Paul & Deb's Updates

June 25, 2025 Download this update.

The month of May 2025 held two big events for the women in all the churches in the regions where we work, first in

Lapoc (May 1-3, 2025) and then in Tumpagon (May 29-31, 2025). Thank you so much for praying for these events.

This video shows you what took place in Tumpagon with the women from the Higaonon and Cebuano churches in the Dulangan region, including some of the other regions as well. In all, about 540 women were able to attend this conference. Another 70 women were registered to attend but due to heavy rains they couldn’t make it, as the river flooded and, in their places, the river must be crossed on foot.

Click the links below to watch how amazing this time was:

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-ZqDcVfKHw
Vimeo - https://vimeo.com/1095465813

This video starts with an aerial view of the trail we walked, literally hundreds and hundreds of times, when we were “baby” missionaries, through the forest and across the river between Cauyunan and Tumpagon. Now there is a newly finished road and a bridge, and you can drive between the two villages in about 4 minutes.😊

The Lord brought together women in all walks of life from young mothers to older widows, from newly beareaved to newlywed. And together, through His Word and through the comfort and refreshing that He gives in worship and fellowship, many of us went home with renewed strength and equipped with spiritual tools to help us through the next set of trials before us. We all want to arrive at our eternal and wonderful city that Jesus is preparing for us, having run the race well!

Hope that you enjoy and are encouraged by this video and update!❤️

Our God is a close, intimate, near, almighty, powerful, unchangeable and incredibly LOVING GOD!! And as we learnt at our conferences, our help comes from the Lord who made the heavens and the earth.

Love Deb (for the both of us)

April 27, 2025 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-Workers in our Lord Jesus,

It has been a while since we sent out an update so first, we send each of you our Love 😊. It is so so good that each of us are able to have a part in our Lord’s work of world evangelism – in one way or another. Our lives are so short.

A bit of news that is brand new is that last week we had our Annual Men’s Conference in Lapoc.
In 2024 there were 300+ men who attended, and I taught on marriage and men’s responsibility in the marriage relationship. Well this year there were 552 men in attendance – an amazing turnout.

The topic this year was – “Being A Loving Father”, emphasizing the father’s role in parenting. The sessions we had were awesome with a capital A!!!
We shared on the reality that how us dads conduct ourselves, ends up many times being the model that our sons follow, hence us fathers need to have a good testimony before our children/sons, and we need to teach our children to live like God wants them to - especially our sons.

Below is a link where you can view a 1 minute clip of our men’s time. It shows our awesome Lapoc venue that has been in development now for 25 years, it shows how we travel – in trucks, how we cook – over a multitude of fires, and how we meet together. I hope this clip is an encouragement to you today.

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/1079052999
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxaE8oh5juc

We also talked a lot about us dads being humble before our kids and being willing to ask for forgiveness when we have not lived as Christ desires, and when we have not treated our kids the way He would have us do. We want to model strong Godly lives to our children which they in turn can model to their kids – our grandkids. The flow-on effect is important.

As these men have gone home to their home churches, many testimonies have been relayed back to us of what has been taking place since the men got home. God has been working mightily through this conference and families are being strengthened, especially father-son relationships. To God be the glory! I can’t express how beautiful the testimonies have been that we have heard. Many of the men have come from difficult childhoods --- but they have ended up in Jesus’ hands when they trusted Him for salvation, and Jesus is conforming them to His image (and me too😊).

In October this year, Deb and I are going to make a trip to visit our supporting churches, friends and families in South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland. It has been about 8 years since we visited these people who are so dear to us. It will take us about 3 months for us to get around and we are very much looking forward to this time. So it will be a mini furlough for us and we will then return back here to the Philippines in early January 2026. The only state that we will not get to is Victoria as we visited there during Covid but at that time we were not able to continue to Qld and NSW due to the covid lockdowns that happened and the travel restrictions that came with these lockdowns.

We really don’t do furloughs as such any more as we want to be here in the Philippines for most of each year and press on with the work that God has called us to, but we will take this time out later this year and deep down, we are really really looking forward to it. Please pray for this time with us that all our plans will fall into place for this Oct-Dec time. We will also get to see Jubab and Freya and our Mums during this time.

Well, this update has been longer in coming than what we normally put out, so again, thanks for standing with us in the work and we send you all our love,

Paul and Debbie

March 2, 2025 Download this update.

We went to Lantud and Lapoc yesterday and passed this green valley. It reminded me of Psalm 23. “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.”

What a wonderful Shepherd we have, and what amazing provision He has made for us – green pastures and still waters!

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me…”

We need this comfort as we are grieving the death of one of our dear sisters, JenJen Cachero, who the Lord took home to be with Himself on February 25 at 1:00pm.

She was a very loved sister, only 25 years old, 3 years married, active in the Tingalan church in the Praise and Worship team and in Women’s Ministry, always sitting near the front at our women’s events and conferences. She was a joy to be with and such a sweet sister. Last week, the churches in the Dulangan region took up a big collection to help with her and her husband with hospital expenses. So many were praying for her as she had been in hospital for a month with meningitis and resulting complications.

When we visited the Tingalan church, JenJen (on the right) operated Paul’s PowerPoint for him as she was also the tech person in the Tingalan church. We didn’t know it would be the last time we saw her.

Please pray for Junrey, her husband as he struggles with great grief at the loss of his wife, for JenJen’s parents and brothers and sisters (all of them our brothers and sisters in the Lord), and for the entire Tingalan church family as they all struggle to cope with the loss of JenJen who was so well loved. Her funeral is next week on March 6th.

I just tried to call our missionaries Rudy and Precy. It is 6:40 pm and dark, but they are still at Limunsudan, one of the outreaches, preaching the Word. They have their little 3-year-old with them, Luke, who is feeling miserable with impetigo, and Precy is still recovering from a severe skin allergy, and also they just found she is pregnant. But they don’t want to take a night off or miss their teaching schedule in Limunsudan where they are in a spiritual battle for souls. They are fighting the good fight and pressing on.

Thankfully, their house is nearly completed and in 10-14 days, they should be able to move in. We took the jalousies for their windows and other building supplies in yesterday which were needed to finish off the last bits and pieces.

Here’s a little look at Rudy and Precy’s home in Lantud, almost ready for them to move into. Paul and Ronnie were just having a little powwow about how to install something. They have been a team for 25 years and love this work they do together.

Please pray for the ongoing building during this next 10-14 days in Lantud, and that Rudy and Precy will be able to move into their home soon. Pray for Precy and Luke that they will recover and keep well. Hopefully the better living conditions in the new place will help a lot.

Please pray for Paul as he prepares for a Men’s Conference coming up in April, and for Deb as she prepares for two Women’s Conferences in May.

Each of our missionary teams in each of the regions where we are working are going through struggles and opposition, and each team needs prayer, especially in these troublesome days.

We praise our GOOD SHEPHERD for green pastures and still waters!!

For Jesus’ Glory,
Paul and Deb

November 9, 2024 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-workers in our Lord Jesus,

Well our Lapoc Youth Conference finished last weekend. It was superb with a capital S!! There is a link below where you can view the video.

Things you may find interesting are –
How we travel to conference,
How we do our food - each church group caters for themselves.
Also have a look at how beautiful our Lapoc complex is – we have about 5 hectares there with a large portion of the land planted with hardwood and coffee trees. You can see this in the shots taken from a drone.

There was a young man who attended the conference who arrived as a gay, with long hair, fingernail polish, calling himself Cristine… He was really moved with all that he heard from God’s Word at the conference and the day they went home, he cut his hair, removed the fingernail polish and has gone back to his real name of Jun. He testified joyfully saying God has given him a 2nd chance at life and he wanted to glorify Him. He returned to the design that God has for his life.

Another bit of news is that this week we purchased a block of land in a place called Limunsudan to build a church on. This has been a pretty closed area to the gospel as the chiefs there have resisted God’s Word. The main chieftain in this area is a woman, and recently her son got saved in a different village where we work. He had a lot of struggles in his life and was a terrible worry to her but he attended our men’s conference earlier this year and when he went home, he went home a changed man. His chieftain mother noticed the change in his life and gave us full access to her area. Deb and I are going to Limunsudan next Saturday and hope to meet this chieftain. Jesus died for her too and he wants to make her new. Please pray.

Youth Camp Movie Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDoy0lRPLSY
https://vimeo.com/1027894734

Much Love, Paul and Deb

October 29, 2024 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-workers in the Gospel,

In August we held our 3rd missions conference. It was a beautiful time where we shared in the Word a lot, had times of praise, relaxed and ate delicious food, had fantastic fellowship together and each team shared a testimony of what is happening in their regions. In a nutshell – it was a precious time.

If you can pray take time to pray for these families – it would be such a blessing. The link below is of our missionary team here. They labor for our Lord, day in and day out, people are being saved in their regions and discipleship taking place, and then they also have trials to endure like we all do. At times it is tough work, there is sickness, so many needs amongst the people they minister to, being separated from their families and the enemy resists them. Please pray. https://paulanddeb.com/coworkers.html

Also a few links of the missionary conference. Just some highlights.
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/1024169121
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4_U69t_Ltg

Much Love in Christ,

Paul and Deb

October 16, 2024 Download this update.

Our Dearest Co-workers,

It has been awhile since we updated you on all of our comings and goings and personal lives so we thought we would take pen to paper (don’t you miss those days? 😊) and send you some news.

We do all of our office work these days from our home-office in Carmen, Cagayan de Oro, which was built last year. It has been a wonderful provision from the Lord – a peaceful place with enough space where we can work very productively. Our video and commentary series on the Book of Acts is nearing completion which is very exciting. We already have 27 videos up on the web along with visual aids and study guides, and all of our churches are using this material and being blessed along with ourselves at the things God is teaching us from His Word.

Lord willing, we will be able to complete the whole series on Acts this year in the Talaandig language. Then following closely behind the Talaandig, we are also developing the same series in the Cebuano language which has about 20 million speakers. We are producing all of the Bible teaching series in Cebuano as well because there are quite a number of Cebuano churches now that our team has planted in all the areas we are working. The universal Cebuano church will also have access to these materials.

There is also a lot of work we need to do ‘filling the gaps’. Our missionary teams and church ministry teams are doing an amazing job in leading the charge with evangelism and in discipleship and caring for each of the churches. But from time to time there are gaps that they need us to fill – sometimes a shoulder just to lean on, or to feel us as their spiritual parents standing in solidarity with them, or to sit into the night and brain-storm together and pray….. so we try to fill the gaps.

Our energy levels aren’t what they used to be but we can still travel and hike a bit and we love to go and visit the churches and the ministry teams. Last weekend we went to the Ricodo area and spent half the day hanging out with the beautiful team in the picture at the top of this letter. It was such a precious time, sharing a meal together and then sitting in a circle and talking about each of their ministries for hours. Nanay on the very right of the picture in the blue top, has three grandsons who are all serving on our team as missionaries, and almost her entire family are serving in the church, following her example. She is still serving in spite of being in her late 70’s and having frequent bouts of pain and weakness. Our evening was spent with Roel and Irene, who have headed up the missionary work there for 14 years now. We slept at their place. And the next morning Paul preached in the church there and there were a large number of people present including the Dato, or chieftain, who is now a believer and witnesses fervently to his fellow chieftains about Jesus.

I was also amazed to see a young mother, still pale and a bit weak from having given birth just one week before, who brought her new baby and came to hear the teaching.

Also a young man, 27 years old, who can hardly walk, crippled in all his legs and arms from birth, he came too from quite a distance and was sitting in the front seat. His testimony in the midst of his suffering is that Jesus will one day give him a new body and that he won’t always be crippled and twisted.

We always come away from any place we visit just amazed at what God is doing, at His love in drawing us to Himself, at His power in keeping us.

Next weekend we will be visiting another one of our churches – one we actually have never been to before, although we have met many of the believers from there at conferences. It will be a great joy to sit with them in their own village and see where they meet together and to refresh them in their faith and be strengthened ourselves all over again as we see what God is doing there.

The picture above is the 3-4 year old church in Tingalan. Our outreach works start by meetings in homes or school buildings or market-places in new villages, but when the people listening to the Word grow to a group of about 30 faithful believers in Jesus, our churches in all the regions take up a collection and build them a simple building like the one in the picture above of the Tingalan church. Paul and I help to equip them with chairs, musical instruments, a computer and a data projector for their ministries.

As their numbers grow and they get too big for their small building that usually just has bamboo walls, we look to the Lord to do a building project for them and build a more secure and strong building with cement floors and walls, which is the plan for the Tingalan church we visited recently.

There are always several building projects underway and currently Paul has oversight of several large projects including a huge cement water tank for the church in Tumpagon, and preparation of materials for building a missionary home for Rudi and Precy in Lantud. They have been there now for over four months and the work there is growing at a very fast rate.

One of their outreaches is in an area called Limunsudan which has a large forested area. Please pray for the woman chieftain there who is a powerful figure, but she seems warm towards Rudy and Precy and to their team. It is an area with hundreds of people who need Jesus.

Thank you for your partnership in the work of the Gospel!

Thank you for your continual prayers and love that we feel very much.

Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift! (2 Cor 9:15)

Much Love,

Paul and Deb

August 4, 2024 Download this update.

Thank you so much for praying for the two Women’s Conferences – one in Tumpagon (above) July 25-27, and one in Lapoc (below) July 29-31. It was an amazing time and we praise God for the strength He gave to all who were teaching, sharing and leading. Nanah and I, as the speakers, attended both conferences, and there was just one day in-between to give us a chance to take a breath and to travel the 140 or so kilometers from one venue to the other. My heart is so, so full right now and even though I’ve been home for three days, I’ve only just finished recounting to Paul all the things I heard and saw and experienced during my six days away.

The theme was “Run For Heavenly Rewards” and for me and for many of my sisters who were at the conferences, these studies were life changing. Together we focused on Jesus’ exhortation to store up treasures in heaven, not here on earth. We studied the scriptures about the great rewards He has promised for those who serve Him faithfully in this world, who endure persecution for His sake, who give even a glass of cold water to the least of His disciples, who long for His return….and we learnt that His rewards will be abundantly gracious, so amazing that our earthly minds cannot comprehend them, so worth running for! The alternative is to live for what we can get here on earth, which will soon disappear and leave us with nothing.

