Return

On my last evening in the Philippines, we all went to the beach after the youth center closed for another baptism. Jereck was invited to the youth center by Joey Vilgonte, has been involved in Bible Studies and ask to be baptized.

Sunday, Oct 3, I see on the face book blog that two more have accepted Christ and were baptized after Church.

I have returned to the States this week. Dixie and I will be leaving in January to return to the Philippines. Rodger

new Life

"The trend is broken"... we are no longer just having baptisms in the evenings, but in the mornings, too! This morning, another young man gave his live to the Lord after being mentored at the Youth Center and being friends with some of the Christian Youth... We pray John will have a long and fruitful life in the Lord!

battle of the bands

The Battle of the Bands was a great success!

From the set up, to the tear down, there were sixteen bands that participated! The winning band took the audience and judges by storm... the were 5 points higher than the nearest competitor. The audience gave them the only standing ovation!

It is 2 am - I will try to get more pictures on Facebook-Mathetes Philippine Youth Ministry, tomorrow... thank you for your support!

In the Philippines

Rodger returned to the Philippines on Sept. 3. The trip was longer than expected but arrived after 50 hours or so, tired, grungy and ready for a nice long sleep.
It is great to see all the team and all is going well. Got one vehicle running after a major purchase or two for repairs... then when I was stopped by the police checking registration, I discovered that my Filipino drivers license had my nationality as Filipino!!!
We are preparing for the annual "Battle of the Bands" on Wednesday. Today we purchased the "prizes" or trophies for the winners. The picture is of Alma unwrapping them after returning from the store to purchase them.
Rodger plans to continue to improve the new youth center while he is here. It is being well used, but there are some things that didn't get done before that will make it better and more usable.

I will try to post a little more often while I am in the Philippines.

e-mail

Our "missionaries.com" email address is no longer valid. If you have sent correspondence in the resent past and we have not answered, Please send again. We were unaware of the problem for some time - we have no idea how long it has been invalid.

Please use rdshew@yahoo.com.

Rodger and Dixie are enjoying the visit of their grandchildren! The grandkids have helped harvest tomatoes, onions, potatoes and dress chickens... truly a field trip to the farm!

We hear that the ministry is going well in the Philippines in the new facilities. All are thankful to the Lord for his provision.

Mathetes Philippine Youth Ministry

If you are on facebook, you can watch the posts at Mathetes Philippine Youth Ministry. Eddie reports there have been more than 600 at the Center during the week, and 140 attend the Thursday night movie. Rodger will be spending the month of September in the Philippines.

Rodger and Dixie are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the grandkids the first week of August.

Eddie reported that they had more than 100 to view the movie this week! The new facilities are a blessing. They continue to have Bible studies and we are seeing young adults as well as the kids coming to Christ.

Rodger and Dixie are spending a few days with their daughter, Beth, in Knoxville, Tenn. We are looking forward to spending some time with the grand kids in Aug.

Summer time!

Rodger and Dixie have shared in Vacation Bible School in Rockford and Morris Illinois, Helped with Moweaqua's VBS, and spent a wonderful week working in Crank's Creek with people from Flordia,Indiana and Moweaqua. We are thankful the worst thing that has happened was a couple of flat tires.

The new school year is in full swing in the Philippines and the team has a full schedule.

In the States

Wow... time does fly... Rodger has flown, too, and is now in the states. Summer is almost over in the Philippines and the team is preparing for the new school year. June 1 they will open the student center to take applications for tutorials and the school year starts June 7.

Last minute work is being done on the center to make it at presentable and usable as possible. The team is so excited to have a room for music, an office, an area for Bible studies, a Library, and still have lots of room for the kids to visit and play!

A newsletter will soon be in the mail.

southern camp

11 pm, I am sitting in the dark - it has been at least five hours that the electricity has been off... I get a phone call "we are on the way to pick you up we have 10 kids to be baptized"... Four of the kids have been "regulars" at the youth center, two are from the "mission trip" recipients last week and the other four are from area churches! The picture is the first of the 10 being baptized in the ocean... you can see the remainder waiting their turn. WOW, what a way to end the day. Tomorrow is their final day.

2nd week of camp

WOW! 54 kids have arrived for camp in Digos city. You should see the LARGE bag of cell phones, mp3 players collected for the week! I will post pictures in a day or two.

Mission trip "camp"

For our Mission trip, we had chosen a local children's home to work with. They have an outreach in two of the poorer communities around Digos. They ask us to do a two day camp for the kids in one of the two communities. More than 50 kids have registered! It is going well. Tonight there is to be a community evangelistic meeting as the "closing Program". I am posting one of the pictures of one class - the kids were eager to participate and the teachers did a good job of having interactive teaching.

Mission trip

I have labled it Mission trip because that is what we have started today, but I want to share about camp that finished last week, too... We had 40 + campers and on Friday, 10 made decisions to follow Christ and be baptized.

