Erickson’s Philippines Updates

John Elnor is 9 years old and is from Alaminos (about 20 minutes from San Pablo City). When he first arrived at FTC, upon entering our gate, he screamed and cried, “I don’t like! I don’t like!” (in Tagalog, “Ayoko, Ayoko!”). It took us more than 30 minutes to get him out of the car, and then another hour to calm him down. He was just scared of a new environment with new people, and of course that 6’4” white guy didn’t help his comfort level any!

Now, John has been with us for almost 3 weeks. He loves to play in Josiah’s room (every day), loves playing outside, and has adjusted very well here overall. Our next step is to begin easy schooling with him here at FTC (this involves English, math, and Filipino). Sheila del Monte will handle this first level of teaching. Once he has shown improvement in attitude, character, and learning ability, we will put him online and find a sponsor for him to attend Frontline Christian Academy.

John comes from a difficult life, and we are very excited that he has been delivered from certain poor circumstances, and brought here to us. We know that God has a plan for his life, and we look forward to seeing that plan unfold. Pictured: John and Josiah play in Josiah’s room, John with our boy dorm parents Orick and Sheila del Monte.

Sunday, August 2nd appeared to be just another Sunday service. It was full of celebrating what God is doing, awesome praise and worship (led by guest Erin Metcalf), six baptisms (including the very touching baptism of Hannah del Monte, daughter of Pastor Romeo and Cecile), a special dance number by God’s Force (a dance with over 30 youth and kids!), and a great message by guest speaker Eric Metcalf.

Just when it seemed we’d had all the fun we could possibly have for one Sunday, Melissa (a guest from Naperville) felt God speaking to her to get baptized. How exciting to be a part of her life-changing decision! She stood in front of around 300 people and publicly declared her love for Christ, and that she has made the decision herself to be a Christ-follower. As you can see by the pictures, this was a very AWESOME experience, especially since her mom, brother, and sister where there to celebrate it with her. Praise God!

Frontline Christian Academy just finished “Nutrition Week,” a week where the focus is on living a healthy lifestyle. This includes not just what we eat, but exercise and sleeping well, too. As you can see by the pictures above, it ended with a general gathering on Friday, where students wore all different kinds of costumes and gave special presentations. I was given the opportunity to do a 30-minute presentation on basic first aid. The 4 main points were:

1. What to do when you get cuts and scrapes

2. What to do when you are bitten by an animal

3. What to do when you get burned, and

4. What to do when you or someone else gets a concussion.

It was a challenge to relate and keep the attention of 106 students, ages 5 – 17, but we had fun and hopefully I was able to share something that they can use if ever needed.

I just finished a five teaching series on praise and worship with the trainees in the Frontline Training Program (FTP). My topics were more about living your life as a song to glorify God every day…That is to glorify God by the actions we take and the choices we make.

The topics were:

1. Lifesong

2. How Great is Our God (by Louie Giglio)

3. Talent alone is never enough (with the help of Maxwell leadership Bible)

4. Practical praise and worship

We had a great time! We enjoyed two 30-minute sessions of praise and worship, just calling out to God and thanking Him for everything He has done, as well as everything He has yet to do. I did not really know seven of these nine students before I taught, but now we are friends and I believe each and every one of them has real talent, gifts, and a call on his or her life to reach out and help others. I could not be happier with the development each of these individuals have made over these past six weeks.

In the third picture we are (from left to right): JC, Norielyn, Awit, Erwin, Alvin, Carmelita, Jona, Mike (of course, that’s me!), Silver, and Adriano.

Frontline Worship Center, the church we serve with and are a part of over here in the Philippines, is a multi-site church. Our second campus, the Greenbox, just celebrated their one year anniversary. And what a celebration it was! We had a blast-singing, dancing, rejoicing together for what God is doing, hearing special numbers, enjoying Jeff Pessina’s talk on community, and of course eating!

Having multiple church sites in different locations allows us to reach out to a broader variety and a higher number of people. It is taking the gospel, and bringing it to closer to where people live, literally. Pastor Ruel and Flor del Monte are the campus pastors at the Greenbox (located in Santisimo), and they are doing an awesome job fulfilling the mission statement. “Reaching and helping people find their way back to God.” Great job Greenbox team!