Would you like a sandwich?

Greetings!

I am finally getting to writing a report! Things have been super busy at the BSC! Since I have been the senior missionary on hand at the BSC for the better part of the last few months, life for me has been a little hectic!

I mentioned the ending of Session 1 in February in my last letter, and since then we've gone through a seminar, two mini-sessions, another seminar, a full 6-week session, and today is the last day of the fourth seminar for 2012! To say the least, things are going swell :)

Our seminar, which started on Wednesday, is on the topic of the meaning of "Worship". Dad is our speaker, and though I've been taking care of snacks every day, I've been enjoying the bits and pieces of his talk which I can hear. The idea is based off our observations of the religious world today. There are many different "flavors" of worship available and different explanations about what it means to worship God. Many people just take Bible verses and words out of context to create their personal idea of what worship really is! What an unfair treatment of the Lord who created us! If you are interested to see what Dad has to say on the topic, just go to the link at the bottom of this report and find the link for "Is the Modern Practice of WORSHIP from God or from Men?"

Yesterday, as part of our push for students, I sent text messages to the cellphone numbers we have in our student database inviting people to join Session 5 of classes at the BSC, which starts on Monday (June 4). Text messaging, as you are probably aware, is extremely popular with the population of the world today, and in Asia even more so! The Filipino public is constantly bombarded with signs and commercials, along with "Advisory text messages", about all the free text messaging and unlimited text plans which are available. We use this to our advantage and can text the 500+ contacts we have, all for the low cost of 25 pesos, or 45 cents! I don't think that the cellphone providers has us in mind when they came up with their schemes and promos :).

During my messaging I had several responses from people who are interested. A girl named Juliet sent me a message asking for a copy of our self-study course. I also received a message from Jimmy Co, a student of ours who has disappeared for a while, asking about the session. He dropped by today and enrolled! I even had some messages from a man (who did not tell me his name) trying to debate with me about the name of God!!! You never know who you're going to meet or what opportunities the Lord will throw your way!

In addition to the seminar that has been going on, I've been having a special schedule Bible study with Ime Pacada and her son Lumel. Ime first came to the BSC with her boss Thor (not the Norse god of mythology ) who was having Bible studies with RJ and Ronnie. Thor has since stopped coming around because of his busy work schedule (he'll be back soon!), but Ime and her son have been studying with me pretty consistently. Even though her schedule is busy too, she has been trying to make time to drop by about twice a week and study with me. What fun!

Please keep Session 5 of classes (starting on Monday) and all our students and teachers in your prayers. Also keep our brothers and sisters in your prayers, especially Ben Tejedor. Ben Tejedor is an older brother or ours who suffers from a severe case of Parkinson's. He is afraid to leave his house because of a fall he had in February. Because of his self-imposed isolation, he has been very depressed and when we visit him he often talks about dying. We are doing our best to encourage him, but he has not yet agreed to let us pick him up to join the assembly. Please be thinking and praying about him and our efforts to encourage him.

Well, I'm off to start work on preparing snacks for tonight! Thanks for reading!!!

In him,
Sara Murrell