The past month has been very challenging for the whole ECPM family. Brother Elvin Buenviaje, ECPM Executive Director for almost 27 years, passed on to have a worshipful life with our one and only Creator. He offered most of his and his family’s life serving the Lord through church planting. During the week of his demise, a reunion of sorts happened and church planters since 1989 from different areas of the Philippines came together to celebrate the life of someone who responded to the great commission.
A recurring verse from two of the closest friends of Kuya Elvin (as we call him) described how he lived his life. John 12:24 inspired us not only to grieve but to celebrate the life of a person who in his simple and ordinary ways but with complete dependence on the Lord, partnered with churches for church planting and youth mobilization. His life passionately revolved in these.
For us whose lives he has touched, we thank the Lord for Kuya Elvin’s intelligence, careful decision making, and to-the-ends-of-the-earth attitude until his body was too weak to travel. We remember inspiring dialogues with him and how he encouraged each one of us to serve through church planting. Coming together in his home was a celebration and worship to the Lord who amazingly created and sustained the church planting ministry of ECPM.
The succeeding weeks were hard for us ECPM staff but we have to face reality. We have rearranged the office to signify a newly inspired journey for us through the life and passion of Kuya Elvin. We are moving on but the pain together with the inspiration will be in our hearts.
We too seek your prayers and continued support knowing that the Lord is fully in control and will always be our comfort. All glory to our LORD GOD!
Praise God and thank you for your prayers, a new church planting team has already started in partnership with Taytay Christian Church in their outreach area: Altavas, Aklan. As residents of the area, the team is consistently visiting six households where five of which have agreed to have home bible studies. Please continue to pray as they schedule and minister to the community.
The team in Manggahan finally rejoices that after months of waiting they now have two bible study groups with three families attending each group. Since their area is beside a river and in a mountainous area, they were able to take part in the community's farming and fishing activities. When they cross the river they also regularly meet around 12 people for bible study and a sharing time.
This is really an achievement for the team because for quite some time they had to rethink how to build relationships with the people in the area. Please continue to pray that these bible study groups will continue to grow in the Lord.
We currently praise the Lord for guiding the team in Sta. Catalina, Pampanga. Six families open their homes for regular Bible studies once a week. Lets continue to pray for the other households that they are visiting, that they too may be open to the word of God in their families.
As the team now comes to the end of their first year of training, they will soon be having their team retreat which will also include their families.
Last June, as part of the revised Pastoral Care Framework of ECPM, two teams had a family retreat with wives and husbands coming together for group dynamics with childrens activities handled by ECPM.
We also praise the Lord that in August there are newly baptized Christians in Tulatula.
Meanwhile, there are 40-50 youth and adults attending the bible study groups and fellowship in Samarinyana. Please pray for their safety especially from armed people whose presence is now being seen in the area.