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Vol. XIX No. 10
5 December 2021

SERVING THE LORD IN KENYA

Bai Eun Young
(Missionary of IBPFM and TLBPC)

Who Will Go to Serve?

This year I have felt so busy and I must admit that the days are really flying by so fast. It is mainly because of the busy schedule at the Bible College of East Africa (BCEA). This academic year, all educational institutions in Kenya must run one additional term on top of the normal three terms per year. It is designed to compensate for the study missed out on last year due to COVID 19. Likewise, BCEA and its affiliated kindergartens had to do the same. That has made everyone, both teachers and students busy, in order to make up those missed terms and to hold a graduation service on October 8. It was held outdoors. Everyone had to wear masks, and the number of guests was limited. The whole program lasted only about an hour. About 20 students graduated this time and headed to their respective places. There, they will get involved in different ministries.

How Do They Serve?

I know a BCEA graduate who graduated even before I came to Kenya. I met Pastor O as I conducted VBS for children some years back in Maasai land. He is not a Maasai but a Kisii (from the tribe of Kisii) and has been sent there by Rev. Mark Kim as new churches had been planted in that area. He had to learn the Maasai language, culture, and life on the land. When he got married to a lady from his same tribe, his wife followed him to the Maasai land. They had been serving together for many years when he was found to have tumour in his brain. The case was so serious that he was losing his eye sight. Rev. Kim sought help and was able to send Pastor O to Korea for an operation. However, there was little hope.

However, thanks be to God that his operation was done successfully. This news struck my heart. I thought “well… he lives longer, maybe because of his calling to serve.” So I was not surprised at the news that when he returned to Kenya following his operation in Korea, he returned to Maasai land directly, and not to his hometown in Kisii! Pastor O is serving in Maasai land to this very day. Though his name is not known to the world, I believe that he is a genuine servant of God’s kingdom.

Where Do They Serve?

When I was invited by Rev. Kim to visit the ministry in Rwanda, I hesitated because of the VBS experience I had a few years ago. At that time, nearly a thousand children came for VBS, and I had only ten teachers with very limited facilities. It was so tough that I ended up falling sick. So, whenever I hear about the ministry in Rwanda, that memory comes back. However “obedience is better than sacrifice.” I made up my mind and visited the field. For this seven-day visit, there was no structured schedule. With such flexibility, I looked around the ministry, (the college, church and kindergarten), and was able to visit the members of the campus church.

The incident that most captured my heart’s attention was the funeral of a girl, 16 years old. After a quarrel with her neighbor, she was stabbed to death with a knife. What?? That was too young to die, and too miserable to die that way! Rev. Kim preached at the funeral service at a cemetery on the foot of a steep hill. I saw the small coffin buried into the soil, a crowd of poor people sobbing their hearts out, with yellow wild flowers growing between wooden crosses with names on them. I felt so sorry for the people living such a poverty-stricken, conflict-filled life. They live just near the BCEA Rwanda campus. On Sunday, they climb hills (Rwanda is known as a country of a thousand hills) and pass through the valleys on their way to Sunday service at the campus church. “When he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.” (Matt. 9:36–37)

Dear friends, thank you for your prayers and support for the ministry of the Bible College of East Africa. Please continue praying for BCEA graduates, that they will be used for the kingdom of God in the place where they are called to serve. (IBPFM Newsletter, November 2021)

RADIO MINISTRY IN THE PHILIPPINES
Rev Dr Jose Lagapa

On October 25, 2020, the Lord opened a privilege for us to get a contract with the Central Mindanao University (CMU) radio station DXMU-FM 88.9 in Bukidnon. We thank the Lord for the support and encouragement of our pastor, the Rev Dr Jeffrey Khoo to pursue this ministry. The program entitled, Ang Pulong Sa Dios (The Word of God), is using the Cebuano language as this is the common dialect in the areas reached by the radio station. The broadcast covers the province of Bukidnon and neighbouring provinces of North Cotabato, Lanao del Sur and also some portions of Davao City.

The prophet Amos tells us, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.” (Amos 8:11–12). There is a deteriorating desire among Christians to hear God’s Word. Many pulpits in the churches today are filled with stories and ideas of authors that are given more prominence in the time of preaching than the Word of God. It is our burden and prayer to have an avenue to still preach the perfectly inspired and preserved Word of God for the people to hear. We prayed we could get a few minutes of radio time from the secular radio stations in Bukidnon. When this burden was shared to Dr Einstine Opiso, a professor in the College of Engineering in CMU, he received information that there were vacant slots in the University’s radio station every Sunday available to private entities. It is God’s providence to give us not just few minutes of air time but one hour of broadcast for only PHP2,000 (SGD55) every month. Moreover, the program, though aired through the station, is also posted in the TLBPC’s Filipino Bible Fellowship YouTube channel.

The past year the order of the program consists of at least 45 minutes of teaching from God’s Word interspersed with a salvation testimony (5–7 minutes) from one of our members or brethren from like-minded churches in the Philippines and a hymn from the recordings of TLBPC Choir. (Special thanks to brother Bee Heng.) Praise God for the conservative singing of our church choir without any worldly embellishments, singing faithfully following the scores of the hymns. This brings the listeners back to the old-fashioned hymns which are now fading because of the Contemporary Christian Music and the jazzing up of hymns even in many fundamental churches.

Mr Jamejam with KJV Bible

The topics are taken from the Theology for Every Christian (Tow and Khoo) taught in the Cebuano language. The program started with the teachings of the inspiration and preservation of God’s Word. Today, “Part I on Theism: Knowing God” is almost covered. However, every first Lord’s Day of the month, a special topic from the Word of God is expounded as an evangelistic message for those who are still unbelieving. The recording is done in the Upper Room of the Far Eastern Bible College thanks to Biboy who is gifted by God with the skill to transform his room into a recording studio from time to time. The audio file is sent by email to DXMU-FM and the video file is uploaded to YouTube.

During the first anniversary on October 31, 2021, a question was given to test whether there are listeners who are tuning in and attentively listening. Five respondents gave their correct answer sent through SMS to Mrs Patria Solidum of our Philippines Missions Bible Center and KJV Bibles were given as their reward.

Mrs Solidum presenting a KJV Bible to Mr Dalugdog

As we start another milestone, the ministry continues to teach the book Theology for Every Christian. There are still a few testimonies but we are airing more of the hymns, three every Sunday. We thank God for the TLBPC choir and with the substantial help from our sister Hadassah Chew of Truth BPC, who is also an MDiv student in FEBC. She has a collection of Revival Hymns and Choruses being sung which are now being used to provide faithful singing of our good old hymns. We thank the Lord that our contract with CMU administration is renewed, especially the University President who signed the contract which will last till December this year. Please pray that we can continue to have a slot for this ministry next year. May the Lord use this ministry to spread the faithful teaching of God’s Word to save souls and strengthen the saints in the faith. “But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Rom 10:16–17). All glory and praise to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. (FilBF Weekly, November 14, 2021)

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