Coaching, Training, Mentoring & Partnership

Coaching with Pastor Folmer

On February 24-26, all the church planters and trainers of Faith Evangelical Church of the Philippines went to Binalonan, Pangasinan to spend the days with Pastor Mar, the National Church Planting Coordinator and Pastor Folmer, OMS International trainer for church multiplication.  During the meeting you could observe what it actually means to train and to coach.  Pastor Folmer coached Pastor Mar and then Pastor Mar coached the rest of the church planting team.

The first hours together were spent in worship and fellowship.  It was followed by reports of each church planter and trainer about the victories, challenges and opportunities they face in the ministry in general as well as in training leaders implementing Train and Multiply as a follow-up during the training in October of 2009.  The reporting was followed by group discussions helping each other turn the challenges into opportunities.  Through group efforts and discussions, each church planter and trainer was able to see clearly the direction toward achieving their goals and vision, pointed out their mistakes and be able to make new plans to improve the ministry.

Pastor Mar facilitated all the discussion and reports of individuals and groups.  Pastor Folmer ended the time together with words of encouragements and challenge to continue training leaders and planting churches.  All the church planters left the place physically tired but spiritually renewed and their vision and passion fueled by hope and new insights they learned from the coaches and from each other as well.

 

Train and Multiply Training

 

On February 27, there are ten FECPI churches who sent their pastors and lay leaders to attend the training in church multiplication using Train & Multiply in Faith Fellowship in Pozorrubio, Pangasinan. The churches include Bulacan, Tarlac, Sta. Ignacia, La Union, San Carlos, Dagupan, Malued, Alaminos, Pozorrubio and Rizal.  One pastor of different denomination also joined the training to see how they can adopt the same process of leadership training.  There were around 50 delegates in all attended by young professionals, fathers, mothers and even some senior citizens who were all involved in leadership in their respective churches.

Pastor Mar, as the National Church Planting Coordinator, facilitated the overall training.  He was being coached by Pastor Folmer, an OMS Missionary Trainer for Church Planting Ministry.  The training was highlighted by group discussions and activities until finally at the end they were able to plan with their pastors and lay leaders on how they will implement the said training.

Almost all the churches started with identifying their key leaders to be trained for pastoral leadership like cell group leaders, church planters and lay pastors.  They planned also to implement the training as soon as they get back to their churches by praying and talking to the identified leaders.  The lay leaders were also encouraged to start new groups and train new leaders.  All the churches were convinced that training leaders is the key to church growth and multiplication.

 

 

All the churches reported also in detail all the advantage and benefits of implementing Train and Multiply in training leaders.  They all look forward to growth, not just of leaders, but of members as new groups will be started and opened.  They are positive also that it will bring growth in their tithes and offering collection every Sunday as the people will be taught and discipled in a deeper way by the new leaders equipped and trained under Train and Multiply.

The concept of planting new churches instead of bringing new believers to an existing church somewhere is not something new to the churches in partnership with church planting ministry.  But for those who belong to the traditional churches, they still need time to transition and they resolved to apply it in cell group and training cell leaders which is a good start already.

We, in the church planting ministry is looking forward to partnership with local organized churches and see them grow and multiply as they train leaders using Train and Multiply.

faith fellowship lucena celebrates its 3rd anniversary

In May 2006 the team of church planters settled in Lucena City to plant a church. They gathered their first contacts to start a worship celebration on September 21 of the same year. This month they celebrated their 3rd anniversary and SC Minda, the team leader praised God for His faithfulness and goodness to the people who obeyed and followed Him.

SC Minda had three teammates since then. Abby Galzote was her first teammate who also did not fail to visit the church since she left to study. The second was Alejo Cuyno who only stayed there for several months and finally Chat Relucio who is still there serving with SC Minda in Lucena City.


The anniversary celebration was highlighted by the different presentations of each house church in different barangays. Pastor Mar gave an inspirational and challenging message to the people and many came forward during the altar call.



Today, they are ministering to five different barangays with the help of two lay leaders who assist the church planters with the house churches. Through the years the workers of Lucena give glory to the Lord for the changed lives they have witnessed and the families who came to the Lord.

For more pictures of the anniversary celebration please see the slide show.

FBC students field visitation

On September 4, 2009, ten students of Church Planting Principles in Faith Bible College went to two church planting locations in Region 4 to experience what it is like to be in a church planting field. Two other FBC staffs joined them—Debbie and Loren. The students were divided into two teams. The first team joined the Tagaytay team with Pastor Teddy and Enric Lepardo while the other half joined the Cavite team with Pastors Bong and Gerry Bulilan.

