PGM -CHURCH/FOOD DISTRIBUTION MINISTRY 2022

AMBASSADOR BAPTIST CHURCH OROQUIETA CITY MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES

DECEMBER 2021

Ever dearest Brother David Gordon, Ma’am Mary Jane Gordon and Paul Matthew Gordon, Greetings to you all in the precious name of our King of kings and Lord of lords, the soon returning Lord Jesus Christ,
Revelation 19:16.
First, we are so thankful for our Lord’s protection and safe-keeping of us and of our brethren during the devastation made by the Super Typhoon Odette, internationally named Typhoon Rai which made nine (9) landfalls in our country last December 16-17, this year. According to the Disaster Response Operations Monitoring and Information Center (DROMIC) data released on 20 December, over 1.8 million people (452,307 families) were affected in 3,286 barangays or villages across Regions V, VI, VII, VIII, X, XI, MIMAROPA in Visayas, and CARAGA in Mindanao. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported that 631,402 people remained displaced, most of them in evacuation centers. In the first 72 hours, the typhoon left 63 cities and municipalities without electricity, as of 19 December only 9% of which has been restored. Authorities closed and restricted operations at 73 seaports. Initial reports indicated that some 20,102 houses were destroyed and 34,681 houses damaged, though this number is expected to significantly increase. Debris clearance, restoring power and communication remain of immediate importance. As of this writing several of our people in those affected areas have no connection of electric power and no connection of communication lines. We are doing all we can to help with the meager means that our Lord has provided us with. Nevertheless, some of our brethren in those affected areas lost their houses, their church buildings and others; their lives. We may not be able to understand why the Lord allows it to happen almost every year in our disadvantaged nation, but we still believe as blood-bought believers in His Word that promised: “And we know that all things work together for good...” Romans 8:28. Therefore, our hearts are still thankful that we survived, 1 Thessalonians 5:18, and has been given a chance to serve the Lord, Colossians 3:14; Acts 13:36, in bringing boys and girls, men and women, John 1:42, to the saving knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Luke 19:10, until He brings us home or until He comes for us believers to be ever be with our Lord, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
Secondly, we are thankful that we do not lose the vision of our mission despite this pandemic; and that is to preach or bring the Gospel in season or out of season, 2 Timothy 4:2. Since we cannot do face to face meetings or gather in big numbers at the moment, our Emmanuel Baptist Children Feeding Ministry; by the grace of God, still managed to reach our children through our bundles of joy program. We brought these packed items of groceries to the houses of our children in the different villages of our city and in our neighboring towns, month after month; to show these less fortunate families that someone loves them for Jesus’ sake. We also insert a gospel tract with those groceries. All glory goes to the Son of God!
In closing we attached a lot of pictures of our food-packs and actual distributions of our Emmanuel Baptist Children Feeding Ministry, and our new school facilities of our Anchor of Hope Baptist Christian School, and some photos of our church building project and our people at Ambassador Baptist Church despite this pandemic. We hope that these will bless your hearts since pictures speaks a lot of words! We are hopeful that when we go back to normal, we will resume to have our big gatherings of children and young people in our church building and in our school facilities that the Lord has blessed us with. This time our focus is to share the Gospel whatever the cost and whatever platform our Lord will open up for us.