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“Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually” (1Cor. 12:27). In the southernmost part of the Philippine archipelago, we have the islands of Mindanao and Visayas (sometimes called the central part of the Philippines). We have many brothers and sisters. The saints began to meet in the early 1950s with a number of Chinese-speaking saints and have now grown to two hundred ninety churches with an estimated number of twelve thousand saints who regularly attend the Lord's Day meeting. At present local people comprise the majority of the saints meeting in these churches.
It is Brother Witness Lee who infuses us with the riches of the Lord's Recovery through his ministry. In 1967 he first time visited Mindanao in Aurora. A new and burning church life was strongly brought in by him through calling upon the name of the Lord. After that the Life Study of Genesis was enjoyed by saints here and some representative coworkers were timely invited to US for a constant fellowship with this Ministry.
Now Once every two months approximately forty representative co-workers from 7 regions of the southern Philippines meet together in Ozamiz perfecting training center. They fellowship concerning how the churches should go on through scheduled "items for fellowship" and assign co-workers to lead the blending meetings and conferences in different regions. There is always the need to strengthen the meetings with the instant leading of the Lord discussed during this bi-monthly coworkers' meeting. The letters from the coworkers' meeting are sent to the churches throughout the whole southern Philippines for a clear and solid fellowship with the corporate direction.
Every three months a cluster of churches within the same region blend together for three days. They digest and enjoy the outlines with excerpts and one of the ten spiritual books which have been translated into Bisaya. These books include like: The Economy of God, The All-inclusive Christ, The Experience of Life, The Knowledge Of Life, The Vital Groups, The Glorious Church, The Word Of Love, The Tree Of Life, Sit Work Stand, The Lord's Recovery of Eating, The Basic Revelation in the Holy Scriptures. Often in the gatherings, three to four chapters are digested. Each of the attending churches shares a portion from one of the books chosen for the blending conference while the other churches listen.
The whole southern Philippines is also able to enjoy two times of the big blending conference in Ozamiz Medina Gymnasium with around 5 to 6 thousands saints. First time it was held in year 2000 November 5 by brother Benson Philips, Jim Miller and Hermon Chang, and the second time in year 2001 April 8 by Jim Miller and Hermon Chang. The subjects of the international elders' training were transfused to us immediately after the international training.
Although only ten books have been translated into Bisaya, the churches have kept up with the flow in the Body by using the up-to-date copies of "The Holy Word for Morning Revival". Every six weeks we have to distribute five thousand and five hundred copies (near half of our regular Lord's day meeting attendance) through 12 stations. The much awaited Cebuano Recovery Version of Bible had been published with ten thousand copies in Korea, and seven thousand copies had been spread to all the regions. We hope that each saint will purchase a copy of this most important legacy of the Lord’s Recovery and enjoy it in a rich way.
The important cities that have churches usually have a larger number of saints. As we know now Oroquieta Church is the biggest church in a number of 1500 regular attendance. This is true particularly in cities with universities, since these churches have vital and extensive campus work. Some, like Ozamiz, have increased very much to 130 college saints. The young people's meeting each week is always burning because many of the working saints help in shepherding the young people.
Brothers’ houses or sisters' houses are not practiced in the southern Philippines. But the churches are still very burdened to perfect the young people. Many of the saints give their best to care for the students. They often invite them to love feasts and special meetings, and they encourage them to join the full-time training in Malabon (a city near Manila in the north). We are able to send many young saints for this full timer training every year. (Sometimes the number reaches to 70 plus.)
Every year Iligan City holds a one month or two-week college saints' training during the summer recess (April and May). Six terms of this training have been held thus far. The training has sought to maintain the standard of the training in the Recovery. We were supported by the churches in Taiwan (mainly from Kaohsiung, Taipei) in sending full-timers to start the practical aspects of the training, while the brothers from the United States have taken care of the messages. Each term of this training has an estimated three hundred trainees, and only college students have been admitted. Iligan also held a semestral break college age conference with an approximate 5-6 hundred saints every year on October end. These students are our promising next generation.
