ECPM News April - October 2017

Recent Events

Trusting the Cornerstone

Cornerstone is defined by Merriam-Webster as a basic element. While other web sources say that it is an important quality or feature which a thing depends on, the bible in the New Testament speaks of JESUS as the CORNERSTONE. The foundation of the church, the one we truly depend on.

“Consequently you are no longer foreigners and strangers but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of His household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.” Ephesians 2:20

ECPM continues to praise and depend on the cornerstone which enables all seeds to grow. In July, two church planting teams graduated from the two-year church planting training. Team Tula-Tula (above) and Team Samarinyana (right) overwhelmingly expressed joy and thanksgiving. They said it was like being Paul, travelling the trails going to houses in the community and experiencing a lot of trials and challenges through the two years. We attest to the numerous emotional and physical challenges these teams have gone through. There were times that more than the module trainings, it was the mentoring friendly relationship of church planters, their church leaders and the ECPM team that enabled them to overcome all these. The cornerstone never failed to hold them together and their complete dependence on Jesus kept them going. 

The photo on the left shows the new church congregation in Tula-Tula and the one on the right shows the new church congregation in Samarinyana.

In church planting, nothing is really easy. There are processes to maintain, rejections to deal with, team challenges that break the heart and doubts to overcome. Yet each and every time … the Lord’s grace and watchful eye abounds. He provides the ways and means, the roads to people, the comfort to heal and victories to celebrate. He develops module lessons, He transforms people, He heals the broken and He rewards us with simple joys. When Team Manggahan in Rizal Palawan experienced a heartbreaking trial, the Lord provided people with understanding and loving hearts. We cannot explain how He is carrying everyone through. That’s why as we celebrate with the teams in Tula-tula and Samarinyana, we also celebrate His presence in Team Manggahan. The cornerstone never failed but just provided us another opportunity, maybe a better opportunity to share His word. Training with team Manggahan will be transferred to a different place because we believe that that is where He is leading us to.

We continue to trust the One that holds us, the cornerstone of ECPM and every church. Thank you for being with us in this journey and we ask for your prayers as we begin new church planting training in three different areas. The cornerstone never failed to keep us going through it all and Jesus, our cornerstone is the reason why we continue to do this ministry. We bring back all the glory to Him!

“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.” 1 Peter 2:16 

Family Retreat - Team Aklan (Sam, Ramy, Toto & Bing)

A couple of years ago, ECPM started to implement a family retreat to strengthen family ties of the church planters as part of Pastoral Care. We assist in letting their children know the important ministry that their parents are a part of. Not only that, included in the family retreat are group dynamics of the husbands and wives respectively, a joint couple discussion and activities for their children done separately.

In August, team Aklan had their retreat in Antique and the ECPM team also had a meaningful time getting to know the spouses of the church planters. ECPM board member, Shiela Padilla, assisted by conducting activities for the children.

This coming October, the team will host the Short Term Missions Engagement of ECPM - YMC where people from youth to professionals will be exposed in the church planting ministry. 

Team Pampanga (Abnel, Roniel & Serge)

We are praising God for flourishing the Pampanga team despite the demise of Kuya Jose last year. Sergio has been of help to Abnel and Roniel. With continued bible studies and an established young peoples group, they were also able to connect with the older age group in the area of Sta. Catalina. This November they will be having their graduation and retreat. They chose to have their retreat after the graduation to celebrate and serve as a breather. They continue to praise our Father for the numerous bible study groups that they have and families have decided to attend the gathering in the new church, (now a daughter church of Abnel’s church) Christian Brethren Church in Sta. Monica, San Luis Pampanga (photo below). We admire the passion of Abnel and his team continually visiting and praying with the contacts and new believers. It is their prayer that the students, especially those taking the teacher’s board exam (LET), will pass the exam and good health be upon the elderly members of their discipleship group in the community.

Plans for the Future

Short Term Mission Exposure

On October 21-28 ECPM will lead a group composed of seven eager participants, ages 17 - 61, to our Youth Missions for Christ second short term mission engagement STME). This program is still part of ECPM’s mission exposure but this time participants will undergo pre-field training and send-off by their churches. For this year’s STME team, they were taught and will be using an evangelism tool: “Simply the Story”. Vida and Ella enrolled in a Simply the Story class which they see fit for use most especially for the church planters in the rural areas. This tool will also be taught as part of the church planting modules for the upcoming church planting teams.

The STME team will help the church planting team in Aklan as they hold their Baptism Sunday on Oct 22 and they will also be establishing relationship with new contacts in the area. STME aims for a continuous engagement of a participant in missions and such passion be brought to their local church after the actual date of exposure.

After months of preparation, the Lord provided and enabled Ezek, Jexstar, Marife, Tatay Kiko, Maila, and Dexter to join this years’ STME. May we ask you to please pray with us for their safety and good health and that the Lord will continue to touch the hearts of the community in Altavas Aklan through this team. With a theme on Matthew 5:13-16, may this team be our Father’s salt and light in Aklan!

Thank you for praying with us, ECPM will continue to encourage the youth, young professionals and even our fathers and mothers to engage in missions as a response to our Lord’s call!

New Teams

Even before modules begin and as part of Pastoral Care, we had a meaningful time implementing Pre-entry interviews and personality tests with the new church planters.

Please pray for them! The first module begins in November! One team (photo below) will be going to Centro Batian, Saranggani Mindanao and the other team (photo on right) to Raang, Sabsaban Palawan. 

Prayer and Praise Points

1) Pray for the new church planting teams:

Team Saranggani in Centro Batian
November 2017 - October 2019
People Group: T’boli

Team Palawan in Raang, Sabsaban, Palawan
November 2017 - October 2019
People Group: Palawan

2) Pray for a team still under assessment:
Team Pangasinan
Praying to start by January 2019
People Group: Panggalatok | Ilokano

3) Pray for the current church planting teams:

Team Pampanga, Sta. Catalina
Graduating in November 2017
People Group: Kapampangan | Tagalog

Team Aklan, Altavas, Aklan
April 2016 - April 2018
People Group: Ilonggo | Bisaya | Tagalog