SECOND CHANCES

Today in the introduction of my radio program Word of Life became an unexpected message of Second Chances.

You can listen here: 

http://www.riverrockchurchphilippines.com/Second-Chances.htm

RRCP’s Exciting New Ministry for Malnourished Children

Background  

Feeding Program

Our feeding program in Barangay Mabasa is being noticed by the Philippines government. Pastor Alagos is also the Principal of the Mabasa Elementary School. He has documented that the students on our weekly feeding program at our Mabasa Church have improved in academics at the school. If we can demonstrate, for one year that a holistic program will increase the academics of the children, then there will be government funding to continue the program! The Philippines government has also noticed that the schools that provide Christian Values Education in the schools make more productive young adults. The Christian Values Education decreases the delinquency level also. As a result, the government is asking the schools to provide more nondenominational Christian Values Education. It is one of Steven’s seventh grade, graded courses at his public high school.

Application – Children’s Care Center (CCC)

Each Saturday for three hours we will provide:

• ·         Nondenominational Christian Values Education
• ·         Tutoring in math and reading comprehension
• ·         Hygiene education
• ·         A nutritious meal
• ·         Note: The students who also attend our Sunday feeding program through at Barangay Mabasa’s Franks/Mabasa Christian Center or Barangay Igbarawan’s Tabernacle of Praise will continue to get a nutritious meal on Sunday, as well. CCC will be open to both Mabasa and Igbarawan communities as they are neighbors.

The Cost:

• ·         A quality teacher - 1000 pesos ($23) per week
• ·         Nutritious meal for 30 students - 500 pesos ($12) per week.
• ·         Approximately $150 per month for 30 students.
• ·         That is approximately $1.16 PER STUDENT TO FEED AND TUTOR ONCE A WEEK.
• ·         We are praying for 60 students.

***Because RRCP is a Certified NGO (Non-Government Organization), if we can demonstrate with the CCC program the improvement of the academics and behavior of the less fortunate students over a one-year period, the government will release funding for the program.

***PLUS, once approved, because we are a Certified NGO we will be able to offer this program through all of our churches with funding aid from the government.

We are looking for financial support of this new ministry

Thank you all for your awesome love and care for the Filipino people!

I love you and thank you all – each and every one of you!

COURAGEOUSLY LOVE GOD AND EACH OTHER!

Please Pray With Me

In The Name of Jehovah-Jireh “The Lord Will Provide.” “Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, "In the mount of the LORD it will be provided," (Genesis 22:14). NASB

Please pray for these three ministries. 

1.      Monthly Budget  

One of our scholars

I want to take this time to thank you all for your tremendous generosity both in your financial giving and prayers! You all have hearts for our Lord and His work; the Harvest. “These were His instructions to them: "The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask Him to send more workers into His fields,” (Luke 10:2).

We need some help with our monthly budget. 

At this time we are running a little short of our budget for pastors and student scholarships.

If I max out our current giving with no margin for error, we are 5 students short of funding. These are existing students. As you know, a student scholarship is $25 per month and a pastor’s monthly allowance is $100. A commitment to either would help us greatly! Thank you.

2.     Repair of Hill of Zion Church 

Hill of Zion in Barangay Macarina is our third church and built October 2010. It is all bamboo walls with a cement floor and steel roof. The land is donated farm land outside of the Barangay.

We have now purchased land to build the church in the Barangay. We need to move the church to the new land. The new place is in town and will help the church grow. The old land is flooded during the rainy season and not accessible. It is also time to replace the bamboo. 

Hill of Zion RRCP Worship Service

This time we will construct a cement block lower wall to get the bamboo higher off the ground and maybe give us few more years of bamboo life. The expense to construct the new church is only $2,500.

It’s a small church and parsonage and mostly bamboo, but fits well with this community. The community is excited to have the new church in an area that is easily accessible. The land owner who sold us the land, gave us a good deal. Normally, the land would be 100,000 pesos ($2,500). However, we purchased the land for only 15,000 pesos ($350).

