A Letter from Our Friends in the Philippines

This is a letter from a Lady who is teaming with her husband to minister the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the Philippines (just North of Manila, in the mountains.) She is Filipino herself and has been a missions overseer for a large outreach, based in Manila.
As an overseer, Carmelita Langouan gave guidance to many pastors who were planting churches for many years. Now, she, along with her husband Benny and their kids, are moving to a new area to plant a new church. It is in the mountains North of Manila, in the vicinity of Baguio.
Beth and I helped to disciple her in the Lord for several years. She is very important to us, like one of our own daughters. I hope to take my daughters there to meet her some day.

Read her letter and then read my response to her and her husband Benny. Enjoy!


Dear Phil and Beth,

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all. It's cold here in Baguio this time of the year. The City is full of people from all over the country. Some areas of the Philippines are still hot like summer. We are so glad we live here now.

Our family is doing fine. Benny will be finishing his responsibilities at the Church here in Baguio till the end of the month. And then we will be moving to La Trinidad this summer April 2007(April is HOT). La Trinidad is about 30 minutes away from Baguio. We will be opening and pioneering a new Church there.
Our Bible Study and campus group from Trinidad has grown. They have had to travel to Baguio to attend our services. Our youth service in Baguio is in the evening. A few weeks ago, some of our youth from La Trinidad got robbed. Because of that, the parents are not allowing them to travel to our services in Baguio anymore. They want us to open a church in their area. Actually, this is not a surprise. We have known that this is the direction we would be moving and now I believe that this is the right time.
We will have our first service in January 2007. We are excited. The Lord is connecting us to the City leaders in La Trinidad. The former mayor is a good friend of Benny's. He will be helping us with the Student Center we are planning to put up. This Center will be “good bait” for all of the students.
The former mayor said that it has been his dream for this city to have a student center. I think it will be perfect for the students, since the city does not have a mall or recreation center in Trinidad.
We are excited! Two weeks ago we announced to our group that we will officially open the church in La Trinidad in January. They were happy and excited.
The biggest church in this area is Pastor Michael’s church. Do you remember him? You used to preach in his church.
A lot of the churches here are not happy we will be opening one. They've been in this area for years, but most are still very small. Sometimes jealousy is still working among the ministers, but we are not going to allow them to disturb us in what God has for us.
God is giving us creative ideas to reach out to the people and they seem to be working out very well. For example, Benny is developing a student band in each of the area schools.
That's all for now!
We will share more next time. We love you guys dearly. Give my love to your children and hugs to your grandkids. A big hug and a kiss to Art and Barbara (Beth's parents, with us for Christmas). Tell Barb that the first bite of your turkey dinner will be mine.
Miss you all very much.

Carmelita