Many things stand out in my mind as I look back over the time at the conferences this past week. One was a sister Lorna, whose two adult sons were killed at the same time in a motorcycle accident last March. She came forward during the prayer night asking for prayer as she feels like she is going out of her mind with sorrow, like she is losing her faith. She was weeping as I prayed for her and tears were pouring down my own face. I can hardly comprehend her suffering and my heart aches. She asked if I could please write down some scriptures for her, so she could read them and maybe find comfort. By the end of the conference, it seemed like she was finding some consolation and some measure of peace.

Another thing that stands out was the testimony of Evelyn, who could hardly speak she was crying so hard. She has been praying for 5 years for her unsaved parents and brothers and sisters who live in a very remote village where there used to be an outreach some years ago, but it had to be abandoned because of warring and killings. Four months ago, God answered her prayers through a dear couple from the Tinaytayan church who heeded His call and started up the outreach again to this very remote village. Evelyn’s parents and family are now believers in Jesus! She shared that we should always pray and not give up.
Nanah, one of my beautiful sisters and a fellow-servant of Jesus, offered to teach a session at each conference which I accepted with joy. She taught two sessions and I taught the other ten. It was such a joy to see her teaching the Word well, clearly, and without fear (hard to do amongst your peers). God has done great things in her life! Many other sisters from the Lapoc and Tumpagon churches, served tirelessly and in many other capacities.
For a few days, we just drank in the fellowship, the peacefulness, the joy of studying the words of Jesus – hundreds of women together – opening our hearts to one another in our break-out groups, crying, laughing, praising, enjoying meals and coffees together… Many went home to stressful lives with unbelieving husbands, persecutions, physical needs, griefs and burdens, but they are going home more equipped, refreshed spiritually, and knowing that Jesus’ love and power will get them through.

July 23, 2024 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-Workers in the Gospel,

Yesterday (July 22) we sent out the video clip for Jubab and Freya’s Higaonon wedding and I hope you all enjoyed seeing a Higaonon wedding and sharing this special time with us. It was such a beautiful time and a further bonding of our 3 families – Deb and I, Freya’s Mum and Dad and Jubab’s other Dad and Mum, Boboy and Wila.

On a different note - Debbie is an MK (Missionary Kid) and she grew up in the Kalanguya tribe from age 2-16, which is about 240KM north of Luzon, here in the Philippines. This evening 3 of Debbie’s childhood friends from the Kalanguya tribe are arriving to visit us here in Mindanao and they are going to accompany Debbie to attend 2 separate Women’s Conferences. Both conferences are for people from the Higaonon, Cebuano and Talaandig churches that God has allowed us to plant and one of these will be held using the Cebuano language and in the other the Talaandig language will be used. Deb is fluent in both of these languages, and she will be speaking 5 times in each of these events, 10 sessions in total.

Please pray for Deb as she speaks – July 25 through July 31. It is going to be a big job for her, but I know she will shine through it and it will be a time of blessing for all who attend. There are 650+ women who will attend these conferences. 🙏🙏🙏

Much Love to each of you today,
Paul and Deb

July 22, 2024 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-Workers,

On July 6, 2024 Jubab and Freya got married for a second time! 😊 They were legally married in Perth on Feb 3, 2024, but in the Higaonon tribe where Jubab was born, it is the cultural norm to have a 2nd celebration when a young man brings his bride home to his village.

Jubab’s other Mum and Dad (Boboy and Wila) and Deb and I, Freya’s Dad and Mum, along with Jubab’s brothers and sister and the whole extended family wanted to have this celebration --- so the 2nd wedding/ganas/celebration took place. It was a breath-takingly beautiful celebration!

Below are the links that you can view this special event on. ENJOY!

Much Love,
Paul and Deb

Link for the wedding video:
YouTube: https://youtu.be/TIj_nOhSDgA
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/987879189

May 18, 2024 Download this update.

Good Morning Our Beloved Co-Workers,

Can we go longer? Can we go harder? Will our bodies make the distance? Can we have more impact for our Lord? Can we, by the power of our Lord, defeat His enemies and snatch more people from a Christless eternity into an eternal future, forever in our Lord’s presence? Can we trust Him for power and strength even when we feel weak?

This morning I could only just answer – I hope so. And I believe so, but we can only move ahead towards these goals one day at a time. Our Lord is all powerful, and as we stay resting in His hands, and allow the power of the Holy Spirit to work through us and to shine through us – we can have victory – and this is absolute FACT. It is just for a short time and we need to keep the Lord’s goals in our minds. We will get to the finishing line and we will be with Him. James 4:14

A lot of great things are happening all around us in the ministry here. Debbie and I are having a small part, but God is pulling more and more people into the picture to labour with us in the work here in Mindanao, and as He does that we see the work blossoming even more.

On May 1st, we sent out another full time missionary family (a home-grown missionary family from our Rogongon region) and they are now living in the village of Lantod. The Lantod work was a combined outreach
by a number of our regions and there are a growing number of believers there, and SO much room for growth for this baby church in Lantod to reach out into.

Rudy and Precy Dagsaan with their little son Luke have accepted the challenge to live in the Lantod area as full time missionaries, ministering to the existing group of believers in our Lord Jesus, discipling a team of evangelists to make a much bigger footprint in that area, developing church leaders, training the baby church to pray and give and to serve!

This week they went out to spend the evening in this home, with one of their trainee evangelists and his family. Inside is a very well kept and homey little place – the work of his beautiful wife - and four gorgeous children being discipled in the ways of the Lord.

Please pray for Rudy and Precy and Luke as they begin their journey as missionaries. In order to do missions, there are financial needs, and to meet this need, the Lord has raised up a church in Perth to support the Lantod work in full. We praise our God for these Perth brothers and sisters who have just newly stepped out to take a part in the work here in Mindanao.

The area of Lantod is a tri-cultural work amongst Higaonon, Maranao (Muslim) and Cebuano people, because it borders onto the lands of these three people groups. So it has unusual challenges and a need for fluency in three languages and the ability to move between three different cultures which Rudy and Precy both have experience in.

Other news is that we have been doing a lot of construction in several of our regions and have also begun renovation on our houses in the Lapoc Region. Deb and my house (which is now used mainly by other people) should be finished next week. The church building in Lapoc has been extended and church kitchens have been constructed. The renovation and construction and building will continue into the foreseeable future. Infrastructure is another of the big needs for our mission endeavors.

Another development – our Talaandig New Testament which as you know was printed (15,000 copies) and distributed in 2020, and which is also on a Bible App for the new generation of people who like gadgets rather than books, is about to go AUDIO!! There is a mission group called “Faith Comes By Hearing” whose headquarters are in New Mexico, USA. They do recordings of the Bible all over the world which are installed onto a Bible App so that people can listen to God’s Word. This is particularly good for our fellow-believers in the areas where we are ministering as there are quite a number who cannot read.

Joel and Cindy Groening who work with Faith Come By Hearing, will be moving to Lapoc to do this recording for the Talaandig New Testament. How exciting is this!!?? We have already selected a team of 15 readers who will be doing the recording. It will be a multi-voice recording which animates the story and draws the listeners in a little bit more then a single-voice recording. There will be different voices for the Narrator, God, Jesus, the apostle Paul, apostle Peter, etc. Some of the readers will take on several smaller parts. So Joel and Cindy will be able to live in our newly renovated home and they will do this project along with some of the believers up there. Please be praying for them.

Well I think I will finish this off for now. I have enjoyed writing this news to you while I have been sipping on my morning coffee.

Love from us to you,
Paul and Deb

April 9, 2024 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-Workers in Jesus,

Good Morning to each of you this morning. We send you our love and we are so grateful to our Lord for the way we can serve Him together. Each of us being unique and serving in different capacities, but all of us under our mutual head – Jesus.

Thank you so much, each of you, for praying about our Men’s conference which got under way this last week. It was a truly precious time! During the praise and worship, while we praised our Lord from our hearts, I was often moved to tears. And then God blessed me with the privilege of being able to share His Word six times, and each of us 400+ men were blessed by the precious Word of our Lord.

You will notice in the video clip that we have a new kitchen. This year we finished building a very, very long outdoor kitchen. It is about 100 feet long and 16 feet wide (33M x 5M) and all under 1 roof. This provides about 32 cooking areas, where cooking is done over wood fires.

Each area/church that came to the conference bought their own food and pots and pans, and they cooked/catered for their own group in their assigned area in this new kitchen. It works better for us to cater this way, and then after each message from the Word, we would have a big men’s cook up and eat a meal before the next meeting. These new kitchens worked fantastic and in fact, many of the people ate in the kitchens or just outside of them. I love the way the Talaandig and Higaonon folk do food.

We called the conference – “Faith – and Me”. The clip can be viewed at the below links.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FyiZLVn3BQ

https://paulanddeb.com/videos.html

https://vimeo.com/932265663

In 2012 we planted 1,000 hard wood trees and these are now quite tall, and we also planted a lot of Pine trees which are now huge and towering. The Lapoc region has working bees before any conference and trim these trees and the wood serves for fire wood for cooking – so the fire wood is “on the house”. 😊

It is cold in Lapoc and the folk that come to Lapoc for conferences really feel it, so they rug up and bring jackets as most of them come from hot places with low elevation. But it is a nice change for the folk to experience cool weather. Most nights the temperature comes down to 15 degrees Celsius or colder which is real cold for here in the Philippines.

The praise times were amazing – 400 men raising the roof. There was so much passion that flowed out of these men for their Savior.

I pray that you will enjoy this clip and give praise to our Lord along with Deb and I for this time He enabled, Paul and Deb

March 12, 2024 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-Workers in the Gospel,

Well we are back in the Philippines again after spending just over a month in Australia where we attended Jubab and Freya’s wedding. What joy bubbles from our hearts to see our son married and to welcome Freya into our family. I can’t help but wonder what God has prepared for them.

A few things are going on in our lives right now that we would value prayer for.

➔ Debbie is working with Cjun and Aysa again, proof reading the Higaonon New Testament in preparation for
printing – they will work through until Saturday noon this week. This is taking longer than we expected ☹ and it could take another 3 weeks yet to see this completed. We will probably just be able to work on it one week per month due to other ministry demands that we have. Hoping it will be ready to publish in May. Please pray for this.

➔ While Deb, Cjun and Aysa are working on the Higaonon NT, I am preparing for a Men’s event that is taking place later this month in Lapoc. I heard this morning that there will be upwards of 300 men who will gather for the 3 days from March 28-30. I am so excited about this time and I am trusting the Lord to really be able to sow into the lives of these precious men. I will be the speaker at this event and will speak 6 times –Lord Willing😊.
➟ Please pray for me as I prepare for this event and pray for the men who will attend.

➔ Another prayer point.

➟ We are getting ready to send out another missionary family to live and work in the Lantud area. Their names are Rudy and Precy Dagsaan and they have a little boy, Luke. It is a mixed population area of mostly Higaonon people along with some Cebuano and also a good number of Muslim people. So the work will be cross cultural. Rudi and Precy have lived on the Higaonon/Muslim border for some years so are well prepared for this group of people that they will be going to reach.
➟ We have been working in the Lantud area for about 10 years now, and there have been a lot of ups and downs, mainly downs ☹ - until Udi (our son-in- law) and other evangelists on his team, started working there some 12 +months ago. And from the time Udi’s team began working there, the work has looked up and a lot of people have been saved and become very keen for the gospel.
➟ Udi and his team have been leaving to work there each Thursday at 3AM and not getting home until midnight the following Saturday night. This has been very taxing on their families and is not sustainable in the long term.
➟ So what we need now is to move a family in who can continue this work and disciple the existing believers, reach more people for Christ and then train disciples to reach out and plant more churches in their surrounding areas.
➟ Wow! What a challenge for Rudi and Precy. Please pray for them as they prepare to move out. They are good to go and excited! Pray that God will use them to disciple this Lantud church to see them become a “sending church” to reach more people.
➟ Currently we are looking for land in Lantud, in a central location where we can build a house on for them to live. Maybe this week we will find land that we can buy.

Well that is about it for now from Deb and I. Thank you to each one of you who have prayed for us and also sent support to enable us to function. How much God uses us, and you, and our Higaonon and Talaandig brothers and sisters here ---- to be a team --- to witnesses for Jesus in these needy areas here in the Philippines --- reaching the lost for Him and seeing all the glory come to Him.

Much Love, Paul and Deb

January 10, 2024 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-Workers in the Gospel,

As mentioned in a previous update we had 2 ladies conferences in 2023. One in the Cebuano language and one in the Talaandig language. All up, 400+ women attended these conferences. The ladies had fantastic times and we were able to put a short clip together of the 2nd one of these conferences. It can be viewed by clicking on the following link.

Ladies Conference Lapoc - https://vimeo.com/901141213

Also we have been working on a project that we have wanted to do for years. When we moved into the work back in 1987 cameras were very scarce. Hence people did not have access to photos. ☹ Since then more than a generation of people have passed and we had old slides and negatives that we converted to be digital photos. Some are a bit rough due to mildew damage but the Lord has enabled us to maintain a lot memories for a LOT people. So have uploaded these pictures to our website and the Talaandig and Higaonon people who are now becoming tech savvy are downloading these pictures and seeing many of their relatives who have gone ahead to heaven, as well as seeing many pictures of themselves when they were kids. These pictures have been marvelous for the many many people and bought so much joy. If you want to have a look at some of these memories of the work the Lord has done you can view them at the below link.

Higaonon and Talaandig Photoes - https://paulanddeb.com/Photos/index.html

In addition to the above, 2024 has started with a lot of work for us 😊 –

Debbie is working with Cjun and his sister Aysa on the final readthrough of the Higaonon scriptures before we publish this translation. She started on Monday (2 days ago) and then they will work though until Saturday this week. However I think they will need to continue this work for a second and possibly a 3rd week to have this precious translation ready for the publisher. Pray for wisdom for them and sensitivity to the Lord.

Me – I have been working on formatting our “He Wants You” material in Talaandig to prepare it to go to the printer to have books made. This material is already being greatly used and many have been saved through these studies, and it will be used all the more once we get the books produced. Once the material is printed in TA, we will print it in Cebuano and Higaonon also.

Another development – the lady Bible teachers (Reminds me of Philips daughters from the book of Acts) from the Dulangan region have been teaching the word of God in the City prison here in Cagayan. It all came about when some policewomen saw them teaching the students in the schools and they asked them to come and teach the lady inmates. Many of these women in the prison are so pitiful and so much in need in every area of their lives, especially in need of the Gospel which can change their lives. So they have been teaching in this big prison for about 6 weeks now and the word of God is being received with joy. Please pray for this work also.

Apart from that we are on the countdown to Jubab’s wedding on Feb 3. Deb and I will home for 5 weeks for the wedding and to touch base with our families and get some medical checks and then we will be back here again (Lord Willing).

