Mabuhay! (that means "hello")

Howdy All! Here I am again to tell you about all that has been going on with us over in the Philippine Islands! We have done much since I last wrote. As I mentioned in my last letter, we had a two-week break between Session 5 and 6 which we used to work on some things we had not found the time to get around to. We finished our kitchen cabinets, but I haven't been able to paint it yet. Paint or no paint, we started using it :). We will paint it, eventually...

August 2 brought the arrival of three guests of ours from the US; Gary and Lesa Moore (my mother's sister and her husband), and Eddie Peterson (an elder from the 37th Street Church of Christ in Snyder, TX). Uncle Gary and Mr. Peterson taught our seminar for enrollment week for Session 6 titled "Proverbs and the Christian". If you are interested to watch it, click on the link at the end of the report for seminars. They did an excellent job and we managed to draw in a few new students for classes which started on August 8.

Mom was especially glad to have her sister with us. As most of you know, my mother and her family used to live here in the Philippines and her father was the president of a Bible college in the north. Well, they left when Mom and Aunt Lesa were still young, and it had been over 40 years since my aunt had returned to the land where she was born!

Our visitors were only with us for two weeks, but we managed to take them to the beach and to do some sight-seeing before they left us early on the 14th. We were so blessed to have them come and stay with us, even if it was for only a short time.

Classes have been going well. I have been busy, either taking courses or teaching. I have 5 classes which I am either teaching on my own or assisting with. On Tuesdays I help Dad with our course at the BSC for training members to become teachers. Wednesdays I am teaching our course Archaeology and the Bible to our student Mario Mata. I am having a great time with Mario, he is the kind of student you hope for as a teacher! I find myself baffled with the fact that he has studied and done his homework so well that I think he knows the review questions I am going to ask even before I ask them! Wednesday nights, after my early class, I am taking a class under Dad which is training for teaching our course What Is Real Christianity? which Dad has newly reformatted. I enjoy being a student, especially under my father, so I am enjoying this class as well. Thursdays I am assisting Dad once again with our Biblical Greek course. This has been a challenge for me, as it has been 5 years since I completed my Biblical Greek course, and I have had to review my grammar a little bit :). Nevertheless, I am enjoying this course as well. Last, but not least, I am teaching a course which, until this session, I had not yet had the privilege. Old Testament Survey, as the name indicates, takes the class through a survey of the Old Testament stories, the students have reading and studying assignments which you discuss during class. One of our students during the seminar, Mark Anthony Abejo, requested a special scheduled Old Testament Survey class on Fridays. I decided that it was about time I taught this, and so we have been going for three weeks now, this Friday will be our fourth meeting. Things are going great with all our classes and our students are doing very well. We are currently in week four of classes. Please continue to keep our efforts in your prayers.

On the family front, as many of you know, my sister Rachael was pregnant with her second child. Well, Lily Jean Robinstein was born on August 14th and was 7 pounds, 11 ounces and 20 and a half inches long! She is a thing of beauty and such a blessing. Thank you all for your prayers in behalf of both Rachael and Lily. Also, my sister Amy has been having some pain in her back which has been keeping her at home a lot more. She has been to the doctor but they haven't figured out what the problem is. Ronnie has also come down with a coughing virus which has had him down. Please keep all of our team's heath in your prayers.

Well, I'm off for now. I hope and pray you are doing well and that God is keeping you safe. When we get rain over here, I think back to Texas and the other dry southern states and how much they could use some water. God willing, he will provide some. God bless you all!

In him,
Sara Murrell