In 1992 Brother Howard Higashi of Long Beach, California came to Iligan and took care of the first Young People Semestral Break Conference where he made over a hundred outlines from the Life-Study of Revelation. From this time onwards, Brother Howard had been with us year after year to help us take care of the young people in Southern Philippines accompanied by Brother Jim Miller who was saved through him. In 1998 December, our dear brother Howard passed away, it is Brother Jim, Dennis Higashi, Willie Wise and Hermon Chang taking the same burden to be with the young people here.
The Philippines was not spared from the turmoil that started in Berkeley, California that was participated in by some leading co-workers in the U.S., Hong Kong and Germany. Through the fellowship among the churches in the entire globe, these brothers were quarantined to preserve the Body. Here in Southern Philippines a leading co-worker had sided with the opposers thereby he was quarantined also. An open letter signed by the elders and co-workers of the churches was distributed, temporarily putting the dissenting ones on quarantine.
In October of 1989 Brother Chang Wu Chen together with Lee Kuang Hong (Living-stone) and other co-workers from Taiwan visited Iligan to inoculate the churches in Southern Philippines from the recent turmoil. He came back two years later to further the preserving work. In the succeeding years due to his physical health he was not able to come back anymore but Living-stone Lee along with Caleb Ou Yang both of the church in Yung Ho carried on the burden that brother Chang had left. Both of them travelled to different places in Mindanao to pacify the situation and conducted some special conferences that vindicated the Lord’s recovery. Some co-workers from the U.S. like Brother Ron Kangas, Andrew Yu, Liu Suey, Dave Higans and Ugine Cruhler also came to help repair the damage brought by the storm.
During this period of time the graduated trainees of Malabon Full Time Training showed their strong stability to help all the churches to stand firmly in the side of the Lord’s recovery. The training in Malabon is very crucial for the churches in the Philippines to go on and also for the preservation of the churches in Southern Philippines.
In 1991 most of the churches were affected by the turmoil. However, due to the coming of the brothers from abroad, there were churches who were not swayed by the dissenting ones especially Iligan who stood firm amidst the storm. Thus, the saints here were burdened to visit those who were affected. First in the provinces of Lanao, then Bukidnon, Misamis Occidental, and finally Zamboanga Del Norte. In these visits the Iligan saints conducted Video Conferences, which strengthened and established the churches.
These church visits were further intensified from 1992 to 1994 visiting places as far as Surigao City in the East of Mindanao to Davao City in the South to Sultan Kudarat in the Southwest and Zamboanga Del Sur in the West. The co-workers of Taiwan also intensified their visits to the churches in Southern Philippines to further supply the Word and keep the oneness of the Body of Christ. By this time also, the churches in Taiwan started to frequently visit the churches in Southern Philippines that opened the doors of fellowship, mutual care, and blending which promotes the building up of the Body of Christ.
In April of 1995 a good number of co-workers from around the globe conducted perfecting trainings to most of the 300 churches in Southern Philippines. Brother Paul Wu and Samuel Liu are the designer and go in front of us into the battle field for the divine truth. There are ten perfecting teams, composed of brothers from Taiwan (twenty-six), the United States (ten), Malaysia (four), and the northern Philippines (eleven). With the cooperation of the local saints, the divine truths were made clear, the saints were strengthened, and many were recovered. The title of the main message given was "The Controlling and Governing Vision in the Bible," and the primary hymns used were "What miracle! What mystery!" and " From my spirit within flows a fountain of life" (Hymns, #1191). This is the first perfecting training where six thousand and five hundred saints attended the meetings.
