They have been able to establish regular connections between the mentoring teams and those on the ground. There has been a need for more regular contact and each person in the Manila based team has been allocated a field team to focus on.
It has been important to ensure there is good connection between each sponsoring church and the local teams, especially in light of the fact that the team members cannot get out to visit. This has meant more time online with the sponsoring churches as well as the local teams.
Nencio Ramon was baptized in the Christian faith a long time ago but he forgot about his faith and experienced so much trouble in life. He did not know the importance of his relationship to Christ. Three years ago he attempted to commit suicide because of an unbearable problem with his family. He was brought to the hospital and survived. He was so angry to come to life again. No one in his family or in the community ever talked to him about his suicide attempt.
When the ECPM team started the mission in the Singkab community he attended the Bible Study iathis in-law’s house. Little by little he understood God’s love and plan for his life. At first, he wanted to be baptized again but he understood that it is not necessary again but just to live as a living testimony for Christ.
Now he is very thankful that he did not die. He said, "I have a chance to know Christ more and serve Him." He is living now with the truth that he learns from the Bible, he also shares Scriptures that he reads during his devotions in their Bible study every Tuesday. His relationship with his family is also changing and becoming pleasant.
Emelinda Ongcal joined the church planting team late. Her reason is that she had prior plans and commitments and joining the ECPM team was not included. (She told the other team members that she was willing to help them but not join the team. During team orientation, Marwin and Vida encouraged her to reconsider and pray about officially joining the team.) “ECPM was not in my plans, but it was in God’s plan for me to take part in the training and mission”, she now says.
She joined the group and was able to attend the first module. According to her, joining the ECPM team pushed her to do things beyond her ability and will. Physically, she experienced different sickness every month. Spiritually, she became more intimate with God. In the ministry, she learned many things during modules that they applied in having a good relationship to the community as they started the mission in Singkab. She also has a good relationship and teamwork with her brother Ramir and uncle Junjun as they are also part of the ECPM team.
Ariel and Julius from Palawan benefited from the training of ECPM by being able to teach the new trainees of ECPM in Palawan during the pandemic lockdown. Before, Julius and his team were also trainees of ECPM, now, they are being trained as invited teachers in the training module in Palawan. Their new church became the sponsor church for the current church planting team in Marunding, Brookes Point, Palawan.
This is a real encouragement and shows that the church planting cycle is being continued and, in Palawan, ongoing empowerment of previous church planters continues. They have been amazed to be part of and see the impact of empowering communities through the empowering of leaders.
Partnership's Influence within the CommunityThose who join the new initiatives through the work of the teams are seeing their lives changed. They are growing in faith and their lives are changing for the better. The growth in faith sees relationships healed and becoming more healthy. This is the same in the rural and urban teams and is great to see.
They plan to continue the work and maximise the learnings from COVID. It has given them the opportunity, actually forced them, to adapt and become more flexible. This is going to be a benefit in the long term.
More will be done in the development of online resources for training.
The team in Palawan will be graduating later this year and a new location is being developed.
Current Issues and Challenges The whole country is under quarantine until the end of May to attempt to reduce the number of COVID cases in the Philippines. This means that the team are still banned from travel around the provinces. They cannot go to the teams for modules and pastoral visits.
It is a challenge for them to undertake online communication with the teams in Palawan and Saranggani because of the unstable internet connection.
The teams are not able to easily move about in the community as people are afraid and it's not safe. This particularly affects the rural teams in Palawan and Saranggani. The team in Legazpi is mainly with students and young people and because it is urban, the internet is more stable. Online communication is a blessing for that team.
Prayer and Praise Points 1) ECPM supporters have so far been able to continue support which the team doesn't take for granted and is a real blessing.
2) Despite some sickness (COVID) in the teams, they have still been able to function. Their adaptability has been a key to this.
3) Please pray for availability of vaccines and an end to the impact of the pandemic.
The work continues on and is still having an impact. It tends to be a small scale, slow growth model as the growth is centred on the Manila based team when compared to a true Disciple Making Movement. However, it is having impact and I think our investment is about right.