January February 2026 Mission Trip Report

Early 2026 Mission Report to Panay Island, Philippines, from Roland and Faylene Beard.

Our one-month mission trip to Panay Island primarily consisted of training for observing the created heavens, presenting a seminar on biblical creation, and conducting several meetings with youth. On the private side, we had numerous smaller meetings with Hallel staff and college students. The picture below was taken at the beginning of the biblical creation seminar in Iloilo City. 

Like most trips, preparation starts months earlier. A major part of this preparation was designing and building a mount for several telescopes for use at Hallel and a Christian school. Once we were settled in our cottage at Hallel, the first order of business was re-assembling those mounts, testing the optics, and getting the teaching kits ready for training AOBV (Astronomical Observing from a Biblical View, which is downloadable for free on the cwm4him.org site). Our cottage turned into a work center, then back to a hospitality center for guests.

Training times for observing the heavens or biblical creation are rigorous with presentations, questions, activities, and exercises that keep both my wife and I busy. Quieter times are in the cottage where we lived. Then we meet with individual students or staff over coffee or a meal. We also had several good meeting times in the home of Pat Capwell, who founded and directs Hallel but is also an excellent cook. Her squash soup is superb.

Youth meetings were quite large. We shared testimonies, exhorted young believers to follow Christ in all matters of their developing lives, and provided some biblical guidance for developing future goals.

We gained or renewed friendships among pastors and leaders. On one occasion we had the honor of talking with about six local pastors and Pat Capwell. Through her efforts, they are joining forces to evangelize and develop disciples in the rural region around Hallel. We listened to their heart concerns to address physical and spiritual needs around them.

One of those pastors, who also completed training to observe the heavens with a small telescope, invited me (Roland) to preach at a church within a stone’s throw of Hallel. He and his wife love the people and demonstrated to us the importance of encouraging little ones. Their church is so full of young people that I changed what I presented to include some object lessons that show the wonder of what God has created and His purpose to draw a people to Himself. The pastor has already started using a telescope in his church work.

My hat is off to our friends on Panay Island, where local church pastors in the mountains or the leaders of churches and Christian schools in Iloilo City are reaching the young and working hard to see the Gospel planted deeply in people. It was our honor to serve them.

We are moving forward at home in the US. Several writing tasks, based on requirements developed in late 2025 and from this last mission trip as well, must be started. There is increasing need for practical resources that can be distributed freely to those where resources are scarce or countries that are generally closed the Gospel. The writing tasks will take several months but the results could affect several countries where our ministry partners serve.

Part of our efforts overseas and in the US is to contact younger leaders who will learn and run with our biblical creation resources in places we may never see. We are also continuing to train practical observing of the heavens, which has proven to be an innovative way to introduce the Creator of all things, which leads directly to God’s purposes for people and the message of the Gospel. If you are an interested young person or leader or want to use observing the heavens to evangelize, let us know.

In the meantime, we thank our prayer partners and supporters for helping us with our mission work. You go with us in heart where God opens doors.

Roland and Faylene Beard