Send our love this Wednesday morning, Another day that the Lord has made, Paul and Deb

January 2, 2024 Download this update.

Good Morning to our Dear Co-Workers in the life changing Gospel about Jesus,

It is January 2, 2024 today and we really want to say Happy New Year to each of you dear people who have stood so, so faithfully with us in the work - for so, so, so long. We pray that 2024 is a hugely good year for each of us and that much Glory will be given to our Lord through our lives. We praise God for you all who partner with us in the work of bringing the Salvation message to the Higaonon and Talaandig people.

2023 was a brilliant year for Deb and I. During the month of December we visited many of our churches and our hearts burst with joy. We were present and I was able to teach the Lord’s Word at the opening of our Landing church and also our Danao church – 2 new church plants that have happened this year. 60 souls in Landing and 30 in Danao.

While we were at Danao and I sat waiting for the time that I would preach, there was a little boy of about 6 or 7 years old, sitting next to me playing with the hairs on my arm and quite intrigued by them – I guess he has not seen people before with hairy arms like mine. And as I sat, I was just in awe of what the Lord has allowed us to see in the work that he has entrusted us to.

Every 6 months, all the pastors and elders from the entire work meet together, and this past 6 months 100 or so of them met, and they reported to Deb and I that we now are teaching in 102 locations, and that 72 of these locations, are churches with more than 20 members. A handful of these churches are large, being upwards of 100, 200 and 300 people. Many people have trusted Jesus this year and there have been many baptisms. Early December in Tumpagon, we baptised 100+ new believers. When we had almost finished the baptism, 2 young teenage girls came forward and said, "We have been saved also through your High School ministry, and we want to be baptised too." Wow!! So the women leaders took these 2 girls aside and asked them all about what had happened to them and upon seeing that they were indeed saved, they had them go into the river and they were baptised also.

Work wise – we have completed the series that we call "He Wants You" which is the 46 lesson series that we teach to bring people to Christ, and the very name of this series reveals the heart of its message.

This year (2024), our goal, under the prompting of our Lord, is to produce our next series and it is to be called – "He Wants Everyone" and it is going to be teaching on the book of Acts where the Lord began, after he returned to heaven, to have the beautiful message of salvation preached to the entire world, including our area here in the Philippines. The Lord indeed is not willing that anyone should perish and he wants his message of salvation presented to every person in the whole world.

Exciting News for Deb and I as we enter this year – our beloved son Jubab and his fiancé Freya, are to be married. On Jan 27, Deb and I, Lord willing, will fly to Australia and then on Feb 3 Jubab and Freya will wed. How beautiful this is for Debbie and I to see our beloved son find his girl who he will serve the Lord with as Deb and I have served the Lord together. Please note these dates and pray for our family as we experience these joys.

Another thing that we are trusting the Lord for in 2024 – we are going to have the Higaonon New Testament published. Next week we are to have the final read through with a couple of our Higaonon believers before we send it to the Philippine Bible Society to be printed. How amazing is God that he has allowed 2 New Testaments to come out of our work here.

I will end here this morning with great thanks in my heart for Jesus, and for the fact that he has allowed each of us to take a part in his great work,

Love, Paul and Deb

October 28, 2023 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-workers,

Just a quick note and a big THANK YOU for praying for our Ladies’ Conference last week – the Lord blessed our time amazingly!! The 230 ladies who attended were so attentive, loved the hours we spent drinking in God’s Word, loved the break-out groups and discussion times, loved the prayer and counseling available and through counseling and confession of sin, some were able to be freed from emotional prisons that had kept parts of their hearts in darkness for months or years. Praise God!!

It is election time here in the Philippines on Monday and as usual there is a lot of conflict and an air of volatility. Please pray for peace amongst all our fellow-believers, especially in the remote communities where this is felt the worst.

Things are full swing in preparation for the Lapoc Youth Camp which will be held next week for 4 days, from Nov 1-4, there are 270 youth registered. Paul will be one of the speakers and we are excited and full of joy for the youth who will be attending – knowing that God will bring great things out of this time they are all together as He always does. His Word pierces to the innermost parts of our hearts and continually transforms lives.

Between now and the end of the year, Paul and I have a lot of travel between regions and a lot of sharing to do in the churches. We are also nearing the end of the work on the He Wants You episodes in Talaandig/Higaonon. Only 7 more episodes to go!!

We were meeting yesterday with Udi (our son-in-law) and C’jun, elders from the Cauyunan and Tumpagon churches, and one of the things that we spoke about was "husband and wife team-work", that from the very beginning, the churches here have seen Paul and I model before them. There is rarely a time (except men’s or women’s camps) where they don’t see us working side by side. This is how we love it – Paul and I together as one team! And in the last 6 years, Ducky has joined the team as well. 😊
Love and joy….. Paul and Deb

October 3, 2023 Download this update.

Our Precious Co-workers,

What a privilege to pray with and be co-workers with this great team of pastors and church leaders and evangelists from the Lapoc, Anlagan, Tinaytayan and San Miguel churches!

We met with them during a recent trip to visit the churches in Lapoc, Man-ai and Tumpagon with hikes in between to the remote villages of Anlagan (you should have seen us in the mud and rain and crossing the hanging bridge) and Malumpayad.

Malumpayad is a tiny little village perched up on the side of a mountain and this dear 78 year old blind sister in Jesus lives there. We went to visit her and she is singing for us in this picture. (One of the highlights of our time!) She can’t hardly get out and she owns hardly anything in this world, but she composes songs to Jesus that are written on her heart and her spiritual gift is singing praises to Him. This is her way of serving her Lord and sharing Him with her family and neighbours.

We were travelling with a team of four visitors from Brisbane who were a huge encouragement and blessing to us and they went with us on every step of this trip, enjoying all the freshly harvested fruit that our brothers and sisters showered on us (Sept-Oct is fruit harvest over here), sleeping on the floor of the church building in Man-ai, hiking in mud and rain – they were absolute troopers! Even singing in front of 150 young people with absolutely no notice.

God helped us reach a big milestone not long before we left on this trip: we completed the "He Wants You" foundational bible study series in English!!!!!!!! THANK YOU OUR LORD JESUS!!!!!!

We first launched this on January 21, 2021 with Episodes 1-27. Foundational teaching for a person who is searching for salvation or wants to more clearly understand what it means to have a relationship with his/her Creator. This series is now complete and in total came to 46 episodes, complete with visual aids, study guides, videos and power points. These are available freely on www.paulanddeb.com for anyone who wants to use them. Just go to that site and choose English and then click on "He Wants You Foundational Bible Studies.

Alternatively the series can be viewed on YouTube at www.paulanddeb.com/youtube

These are a culmination of about 18 years of waiting. A visitor to Lapoc all those years ago told us that he would love it if we put the foundational teaching we were using to reach the Talaandig and Higaonon people into English so that he could access it to use for Bible studies for his family and work-mates. We told him back then that we would do it, and finally, HERE IT IS! Thank you Lord!!!!!!

Please pray for us as we continue to finish this He Wants You series in the Talaandig/Higaonon and also in Cebuano languages. We took a break from it in the year 2022 to teach the whole book of Revelation in video form in both languages, so it was on hold for about a year, but we’re almost there now.

Please also pray for our Ladies’ Conference being held in Lapoc which is coming up on Oct 19-21, and a huge Youth Camp also being held in Lapoc on Nov 1-4.

Our God is doing great and wonderful things!!! Thank you so much for all your prayers and support.

Love Paul and Deb xx

September 18, 2023 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-workers in the Gospel,

For some time, we have tried to have an annual conference that the women believers from all the churches can attend so they can get together and be an encouragement to one other. This year we are having 2 conferences as we need to have an option of preferred language. So we just had our first conference this year which was in the Bisayà language. (All the fun and games when you have more than one language option to consider)

Then the second conference will be in the Talaandig language and be held at Lapoc in Oct (19-21). Same topic and Debbie will teach there also along with Margie, who is a lady from the church we attend when we are in Cagayan on a Sunday. Just the attendees will be different 😊. There are almost 200 Talaandig women registered for this up and coming conference.

These are REALLY precious times and so so rich and valuable for all who attend.

Anyway here is the link for you to have a look at this first Ladies’ Conference for 2023.

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5WBNqGjHDA

Website link: https://paulanddeb.com/videos.html

Vimeo link: https://vimeo.com/865459572

Much Love, Paul and Deb

August 27, 2023 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-Workers in Jesus’ vineyard,

A few weeks ago, we finished our 2nd missionary conference. We are so thankful for all that God has done through our group of broken people – we are just broken people who are willing to take the chance and trust Jesus to use our lives. Ony 1 photo of 1 person is missing in this movie and that is the picture of Jan Amper who does all the photography and movie work for us. Jesus knows his name though 😊, and his reward awaits him in glory.

Any of the 3 links will get to the movie. Click on the one that suits you.

Website Link for the movie: https://paulanddeb.com/videos.html

YouTube Link for the movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s49h5sEeVBI

Vimeo Link for the movie: https://vimeo.com/858320830

To our great God be the glory, Love Paul and Deb

July 31, 2023 Download this update.

Airy, Cheery, Quiet, Bright……..!!!!!

That’s how we feel in our new home and office which we’ve been moving into this month!!! Praise the Lord it is almost finished, and we have big spaces ready for the recording of the Bible videos, for meetings and training and for ministry!!!
We are so thankful for your prayers and support – the Lord has provided everything needed to build this place and it is wonderful.

We’ve been working on this building project for 10 months along with several other building projects (the roof and tank at the Lapoc church and the extension of the Tumpagon and San Miguel churches) and all are either completed or close to completion apart from the San Miguel church which is ongoing.

We’ve also completed the video series on the book of Revelation this year in two languages (the last video of the series in Cebuano was uploaded earlier this week) and on August 15, we continue to the Cebuano video series of He Wants You.

Things have been so hectic that we have not been sending you updates as regularly as we have wanted to but tomorrow we leave for a three day Missionary Conference with our home-grown team of missionaries from our local churches who are doing an amazing work in 6 different regions. There will be 48 of us including children and we are excited about what God has for us during this next three days.

Please shout out a huge PRAISE to our amazing Heavenly Father for the completion of our new home and office!!!!!!!

Please pray for us as we finish the last details of unpacking and organizing the office and the outside work.

Please pray fervently over these next 3 days for the missionaries and their families coming to the conference and for the time we are going to have together sharing about what God is doing in each region and being refreshed in each other’s presence. Hopefully we will ba able to send a short video of this conference.

On a family note, please pray for Jubab and Freya as they continue to prepare for their wedding amidst the busyness of Uni and work and ministry.

We’re also looking forward to celebrating our grandson Clint’s 18th birthday on Aug 12th with Udi and Jen and the four grandkids and will enjoying having more room for them.

MUCH LOVE,
Paul and Deb

April 18, 2023 Download this update.

Good Morning our Dear Co-Workers in the Gospel – the Gospel that gives life,

Next week on Wednesday, April 26, Deb and I will be going to Perth, Australia and will be there, Lord willing, for 5 weeks. My (Paul’s) niece is getting married and we want to be there for the wedding with the rest of our family. We also really want to see Jubab and Freya who are now engaged to be married, to see our Mums and other family and friends, do some shopping for things we can’t get over here and go to our doctor, dentist etc. I am sure the 5 weeks will go like a blur.

An update on our House/Office project – many of you have prayed and given towards this project, and I am happy to report that the project is going very well. The upstairs, where we will live should be almost finished by the time we go home next week, and the downstairs should be almost finished by the time we get back on June 5. It is going to be such a nice place to live and work from and I think God will really use this place for His glory. A big thanks to all of you for being a part in this.

RDLMBB Meeting – This is a meeting of key church leaders from the 6 regions we work in. (Hence – Rogongon, Dulangan, Lapoc, Man-ai, Balintad, Baongon = RDLMBB) This meeting takes place 2x a year and last week, 77 of our pastors/evangelists/missionaries and Bible teachers gathered in Lapoc for this round of meetings. They had a hugely good time. Some figures and highlights of the meetings I will jot down below. It is so encouraging.

- The Dulangan region has been working hard in the Lantod area - The way they are working sure amazes me and I really hold them in awe. About 6 of the guys leave the Dulangan region at about 3AM every Thursday morning and they teach 26 different groups of people in Lantod and they do not get home until about midnight every Saturday night. It is hard yakka for them, but they are so encouraged with what they are seeing, and they love Jesus and they love serving Him without reservation. Witch doctors have been saved, there are amazing stories of how some of these people have escaped execution by a militant group over here, and many people are desiring to know about salvation, and MANY have already accepted Jesus with 2 outstretched arms and been saved. The Holy Spirit is moving greatly in this area.
-The guys decided that we will push towards positioning a full time missionary in the Lantod area. They have pretty well decided on the family they will send to live and work there, and I think this will take place pretty quickly as the need is great. Please pray for wisdom for us.
- Even though we are doing so well in this area – the assaults from our enemy are continuous – but the battle is won but still rages 😊
-As the guys gathered statistics about what is happening in each region this is the bottom line of their endeavors for the Lord.
-They are teaching a total of 102 groups of people. 70+ of these groups are churches now ranging from 20 people in a group to 300+ people. The balance of the groups would be considered outreaches – so 30+.
- They are teaching in 3 different languages – Talaandig, Higaonon and Bisayà.
- Man-ai Region – 20 groups – 16 Bisayà and 4 Higaonon.
- Balintad Region – 4 groups all in Bisayà.
- Baongon Region – 9 groups – 5 in TA and 4 in Bisayà.
- Lapoc Region – 23 groups – 2 in Bisayà and 21 in Talaandig.
- Dulangan Region – 27 groups - 18 in Bisayà and 9 in Talaandig.
- Ricodo Region – 19 groups, 13 in Bisayà and 6 in Talaandig.

Currently we have 2 villages that have 2 separate church buildings as 1 church uses Higaonon and the other Bisayà. Generally, the Higaonon and Talaandig people are tri-lingual knowing all 3 languages but the Bisayà people many times do NOT speak Talaandig and Higaonon. This is a growing problem that we are experiencing and causes us to need to have different church conferences held in different languages and different locations etc. All the joys of reaching beyond your own language 😊. Actually it is beautiful and encouraging to see and something we just need to trust the Lord for.

