payable to: Philippine Frontline Ministries
PO BOX 208 Sandwich IL 60548
Canada Donors:
Make cheques Payable to: World Focus, Inc. (Please Note "Philippine Frontline")
1399 Buffalo Place Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada R3T 1L6
Philippines Donors:
Direct Deposit to Philippine Frontline Ministries, Inc.
Bank: China Bank
Acct#:
12845200002521
Branch:1284 SM City San Pablo, Laguna
Swift Code:CHBKPHMM
Jeff Pessina
Founder/President
jeff.pessina@thefrontline.asia
Mike Gordon
Director of Compassion Ministries
mike.gordon@thefrontline.asia
Max Beloso
Director of Church - Planting
max.beloso@thefrontline.asia
Rhoda Lynn Pessina-Dayo
Director of Education
rhoda.pessina@fca.edu.ph