Palawan Report

August 8, 2017

Recently Pastor Alagos visited our churches on the island of Palawan.

Here are some highlights of the churches.

Bahile House Church

Barangày Bahile is almost 73km from Puerto Princesa City ànd along the way to Underground River. this barangay is composed of the mixed tribe like Agutaynen, Cuyonin at Palaweno. We have a house church here that was started 3 yrs ago with Pastor Prudencio and Oab. There is a couple here that ever-since the house churçh started dreaming to have a permanent structure for a plaçe of worship. Just 4months ago she discovered that the next lot to which they squat is àn abandoned lot with no owñer and it was a miracle that the govt. Awarded it to her, and now she needs to pay some amount by faith for the processing fee to own it. In her excitement, she stated a skeleton nipa hut for a place of worship for her family, relatives and people and tribes around for she promised that whatever blessings she might receive, the best portion will be given to God. I really amazed and knelt down in thanksgiviñg to God with such a great faith, hallelujah. AMEN!

      

                            

RRCP House Church Sitio Madahon of Buenavista Puerto Princesa, Palawan UP -dates!

Sitio Madahon is a Tribal area of Barangay Buenavista composing 3 tribes like Agutaynen and Cuyonin, this is composed of 20 houses and their livelihood is mostly fishing and mat making using native grass taken from the middle of the forest. RRCP house church was started here with Ptr Oab our Tribal Pastor from Buenavista and now the work was delegated to his daughter-in-Law Aina. They used to gather at the small nipa house and sometimes under the tree if no raiñ. There were 7 families regularly gathered here. Their faith and hunger for the word of God is incomparable and so inspiring. Please spend some time to pray for them and for the blessings that would meet their needs and salvation in the name of Jesus. Ameñ!

           

RIVERSIDE CHRISTIAN CEÑTER

RRCP PÀLAWAN REGION PASTORS' MEETING AND FELLOWSHIP AT RIVERSIDE CHRISTIAN CEÑTER OF RRCP SITIO MARANAT, BACUNGAN PUERTO PRENCISA, CITY, PALAWAN.

The meeting is composed of 28 pàstors, elders, workers and youth leaders coming from 6 RRCP Churches and 7 house Churches of Palawan Region. The meeting was so exciting, everyone came with expectation and thirsty heart for the Lord. Their presence was filled with love and concern for each other....what a blessing to see the manifestations of the ACTS Churches in the bible. Thank you RRCP family for living in the culture of love, compassion, faith, and humility in the Lord Jesus Christ for your love and faith empowers our desire and hope to serve the Lord in more greater heights and more deeper commitment. I LOVE YOU ALL IN THE LORD! ... Amen!

            

                         

Santa Lourdes Church

Sunday worship service at Santa Lourdes RRCP. There some people coming from Buenavista, madahon, Maryugon, Bahile, SalvacionManalolo and upper Santa Lourdes churches and house Churches. What a blessing everyone come with excitement eager to hear the word of God and to see each other. Thank you very much RRCP Brethren for the Love that you have to us and to the work of the Lord. Be strong and of good courage. Amen!

    

Thank you, Lord, for these blessings. There is now fourteen churches in Palawan.

Thank you prayer partners and supporters. It is only by our partnership with the Lord this is possible.

*Reports were written by Pastor Alagos. 

Pastor Steven Ray Bragg

July 2015 Blessings Report

My Dear RRCP Partners,

We have received a tremendous blessing from River Rock Church America. They are now financially supporting the ministry here. Always many RRC individuals have supported us and still do - thank you all! This new support from RRC itself is specifically to help with pastor allowances and hire new pastors. It is also for new church buildings. What a great blessing!

In praise of our pastors, they work hard with very little pay. Each pastor’s family understands the sacrifice and cost. If they can feed and clothe their children and send them to school they are quite happy. Often times, regular fasting is a way of life. Most of our pastors, when available, work other jobs, plant gardens and raise chickens or pigs to support their families. Work is not easy to find here. Four walls made of bamboo and no leaks in the roof is another blessings. They truly understand the need to save their people through the spreading of the Gospel. They are willing to pay the price and their families are willing also. They work tirelessly with no complaint and only continuous praise to our Lord. They are excited and eager to serve the Lord. The new Incentive Pay Program provided by RRC will help them support their families and stabilized them for the future of RRCP.