The church building in Tumpagon is large but over the past 3 months we have been extending the church building there to hold about 700 people. In addition to this building over the past 3 months we have also been building a 2nd church in that same village for the Bisayà speaking people. This smaller church will hold 100 - 200 people. These building projects should be completed this week or next. Deb and I are going to go up to Tumpagon on Saturday to check on the progress.

The Lapoc church building is to be expanded also. It holds about 1,200 people when full and will be extended to hold an additional 300+ people. It is too small to hold joint meetings for their region now. We are also building a 65,000 litre cement water tank there.

Health wise Deb and I are by and large doing well. A few aches and pains as we age but we are excited by all that we are seeing and we want to keep going until we get to the finishing line. I did get injured pretty badly this past week. A plastic chair collapsed under me and I came crashing down on my hip. My right side buttock and hip are very badly bruised and I have had a lot of pain as a result. But today – Tuesday – things are doing better. God is good and you know what – it is OK to go through a bit of pain in our lives.

Well this is just a quick note to let you all know how we are going and also about the progress of the Church over here in Northern Mindanao and about our quick trip home.

Thanks so much for praying and sending support,

Love Paul and Deb

February 6, 2023 Download this update.

Breaking news from the Howells’ Family!!!!!!

We are very thankful, blessed and delighted to announce that Jubab and Freya are engaged!!!! We couldn’t be more proud of our son and his gorgeous bride-to-be! ❤️💖😍 Praise God for this very precious gift and for the tender and loving pathways He has led Jubab and Freya on!

So, so happy to share this beautiful news with you….. Paul and Deb xxx

January 23, 2023 Download this update.

Our Dear Fellow Partakers in Jesus’ grace,

The following is a great update that Deb wrote this afternoon. Made me rejoice as I read it.

We’ve just finished almost a whole month of travelling - visiting many of our churches, covering a lot of miles, catching up with hundreds and hundreds of our brothers and sisters ….. and all during one of the rainiest months we’ve had in a long time.

Our trip started off at our church conference in Lapoc. It was a wonderful time and we had 189 baptisms during this conference and discovered that the number of believers have grown so much just in the Lapoc region that we’ve outgrown the biggest church building we have in our entire work. The Lapoc church building used to be big enough for combined-Region conferences for the entire work, but now it can barely contain just believers from the Lapoc region!

There were baptisms also held last month in the Man-ai and Baungon regions, and it is an overwhelming joy to see so many new members of Jesus’ family showing forth their faith in believer’s baptism.

One of our next stops was Tumpagon, which we did along with dear friends visiting from Australia - Trevor Jenkyn, his brother Peter and Trevor’s grandson Will. While in Tumpagon, seven elders were ordained into leadership who had already been serving in a leadership capacity for some years.

In Cauyunan we had a very nostalgic evening, echoing many previous evenings with impromptu get togethers to share a meal, worship, pray and sing together. It was one of those times you wished would never end – the fellowship was so sweet, so deep and so precious.

We also celebrated a HUGE milestone: the completion of the Digital Higaonon New Testament!! So now our team here has two completed translations, finished by God’s grace and through the amazing team He has given us!

Ordaining Seven New Elders

The Thanksgiving Service for the completion of the Digital Higaonon New Testament was held on January 8, 2023 in the church at Tumpagon. This is Ryan Duwang (left) who headed this project up, along with Jumar Mahognay (right). Not in the picture but part of the translation team is Allan Matuod, ourselves and the team in Lapoc who also had input.

My beautiful and happy sisters in Christ, as we rejoiced at the Thanksgiving Service. Sarah Duwang (wearing green) next to me, is Ryan’s wife, and we praise God for her endurance through the long hours and years of the Higaonon Translation Project and for being part of the team.

So our weeks of trekking came to an end and we’re now back in the office!

The year+ of immersion in and teaching of the book of Revelation to the churches is finished, to the PRAISE and GLORY of our Amazing Lord Jesus!!!

Today we began preparations to finish the He Wants You online evangelism material and we wait on the Lord with excitement for His direction in this next part of our journey

LOTS of LOVE,
Paul and Deb

December 19, 2022 Download this update.

Our Dear Fellow Followers of Jesus,

Debbie and I send so so much love to you all this Christmas time. A time where we don’t need to wear mask any more, Covid is waning -- and Jesus is alive and continues to work through his children all over the world.

Debbie’s birthday is Christmas eve so I was wondering ---- "What will I do for my wifey this year?"🤗 This was about a month ago. Then we got a note telling us that the Lapoc region is holding a conference on December 24-25 --- so that made my brainstorming easy as they told us that I am one of the speakers. 😊 So we plan on spending Deb’s birthday and Christmas day in Lapoc with our beautiful brothers and sisters up there. I think it is just what we need, and God knew it and we are excited. We are lonely for our brethren from that region.

This morning (about 10 minutes ago) the Lapoc team sent us the program and it looks like it is going to be a really wonderful time. 4 Speakers, Lots of yummy food, great fellowship and then on Christmas day just before lunch we are going to have a baptism. 189 new believers are to be baptised. The believers in the Lapoc region have been busy and buying up opportunities and people have fallen in love with Jesus as they have heard what he did for them, and they have accepted his payment and his offer of Salvaton through his blood poured out for them – so they could be redeemed and saved. Praise God!!

Please pray this time will be truly God glorifying time as well as a time where us believers in Jesus are edified and encouraged.

Then in the first week on January we have been invited to the Baungon region for their first baptism where about 40-50 people will be baptised in this new and flourishing church. Some dear friends are coming from Australia that week and they will come with Deb and I to witness these people going through the waters of baptism.

As people are pushed under the water, it is a vibrant picture of Jesus being placed into the tomb in death, and then when they burst forth out of the water it is a picture of Jesus bursting forth out from the grave. The great stone miraculously beamed out from the mouth of the tomb and the Living Christ, our Saviour coming back to life having paid for our sin, and God accepting his payment for us.

So our dear ones – We wish you a Merry Christmas and a really great 2023 – Remember the one who was laid in a manger as a babe and then laid on a cross as a fully grown man ---- for you and for me.

Love and Blessings from Deb and I --- xxxooo

October 24, 2022 Download this update.

Good Morning Our Fellow Servants of Jesus 😊

As you know, we sent 2 families to live in the Baongon region and serve there right in the middle of Covid. First up they lived in very small huts but we have now completed 2 nice homes for them to live in and a church building. There are quite a few believers there now and they continue to labor. We have a short video to share with you of the thanksgiving service that we had for this complex.

Interesting Deb and I only got to see these houses and the church building when they were all totally finished.

Rony (my co-worker - and I think I am his right hand man) began working with me as an unbeliever way back when we first moved to Lapoc in 2000. He ended up getting saved and has built buildings with me ever since. We have built about 50 buildings now. Anyway he is a really good tradesman and he designs and builds all of our buildings these days without my imput. To our Lord be the glory. His body is awesome, and He is a great provider!! Rony is also one of the church elders in Lapoc. Enjoy!

https://paulanddeb.com/videos.html

The name of the movie is - Baungon Church Building and Houses Thanksgiving 2022

Much Love, Paul and Deb

October 17, 2022 Download this update.

To our Dear Loved Ones in Jesus,

Last week the elders and pastors and missionaries of all of our 6 regions that we now work in gathered together for their bi-annual meeting. They gather together to have fellowship, food, encourage one another and plan for future outreach and church planting. Deb and I don’t go to these meetings as these guys are well capable under the power of the Holy Spirit to do all that God wants them to do. We sit back like Grandma and Grandpa 😊 and produce teaching materials and other things that these teams need.

If you have facebook - follow facebook pages like this one below as they often put out updates that we can pray with them on. Click on the link below to have a look at this team of Men – (86 of them gathered for this 2 day meeting), and pray for them and have any part you can in this work. The work is roaring ahead but we want more!

These guys are amazing, strong in the Lord and passionate for the Gospel and it is our joy to be their spiritual parents and grandparents and to watch them go, Go, GO!!!

https://www.facebook.com/tumpagonnaluwaschurch/posts/pfbid0BM2tKHW6SQcNZQ5NfWgtVXQqoN7yfKouLfMeowUdLKLQgvsKuJB5w5xR2jptkB78l

We love this team of leaders and love their growing teams of disciples as well. Together they are reaching hundreds of souls for our Lord Jesus, and almost weekly we are hearing of new people they are teaching. This morning we heard of a University in Bukidnon that have invited some of these evangelists to teach some of the teachers and the students in their Uni twice a week.

Your prayers will hugely help and strengthen them. Pray for their marriages to withstand the attacks of the enemy and the world. Pray for wisdom from the Lord for each one of them. Pray for strength for them on the days they are just exhausted. Pray for more and more opportunities to share the Gospel!

Huge Love in Our Lord who died so we could have life, Paul and Deb

PS – Tips for Church growth.

Delegation is a must for church expansion and multiplication.

1st – Teach faithful men who in turn will teach other faithful men. (2 Tim 2:2)

2nd – Start to delegate responsibility to your disciple but be there helping, evaluating and giving imput to them for more growth.

3rd – Only delegate responsibility to people gifted by the Holy Spirit and capable to take the task on.

4th – As you disciple grows give them more responsibility and little by little draw back yourself until the delegation stage is complete.

5th – Allow your disciple, now a capable worker for Jesus who can disciple others to minister without you micro-managing him/her. (hard part)

6th – Even if they do some things different from how you would, resist the micro managing urges you may have.

7th – Affirm, encourage and partner and allow God to work through you as a body.

September 18, 2022 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-workers in the Gospel of Jesus,

When Deb and I came to the Philippines back in 1987 I was just saved 5 years and Debbie and I were basically still kids 😊. We would have been happy to see just 1 church planted. But God had different plans – Today there are about 70 churches planted and we have over 20 full time missionaries serving in 6 regions.

Maybe we have a mission organization??? 😊 – IT was not intended. Lets see what the Lord has for us and the work here --- until he comes to get us.

Please have a look at the attached video of the FIRST missionary conference we had for our home grown missionaries: https://vimeo.com/750802727

Also we have made our website more user friendly and there are LOTS videos there of the work if you need one to show in church or just to check the work out for yourself. Click on this if you want to have a look. www.paulanddeb.com

Love and Lots of it, Paul and Deb

August 14, 2022 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-Workers in the Gospel,

Sunday afternoon here in Mindanao and it has been a really good day. The Zoom meeting went great this AM and we completed teaching Revelation chapter 14. It has been such an enjoyable study for us and the believers are absolutely loving it being taught to them. Next Sunday we should be able to do the whole of chapter 15 and then I am taking Debbie away for our wedding anniversary for 3 nights – it will be 38 years 😊

The new outreaches in the new Talakag areas are going amazing and I wanted to give a quick update on them. They are teaching in basically 2 different areas up there.

So all up they are teaching 166 people so far in this new outreach effort. Please keep praying! There are 9 men on this outreach team and they leave the Dulangan region each Friday morning and don’t get home until late on Saturday night. Yesterday they got home at almost midnight. It is a long way – Please please pray for them 😊

This week we have our first Missionary Conference. It begins on Tuesday and goes until Thursday. All of our home grown missionaries will attend and we number about 25 + their kids will come also and a couple of ladies who will run a program for the children while their parents are in sessions. I will do the teaching in 8 different sessions. It will all be "missionary training" teaching and all the sessions will be recorded and put up on the web to help train future missionaries. It is a big prayer and praise point.

Our house/office plans are completed and hopefully it won’t be too long and we will be given the go ahead to construct. We are excited and can’t wait. 😊 A sad thing that happened – we rescued a little cat about 2 years ago. He was lying on the highway, parched, unable to walk, about 8 weeks old and the road was so, so hot which made it inevitable that he was soon to die. Well we picked him up and adopted him and he was a beautiful little boy. About a month ago our neighbour’s dogs killed him and it broke our hearts. We are such frail people ☹ ---- Anyway we buried him on the land where the new building will go up – so he moved there first.

Much Love our dear Brothers and Sisters, Paul and Deb

August 3, 2022 Download this update.

Well Good Morning – All of our brothers and sisters because of Jesus’ grace and his payment for our sin,

We are into August now and it is another month that the Lord has given us all. I have a few minutes this AM so thought I would give you a few things to pray for.

Our teaching on Revelation to the Talaandig and Higaonon churches over zoom each Sunday is going REALLY really well. I have been able to teach every Sunday as I asked you to pray and all of the messages and other Rev materials are up on the website for future TA and HIG churches to access (provided the Lord tarries). We have also been producing study guides, pictures and power points to complement the movie format of the teaching each week. We are almost finished with Rev chapter 14. Will start studying for chapter 15 this week. If you want to have a look at some of these pictures and PowerPoints that we have made feel free to have a browse.
https://1drv.ms/u/s!An7ZuF_O8y3qg5lYzLYcUygwtkTL0A?e=POXlGs

We have also been discipling a Cebuano team to re-duplicate all of this material in the Cebuano language. So eventually we will have all our NT Bible teaching in both Talaandig, Higaonon and Cebuano formats. There are probably about 30 million Cebuano people in the Philippines and not many Cebuano materials available so this will potentially be a great blessing to the Cebuano church.

Tomorrow (Thursday Aug 4) our Dulangan Region is beginning a major new thrust in outreach and evangelism. Already they have such a great workload and many times just get to work their farms for 1-2 days each week due to their time being taken up with teaching God’s word. They will be travelling between 2-3 hours to these outreach areas each week - to the villages of Masigpa, Takotak, Brgy3, Landing San Antonio, Lantud Patpat, Bitaog and Limonsodan and they will spend 2-3 days there each week teaching in all of these areas. They have already spent extensive time surveying these areas and there is strong interest from the people of these villages. Please pray for them as they outreach – pray that the harvest will continue. There will be about 6 men going out each week from the Dulangan region to do this evangelism and maybe a few from the Lapoc region will join them. For sure Satan will oppose this thrust BUT God is the owner of power.

The Baungon church building is basically completed now apart from louvers that are to be installed that have not arrived yet. Thanks for praying with us about this.

We will begin the extension of the San Miguel church building and also construct a church building for Tumpagon within the next month or so. In Tumpagon we have a Higaonon church that has a lot members but we have been reaching many Cebuano people that have moved up into that area so this will be a 2nd church building for the village of Tumpagon for the Cebuano people to use – their number is getting quite large.

Our house/office plans for our new CDO property are completed and we are just waiting on approval and then we will construct.

Deb and I are encouraged and feel like we are being used and we are happy.

We do miss Jubab and Freya though greatly.

Thanks so so much much for standing with us in the work here 😊.

Love you all in our precious Jesus,

Paul and Deb

July 9, 2022 Download this update.