3.     An Exciting New Ministry for Malnourished Children

Background  

I've learned to see malnourishment in the eyes of a child

Our feeding program in Barangay Mabasa is being noticed by the Philippines government. Pastor Alagos is also the Principal of the Mabasa Elementary School. He has documented that the students on our weekly feeding program at our Mabasa Church have improved in academics at the school. If we can demonstrate, for one year that a holistic program will increase the academics of the children, then there will be government funding to continue the program! The Philippines government has also noticed that the schools that provide Christian Values Education in the schools make more productive young adults. The Christian Values Education decreases the delinquency level also. As a result, the government is asking the schools to provide more nondenominational Christian Values Education. It is one of Steven’s seventh grade, graded courses at his public high school.

Application – Children’s Care Center (CCC)

Each Saturday for three hours we will provide:

• ·         Nondenominational Christian Values Education
• ·         Tutoring in math and reading comprehension
• ·         A nutritious meal
• ·         Note: The students that also attend Sunday services at Barangay Mabasa’s Franks/Mabasa Christian Center or Barangay Igbarawan’s Tabernacle of Praise will continue to get a nutritious meal on Sunday, as well. CCC will be open to both Mabasa and Igbarawan communities as they are neighbors.

The Cost:

• ·         A quality teacher - 1000 pesos ($23) per week
• ·         Nutritious meal for 30 students - 500 pesos ($12) per week.
• ·         Approximately $150 per month for 30 students. That is approximately $1.16 per student to feed and tutor once a week. We are praying for 60 students.

*Because RRCP is a Certified NGO (Non-Government Organization), if we can demonstrate with the CCC program the improvement of the academics and behavior of the less fortunate students over a one-year period, the government will release funding for the program. PLUS, we will be able to offer this program through all of our churches with funding aid from the government.

The picture at the top of the page is Elvie. She is one of our supported schalors grade six. Elvie also attends Mabasa Elementry School and Tabernacle of Praise. She is one of the students that would attend our CCC program.

Thank you all for your awesome love and care for the Filipino people!

I love you and thank you all – each and every one of you!

COURAGEOUSLY LOVE GOD AND EACH OTHER!

We have the feet, hands, and experience. Together with your prayers and generosity we can share Jesus’ salvation and His love!

Your partner in this ministry to Filipinos,

Pastor Steve Bragg

LEARNING TO HEAR GOD

There are times when God is heard loud and clear! But we must learn to hear Him.

LEARNING TO HEAR GOD!     

Today Saturday morning 7-12-14, I was in the shower and the thought came to me that I need to preach at Grace Chapel this afternoon. I thought maybe I could preach last week’s message of HAPPY TOGETHER. It’s a good message I would like Grace Chapel to hear. Then the thought was no you need to preach the message before that LOVE YOUR ENEMIES. Then I thought, but Lord JoJo is their pastor, he will have a message already. I really don’t want to ask him to let me preach. So then no more thoughts of that conversation.

Pastor JoJo is helping with the remodel of our home and after the shower I went out to check on the progress. Pastor JoJo says to me that he wants to finish the project today and ask if I can preach at Grace Chapel this afternoon…

I told Pastor JoJo of my thoughts with God in the shower, and we both praised God with laughter of joy at such an awesome God we have

LEARNING TO HEAR GOD 2

After determining that it was God moving our hearts of me and Pastor JoJo’s together for me to preach at Grace Chapel, the time for service arrived

However, we had torrent rain like in a typhoon. No one had showed for service. I prayed God you moved so much to have me here, and now this rain? But slowly they came. We had more people than usual and even a new person. But still the heavy rain would not letup. We have steel roofs, and when the heavy rain hits it, you can hear nothing else. We waited and waited. Finally, Juliana said Dad you will have to use your big voice and the singing began. We could not hear each other sing.

I prayed again. Lord forgive me for my sins, and anoint this worship service so your word may be heard! I approached the podium, and the rain stopped.

The closing of the message came and just at the end of the prayer the torrent rain hit again.

Powerful, mighty, majestic, awesome, and sovereign is our God! I love serving our Lord!

I love you my LORD Jesus Christ!

Continued Story!

LEARNING TO HEAR GOD 3

This is a summary of the message.

COURAGEOUS LOVE – LOVE YOUR ENEMIES 

Mat 5:44 But I SAY, LOVE YOUR ENEMIES! [Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you.] Pray for those who persecute you! 

