Category: Philippines

Summer vacation definitely doesn’t exist in ministry, and thank God for that. We have been blessed to be busy with what God is doing in and around Cebu these past couple months. Here’s a little recap of what has been going on.

In June a team from Believers City Church in Wisconsin joined us for an intensive few weeks filled with Ministry Training Institutes, a Youth Leader Summit, a youth group night, church, a creative writing workshop, a university pop-up Bible study, and Street Level Ministries in Cebu. It is easy to focus on the events, but interwoven through all of it is the relationships that form before, during and after. We met many new friends during these events, and grew deeper in the relationships that have been forming over the years. It is a joy to spend time with pastors, church leaders, and youth who are seeking to serve God and to have that bond together, no matter what side of the planet we are from.

In addition to those scheduled events, we have also taken time to just hang out with those who are part of our church and campus ministry in Cebu – celebrating birthdays and graduations, playing games, and even learning some new art skills!

In July we officially kicked off Street Level Ministries Tagbilaran, which is an exciting new chapter to open. A few members from Cebu joined with a regular attender of our pop-up studies and we spent the morning inviting students – and people showed up! We will now be meeting on the 1st Thursday of each month for dinner and Bible discussion and are looking forward to seeing what God does on Bohol.

This past Saturday we hosted a Printmaking Art Day at our Cebu space. Students and recent grads from all over the city came to enjoy a creative day making their own rubber stamp and a few prints. It was fun to see all the different styles, and the final products were pretty impressive!

For church, we are working our way through 2 Corinthians on Sunday evenings. Recently, we have had three students join the School of Ministry too. Thanks to technology we are all able to join the class in Wisconsin, which is a great opportunity for us.

Looking ahead, we are gearing up for the next semester with many outreaches and events being planned with our university crew. Beyond that, preparations are underway for the next MTI classes and Youth events – so stay tuned for those updates soon! If you pray for Shofar Mission, we truly appreciate it.

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.