Hi Everyone,

This is a really one of those MUST SEE videos taken at our recent youth camp.

There is a bunch of footage taken from a drone so you can see our compound there in Lapoc which is probably around 10 acres and we covered it with hardwood trees and coffee – it is really beautiful.

These teens/young-people are very energetic 😊and love the Lord and praise him from their hearts,

To view the video on Vimeo - https://vimeo.com/727952177

Or go to our website https://paulanddeb.com/videos.html and click on "Indapig Youth Camp" – Indapig means "set aside".

Love Paul and Deb

June 15, 2022 Download this update.

Good Morning Our Dear Co-Workers in Jesus’ Harvest,

It is quite early here on Wednesday morning (June 15) and we have been home now in the Philippines for 2 months and boy, what a whirlwind it has been! But overall we are thrilled to be back home and immersed in the work that God called us to more than 35 years ago. Praise His name and thanks to each of you for praying for us.

I guess I just wanted to let you all know about how we are going – in a bunch of 1 liners so you can pray for us here.

-I have been teaching the book Revelation to the churches over here via zoom in the Talaandig language (currently in chapter 12). Zoom is good as we connect to about 8 churches each Sunday and then we record the message and it goes up on our website where other of our churches who have no internet connection can access this material and use it in their churches.

Goal – teach the whole NT and record the teaching as a resource going forward for the churches.

Timeframe – Only the Lord knows but we will keep chugging along and please pray that we will be able to teach EVERY Sunday as it takes us a long time to prepare each week including producing visual aids (With which a lady called Tina helps with also). So it eats Deb and my week up pretty quick. Then there are other things that come up as well.

-Each Tuesday Allan, Jojo and Jan come here to our home at about 8AM and while here work on producing the "He Wants You" episodes in Higaonon. They are up to about Episode 25 (of 27) so will be coming for the next few weeks. Once Deb and I get finished with Revelation we plan to complete the "He Wants You" material in English and Talaandig and then Allan, Jojo, Jerrum, Mario and Jan will work at our home a few days a week to put it into the Higaonon language and Cebuano language. Sometimes we get a bit confused as we flick from one language to another so please pray for us that we can keep organized in our minds.

-Jerrum, Mario and Jan come to our home each Thursday to work on Revelation materials in Cebuano. Our team in Lapoc translate my Revelation material from Talaandig to Cebuano and then the team work on getting the teaching into video format each Thursday.

-Pray for Ernesto and Jane (some of our co-workers in Lapoc) who each week update the website with all the new materials that are being produced. They also do all the tech work on our computers throughout the entire work (about 40 computers) and also all of our data projectors. Adding tech to our work has really been beneficial for the spiritual growth of our churches.

-Pray for James as he updates our Apps on Playstore and iTunes. We have about 7 Apps now.

-This Saturday June 18 Deb and I go to Balintad where we will be opening a new church building. I will be speaking and we will have a feast. This building we have not mentioned to you all in the past --- but it has been in construction and completed now. Maybe they will ask Deb and I to help them get a few things such as a sound system for the church. We like to help the churches with their needs when God makes it possible for us to do it.

-Next week (June 22-24) Deb and I are going to a youth conference in Lapoc. 400 of our youth will be gathering for this conference. I will be one of the speakers. We have not been to Lapoc yet so we are looking forward to getting back up there and seeing everyone.

-The San Miguel church that Doydoy and his companions have planted is about 3-4 years old now. It is OVERFLOWING – they now have 270 believers there and this number is growing. We gave them $2,000 last week to help them with an extension, many of the believers in the mountains will also contribute but Deb and I will help more as they build. It is cold up there so this building is important as when they overflow to outside it can be cold and wet sometimes.

-Baongon church building construction continues and is progressing quickly. The work in Baongon is also going well and our 2 missionary families there seem to be encouraged and working hard. Hopefully Deb and I can get up there sometime in the next month or so.

-Deb and my house/office project here in Cagayan is ongoing. We are making the floorplans now and getting government approvals for construction which hopefully will start within a few weeks to a month. Please continue to pray for this project.

-Covid seems to be a non-event over here these days. Don’t hear much about it any more and I don’t know anybody who is sick. Face masks are still mandatory though outdoors and indoors. It is not comfortable --- but it is okay. A small thing that the Philippine officials are asking us to do and we are happy to comply.

-Mainly for me and Deb – again --- please pray for our Bible teaching each Sunday and our preparation. We want this project to progress most every Sunday. In our minds this project is front and centre for us.

Well it turned out to be more than "one liners" – but our love goes to each of you who labor with us in the Gospel.

Paul and Deb

May 12, 2022 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-Workers in the Lord,

We send you our love and greetings today from Mindanao!

Just wanted to update you on a need that Deb and I would really like you to pray about with us. For some time now we have been thinking and praying about upgrading our office/home space.

You may remember in 2017, during our last three year ‘sprint’ to finish the translation of the Talaandig New Testament, Deb and I purchased a house to live in here in Cagayan, Mindanao mainly to function as an office for the two of us with a small living area. It is central to all the regions where our churches are so that we were within easy access of all the believers and this became our primary home/office. It is about 90 Square Meters floor space in size so it is fairly small but worked well for us when it was just Deb and I living and working here on the translation and it accomplished our goal as we were able finish the New Testament and get it back from the Printers in mid-2020. Living in Cagayan rather than up in Lapoc or Cauyunan also enabled all of the church elders and pastors to function and grow without us being there looking over their shoulders, and they have taken on more and more responsibility but still have us within easy reach, and meanwhile in 2020, we continued to work on developing Bible teaching materials and providing help, counsel and direction to our 70 odd churches as needed, as well as travelling to the different regions.

Then the Covid pandemic came along and as a result we were locked down and not able to get around, and God began to show us ways of making the scriptures and Bible teaching materials much more accessible to the whole area, even the areas still being evangelized. We began working on producing on-line materials in 4 different languages with teams helping us, and this little home/office soon became very crowded. (We have been training 2 different teams who come to our home 4 days a week to help us and they are progressing very well in their abilities.)

This was not something that we had planned to do but it is something that the Lord has been increasingly showing us through the pandemic that He has for our work here and it will have long term benefits for the Higaonon, Talaandig and Cebuano Churches. The Higaonon and Talaandig language groups conservatively number more than 200,000 people and the Cebuano population number over 16 million people. In all three of these people groups there are very few Bible resources/commentaries that are available. So the need for commentaries and teaching guides for all the books of the New Testament in all three of these languages is a huge need. For some time we have been looking for someone to produce these materials in the Cebuano language (we were focused on Talaandig and Higaonon) but nobody eventuated, so last year we began to work on Cebuano material as well along with our teams. (Part of the Cebuano team working with me in the picture.)

We decided to teach the material in video MP4 format as well as producing written commentaries, picture illustrations and audio recordings (Mp3’s) and put them all up on our webpage, downloadable by anybody – for free. Our estimation is that this project could take up to 20 years to complete, so it is a bit daunting but we feel that God will enable us to do this along with our teams. If the Lord takes Deb and I before this is completed, our teams who we are training will be able to complete the project ---- Lord Willing. I guess we walk by faith, make a plan, put our feet in the water and trust God to enable the work that He is laying on our hearts.

Which brings me to our need which is for a bigger work space and living area as slowly our living space has been taken over as an office. So we are in negotiations to purchase 199 Square Metres of land nearby, where we are hoping to build a place that will serve as our home and also an office for the remaining maybe decades of our lives. We are hoping to build a two-story place and Deb and I will live in the upstairs and downstairs will serve as our office to produce these materials in. We have about 8 people in our team who are helping us with this project so this lower floor will give them and us a place to work and will also provide some space for guest accommodation which we do not have right now. This house will also be used as venue to hold the many meetings that we have with the Higaonon and Talaandig missionary teams and church leaders who come out to meet with us almost weekly.

We need to raise approximately $70,000 (Australian) to purchase this land and then we think that we can fund the construction of our new home/office (or most of it) by selling our existing house.

Please pray about this need with us as it is a project that we are feeling we need to move on pretty quickly. I would love to have it all done by the end of the year so we have more space to work and accommodate all the ministry that we are doing.

Your Co-workers in our Lord Jesus, Paul and Debbie.

April 27, 2022 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-workers in the Gospel,

Just a quick update to let you all know that we got home OK to the Philippines. There were some hiccups though.

First Deb’s PCR test came in positive as it still picked up her Covid that she had a month or so ago. Mine was negative even though I had had Covid at the same time. So we had to cancel our flights on Singapore Airlines that went through Singapore and they DID give us a full refund within a few days. We then purchased another fare on Qantas via Sydney and we had Rapid Antigen Tests at the airport which were negative so we were able to fly OK. It was a great flight and we arrived in Manila on April 14.

-On the 15th we went North to where Debbie grew up and we spent 3 days in that area – the Kalanguya tribe. It has been about 20 years since we were there. The mountainous road was EXTREME to describe in mildly. Debbie was still able to speak Kalanguya fluently as she lived there from 4yo to 15 years old. The people who Debbie grew up with and all of the believers received us with great joy. It was such a breath of fresh air.

-On the 16th Debbie shared the Word with the women for 3 hours in meetings – beautiful times.

-On the 17th they had me (Paul) share the word for 5 hours over 2 meetings. 3 hours straight in one and then lunch and then another 2 hours of speaking. I had an interpreter as I do not speak Kalanguya. This was also a very sweet time.

-On the 18th they took us to another village and had me share the word again for 2 hours and Debbie interpreted for me that time and did a great job.

-Food was great, fellowship was great and we want to go back there again which we may do in December.

After visiting the Kalanguya, we then came to Mindanao on the 22nd of April after taking care of some things in Manila and we have pretty much settled into our home again and are getting some work done. It has been so, so good to see everyone that we’ve been able to catch up with already.

It seems like we will move ahead and begin a work in the Malitbog region. Please keep praying with us about this and also about the construction of the church building in Baungon. Materials are on site now.

Anyway just some brief news and our Love,

Paul and Deb

Some Trivia:

-Over here you need to wear a mask indoors and also outdoors.

-Only vaccinated people can enter the supermarket and stores - so no vaccine – no shopping ☹

-5G is fairly common here now with communications in the city.

-I (Paul) am turning 60 on Friday April 29th. God still wants me here. 😊

April 5, 2022 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-workers in the Gospel about Jesus,

Well today is Tuesday April 5, 2022 and it is just 6 days until we leave again for the Philippines (April 11). Mixed emotions describes how we feel. We have had such an awesome time with Jubab and Freya over the past 12 months and their relationship has developed so much and we have been thrilled to just watch them, eat with them so many times, and just be with them --- so so much. Our hearts will hurt so much to get on the plane. We will also greatly miss our Mums and both Deb and my families here in Perth. We will miss our church too and the folk there who have shown us love as well as many friends that we have made here in Perth.

But we are also excited that we are going to be able to return home to the Philippines and get back in country and labor again in the spread of the gospel there with our Talaandig and Higaonon Family. We will see our daughter Jen and our 4 grandkids and the many many people who have been saved over the past 35 years who we love deeply and who love us deeply.

The Lord said: Matthew 19:29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.

Deb and I gave our lives for God’s work when we were in our early 20’s --- But --- how blessed we have been. Many have been saved but we have been the big winners!!! How much it is a pleasure to serve our Savior!

Ministry wise, this last year has been awesome also. We have kept really busy and been able to develop more materials for the churches in Mindanao and most Sundays we have been able to teach the word to a whole bunch of churches in the 2 tribes over zoom. We have been teaching the book of Revelation and it has been really good.

The infrastructure for the mission station in Baungon is getting towards completion with materials currently arriving on site for the church building we are constructing there. Maybe it will be done by June – please pray with us. And then as this area is progressing so well, it seems that we will move into yet another new region – the region of Malitbog. Some of the people from Malitbog (2 different villages) contacted us last month and asked us to come and teach them about how they can be saved.

Sometimes when God shows us that he wants us to do even more and trust him for another region --- in my heart I ask the Lord --- are we almost there yet Lord??? Do we have the energy? Maybe it will be a bridge too far? It is a massive commitment to move into a new area and sometimes it scares me. (Oh me of little faith) But our Higaonon and Talaandig brothers and sisters are chafing at the bit and they spur us on so much --- so Deb and I will push ahead by faith also and trust God will give us all the strength and everything we need to do the things that he wants us to.
Exciting but daunting – again. 😊

Well our dear ones, our dear brothers and sisters, we were able to see some of you this year and now we are moving out again. Thanks so much for loving us and encouraging us and praying for us and sending us support and being co-workers in the great work God is doing through us all in Mindanao.

Much Love in Christ, Paul and Debbie

February 4, 2022 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-workers in the Gospel,

In recent updates Deb and I have been talking a lot about our new missionary work in the Baungon region. The work is going really well and so far we have sent 2 of our home grown missionary families to work in that region, we have built them homes to live in and they are doing great. This movie talks about this work. Once again, make a cuppa and spend a bit of time watching it. It is a really really good watch and the Lord is being glorified by this work. Lots of people have been saved and outreach continues and it gives a bit of an insight into how missions are done in our areas.

Also in March or April we are praying about building a church building for this fast growing work. We are figuring that it is going to cost about $20,000 and will seat about 150 people. If you or your church would like a part in this project, let us know and we will tell you how you can forward funds.

Much Love in Christ, Paul and Debbie

January 25, 2022 Download this update.

Our dear Brothers and Sisters ---- because of our Saviour’s blood!!

Our time in Australia is passing quickly and we are confident that the Lord will allow us to go home to the Philippines in April. We are so excited! 😊. Many things that we go through on this earth are "bitter sweet" – so here it is bitter somewhat to leave Jubab and our families here in Perth but so sweet to be going back to the work that God called us to.

Meanwhile I am currently teaching the book of Revelation to quite a few of the churches (those that have internet) most Sundays over zoom. This is recorded and then other of the churches that don’t have internet can see these lessons by getting the file. Please pray for me as I prepare each Sunday – it is very challenging material for me to study and teach. I wish my big mate Harry Mitton knew the Talaandig language so he could help me teach it. He taught me so long ago in Bile College.

Anyway please see the attached file of a report of the women from Cauyunan and Tumpagon going to minister to the dear believers in Caribao. Please have a read and enjoy.

Much Love in Jesus, Paul and Deb

(The following report can be downloaded here: A breathtaking story)

Our Dear Partners in the work of the Gospel,

All joy and grace to you through our Lord Jesus! What a wonderful gift from Him that we are here in the year 2022 serving Him together!