More Blessings

• We just completed the construction of church and parsonage in Barangay Anini-y. The church started as a house church one year ago. Already their youth meetings are 18-20 students. The average Sunday worship is about 50 including all ages. This church is busy starting two more house churches. Pastor Lachica lets no grass grow under his feet. Three of our 24 churches are fruits of his and wife Teodora’s labor. The money for the Anini-y church is from Shepherds of the Savior Foundation.

• We finished the construction of the Buenavista Tribal Church on the island of Palawan. This church building was funded by First Baptist Church of Phoenix Foundation.

• We are nearly complete with construction the Hill of Zion church. They recently started a new house church in Salaguiwan. The Hill of Zion church building is the result of the RRC donations.
• When Hill of Zion is complete we start the construction of Barangbang. We are completing the land donation papers now. They currently worship in a bamboo church that is no longer adequate. This is also from the RRC donations.
• This last week we started the construction of the Maranat church building. This one was also a house church for one year that has grown to a large congregation. The land was donated by the host family of the house church. It’s placed along a beautiful river where we recently baptized 7 from this congregation. We also baptized 12 here last year. We are considering to call it the Riverside Church RRCP. This church is the result of a donation from the First Baptist Church of Phoenix Foundation.
• We just started two more house churches here near Grace Chapel. Both have had three meetings. They are Minoro and Padang. Padang is held in a rented venue twice a month at Villa Alma. There were 68 in attendance for Padang this last service! We are not ready to add them to the count of RRCP, but they are very promising.
• There have been four deaths in the past month of people outside the church. We held services for each and the Lord is blessings our efforts to proclaim His Gospel.
• We have a new experienced pastor being mentored by pastors Lachica and JoJo. We certainly have room for him and more like him.
• As a result of RRC new donations, we just promoted Pastor JoJo to Regional Pastor with oversight of the island of Panay. We are 14 churches here and growing. One of his responsibilities is the oversight of new church construction on Panay. Because of Pastor JoJo’s oversight, the Hill of Zion church is coming in under budget.
• Pastor Stephen is the new Regional Pastor of the island of Palawan which is currently 10 churches. Already the construction of the Maranat church is ahead of schedule. Praise God and thank you RR.
• Our application is submitted at Shepherds for the Savior to construct a church in the tribal community of Maryogon. There is land available, at an extremely discounted price, if we are approved. We are praying for an approval this month.

Just finished RRCP Anini-y – ready for our logo

            

Buenavista Tribal Church on the island of Palawan.

     

Construction of our Hill of Zion Church in Maracrina, Patnongon Antique

                       

Breaking Ground to Construct our new RRCP in Maranat, Palawan

                

Our First Worship Service for Padang, Patnogon Antique

                

New Children's Feeding Program for Minoro, Apgahan, Patnongon Antique

                  

Thank you Lord!

Thank you everyone and blessings!

Your partner in ministry,

Pastor Steve Bragg

Tagumpay & Santa Lourdes Report July 5, 2013

TO ALL GRACE CHAPEL, RRC, RRCP AND PRAYER PARTNERS,

             “Praise the LORD for His great mercy and never ending Love for ALL of Us!”

Tagumpay/Candelaria Church

            Serving God is the most exciting and rewarding work ever although there’s a lot of tears, hard work and pains but it is worth because we cannot compare the joy and blessings when we see souls being converted for JESUS and lives being transformed by the power of His word.  I don’t care what others have said about how I serve my God it may not even affect the passion that Jesus himself laid down into my heart for I know that he alone sees everything even the least of our desire. We cannot even judge other people by what we’ve just heard and validated by people and confirmed by circumstances for God himself never judge and condemn anyone instead he allowed cruel people to hang him on the cross for the sins of everyone and once for all, for the forgiveness of our sins and our redemption.