It is only possible to love our enemies through Jesus Christ. This command to love our enemies can only be understood through the cross. 

Love your enemies is the central theme of the Bible; the Cross. We were the enemies of God because of our sins; our rebellion. Jesus died for us while we were enemies. It was our sin that caused all of His sufferings. Our sin that scourged Him bloody almost to death, our sin that hung Him on the cross, our sin that mocked Him in His suffering, while suffering for our rebellious sin He said, “forgive them.” It was our sin that caused Him to hold Himself on the cross and suffer the complete penalty of our sin even until His last breath. This was His demonstration of His love for us in order that we could become enemies no more, but transformed to become His beloved children. But it was not possible until Jesus loved us through the Cross!

Rom 5:10 FOR IF WHILE WE WERE ENEMIES WE WERE RECONCILED TO GOD BY THE DEATH OF HIS SON, MUCH MORE, NOW THAT WE ARE RECONCILED, SHALL WE BE SAVED BY HIS LIFE. 

It is only His Church, you and me, who have experienced such undeserved courageous love of selfless sacrifice from our Lord. Even unto great suffering and death that now we can understand the grandeur of God’s love. Only we the church, you and me, having experienced such grand love, can we now express this remarkable love to others, not just our friends, but to those undeserving of our love; our enemies.

We are called to be the Light of God unto a dark, lost and dying world. How great is the Light of our Lord, who loves and sacrificed Himself for the undeserving, you and me. In like manner, how great is His Light as it shines through us loving sacrificially and courageously a world undeserving, who are enemies of God and even us.

It takes courage to reach out and love someone who is our enemy. It took courage of our Lord to love us. This truly is real love, not just to love those who love us, but even to love our enemies. 

Eph 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

Has our Lord put someone on your heart to love sacrificially; courageously? 

Be Courageous and Love them.

EXPERIENCING POVERTY

“When they saw us coming they had hope.”

Saturday July 5th we went to pray for a family that had a miscarriage of a pregnancy in the 7 month. The baby was a boy. Two of our Grace Chapel youth are from this family. Just a few days before these two youth were recipients of clothes and school supplies sent from River Rock Church. Thank you RRC.

It’s rainy season here now, so we walked into the mountainous part of Dacutan. Dacutan is where our church Grace Chapel is located.  My wife Juliana, six of our Grace Chapel ladies and Pastor JoJo and I went to pray for them and give a love offering. Most of our travel was a muddy footpath, wading across a river, and walking a hanging bridge. The mud had sugarcane stocks and sticks covering it so one would not sink too deep into the mud. I see school children come from this area each day carrying their shoes to keep the mud from them.

We finally arrive at the bamboo home. You can see easily through the walls, it was leaning and in need of repair. As we stepped inside, the Mother was sitting on the floor very weak. Sitting beside her was a cardboard box with a baby wrapped inside and a small face showing. There was a single candle lit in mourning beside the box. The father was off digging the grave at the local public cemetery. The ladies were quick to make sure the mother was ok and offer words of sympathy and check to see the mother and children were safe. There is malnourishment with some of the children and no money for a doctor or hospital. We are in prayer for her health. Two of the children come to Grace Chapel on Saturdays, and we feed them. Sometimes they show up at our home, and we feed them.

The mother is 38, and this was her 10th child. The father helped deliver the already dead child. He had to push the child out. If he had not been brave maybe the mother would have died in the delivery. We are praying she will have no infection.

As we walked the path to their home many of the community members joined us. Some of the community members and the family said that when they saw us coming they had hope. Indeed the mother’s eyes were full of tears at our sight. Pastor JoJo offered a comforting prayer. The ladies continued to speak with the mother and try to help with the words from their hearts.

As I walked home, my first thought was about how blessed my family and I are. I thanked God for our health, our home, and the means He has given us to care for ourselves and others.

But also in my heart was the trying to understand the helplessness they must feel. It is their daily life. When I see the children they are smiling, clean and well mannered.

Oh Lord, help us to bring hope and love to the Filipino people were ever you establish us.

Your partner in this ministry to the Filipinos,

Steve Bragg