Here in Perth, we continue to count down the days until we return to Mindanao hopefully on April 11th, all the while treasuring all the remaining days, hours and moments we have left with our beloved son, his beautiful girlfriend and all our extended family.

But meanwhile back in Mindanao, our Lord continues His amazing work and the following is a story that is really quite breathtaking.

Get ready for a few pages of pictures (taken with Sarah Duwang’s phone) which will tell the story more vividly and with greater emotion than just words could.

So the story beings early on Jan 17th when the Ladies’ ministry teams from the Cauyunan and Tumpagon churches set out on a 2-3 hour hike to minister to their sisters at the Caribao church. Each of them carried food to cook when they arrived, utensils, a change of clothes (they would get wet during the many river crossings and they were staying overnight) and their bibles.

They arrived - much to the joy of the ladies from the Caribao church!!

The rain didn’t stop them from cooking a beautiful fellowship meal at the church the following morning (Jan 18th), in an ingenious outdoor kitchen set up at outside the church using a tarp and some poles cut out of the bush.

Mylen from the Tumpagon church was head chef!

The impromptu kitchen had beautiful views of the valley and surrounding bush.

Water was carried from the spring in buckets and containers.

A slab of wood worked well as a kitchen bench to do the washing up on.

The plants lining the church yard in Caribao show the love and care that the ladies there have for their church building.

The windows of the church were framed with fresh, pretty curtains, along with the front wall behind the pulpit inside. Everything was so well looked after and clean, evidence of a small flock of Jesus’ followers who love Him, who serve Him and who take great joy in the fellowship and love they share as a community of believers.

The Ladies’ Ministry teams visiting from the Cauyunan and Tumpagon churches had a wonderful Women’s Fellowship day with their sisters at the Caribao church, sharing a meal, sharing from the Word, praising God together and sharing testimonies.

Not only did they have the Ladies’ Fellowship day at the church, but they also did visitation while they were there.

They worshipped the Lord together with songs of praise.
They cried with those who were sad.
They ministered to those who were sick.
They contributed to the needs of God’s people.
They shared what they had.
They carried each other’s burdens.
They didn’t withhold good.
They gave generously.
They prayed for one another………

This picture perhaps moves me the most. I can feel the tears of this dear sister in Caribao, the joy she would have felt to know that she has a big, big eternal family, and her gratefulness to these sisters from Cauyunan and Tumpagon who were willing to endure hardship and walk so far so that they could visit her, listen to her, cry with her, encourage her, read the Word with her and pray with her.

Each of us are equally valuable to our Heavenly Father and so loved. Each of us are wanted and needed and fit into our special part of the Body. And when each part is working properly, this makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. This is what is breathtaking about this story……that Christ’s Body here in our little part of Mindanao is building itself up in love and it is so amazing to see!!! THANK YOU LORD JESUS!!!!!

The Ladies’ Ministry teams from the Cauyunan and Tumpagon churches arrived back home late on the 18th, crossing the last river crossing just as it was getting dark. To these sisters we say: "God will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them." (Heb 6:10)

Hope you loved this account…… Paul and Deb

December 17, 2021 Download this update.

Here is a link for a video clip of building the very first church building in the newly evangelized village of "Gawgawon".

The evangelists from the Dulangan Region have outreached to Gawgawon over the past year or so, so it is a relatively new church plant. When coming into a new village the evangelists will generally teach in somebody’s home or set up a tarpaulin as a roof and teach underneath it for a year or so. If the people listening to God’s word respond to the "beautiful invitation that Jesus gives for people to be saved", then the next step is ---- the evangelists hold a working bee and believers come from all the surrounding churches and they build a small building that the new believers can meet in.

This video is about the construction of such a building in Gawgawon. Due to Gawgawon being a very remote village, all the materials had to be transported by motorcycles. Hope you enjoy this really beautiful clip. Jubab’s older brother shot it on his cell phone and then edited it. He is one that our videographer has been training on making movies and this is his first one.😊

In the current weeks we want to share some more clips – one on the work in Baongon which is our newest mission station, and then another clip on the work in Kapisahan where a whole bunch of people have just come to the Lord – so be on the lookout for these coming movies.

Much Love in Christ – our king!

Paul and Deb

December 14, 2021 Download this update.

Our family sends you much love this Christmas season and we pray that you find Christ your joy and strength through the coming 2022!

Christmas is a great opportunity to share a bit of family news with each other and here’s a brief bit of news about our family.

Paul and Deb: We’re heading back to the Philippines Lord willing on April 11th. This year in Perth has been loaded with special times with Jubab and our extended families, and Paul has recovered well from major surgery on his feet. Ministry wise it has been very busy but it has also been a very refreshing time for us and we have been strengthened in the Lord.

Jubab and Freya: They met at the beginning of this year at the Christian Union group at their University here in Perth. They started dating in April and have fallen pretty seriously in love. They are both in their second year of Uni and involved in ministry in their churches and at their Uni. Jubab works part time as a waiter so he stays pretty busy but is very happy.

Jen and Udi: They have had a great year in spite of the severe difficulties experienced in the Philippines due to the pandemic. They continue to be part of the pastoral team of the church in Cauyunan and Udi has been a key player in the Gospel going out to many new areas. Our younger grandkids – Clint, Jhamaica and Lloyd – have had a good year and are growing fast. Hugging them is one of our first priorities when we get home to the Philippines!!

Charly: Since last year, Charly – Jen and Udi’s eldest - has lived in our home in Cagayan and she has been running our household while we’ve been gone as well as studying. She is a 2nd year Nursing student at one of the Universities in Cagayan. She’s looking forward to Grandma and Grandpa getting home and we can’t wait to be back with her.

All for now………MUCH LOVE, from our FAMILY!!

October, 2021 Download this update.

Dear Co-workers,

These are the church elders and pastors from the Cauyunan and Tumpagon churches and their group of new disciples.

Every Thursday these guys meet from 8 am to 4 pm - sometimes even into the night if they are discussing a lot of things - to study the Word together and to train up others in the Word.

They start with reading the Word and studying it in depth together and currently they are studying the book of 1 Peter. Afterwards they spend time training the younger ones in Evangelism and preparing them to go out on outreaches to spread the Good News of Salvation.

As a result of their faithful study and training of disciples, many are being brought into the fold and the Gospel is spreading to more and more villages and towns. Every week, our teams are teaching 1,611 adults and many children and youth.

Recently they heard about some families in quarantine in a village called Mahayahay, who are new believers in our Lord Jesus. These families were struggling to eat and in great need.

So the churches in Tumpagon and Cauyunan took up a collection and sent this package of food, money and toiletries to these needy families. How awesome it is to see the family of our Lord Jesus functioning in love and care towards one another!

The two new houses for our newest missionary families in the Baungon region are nearly complete. We hope to send you a video update on this before too many more weeks.

Paul now has 6 artificial joints in his toes......after having surgery to correct quite severe hammer toes. He was in surgery for 4 hours with 5 doctors working on his toes. Praise God that his recovery has been going well and in another 3 weeks, he should be able to start walking normally albeit carefully.

We are looking forward to returning to Mindanao Lord willing early next year.....in His perfect timing. Our hearts are yearning for our Higaonon and Talaandig family and precious co-workers in the Gospel!

Meanwhile, we continue with great joy to spend time with Jubab and with all our family and to work at everything the Lord gives us to turn our hands to. It has been a very fruitful time here in Perth and we are so thankful and content with all that this year has held.

A few evenings ago, we were able to attend an event where we met a lot of the local Myanmar community here in Perth - a special glimpse into their culture and the difficulties they have experienced. If we only had more years, how awesome it would be to go as a missionary to their country. The fields are white unto harvest brothers and sisters.... pray to the Lord of the Harvest for more workers.

Much Love,
Paul and Deb and Jubab

Thursday, August 12, 2021 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-Workers in the Gospel,

We send each of you our love and we pray that each of you is keeping safe and encouraged during this pandemic time. There sure have been a LOT of restrictions placed on each of us during the past 1½ years and our lives have changed a lot. The Lord has not changed though – He still loves each of us, has a great plan for each of us and meets all of our needs and He uses us to partner with Him in His plans.

As you know Deb and I returned to Australia in December 2020 for our furlough/home-assignment time, so we have been ‘home’ now (our Australian home) for going on 8 months.

During this time we have kept pretty busy working online with our different teams in the Philippines. We run 4 different offices these days, so it sure keeps us busy.

One of our desires this year was to see all of our Australian supporters and co-workers. It had been 7 years since our last visit so in June 2021 we headed off on a trip to South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. All of our meetings in South Australia and Victoria went really well and we were delighted to see all of our loved ones who have stood with us in the work for so, so many years and to be able to report about all that we have seen God do in Mindanao.

There were still two families in Victoria and one church (and all the folk at that church) who we were anxious to see but then were prevented from seeing because Victoria was locked down. And the final leg of our trip was going to be NSW, but it also was in lockdown. So …… we applied for permission to travel through South Australia and enter into Western Australia where we base out of these days. This permission was granted us (many have been declined so we praise God that we were able to travel) so we travelled the 3,500 km home in 3 days and we are now on Day 4 of our 14 day long home quarantine. We cannot leave the house at all apart from to get our Covid test on Day 2 and 12. This morning we bought groceries online and had them delivered which was pretty cool.

So Where To From Here?
We are going to try and report via Zoom to the churches in NSW and QLD who partner with us in the work. This is really different for us and we would far prefer to see everyone face to face and to report in person but it seems like Zoom will work. So please pray with us as we attempt this - especially the first few times. Our first meeting will be on August 22.

We are planning on returning to the Philippines early 2022 – possibly in about March. We really want to get back to all the churches and to see our family in the Lord there. We miss them so, so much and want to love on them and have more ministry into their lives.

How long will we be there for?
We don’t know. But the good thing is that God knows and He is over all things! The Philippines has given us permission to return, and we are sure that Australia will allow us to leave here due to us being permanent residents of the Philippines.

The churches in the Philippines number about 60 now and are doing well. A few are struggling but most are really flourishing. The works in each of the 6 regions where we are working are doing great, as are each of our 23 Filipino co-missionaries working in these regions. Covid has been tough for most of the churches, but they have been able to continue to reach people for Christ during the pandemic. Many in the Philippines are turning to the Lord during these uncertain times. God has worked things out for his own glory despite the trials that have flooded the world.

Jubab is doing great. We really praise God for all that is going on in his life. He is doing a science degree at university, plays volleyball and American football, works as a waiter, and is involved in his church here in Perth. He has a girlfriend who we haven’t had the joy of meeting yet ☹ -- but after quarantine we will and can’t wait. And his heart is being challenged and moved again with a burden for missions. For now, Deb and I have advised him to take one step at a time, to first just complete his degree, to serve in his church and to give lots of time to his relationship with his girlfriend Freya.

Our children and grandchildren in the Philippines are doing great too. Jen and Udi continue to serve the Lord tirelessly and are seeing much fruit. Our oldest granddaughter Char just started her second year of Nursing yesterday, and our oldest grandson Clint turned 16 today. The two littlest are well and growing up too fast.

Between now and when we return to the Philippines, we will continue to treasure our family times here in Perth and to get as much time as we can with them as we miss them so terribly when we are in the Philippines. We’ll continue to develop the evangelism series on our website in the four languages we are working in, and we’ll be in touch Lord willing via Zoom with dear co-workers we haven’t been able to travel to due to the difficulty in travel with the lockdowns.

So, this is just a little update on where we are at so you can pray with us and know our plans.

Lots of Love.....
Paul and Deb

Friday, July 23, 2021 Download this update.

July, 2021 Harvests......

Our Dear Co-workers,

This is a report of the harvests that have been reaped this month of July, 2021.

July 9th, in the village of Buyatak, 17 precious souls were harvested for the Lord. In the village of Mayahay, 3 precious souls were harvested for the Lord.
July 15th, in the village of Kapisahan, 12 precious souls were harvested for the Lord.
July 17th, in the village of Gawgawon, 8 precious souls were harvested for the Lord. Among those saved in Gawgawon was man in his 60’s who told those present that if they could look into his heart, they would find inside, faith in Jesus and heaven his new destination.

These dear new believers in Jesus all said something very profound to the ones who had been hiking so far and with such difficulty for so many months to bring them the message of the glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus. They said, "If you hadn’t come here to teach us, we would never have heard the message of Salvation!"

Please pray (especially on Fridays and Saturdays) for the villages of Buyatak, Rubucon, Mahayahay, Pinatagan, Kapisahan, Gawgawon, Tingalan and Caribao. These are villages ripe unto harvest, the harvesters have arrived, and the harvest is ongoing.

For His Glory.....Paul and Deb for the team!

Saturday, May 8, 2021 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-Workers in the Gospel,

This is going to be a long letter as there is so much to share, so please bear with us. While we are here in Perth, the Lord is doing amazing things in every corner of the work in Mindanao. Covid has not shut down the ministry even though cases are rising in our nearest city of Cagayan de Oro and even though the rate of daily deaths in the Philippines is still quite high and borders open and close. But despite this, the ministry teams and evangelists are working harder than ever and much ministry is taking place both in the church family groups and in new villages who want to be taught the way of salvation. Pictures speak a thousand words so maybe a few pictures will show you a few highlights of the past few months.

Family groups gathering in various villages to be taught!

The mature women from the churches in the Dulangan, visited their new sisters in Man-ai to fellowship with them, encourage them and to also strengthen and help Abegail and Jie-Jie, the young missionary women serving in Man-ai alongside their husbands.

Women ministry team in Ricodo, tireless in visitation and prayer for the needy and the discouraged, on their way even on this rainy day to minister.

The evangelist team from Cauyunan and Tumpagon, on their way to teach in the new area of Patag, answering the call from that place for someone to come over and teach them the Gospel.

The school ministry is still closed as there are no face-to-face classes in any of the schools in the Philippines, but the youth ministry is really thriving in the churches and the women scripture teachers are using this time to hone their teaching skills, to deepen their understanding of the Word as they study together on a weekly basis and to minister to sisters in Christ they have never met before in the remote outreaches.

Paul and I have been working on the "He Wants You" evangelism series from here in Perth –co-working on this project with a team of about 12 different co-workers who are in 4 different locations in Mindanao! The English version of this series and the Talaandig version have been totally revised and finalized up to Episode 28, and we are currently working on the Cebuano version.

We also have wonderful news: the draft of the Higaonon New Testament which our co-translator, Ryan Duwang and his wife Sarah have been working on is now in itsfinal stages!!!! One of our big jobs at the moment is reading through this with the team to complete all the final checks.

