We give God praise! We've been back from the Philippines safe and sound, but we are not the same. It was a glorious time for us to be able to travel overseas as a family. All our children are looking forward to going back to the Philippines, so that is a sign that they had a wonderful time. To say that it was fun and fruitful is an understatement. What the Lord has shown and allowed us to experience in our home country has transformed us.

Ptr. Darryl was ready to take their community outreach to the next level. He shared with the pastors of his church network what he learned about aquaponics. They approved to adopt aquaponics as a seed project for their Men's outreach! And because our team in the Philippines is blessed with the teaching gift of Ptr. Nestor and Beth, the plan included holding seminars that would engage every member of the community, men and women, youth, and children!

Josie regularly attends church and joins Reah and Cristina's weekly Women's Lifegroup via Messenger. She is married to Butoy who owns a farmland in Mangaldan. Butoy is not a churchgoer but he willingly volunteered to host the installation of the aquaponics seed project at their place. Ptr. Darryl later told us that a few weeks after our event, Butoy started attending their Sunday Service and Men's Fellowship. He was touched by the love and care the men had shown toward him and their community.

Integral Mission, the integration of evangelism and discipleship with community health and development is at the heart of our ministry. For people like Butoy, it is both the proclamation and demonstration of the gospel that brings them from apathy to faith. Integral Mission is also both the passion and expertise of our guest speakers and team leaders, Ptr. Nestor and Beth Flores, who served with an international Christian humanitarian organization in the Philippines for 25 years. We were equally thrilled that Journey was able to share her knowledge and skill in growing microgreens during our Integral Mission seminar.

We believe that community transformation begins in the home that is rooted in Christ. Nine churches were represented at our Couple's Date Night attended by 128 individuals, mostly couples. Towards the end of the seminar, Ptr. Nestor and Beth distributed three single knitting strands to each couple, colored yellow, blue, and pink. They asked the couple to braid the strands together. What it formed is a cord of three strands symbolizing the joining of the husband and wife with God. It was such a simple but powerful metaphor as the couples renewed their love for one another inviting God to be at the center of their relationship. Indeed, marriage takes three!

These young people are the future leaders in our churches and communities. At their age, it is critical that they discover their God-given design so that they can live out the purpose God has for them. Ptr. Nestor and Beth are the National Directors of Do Well Crown-Philippines. Aside from individual coaching, they also facilitate Living By His Design seminars for different audiences. It was the perfect topic for these young people! As a side note, many Filipinos are gifted in music. The guitar comes in very handy as we break out in songs!

One generation to another, the youth leading the younger children, is very much true at CGGF. They call this platform KB Eskwela (Kada Barangay Eskwela), which means School for Every Village. It very much resembles the AWANA program. Darlene, the lead youth volunteer, Ptr. Darryl and Reah's daughter, said that she prepares the Bible lesson for the kids on a weekly basis. They don't have a ready-made curriculum yet such as what we have in AWANA. We see this as an area of opportunity that we can come alongside CGGF as they minister to the children in their community, providing the volunteers with a ready-made Bible curriculum that they can use for the program. We will keep you posted on this!

There would be no sustainable healthy communities apart from the presence of sustainable healthy churches in them. Vital to our flourishing as a community is the church that is fulfilling its calling as the salt of the earth and light of the world. In addition to Living By His Design, we ended our last day with the topics stated above. A total of 12 churches and a combined total of 300 participants attended the seminars and events we held in Pangasinan. The entire team of Ptr. Darryl and Reah did amazing in hosting us and their network of churches. Ptr. Nestor and Beth are a powerhouse couple! We are very humbled and honored to be a part of this community outreach in Pangasinan.

One of our core values as Filipinos is close family ties. It's a blessing that this part of our culture is still very much alive in the Philippines. We are grateful that both our families live in very close proximity to each other there. If we're not traveling to the provinces, we could easily call on a reunion and most everyone would show up.

Ronnie and I (Jenny) promised each other that in all of our family gatherings, we would boldly share the gospel. By the grace of God, we did. We are grateful for the wonderful opportunity to be able to minister to our families while there, taking the initiative and trusting God for the results.

Our Women's Discipleship group is about to kick off our fall season. We are blessed that 6 of our women committed to help facilitate our online Bible Studies while 3 are venturing out to facilitate Bible Studies in their spheres of influence. Pray for open hearts, spiritual understanding, and obedience to live out the gospel. Pray that we will all be willing to evangelize and disciple others as well.