Both teams gathered to spend time in prayer and devotion and for the church planters to give brief orientation of what they do in the field, their vision and mission and some of their experiences. They also showed the students and taught them some of the things they do in small groups and also in evangelism. Then they were ready to go.

The students, equipped with their skills and knowledge in evangelism and theirs heart full passion and excitement an d courage, went out to evangelize together with the church planters. The church planters demonstrated first what they do then let the students did the same. The students reported in class all their first time in evangelism, especially, going from house to house because some of them did that for the first time. But there were also those who were already doing that in their respective ministry assignments.

That was indeed a day full of adventures, learning and fun. The students were not only blessed but were also a blessing to the people they shared the gospel, the people they visited and to the church planters who accommodated them.

Tuy House Church joined Tagaytay Faith Fellowship

It was a day of worship, fellowship, learning and celebration for the churches in Tuy, Batangas and Tagaytay City. The rain did not stop them to gather in Colossian Gardens in Tagaytay City. From morning until evening, they were together to celebrate God's faithfulness in their life.

Pastor Mar shared with them the core values and mission and vision statements of FECPI.
Pastor Teddy with Bro. Pol distributed the baptismal certificate in the afternoon.
Pastor Vadeth, Pastor Teddy and the leaders of Tagaytay facilitated the worship in the morning while the praise and worship team of Tuy led the worship.

These are the young people of Tagaytay and Tuy, Batangas... the future leaders of the church.



The Rodriguez family leads the house church in Tuy, Batangas.

FBC 20th Anniversary Celebration

FECPI Church Planting Teams joined Faith Bible College to celebrate 20 years of God's faithfulness. 18 of our 20 church planters are proud graduates of the Bible College.

It was a week of celebration. On Tuesday, the 25th of August, was the kick off where pastor Brent gave the message during the chapel service. Wednesday was a day of prayer, before each class began, the students and the faculty members spent time to pray. In the evening was a night of prayer and worship opened for everyone. By the way, the classes during the whole week were opened for those who would like to sit in the class.

The peak of the celebration was on Friday night, the 28th of August, where Miss Ermalee Hidalgo was installed as the first woman and Filipino president of the Bible College. It was indeed a night of celebration attended by pastors from the Wesleyan church where Miss Ermalee came from and was molded to be the woman she is right now. FECPI pastors and friends also came, especially those who have been part of the Bible college. PRASIA rendered beautiful music that night but, of course, the highlight would be Miss Ermalee's speech.

It was not just a celebration but a fellowship, a reunion to be exact, of old friends who met in Faith Bible College...

new house church in Bacoor, Cavite

Ariel and Jovie Manahan became Christians in Batangas where we used to have a church planting team. The closing of the ministry there did not stop the growth of this couple. They also experienced a lot of testing of faith and almost gave up but the grace of God sustained them and they continued to serve the Lord.

In May, the couple decided to transfer to Cavite province where Pastor Bong and Pastor Gerry are ministering. They were visited and followed up and soon a house church in their place was opened. Their relatives and neighbors joined them and the group continued to grow. Another couple from the neighborhood who were already Christians but had no church to attend to joined their house church. The couple now leads the house through praise and worship.

it started with a vision

Bro. Pol Rodriguez and his wife Alice
they joined the prayer gathering in Tagaytay together with the church planters of region 4 and P.Mar in June

Pol Rodriguez was an elder in Sta. Ignacia Faith Fellowship, his wife and their kids were also involved and trained in the ministry there. In April 2009 his family had a vacation in Pol's hometown in Tuy, Batangas. It has been 19 years since he left the place and he has been praying for his whole family to be saved and to have a church in their place. He tried to talk to many pastors ministering near their place not knowing it was him the Lord will send to his own family to start a church.

He started with his siblings and their kids a Sunday Worship when they got there. His sister and her husband have been Christians in other place but since they got back there, they were not attending any church. There the vision of Pol grew to start a church not just with his family but in their town because there was no evangelical church in their place and the population is growing. He saw the potential of his town starting with his own family since his parents got saved already.

together there were 5 families which started to gather in April every Sunday for worship and every Tuesday for small group. Pol and his wife preach and teach the Bible, his sister Mia and husband Marlon were in-charged of the praise and worhsip and their children teaching the kids... Tagaytay team is currently helping them with training and materials and also gather with them for fellowship!

God Moves at Faith Fellowship-Israel!