This is Ryan (right) and the team helping him with the final checks.

Our beloved co-workers Ernesto and Jane Lopez (pictured here with the whole Lapoc missionary team –bottom right and third from right in the second row) were finally able to move up to Lapoc and they are overjoyed to be there and busy with lots of ministry even while they still settle in and get unpacked.

Because of Ernesto’s effort -the computers in all the regions have never worked as well or as smoothly and Jane and Ernesto have been helping with many other aspects of ministry also.

The missionary team in the newest region of Baungon have grown with the birth of a beautiful and healthy new baby to Jovanie and Jess Cole.

The latest news of us (Paul and Deb) here in Perth is that we are having beautiful family times, love being home with Jubab.... are thrilled to be partnering in the finalizing of the Higaonon New Testament and in the Cebuano "He Wants You" evangelism series, even from this distance away from Mindanao, love having Zoom meetings with the leadership and phone calls.... thank you so much Lord for this technology....and are looking forward to driving over the Nullabor desert next month to share about this amazing work in South Australia, Vic and NSW before coming home Lord willing in time for Jubab’sbirthdaywhich is aspecial day we don’t want to miss.Early in the new year, we hope to make a similar trip to the Northern Rivers area of NSW and to Qld before returning to the Philippines.

Our Team’s Prayer and PraisePoints:

• Pray for our current big building project of building missionary housing and a church building in the Baungon region.
• Pray for our 21 missionaries: the Lapoc team, the Balintad team, the Ricodo team, the Baungon team and the Man-ai team.
• Pray for Jun and Mara Daguing and for Christine Mogpo, our three Bible College students who graduate this month and return home to their home churches of Tumpagon and San Aquino.
• Pray for our travel to the East Coast, for safe driving and for the things we share to be a big blessing to each one who hears these things in the churches and homes we visit.
• Praise for the amazing things God is doing that have already been mentioned in this update.

Thank you so much our beloved partners in the Gospel for all your prayers and giving that makes this ministry possible and is for the glory of our Lord Jesus!

Lots of Love....Paul and Deb

Tuesday, March 16, 2021 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-Workers in the Gospel,

We often receive short videos from different ones of our evangelists that are teaching throughout the mountains in Northern Mindanao - about how they are spreading the good news about Jesus and the Salvation that he provides. Generally they just take short videos on their phones and sometimes post them onto Facebook and we can download them and keep in the loop while we work from home.

I thought I would send this one on. A lot of our churches are large and on main roads, but many are way up in the bush in very remote areas. This clip shows about church planting that is going on in one of these remote areas – Overlooking.

There are about 4 guys that go to this place on motorcycles each week and teach and disciple. One of these guys is Rostom from the Tagbak church and he has an artificial leg and only one hand but he is such a huge warrior for our Lord and I reckon that he must have 2 hearts 😊. Hope you enjoy this clip.

Love in Christ, Paul and Deb

Wednesday, March 03, 2021 Download this update.

A wise friend told us to "recharge every possible battery" while we are on home assignment, so we are taking her advice and doing lots of recharging! One-night last week we sat out on bean bags under the stars.... another day recently we were on a picnic with my Mom and brother and sister-in-law.... we take Jubab’s little dog Emmy on long walks every morning on a glorious beach and talk together and to the Lord.... we are making new friends and having family dinners.... enjoying growth group and overall are having a wonderful time and feeling a lot more relaxed than we have for a long time. Thank you LORD!!

We have quite a few PRAISE points we would love you to praise God with us for:

• The Talaandig teaching material (episodes) are coming along very well as we continue to work on these with the team back in the Philippines.
• We have water now in Lapoc!!!! A couple years ago, an earthquake destroyed our deep well in Lapoc and so we’ve been having a new one drilled which has taken almost a whole year. After many setbacks with covid and all, we now have a 77 metre deep well which is producing 33 litres of water per minute!! This is sufficient for the five houses of our whole missionary team in Lapoc and for the church building when we are having conferences and camps.
• This past week we were able to have a faster internet connection installed in Lapoc! This will be a huge benefit for the work in the office, for networking with the churches in other regions, for production of materials for the churches and for the children doing their schooling!

PRAYER points we would love you to pray for are:

• Pray for our co-workers Ernesto and Jane Lopez as they move to Lapoc this March or April.
• Pray this Saturday (Mar 6th) as we are sending a team of technicians into Cauyunan to set up an internet connection there.
• Pray for the building of two houses for our newly deployed missionaries in the Baungon region, and please for the 2 families – the Cole and Anggaon - They are still adjusting to the demands and the challenges of missionary life and they are busy with over 80 people who they are now teaching each week about Christ and salvation! They are also going to need a church building soon as they are just meeting in a temporary tarpaulin building.
• Pray for an end to the rat plague currently troubling the Cauyunan region. The rats have destroyed the corn crops and the root crops and left little food untouched in the fields. Our brothers and sisters in the Lord there are struggling for food ☹.

So as you an see from this letter our lives are a mixture right now of some work each day and taking a bit of time out to recharge and see our family.

Thank you so much for praying for us and for Jubab. Jubab’s days are quite full at Uni (he is studying Criminology), and with TAFE where he is studying a Hospitality Skill Set course, with working part-time and spending as much time as he can with us. We are having the best family times together!

Heaps of Love, Paul and Deb

Friday, January 15, 2021 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-Workers in Christ,

This is Paul writing this morning (normally Deb writes 😊). We are back home in Australia at the moment and what a year 2020 was! People have had many different views of 2020, but for us and for the Talaandig and Higaonon works – although it was a time of massive upheaval that bought on great uncertainty and stress – it was a hugely good year!

→Many people were saved during 2020 and many of our churches experienced large influxes of people wanting the know about Jesus and the salvation He gives. We have had to extend quite a few of our church buildings.
→The Baongon region (our newest region) continued to flourish culminating with us sending 2 missionary families to live there permanently in November. This week (January 15th) we purchased land there and plan to build houses for these 2 families as they are living in very rough conditions and both are young families with small children. Also, we are going to need a church building.
→Our other regions are going well also – just recently we have had to purchase several additional motorbikes for our ever-growing team of Bible teachers to use to get out to the areas they are teaching in. The teams are currently evangelizing in about 20 new villages and people are wanting God’s word.
→We made great progress on our evangelistic teaching material which is now on-line. This is a great training tool for young up and coming Bible teachers and is in 3 different languages including English. Have a look at it and use it if you want.
www.paulanddeb.com
→We have also been developing the "tech" side of our work. We have purchased about 10 data projectors, we have about 40 computers throughout the work, and we continue working out different ways we can get connected to the internet in all the regions where we are working. Computer seminars are being held to train our personnel in computers. God has given Ernesto and Jane Lopez to co-worker with us and they have taken on a large portion of the "tech" side for us which has really been a HUGE blessing and has freed me up greatly to be able to spend more time in teaching material development. We praise God for Ernesto and Jane who have given their lives to take on this ministry.

What is in store in 2021 for us as a family
First of all, it has been delightful to be home – especially with Jubab. 2020 was a tough year for him, especially during the lockdown time. Since getting home we have been able to spend a lot of time together as a family and it has been so, so good. Jubab has a job now and is doing Uni working on getting his degree. We have been able to catch up with Deb’s family and my family which has been great also.

So although we can’t plan as well as we used to be able to due to the Covid complications, we plan on working from Australia this year and continuing on with the development of our evangelism material. It will take the rest of this year to see it completed and most days we work online with our team in the Philippines who are working on this material with us. There are about 10 of us in total working on this material. In addition to this, Deb and I are working continually with our missionaries in all six regions as they need us. Our band of missionaries who have been raised from the churches we’ve planted has now grown to 21! God has so blessed the work!

We are also planning on travelling to the East coast to visit our other family there and all of our dear friends who have so faithfully stood with us in the work amongst the Talaandig and Higaonon peoples. We so badly want to report to everybody about what God has been doing through our work --- and to see everybody who we love so much 😊.

And then we want to enjoy more family time also, especially with Jubab, and take some rest time while we are here so we can recharge for 2022 when we plan on returning home to the Philippines. (Both Australia and the Philippines are home for us! 😊)

So this is just a short note to share how we are and what we feel God has for us this 2021 and I will also add some prayer points below.

Much Love, Paul and Deb

Pray
→The set-up for the Baungon missionaries and for their church planting effort – housing etc.
→Pray for all the Talaandig and Higaonon Missionaries as they labour in the regions.
→For Deb and I as we continue on with our Evangelistic materials.
→For us that we can recharge also and have some good family times and be able to travel east.
→For a deep well that we are drilling in Lapoc. It is at 300 feet now and we have hit water. Pray that it can end up being a good water source for a potential Bible College in that area.
→For Ernesto and Jane as they have a huge ministry taking care of all the tech side of the work, also they are leading a Bible study and encouraging the team. Pray for good health for both of them, joy, provision..... and for their paperwork at Immigration to be approved.
→Above all pray that God will give us wisdom as we serve. God’s plans are always the best.

Wednesday, December 1, 2020 Download this update.

Looking back over 2020 with Paul and Deb..... this year of 2020 has been one of the most exciting years ministry wise and has exceeded anything we ever could have envisioned! Praise God for His amazing ways that are beyond description!

The Philippines went into strict lockdown in many places starting March 13th, 2020. We were in Manila at the time finalizing things with the delivery of the Talaandig New Testaments, when suddenly the news was announced that all travel by land, air and sea to and from Manila would be cancelled and everything locked down. The Lord got us back to Mindanao on one of the very last flights late that night and we were hugely thankful not to get locked out of our home and place of ministry!

Our Bibles though sat in a warehouse in Manila for three more months and then suddenly and miraculously — in God’s ALWAYS PERFECT TIMING — they arrived here and on June 28, 2020 we held our first Bible Distribution and Celebration at the church in Lapoc and NINE celebrations later, we finished at the church in Cauyunan which took place on July 12th, 2020!

In September we were able to launch our new evangelism series online that we’ve been working on since Oct 2019. Almost all 59 of our churches in the six regions where we minister immediately started using this series in their churches and also for outreach and they have found it to be a great tool that is generating much interest in the Gospel amongst their communities! Praise God for this, we are so thrilled and ask for prayer as we continue to develop this material in three different languages.

On November 4th, our church in Ricodo sent out a new missionary couple to the Baungon region, Jovanie and Jessel Cole and they are going to be joined this week by DanDan and Yayang Anggaon from our church in Lapoc. On November 29th we had our 10th and final Bible Distribution and Celebration in Baungon and it was very wonderful to be part of this and to see how fresh and eager our new missionaries are and how they were serving so beautifully that day! The Lord is greatly blessing his new baby churches in Kalanganan, San Vicente and Tamusan — all part of the Baungon region!

So this brings us to today, December 1, 2020 and next week Lord willing, we will arrive in Brisbane and after quarantine, we hope to fly to Perth and end this year by being able to finally hug our son again and to be with him for a time!

We hope to catch up with you while we’re having some ‘home assignment’ time in Australia if the travel restrictions allow.

The new believers in the Baungon region were overjoyed when Udi and the team arrived there and some of them broke down and sobbed. They had missed their bible teachers so much and they had missed the teaching from the Living Word.

Have a blessed Christmas,
LOVE Paul and Deb xxxx

Thursday, September 24, 2020 Download this update.

Dearest Co-Workers,

ANSWER TO PRAYER!!

Just wanted to let you know that there has been no further outbreak of Covid in the San Miguel church and the swab tests have all come back negative!!!

And our pregnant sister who had the Covid, gave birth safely to a gorgeous baby boy and he is clear of Covid as well!! They were able to go home to San Miguel from the hospital yesterday!!!!

PRAISE THE LORD!!!!

Thank you so much for praying!!!

NO ROOM LEFT IN CHURCH BUILDINGS!!!

This is a GOOD, GOOD problem to have. In San Miguel, we just heard this morning that two weeks ago, before they were quarantined because of the Covid case, there was standing room only in the church. Their leaders had to borrow more chairs and build a makeshift extension to the church building with tarp roofing, and still there was not enough room! Next Sunday, their quarantine will be finished, and they will be meeting again.

In Cauyunan, we heard that last Sunday, many people had to sit outside as there was no more room in the building. There are so many new people who have started attending the church wanting to hear about Jesus!

The same is happening in Limondà — about 30 new people have recently started attending church there looking for salvation and wanting to know the Saviour!

In the Baungon region, our son-in-law Udi told us last week that they desperately need more workers as no matter how much work they do, it just keeps growing. He said, "Those who aren’t looking for opportunities to serve the Lord never find anything to do. But if you are looking for opportunities to serve, the work never runs out, it just keeps growing!"

PRAY! PRAY! PRAY!

If you want to join us in prayer just once or for a whole week of fervent prayer – any amount of praying you feel led to do is so appreciated and needed – then please pray for the following:

Concerted effort is being made by quite a few Cauyunan church members this week to take the message of salvation into the places of Mayahay, Tingalan, Tagculut, Pudug, Tawili, Tingalan and Binasan. They have been training twice a week for many months to prepare for this. And now they are confident to share the Good News of salvation through our Lord Jesus, and they are ready to be sent out, and these are the places they feel God wants them to focus on.

October 8 is a big day for missions here! The church leadership from each of our five regions will be meeting to discuss who they will send out and from which of the churches, to form a new mission team in the Baungon region. The work there just keeps growing as Udi said, and a full-time team is needed.

The Man-ai church (one of the youngest of our churches) is expanding their outreach to three new areas and they are so excited to share the salvation they have received with others! It is so heartening that they don’t want to keep this good news to themselves, but they want to shout it out!

After many months of being locked down and not allowed over the state border into the Baungon region, our son-in-law Udi and his team were finally able to get back there last month.

One of their concerns had been this beautiful 102-year-old (in this selfie with Udi) wondering how she has been through the Covid pandemic, but they found her safe and sound!

The new believers in the Baungon region were overjoyed when Udi and the team arrived there and some of them broke down and sobbed. They had missed their bible teachers so much and they had missed the teaching from the Living Word.

Please pray with us, especially on October 8, as we make plans for sending out another missionary team to work full-time in this region. Currently, Udi and his team travel over 20 hours each week in itinerant ministry to 3 different villages in this region.

Thank you so much for standing with us in this ever-expanding work of the Kingdom!!!!

