September approaches

Salutations!!!

As August begins to come to a close, here I am to write a long-overdue report. I've been keeping busy, as usual. We are in the fourth week of classes for Session 6, 2010. I am very excited about what's going on right now, but more about that later. Allow me to get you up to date with what's happened since I last wrote.

In addition to our weekly children's classes we held our annual VBS on May 17-21. Our topic this year was Jonah and the Big Fish. We had a group of about 40 kids show up and had a blast! I taught our middle group, the 7-11 year-old's. We learned many valuable lessons from Jonah and pondered over what happened to him after the end of the book. Haven't you ever wondered?

My nephew Sean David, Jon's little boy, turned 1 on June 14. It's amazing how quickly little ones change and grow up right before your eyes. Andrew is now 19 months old and driving us all crazy. In all fairness, they BOTH are driving us crazy. :) Mom and Dad are doing well. We go over to their house every Sunday night and have dinner with the whole family. It's nice to spend time together when we're not working. Rachael and Clint are doing well. I like to go across the street to visit every once in a while when I'm not doing anything :). Jon and Gina are also doing well and are really great neighbors. I was once using a meat tenderizer on my counter for dinner one night and my dear brother started banging on the wall just to mess with me :). Goofy people. Amy is well. We both are learning more and more about being a team and I think we're doing a good job. She made me laugh today. She was on her way home and sent me a text telling me that she had seen a yellow Volkswagen bug. Some things, it seems, never get old. I turned 21 (gasp!) in May and celebrated by NOT going out to drink an alcoholic beverage, which seems to be a practice for people my age (I would say youth but I don't know if I count as that anymore :). Things are going crazy busy but that's the best way for it to be, right? :) Some of us have been a little under the weather lately so please keep us in your prayers.

Two sessions have come to a close since I wrote. At the end of Session 5 (more specifically on July 28), Junil Matthew Cajilig the son of one of the leaders in the Uptown Church of Christ was immersed after studying with Rachael. This was extremely exciting for me because I've known J.M. ever since his mother first starting studying with us in 2002 (or then-abouts). He was around 5 when I first met him and quite a pill to be around. Thankfully he grew out of that stage into a really great kid who just turned 13. Needless to say his parents were both thrilled that he decided to be immersed, as were all who have seen him grow up.

During the break between Session 5 and 6 we were blessed to have Bob Buchanan, a missionary and dear family friend teach a series of classes for members at the BSC on the Minor Prophets of the Old Testament. This was the second part, as he taught the first part in March. Very interesting study, we can learn a lot from these books which so often are overlooked.

Jon taught our seminar for enrollment week for Session 6. His topic was "Is Modern Practice of keeping the Sabbath from God or from Men?". He did a great job, as usual and seemed to have a good time teaching. During enrollment week we tried a new strategy for our advertising. We used thick cardboard sheets and made sandwich signs advertising our seminar. We sure got a lot of looks! We are going to use this more in the coming sessions.

A little bit of history before I tell you the next piece of news. The Bible Study Center was founded in September of 1985 by my father, Marvin Whitt, Eddie Poblete and Reuben Emperado. In honor of the 25th year anniversary of classes we held a reunion in a park in the mountains behind the city to celebrate. It's amazing to see how many people the BSC has affected throughout the years, including ourselves! We had around 40 alumni and three of the four founders who were able to be there.

Rainy season is now upon us here in the Philippines. It's been interesting, actually. The months leading up to rainy season were so very hot and terrible I've never felt a hotter summer. We were relieved when the rain came and it has been much cooler since. I've actually used a fleece blanket to cover up with a few nights I've gotten so cold! Call me strange if you will but that's what happens when you grow up in the tropics.

To celebrate my mother's birthday on August 4 her mother made a surprise trip over here to see her. She arrived on August 3 and stayed with Rach and Clint until the guys brought her to my parents house secretly on the 4th. Rach, Gina, Amy and I took Mom out to the parlor to get her nails done that morning while the guys made lunch for everyone and we met them there after. Well, we were very sneaky and Mom had no idea what was going on. Grandma had prepared a bunch of presents for her and they were all laid out on a table when we walked in the door. While Mom was still surprised Dad had her stand with the presents and took a picture so they could show Grandma her reaction. Unbeknownst to her, Grandma sneaked in behind her and was included in the picture. When Mom saw the picture and it registered that Grandma was actually there she turned around and said "MOTHER!" I have never seen her as surprised as she was! It was really great :). Grandpa also stopped in for a few days for Mom's birthday which we were all happy about as well. As I sat watching my mother opening presents looked on by her parents it was such joy to see that (as if I didn't know) my mother is also a daughter.

We have two new additions to our workforce, if you haven't heard. Clint's friend R.J. Mate visited us in April and after being with us for over a month decided that he wanted to join us over here and go through an apprenticeship. He returned at the end of July, having raised all his funds and has been working with us since. Also, my cousin Ronnie Feller who visited us here in 2008 for Jon and Gina's wedding decided a while back that he would like to do the same. He was raising funds and was able to join us here in the beginning of June. It is a great help to have two more workers with us! Thanks be to God :)

Amy and I have recently assumed command (heehee, perhaps taken charge of is more accurate) of the Youth Fellowship we host at the BSC on Friday nights. We have 16 kids joining our activity plus the staff at the BSC so we're an exciting group of energy (at least they are). Most of our kiddos are children of members or members themselves but a few of them are friends who have been invited to join us. Because of the relationships they have formed these kids decided to take classes at the BSC! We are excited to have them studying with us and optimistic about the future. Please keep these kids in your prayers.

My efforts lately have been centered around one student. This is because, of the three classes I'm teaching at the BSC in Session 6 he is my only student. Mickeevinth Singcol, or Kiven as he prefers, is one of the neighbors of our youth who live in the south part of the city. He joined our youth activities and because of them he decided to enroll in classes in Session 5. I had him in my class Jesus: Man of the Bible along with three other students. Ironically enough he was the only student left at the end of the session because they all moved overseas. One student left for the U.S.A., another for work in the Middle East and the last to Luzon to return to her home. Kiven is a very good student who always does his homework and participates in the discussions. We are studying through our course Jesus: Lord of Our Lives together right now and he's soaking everything up! Please keep him in your prayers.

Our Saturday Kid's Class is going well. Our group has reduced in size considerably but we have a consistent group of kids of about 10 attending now. Please pray that we will be able to expand this a little and get more kids, and also that we will be able to be a good influence on all the kids we have joining us.

All in all things are going well and we are keeping busy, like we should :). On a final note I have a request. When we sent out our last newsletter Mom and Dad found out that the rate for international postage had almost doubled! Because of this we have a request. If you would be willing to receive The Messenger through the internet instead of a hard copy, please let us know. Any difference in the number of newsletters we send out would help lessen the cost of postage. Let me know :)

I would love to hear from any of you anytime. Thanks for your time and prayers! God Bless!

In him,
Sara Murrell