Dear Prayer partners,
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It has been more than a week that we are experiencing the favor of God here in Israel. We arrived here on the day that Israel is celebrating their 61st year of independence. We stayed in the hotel for 3 days and after that we moved to the church where we could stay for the rest of our time here in Israel.

When we arrived at the hotel, my Brother Samzon and his wife Mejani with their son Shan and also with his employer visited us and brought us to the beach adjacent to the hotel. There are more than 60,000 Filipinos in Israel working as care giver for the elderly.

Since it was Independence Day for Israel many Filipinos took advantage of the holiday to have some sort of relaxation in the beach and it was a perfect timing for us because there we met my sister whom I did not see for more than 13 years. She is working in Israel with her husband for a long time.
My Sister and her husband (sitting beside my wife) invited us in their church “The Lord Our Righteousness Ministry” for a dinner. This is one of the Filipino Churches in Tel Aviv, Israel. We had fellowship with their pastors, a couple, and their daughter (sitting beside me). They told us how their church is helping the Filipino communities especially for those who have babies; they founded in their church a nursery for children taking care of the babies while the Filipino parents are working. At present they accommodate more than 40 babies in their nursery and one of their full time workers is my sister Elisa.

When we finally checked out from the hotel and went to our church building we were met by some of the members who are so excited to see us including the sisters of my wife who are also working here in Israel.
Our church “Faith Fellowship Israel” covered our expenses for our trip including our accommodations.

I was surprised when I saw the church building because of what God has done in a short period of time; their musical instruments are almost complete, they are renting the building for 3,500 shekels if converted is more than 35,000 pesos, the members are working together for the growth of the church and most especially I have observed how they commit themselves to preserve their testimony as true followers of Jesus Christ.

The following day May 2 our church celebrated their 2nd anniversary. Their theme “We are the salt and light of the world” reveals their commitment and purpose of existence here in Israel. I have seen their joy when I read the portion of Ptr. Brent’s report to the general conference about Israel Faith Fellowship and how he supported the vision for the ministry of the OFW.



The service started at 7 pm and lasted for almost 3 hours. The event was attended by at least 80 people and some of them received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior while some recommitted their lives to the Lord.
I was blessed when I personally heard the narration of the church history. Bro Samzon and Mejani Ocampo stepped out of faith to start the church and later they were joined by Rosie Vallente and Jeana Ocampo who are members of Sta. Ignacia Faith Fellowship in the Philippines. At first they were even ridiculed by some Filipino believers here in Israel who had no idea of the vision that drove them to start Faith Fellowship Israel. But the Lord has blessed the church by sending trained workers like my sister Jenny who is a graduate of Faith Bible College.

Today, there are 8 fully committed workers and leaders in this church and at least a total of 27 regular members.



After the service it was just like a reunion for us because we met some relatives and friends whom we haven’t seen for a long time.

Most likely all Filipino workers here in Israel are looking forward for Saturdays to be refreshed and be strengthened by the fellowship with their relatives and friends. Our church is taking advantage of this free day to worship God together at 7:00 – 9:00 pm. Some members stay in the church until Sunday afternoon and they go back to their work until the next Saturday.
During working days some members of the church, friends and relatives are inviting us to visit them in their work and meet their employers. We praise God we experience the hospitality of the Hebrew people.

After their anniversary, the following Saturday was a different setup of worship service because I divided them into small groups and discussed with them thoroughly the importance of our core values.
They enjoyed and learned because they participated in the discussion focused on the core values of our denomination.
We will make use of every Saturday while we are here to discuss and learn more on our mission and vision as a denomination and how to achieve them through cell group strategy.


We ended the worship service last Saturday by honoring the mothers and they were very happy when the church gave them red roses and few minutes free call to their children and love ones in the Philippines
Please continue to pray for our time here in Israel that we may contribute for the spiritual development of our leaders here. Pray also that God will send and develop more workers in this church that they may reach their vision to build strong and multiplying Filipino Churches in every key cities of Israel. Also pray that they may help in the fulfilment of the rapid multiplication of churches in the Philippines by referring their families and friends to our church planters who are close to their homes.

Also pray that they may help in sending people who are called in the ministry but have no capacity to pay their tuition and other bills for their training at FBC.
Lastly, I praise the Lord for the support of our leaders especially to Ptr Brent, he has been supportive to the ministry here in Israel and to the OFW since this vision was shared to FECPI leaders. Without the support of our leaders (BOT), pastors and members this mission for Israel remains to be a dream.
By God’s grace we will maximize our time to fulfil God’s purpose of sending us here in Israel.
To God be the Glory!
In Christ Service,

Ptr. Mar & Bell