Mid-term Mission Trip Report February 2025

This post is the mid-term mission report for the first month of our mission trip to the Philippines and Thailand. We have been with Hallel Integrated Ministries on Panay Island, PI, who were our hosts the first month. Their location is about 2 hours north of Iloilo City. We have known the director, Reverend Patricia Capwell, for years as well as a number of the staff. Their hospitality is much appreciated, which included a cottage to call home while here. They gave us transport to events and provisions as well as administration for the seminar events and training.

A few paragraphs and highlighted images below serve as an introduction. The details are in the written report at this link: https://www.cwm4him.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Mid-Term-Mission-Report-February-2025.docx

Most of our activities for the first half of our mission trip were sharing the contents of the Third Edition of our biblical creation resource (A Study of God’s Creation Filled with Purpose, Direction, and Consequence). It is specifically designed for pastors and church leaders who are in areas closed to the Gospel or without resources. This kind of resource is not available in most of the Philippines. The resource also includes a separate addendum section that contains exercises that we commonly use in seminars, example fossils (relics of the Genesis Flood), images of bent rock (originally pliable when bent during the period of the Flood), and artist concept illustrations of the Ark in turbid waters with volcanic activity.

The first printed copies of the Third Edition were made available through Hallel Integrated Ministries, Iloilo, for the two two-day seminars that we held. A more detailed treatment will occur in March in Thailand to a multinational group of pastors at a conference hosted and sponsored by Outreach to Asia Nationals (OTAN).

The seminar events in Iloilo usually included Sunday preaching. For the first seminar, the Sunday congregation also sang, so the image to the left shows a group of young singers that participated. Faylene and I love congregational singing, so it certainly was an enjoyable occasion along with the seminar.

The second seminar was to a larger group of pastors and church representatives from several churches. We had good fellowship with the pastor, whose church sponsored the seminar and made us feel at home. We had opportunity to share at a young people’s meeting at night. A couple of Hallel staff, having been trained by us in observing the heavens, conducted a night observing time with some of the same young people on the second night.

Response to both seminars was positive. Bethlehem Church, where the second seminar was held, wants to host another larger event in early 2026. Like us, they want to reach younger generations. While they have outreach programs, they want to incorporate more of the biblical world view that includes Genesis. The image below shows the group.

Because of Hallel’s continued interest in observing the created heavens, three staff are being trained to hold exhibitions themselves and eventually be able to train others. With our resource in hand (Astronomical Observing from a Biblical View), we met multiple times to begin acquainting them with the heavens using eyes, binoculars, and small telescopes. Their training will continue while we are gone.

Another seminar for observing the heavens was held for about 15 people at Hallel. Selected Hallel staff, a Christian school group of Iloilo City, and local teachers attended two days of orientation. The Christian school already has plans to establish a capability to observe the heavens. In preparation for this seminar, the Hallel director, with guidance from us, made an observing site from which most observations and exhibitions will occur in the future. We have already used the site several times for training. Light conditions in this rural area are good, so observing from this location will not have light interference from local cities.

Our final days were spent with Hallel staff include their take charge of telescope equipment and resources they will use to conduct exhibitions in the future. Meanwhile, we also continue to prepare for events at the Institute for Foundational Learning, where we will also be observing with groups, sharing with young people about being a disciple of Christ, and encouraging other friends as we can. We also have another biblical creation seminar to conduct in Cavite.

In closing, we met with a couple special young ladies for dinner in our quarters. It is something we do quite often wherever we go since hospitality and deliberate love work hand in hand to encourage other people. Those opportunities are special.

Our next report will not be published until late March after we return to the US. Thanks for reading. It is a good day to give thanks.