Love Paul and Deb and all the team

Thursday, September 17, 2020 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-Workers in Christ,

Since 1989 Debbie and I have been doing evangelistic work amongst close on 100 different communities here in the Philippines. We now have 59 churches planted and God has helped us greatly in preparing the Bible Study material that we have used and seen such amazing results from as people have studied it.

In a nutshell it is a tool to help people understand about salvation through Jesus.

Also a great tool for home groups to see your home group mature.

Also good to watch as families to help your children come to a saving faith in Christ and to see them grow in understanding.

Click here to view instructions on how to use this material. I recommend that you read these instructions first and then you can click on the link below to see the material.

The materials are in the following languages – English, Talaandig/Higaonon, Cebuano

Love in our Lord Jesus, Paul and Debbie

http://www.paulanddeb.com

Monday, September 14, 2020 Download this update.

Dear Co-Workers,

We just wanted to let you know that despite the Covid pandemic which is starting to gain more of a foothold here in Mindanao, we are well, especially our hearts and spirits which our Father continually holds and strengthens. He is laying on our hearts to work hard in the days remaining….our LORD is coming again soon!

Recently we celebrated our 36th anniversary and travel restrictions had lifted enough that our daughter Jen and son-in-law Udi were able to travel out from Cauyunan and visit for the day. It was a special gift to us to be with them, although we have some worries about Jen’s health as her blood pressure has been extremely high and the very day they visited us she had to start taking medication. She seems to be doing better this past week and needs to maintain the meds.

Our biggest concern right now is for our church in San Miguel (close by to Lapoc) which has over 100 members. One of the mothers in this church who is 9 months pregnant has tested positive for Covid and as a result, everyone who has had contact with her is in quarantine, but in spite of these measures, there are a lot of concerns and stresses in the community that the Covid may spread.

Please pray that our brothers and sisters will trust God even more through this situation which could deteriorate very quickly because of the proximity of housing to each other. Many are scared of the unknown and finding it very hard to be house bound. PRAY that this might be a time that they will see God’s mighty arm at work mightily on their behalf. May their eyes be open to all that He is doing for them!!!!!

We are hoping and praying that we can get home to Jubab for Christmas. Please pray that the doors will open for us and a flight will become available. It is one of the great desires of our hearts right now that we can be reunited with our son!

Meanwhile we have been producing a Bible Study tool that will help people to both study the Bible as believers or can be used for outreach. This material is in both audio and movie format and comes with downloadable study guides and pictures. We hope to have this ready to release before too long. It is in 3 languages – English, Cebuano and Talaandig/Higaonon. Please pray for us as we continue to work on this material.

Thank you so, so much for PRAYING our dear Lord’s family!

Lots of Love,
Paul and Deb

Sunday, August 2, 2020 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-Workers,

Bible Distribution

We have finally given out the New Testament Bibles!

It was a difficult time, we had planned one big and great celebration about God's Word arriving in the hands of the Talaandig and Higaonon people, but because of COVID-19 we ended up meeting in nine different locations at different times.

We thank God for all the grace He has given to Debbie and I over the last 20 years, and to the team who has helped us in the translation, and you guys have had an opportunity to serve as well; many many of you have prayed and have encouraged and supported us -- you have a part in this translation. We also want to say a big thank you to you guys over in the western countries like Australia and some people in the USA who have a part in helping Debbie and I to stay in the field here in the Philippines and do the work that God has for us.

We aren't finished yet, there're a few more miles for us to go, and until the Lord comes back we're just going to keep allowing Him to use us, and we want Him to do whatever He wants to do through our lives.

Here is the movie on the launch of the Talaandig/Higaonon Scriptures – Enjoy.

Lots of Love, Paul and Deb

Wednesday, June 10, 2020 Download this update.

Our Dear Co-Workers in Christ,

There is an abundance of news today and it is all really exciting!!

The Bibles Arrived

This morning we got a phone call from the pier in Cagayan De Oro. The ship has arrived with our Talaandig New Testaments on it --- Debbie and I could barely contain our excitement!

Now we are still fairly locked down over here in Mindanao and borders are all closed, and it is very strict. Currently only one of us can leave the house and we need to have our exit pass with us in order to do it. So how are we going to distribute God’s word? --- Well first up, let’s all pray.

One of the believers from Lapoc (Loloy) works in the Mayor’s office. Now the Mayor (Before the Covid outbreak) was going to come to the Talaandig Bible Launch Celebration as we know him. However, we all know what happened. The Bibles all got locked down in Manila and we all (including you 😊) all got locked down all around the world. Anyway, Loloy is meeting with the Mayor today to work out how we can distribute the Bibles in Lapoc. Somehow, I think that something will work out and that we will be given passes to get through the borders. The Mayor will also attend I think.

We were planning on having just the 1 celebration that was to take place in Lapoc but that would have involved travel from all the regions for all the believers and there were 2,300 believers who had listed their names as attendees. That is no longer going to be possible – so we are planning on having a launch in 3 or 4 different areas now so we can minimize travel. To me I am confident that God will work it out and somehow, I think we are going to be eating a LOT of roast pigs! 😊 Which is what you eat at celebrations over here. Please pray with us about the details of these celebrations for the Talaandig New Testament.

Another Translation

Some other BIG news - We have a second translation planned and this will Lord Willing, begin in another months’ time. The Bible that just arrived at the pier is in the Talaandig language. It is a diglot – meaning that the Bibles have 2 languages in them. One column is in Talaandig and the other column is English. The Talaandig people learn English at school and then many these days are going to university in town. Uni students are using English more and more and church is conducted more and more in English out where the universities are situated. So the Bibles are diglot so they can read God’s word in their Talaandig tongue or in English, beautiful to look at, really durable covers, gold edging on the Bible paper – they are just like what you would get when you buy a nice Bible in the west. We will send out some photos when we have taken delivery.

Now Ryan Duwang, has been on the translation team for many years working with Debbie and I and the rest of our team and he is a good translator. He is also a mother tongue "Higaonon" speaker. So we are sending him back to the Dulangan region to turn our translation from Talaandig to Higaonon. The languages are related so we are thinking that this may be able to be done well within 1-2 years as much will be handled with the computer. Pray for us (especially Ryan) as we do this project.

Ronnie (he is either Paul’s right hand – or Paul is Ronnie’s right hand 😊) is currently in Cauyunan preparing a place for Ryan and Sarah and their son Troy to live in. There is a house there that we are renovating, and it should be pretty nice when we are finished. It will probably take a month or so to get it all fixed up. Please pray with us about this project too.

Deep Well Being Drilled

About 15 years back we had a deep well drilled in Lapoc. It was a 9 ¼ inch diameter hole that was drilled 300 feet (100 metres) deep and then a pump was lowered to the bottom of this hole. It has provided water for the Lapoc work since then. However, in the earthquakes here last year the well was destroyed. So currently we are having a 2nd 300-foot-deep hole being drilled, and they were at about 200 feet deep as of mid-March but then they all got locked down too and the drilling stopped. The drilling has just begun again today and they have hit water so please pray for that project too.

Website Evangelistic Material Progress

Debbie and I have been working on Evangelistic materials since late last year and have had even more extensive time on this since we were locked down in mid-March. We are doing these materials in 3 different languages – Talaandig, English and Cebuano. They are about ½ way completed now. The materials are fabulous, and we are really pleased with them. Our new co-workers, Jane and Ernesto Lopez, went home to the USA for 1 month to visit Jane’s family as her dad had been unwell. Well they got locked down near Chicago and have been there ever since. They have a ticket to come home to Mindanao for July 5 so please pray with us about their return.

Anyway, while they have been locked down in Chicago, Debbie and I and one of our Higaonon co-workers Jerrum and our camera man Jan have been making Evangelistic videos. So far, we have about 35 done. We then send the videos and study guides to Ernesto and Jane and they have been developing a website and putting this material up on the web. We are not ready to launch this site ---- but we almost are, so probably next month we will send you all a link and you will be able to use it.

It will be a great site to give a link to unsaved relatives and friends and they can watch these (user friendly) videos in the comfort of their own home and maybe come to understand about salvation. In addition to this we will be able to use the materials over here for training of new Bible teachers as well as for outreach and evangelism.

We just purchased another 4 computers and 3 more data projectors for this project for different ones of the churches. We still need more internet signals in the remote areas (pray) and we will be able to share Jesus with many, many more people though this digital method.

Coming Home To Australia

Tomorrow June 11, Debbie and I had tickets to Perth from over here as we were going home for my Mum’s 80th birthday. Well our tickets have been cancelled and even if they weren’t, we would have to be in quarantine for 14 days so would miss Mum’s birthday anyway. So needless to say, we cannot go even though we wanted to be at my Mum’s birthday so badly.😟

We are now feeling that God wants us to complete this website project before we go home and also make sure the Bibles are distributed. So somehow, I think it will be around October before we can get home.

We are tired and have not had a Furlough (called Home Assignment or Sabbatical sometimes now) for many, many years. At times we have been able to be in Australia but each time we have continued on with our work such as translation etc. So we are feeling like we need to take a furlough and rest a bit and also get to visit all of our supporters and supporting churches and report about the work over here. So once (Lord Willing – if it actually does happen) we get to come to Australia and if the borders are open in Australia we are going to take a furlough and travel and see our dear co-workers who have stood so faithfully with us in the work here. We are missing everyone.

Little Boy Found in Victoria Australia

Almost every morning I work out on the treadmill in our home here for 1 hour. I get drenched with sweat and while working out I normally catch up on the news and sometimes talk to the Lord. Up until this AM there was a little autistic boy who does not speak and who is afraid of people who was lost in the Mt. Pleasant mountains. Some were fearing that he may have died as he has been lost for 2 nights and it gets really cold there in the night. Anyway, this morning I saw the Mum of this boy live on TV and she was talking about her son. She said, "I am not the praying type -- but I have been praying". 10 minutes later as I worked out, the news announcer announced that the boy had been found. God answered that mother’s prayer. God tells us that all people know he is there as knowledge of him is built into our hearts -- this lady knew God was there, she prayed and God answered. Beautiful!!! Maybe she has just begun her journey.

Just Warming Up

The last time I met with a large group of Bible teachers at a Talaandig Bible teacher’s meeting we had, after I had finished sharing, I asked them what basketball players do before they played the game. They answered – "they warm up." I had just been speaking with them of the amazing things we are seeing God do through us all here and I encouraged them – "Guys we are just warming up."

Jesus may come back tomorrow or even today; we don’t know what he has in store for us. Maybe we are just warming up for many more things that are to come. Maybe he is about to rapture us to be with himself. But we can be sure of one thing about our God, he is always on time, he is kind and he is faithful. Let’s keep walking with him and trusting him each day --- and let’s try to get to the finishing line --- serving him until his return.

Much, much Love, Paul (for us both)

P.S. We call it "walking by faith" as we don’t know what is ahead of us. We walk and we trust.

Thursday, March 19, 2020 Download this update.

WE’RE PRAISING GOD AND SUPER EXCITED!!!!

5000 pocket-sized copies of our newly printed Talaandig New Testaments were just delivered this morning from the Philippine Bible Society in Manila for the school ministries!!!! The 5,000 copies of the big Bibles that are for all the churches are all boxed up and ready to ship as soon as it is allowable to ship things from in Manila.

The shipping company who delivered them from the pier, are on their last day of work. Tomorrow they are closed because of the Covid-19 lock-down!!!

DoyDoy, one of the Lapoc Church elders, arrived 30 min later in his truck to pick them up and take them to Lapoc!!

How perfect is God’s timing!!!

Sunday, March 17, 2020 Download this update.

As we mentioned a few weeks back we have a short clip of the gospel being preached in the Baungon region. The Higaunon churches of Cauyunan labored incredibly to minister to these more then 50 people and then they gave me the privilege to preach on the death of our Lord. Many sobbed and accepted Christ as their Saviour that very day before our eyes. Click on Play below to watch this video.

There is SO much bad news around at the moment but God continues to draw people to himself through his Son. One of the themes that I emphasized greatly as I taught on that day is that "God greatly desires a relationship with each of us" and also that "We need to run to him and not run away from him". It was a great day!

Sunday, March 14, 2020 Download this update.

OVERVIEW OF PAUL AND DEB’S LAST FEW WEEKS

Dear Co-workers in the Gospel,

During the past few weeks it feels like God has been taking us on a whirl-wind journey, showing us more amazing things that He is doing than our hearts can hardly take in.

No pictures or words can describe it, but we will try to give you a quick sketch.

This is a new group in the village of Malandog who our missionary team in the Ricodo just started teaching.

This very day, another group in Ligiron, an outreach from Cauyunan have heard about Jesus’ death for them and His resurrection, and more of our Lord’s lambs have been brought into the fold!

Two days ago we made a quick trip to Manila and meet the whole team in person at the Philippine Bible Society who have had a part in the type-setting and editing and designing of the Talaandig New Testament.

They told us the long-awaited news that the New Testaments are ready to ship to us on Monday!!

We made it back home around 10 pm last night, very thankful to make it out on Manila before all transport in and out of Manila closes. Please pray with us that the shipping of the New Testaments will still be able to go ahead next week despite the quarantines and lockdowns to prevent the spread of covid-19.

In these uncertain days with people not knowing what they will face next — amidst closures of schools and workplaces, travel restrictions, face masks, panic — God has chosen this time to bring His unchanging Word translated into Talaandig and available for the first time in printed form to His people here!

There are 2,300 believers from our churches who have put their names down to come to the launching of the Talaandig New Testament celebration to receive a bible and to give thanks to God for His beautiful gift! And there are over 500 who can’t travel but are waiting at home for their copy! (We can barely believe how many believers there are now in our churches.) Now, we may have to delay the group celebration or we may have to have several smaller celebrations but we won’t delay the distributing of these very special, life-giving Bibles to these waiting believers!

Another very exciting event during the past few weeks were the seminars we have held for the new evangelism material we are writing! Above are the pastors, missionaries and others who are keen to evangelize, who attended the first English Seminar.

After the English Seminar, we held the same seminar in Lapoc only in Talaandig for about 60 Talaandig and Higaonon missionaries, pastors and evangelists. Paul told the team during the seminar in Lapoc that he felt like one of the most blessed missionaries to have them as his spiritual children and his co-workers in the Gospel!! They are an amazing team!

In summary, during the last few weeks we have seen the Lord bring salvation to about 50 – 70 new believers, the New Testament that we’ve been working on for 20+ years is ready to ship and almost 3,000 people are waiting for their copy, there were about 95 workers of the Gospel who studied the new evangelism materials in the seminars, and ALL of this is God’s doing and amazes us!!

Much Love, Paul and Deb