             Mat 7:1  "Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

Palawan 4^th Visit    July 2-4, 2013

Pastor Larry & Judy on the Tagumpay Church Land

          With the blessings of Pastor Steve and all RRCP Pastors, I was set forth to visit Tagumpay, Roxas, Palawan to buy and transfer our church Lot.  After all those hindrances, finally the Lord opens the door for us, Praise the Lord! This is the Second Lot that RRCP bought after RRCP Esparar, Barbaza the rest four churches namely RRCP Mabasa, Sugnod, Santa Lourdes, Puerto Prencisa and Magarang were all donated. God is so good, whenever He opens the door to start a church he always meet every need. When I was in Aklan for almost ten years, together with my classmate at Zoe Bible Training Center and some Pastor friend we’ve also started several churches especially on the remote area of Kalibo, Aklan. In Antique with the partnership of some pastors and some other friends, several churches were also started.  In all of these I saw one thing in common when you have the heart for souls and passion for the lost, God always opens the opportunity and finances.

Tagumpay Homes

           July 2 upon arrival and after transacting and processing payment and Lot transfer, with Pastor Larry and Judy we proceeded immediately to Barangay Tagumpay 3 hours bus ride from Puerto Prencisa.  Wow, people there were so excited to meet us and it so amazing that in just one month of stay there Pastor Larry and Judy were known by all people probably because RRCP feeds 69 first degree malnourished children and now 20 percent of them improved their status and became normal. I was visited by the Barangay Council in-charged on Health and Education and we have a very good conversation and were able to come with unified efforts and commitment for the community transformation to help Tagumpay to rise-up to the new level of life, with hope and passion to serve the Lord.

 

Feeding Children

           As I conversed with old people there and some educators traditionally people there were so focus with their farm work with little concern for the health and education of their children that’s why Almost 80 percent of young people ages 17-21 got married especially at Sitio Candelaria. They have a very low perspective on Education that’s why I urged all of you to pray for Pastor Larry and Judy that God will give them wisdom and more passion for these people so that they will be ministered not just spiritually but in all aspects of life or we call this Holistic ministry. This is a church- looking for every single opportunity to serve the people especially those among the least of them.

 

What is All-About Tagumpay?

 

Feeding Children

            Tagumpay is located 110 kilometers north of Puerto Princesa and 15 kilometers before Roxas. This is composed of 9 Sitios with more or less 3,800 people and the source of their livelihood are farming and very few fishing.  This place is located in lower ground facing high mountains and hills and on the back side is more or less 4 kilometers to the sea. Three rivers from mountains of Magara, Rizal and Tagumpay flows together crossing the southern end of Tagumpay that’s why when heavy rain comes the whole Barangay were flooded by more or less eight feet from the ground. 97 percent of houses are all temporary and made of bamboo with very high floor and some of them have family boat to use in case of flood.

Teaching Children

              For their health status, 60 percent of children are malnourished and every family have an average of 6-7 children. The place also is not suited for hog and poultry raising. Their field was visited by heavy flood every other year or even several times a year especially when there is typhoon.  Yet, in all of these they never gave-up for they have no choice but to plant and pray that the Lord will protect their field. They have only 7-8 percent professional and the rest are all undergraduates because they have very low perspective in education.

 

            Pastor Larry and Judy accepted the challenge to take part on the vision and programs of the community leading to their social and spiritual transformation.  It so heartbreaking to think that many of our people were living in their comfort without giving just a little concern with these people not just in Tagumpay only but also  in some other parts of the world. Jesus said “If you’ve done this to the least among your brethren, you did it to me.”

Visit at Santa Lourdes RRCP Church

           Following day, I left Tagumpay and spent time in the afternoon until evening with Santa Lourdes church.  We have a very good time of worship and teaching of the word of God and everyone were revived.  The Lord leaded me to give them a message about “A Maturing Church.”  RRCP Santa Lourdes is an example of a Colossians Church because they became matured in their giving and support both for the needs of the church and Pastor.

 

             Glory to God! RRCP church is increasing and maturing! It’s just more than a dream but a dreams come true because when you have the passion for it, the Lord will cause you to gave birth and that is the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ that came to birth because you have prayed and take a little sacrifice for her but precious to God. Amen! To Him alone deserves all these.  Thank you Lord for all that you have done!

 

            "And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here I am! Send me,"  (Isaiah 6:8)

Love and Prayers,

Pastor Alejo Alagos