I am including pictures of the "mission group" eating breakfast, then "on the job" with the task of clean up they are tackling today. This is a beach area of Digos that the muslims have settled. We are working with a mission that has been working in the area for several years. With their direction, we hope to be able to give them some encouragement and challenge the residents in a new way. Pray for responses, as we are going to be doing some teaching on Wed. and Thursday.

camp

We are all packing for camp. Our first it in Northern Mindanao - it is the 11th year for it! We have lots of volunteers that we hope will be taking over most of the responsibilities next year. Pray that they see the vision and the reasons for doing each and every activity and requirement.

The new youth center is continuing to progress. Rodger plans to leave camp early to continue work on it.

new building

Today is the last day we will be open for the kids until next school year. A full day of activities was planned - chess, Chinese checkers, and other game tournaments during the day at the present building and with a "battle of the bands" program of worship in the evening... in the new building!!! The photo on the right is preparing, the one above is the kids attending.... approx. 75 attended and all enjoyed the worship time in the new building.

Monday we will be moving everything out of the old building and to the new, Tuesday we will be planning the "mission trip" for the young professionals. We are working in a Muslim settlement, first with some physical labor (fence mending!) and then a two day program with young people, presenting the gospel to them with a challenge of committing to Christ. We covet your prayers for the week of April 5-9.

We're packing them in!!! Literally??? We have possession of the new building and Saturdays have become work days for the staff and volunteers... Boboy was nailing in some boards and this was the most convenient/comfortable way to hit the nail.... We almost have one room in usable form, which has been our goal, so we can start to move things into "storage" for the summer. The building won't officially open until June 1 but we are planning our last day of activities for the school year to be held in the new building.

As you can see we did have a good crew working and do get a lot accomplished on each Saturday work day. Many hands do truly make light work... but we are all tired by the end of the day. We continue to have baptisms from kids who are in the Bible Studies - as they go thru the lessons, they realize their need and ask to be baptized. We then see them attending Sunday services, and truly changed lives, wanting to share Christ with others.

New family members

Angel and Virgie were the second and third baptisms for the week! We see students continually coming to know Christ thru the Bible Studies. Pray for those students who have the desire to accept Christ, but whose parents refuse to let them... After they accept Christ, we have a whole series of discipleship lessons that really excites them in their walk.

Graduation is the end of this month - March... We then start camp and preparing for next school year starting in June.

WE HAVE IT!

We have secured a new building for the ministry!

After numerous trips to the next village, talking to the owner, his lawyer, and patiently waiting, we have secured this building for the ministry next school year.

The Lord has answered so many prayers - we have immediate possesion, rent doesn't start until June 1, and it is the same rent as we are paying now!!! There is a vacant area that can be made into a parking area, and it is DIRECTLY accross the street from the High School, on the ground floor...

More later....

Tuesday Jan. 26

As you can see, the kids are playing games, reading and strumming the guitar! 300-400 kids are in and out of the building each week!

Plans for the summer camping program are being finalized. April and May are the "summer" months here in the Philippines.

Our greatest anticipation right now is the visit of Lynn Ragsdale to share with the High School kids in their schools about Christian morals in Love, committment and respect of each other. Feb. is the "Love" month and celebrated in the Philippines by all, kids and adults alike. We have rented a larger facility for a Saturday night lecture geared to the young adults/young professional "kids". Lynn is the director of Christian's Haven Childrens Home and will be with us for four days.

Thursday Jan. 21

The total enrollment for the second half of the semester is 135 students, 48 in Bible Studies and 123 in tutorials. Last week there were more than 400 students in and out of the center!...It sounded like music night was one of the best they have had and movie night was great with the new projector.

Camp is fast approaching and final preparations are being made for all of them.

Friday Jan. 15

Today is the final day for sign ups for tutorials. At present they have 100 signed up: 38 for Bible studies, 58 for acoustic guitar, 5 base guitar, 8 drums, 43 science, and 2 math.

We have looked at new locations for the youth center. We have found one available that is much larger that will be vacant when we need it. It is DIRECTLY across from the high school....

Rodger purchased a projector for the youth center with extra gifts. It was used for the first time last night for the movie night. Wow, what a blessing.

Camp is progressing. We still have some things to work out, so in our spare time we will be looking for a better venue for the Marilog district camp.

New Year

Wow. It has been over a month, sorry we have been so long since updating.

We had a wonderful Christmas with all our family - Andie and all her family, Beth, all together in North Carolina. Andie was a little under the weather recovering from surgery, but other wise all were great.

Dixie has stayed in North Carolina to help Andie, Rodger has returned to the Philippines. He is still in jet lag!

In talking with Eddie and Andy, the new year is starting off with great things happening. I (Rodger) plan to be sharing more in a more regular and timely manner.