Then a follow up perfecting training was conducted in November of the same year. This time Korea sent fifteen saints, Taiwan, sixty saints, the United States fifteen saints, and Luzon (Philippines), thirty saints. Brother Paul and Samuel Liu with more coworkers from Taiwan, USA are still with us. These saints formed fifteen teams and all the churches in the southern Philippines joined them. Although they were suffered by the danger in the air, on the sea and rivers, an estimated fifteen thousand saints had joined the perfecting meetings. The theme of the messages was "The Ten Great Critical Ones" with "The High Peak of the Divine Truth," and the first line of the main hymn was "If from the world you're longing to be free, / Amen the Word of God!" (Hymns, #1218). This time the new Hymns in Bisaya called "Mga Alawiton" was distributed to all the churches along with The Holy Word for Morning Revival for the life-study of the Song of Songs.
Brother Liu Ji-Cheng also sent his co-workers from Luzon to help in these perfecting training. These training have strengthened, rescued and preserved the churches in Southern Philippines against the enemy’s attack.
The recent practice of PSRP is really the best way to enter into the high peak truths. Hence, in March 1997 another perfecting training was held. This time only the brothers from Taiwan came to help. Five teams were sent to twenty strategic places, where the churches in the same region could gather conveniently for the training. More than five thousand saints joined the training. The practice of PSRP was introduced with the up-to-date message, entitled "The Universal Incorporation of the Union and the Mingling of Divinity with Humanity." The main hymns that were used included "Enter into the New Age" and "PSRP High Peak Truth."
In 1999 October due to the publication of the Cebuano Recovery version of Bible (CRV), the forth-perfecting training was conducted again. We had ten teams (totalling 130 saints) who helped us in the propagation. Eleven brothers came from the United States, 22 came from Taiwan (15 brothers and 7 sisters), and 23 from Luzon (northern Philippines). The rest of the members of the teams were serving ones from southern Philippines. Brother Samuel Lee came here for arranging everything. Seven thousand copies of CRV and 200 English Recovery Version had been distributed among the saints. This affords us to step one foot more in standing firmly in the flow of life for the building up of His Body.
Isaiah 11:9 says, "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah, as water covers the sea." Praise the Lord that in that one-week training 10,167 saints from 224 churches of the Lord's recovery and 2,583 saints from the denominations attended our propagation meetings. Among them were 569 pastors and ministers from 242 different denominations. The ten teams reached 52 localities and conducted a total of 152 meetings. For the whole week we only sang one hymn "God's eternal economy is to make man the same as He is in life and nature, but not in the Godhead...." The saints in southern Philippines fully dived into the flow. Everybody did his best to have one copy. We really feel that the Lord has done a great thing. The storehouse of Joseph has been fully opened by the Lord.
The perfecting teams also help in a material way some of the churches affected by the divisive action of the opposers. Some of the churches lost their meeting halls to the dissenting ones. The perfecting teams helped these churches to build new meeting halls. Due to the new practice, some of the larger churches can no longer accommodate the increase of the saints who are now attending the meetings. They have to buy lots and build new meeting halls. These churches also received material help from the perfecting teams along with their sending churches. Immediately, the universal Body of Christ became a reality to many of the saints. The perfecting teams not only brought the up-to-date flow of the ministry, they also brought the practicality of the oneness with the churches to the saints.
Southern Philippines is a beautiful land. Many saints have been raised up to be good building material, and they now being built up with others into the organic Body of Christ. In January and February of year 1998 eighty-one saints from Taiwan in four teams visited Mindanao for “churching”. In 1999 to 2000 seven visiting groups with one hundred fifty saints from Taiwan visited us again. When we gathered together in the presence of the one Father in one Spirit, the language barrier disappeared. We are “no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Eph. 2:19). The coming of the saints brought us a very refreshing supply and unspeakable renewing. The flow of life had been greatly deepened.
BLENDING is Indeed the way! We welcome all the saints who would come for blending! Dear Lord of the whole earth, how EXCELLENT is Your name in this remote far-away place where we have many spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ. Hallelujah!
