We arrived in Tagbilaran this week, ready for action. Street Level members from Cebu along with a couple team members spent the day flyering outside of University of Bohol and Bohol Island State University, spreading the word for a pop-up Bible study that evening.

At the same time, we hosted a Ministry Training Institute and got to meet some local pastors and ministry workers. Even though it was the fourth time teaching this material, it was revitalized with a new class and new insights. It was good to get to know those who attended.

The Street Level Bible study had a few returning guests and a few new guests who came from the flyers. Pastor Jesse taught on John 12:1-8, the story of Mary pouring oil on Jesus’ feet and how we need to give up our security (and everything else!) to follow Jesus. While enjoying some coffee and treats, we discussed our own experiences following Jesus.

After traveling back from Leyte to our home base on Cebu Island, we got ready for the next few days. On Friday and Saturday we hosted another MTI class for pastors and ministerial staff from around the Cebu City area. It was great to be able to make some new connections and hear about local ministry efforts. While it was a smaller class than the last two, it made for some deeper conversations, especially on the second day after getting to know each other better since most students were new to us. 

While the second day of the MTI was wrapping up on Saturday, our magazine ministry called Word on the Street hosted a creative writing workshop. It was open to any 18-25 year old interested in writing, whether or not they were going to school for it. 11 people attended, along with some Street Level members and a couple from the visiting American team.

It was a great rainy afternoon learning not only about the craft of writing, but also the reality and purpose of writing. After learning different concepts, we would put that into practice by doing writing exercises, sharing what we wrote with each other, playing a weird word game called Balderdash, and most importantly making some new friends. The latest issue of WOTS even showed up during the workshop just in time to go home with everyone who came. 

On Tuesday and Wednesday our team taught the second of four scheduled MTI classes at an entirely new location in Hilongos on the island of Leyte. We met at Chicka-an restaurant in their meeting room, and it worked great.

The pastors and ministry leaders who attended were a wonderful group to spend these two days with. They were eager to learn and participate, and we had many conversations about ministry and life in general during the breaks and lunchtime. The topic of the “Life of Jesus as our Blueprint for Ministry” was appreciated by the group. It gave us an opportunity to introduce our ministry goals both in the States as well as the Philippines. We were excited to meet this new group and have high hopes for more connections with them in the future!

Four of us had a great time with Hope of the City Church Hilongos youth, who invited us to their church for a casual evening of games and a Bible study and discussion on Luke 17:11-19. We got to know them, which was a lot of fun. We enjoyed the evening talking about gratitude and Jesus’ reaction to the nine lepers who didn’t glorify God after being miraculously healed.

On Friday, we finished up the Bantayan Ministry Training Institute. It was a good time, and we hope and pray that the material that was discussed and learned will be applied in real ways and that churches will be benefited by it.

On Saturday, we and some of the Street Level crew hosted a Youth Leaders Summit for student- aged youth on Bantayan. The summit was titled ‘What if Jesus Meant What He Said? – Words That Turned the World Upside-down’ and we taught about some of the hard things Jesus said like cutting off our hands and hating our families. We think it was an impactful day, and it was a fun time of worship and learning. We got to meet a lot of people and have some good discussion in small groups. After the summit, we said goodbye and began our journey back to Cebu for church on Sunday.

Thank you for praying for us. We have church tonight and a travel day to Leyte ahead of us.