cross cultural ministry – New Covenant Baptist Fellowship … Buffalo, NY

2019-2020 Bible Institute and church update.

Bible Institute

We are planning to begin our Bible Institute in October 2019.

We plan our Bible Institute to begin in October. 25-30 hours of classes one week per month for 12 months.Pre and post-class assignments between classes. Crossway is helping us provide ESV personal reference bibles for our students at a 70% discount. We are starting the John G. Reisinger Scholarship fund to help our school. If you are interested in supporting the school, please contact me. We will provide Bibles, printed student curriculum/notes/outlines, probably 4 volumes each 100 double-sided (200 pages total), and lunch. No other tuition or fees. All our staff is volunteer although a few instructors will receive some compensation if they are not part of our ministry. We have four Filipino pastors, myself, and two other pastors from the US doing the teaching. We will lecture live and use video teaching. We will also use lectures by notable seminary professors such as D.A. Carson, Tom Schreiner, Greg Beale, and other pastor/teachers like the late John Reisinger.

October 2019 Bible Institute

We have four churches at present and one has an extension congregation and we are developing a new church plant. Two of our churches had to be closed due to ongoing rebel activities. Many people have moved away and other churches have also closed. This is not from Muslim extremists but an ongoing problem with “Marxists” rebels who are really nothing but bandits.

Covid Food Distribution in Opol at our fellowship

We will keep you updated and I will add more information about the Bible Institute in my next post.

July 31 2020 Our Bible Institute and Covid 19

I could not travel to the Philippines in April for our pastor’s conference and teaching at the Bible Institute. The school was also closed down from march until the end of June.

Our students have been regathering back on schedule since then meeting one week per month for 5 days of classes. I am meeting with them for 3 hours live each day and then they continue with our recorded lectures.

We pray that all might be on schedule for me to be there in October. It will be a longer than usual stay.

A project for farming in association with the government has started on undeveloped land in the Gingoog City area. 16 pastors have formed an organization to develop 20 hectares of land over the next 6 years. Most of them are students in our Bible Institute. We have loaned the group some funds to do what they need to do to begin, and the government has provided the first stalks and plants for crops of corn and cassava.

This is the proposal from May 2020

Dear Pastor Joe,

Greeting to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!We are thankful to God day by day for keeping us safe and guiding us through his Words. The life and ministry of yours is precious before God and as you doing continually the work as a faithful minister for Christ’s kingdom sake. Pastor Joe I wrote this letter because I have some immediate concern to bring about. This is in line with the PASTORAL CARE GROUP PROJECT PROPOSAL ON SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOOD PROGRAM on CASSAVA and CORN PRODUCTION 2020. This Project Proposal is in the City Agriculture Office already since January 22, 2020 and waiting for depend but until COVID 19 came then all activities were cancelled.

A brief history about this project of the PCG PROJECT PROPOSAL ON SUSTAINABLE LIVEHOOD PROGRAM. First, the LORD provides us a Farm Land with a land area of 20 hectares at Barangay LIBON for Cassava and Corn Planting, also we had already secure a MOA with the Landowner for 6 year’s contract. Second, a timely opportunity was the Agricultural Office in Magsaysay calls the City Agriculture Office in Gingoog informing that the Cassava stalk/seedling is available now and they are seeking for Farmers Association or Organization to be the recipient.

This Cassava Stalks/Seedling comes from the SAN MIGUEL CORPORATION and the variety of this Cassava is RAYONG 72, in which the San Miguel Corporation is seeking for Farmers Association or Organization who are focused on Cassava Planting Project. The Corporation will provide the 300 Cassava Stalks for free and the Corporation is the one that buys the harvested product. The 300 bundles of Cassava Stalks/Seedling will cover 5 hectares of land area and the duration of the Cassava from planting to harvest is up to 8 months. Moving on, The San Miguel Corporation in Davao City, Cebu City, and Cagayan De Oro City is looking for Cassava Grower because of the demand for the ANIMAL FEEDS. This is a timely opportunity that God provided us such as the farmland and the Cassava Stalks for free. Tomorrow Thursday (May 20, 2020) we will go to Mindulao and take the Cassava stalks.

Co-operative farm program

If you would like to help our ongoing ministry of pastoral support, church planting and our Bible Institute and disaster relief, you can send a check to NCBF 105 Lang Ave. Buffalo NY 14215 or use our PayPal account at ncbfevans@gmail.com

October 2012 Philippines Conferences/Ministry Update

Roberto and Marcion, my “bodyguards” in Pantukan. Yes, that is a 9mm Glock on Roberto’s hip. Usually it was out of site.

This is a “brief” summary of my three weeks of ministry and what our Lord provided and accomplished for His glory.
I left Buffalo at 11:35 AM on Thursday October 4 ( arrived back home on October 26) and arrived in Manila at 11:50 PM October 5. Spent the night in Manila and flew to Davao City on Saturday, October 6. On Sunday the 7th, I preached at our church in Davao. Later in the afternoon we travelled 1.5 hours to Pantukan in a borrowed vehicle we were test driving for two weeks, with a view toward making a down payment. It saved us many pesos over the two weeks of travel on the east side of the island.

Monday Oct 8, after teaching at the Pantukan Government office, we began our conference for three days in Pantukan. All of our attendees came from Pentecostal churches, and have been requesting a conference for 2 years.
On Wed, I taught 120 Jr High School children at the public school. Both of these events are part of the Government sanctioned Moral Recovery Program for officials and schools, of which we are a part by invitation.
After our conference, we had a down day in Pantukan, and I was given a wonderful birthday party by my Filipino family.
I was assigned two police bodyguards, because there are some extremist rebels up in the mountains behind the banana plantation behind the property. Usually not a problem, but with the back and forth commuters everyday and knowing an American is present, it was just a safety measure. Those guys were great.
We talked and laughed…alot.
On Friday, we traveled to Carmen, a 4 hour trip, our newest church.
On Saturday I went on visitations in the mountains with our Pastor, Ray and his wife Linda, and Ernie. I preached at our Carmen church on Sunday AM. Later we traveled to Kalinan, 1/2 hour, where I was asked to preach at the evening service.
We started our conference there the next day hosted by Pastor Felix, at a Bible Baptist church, with a mix of three of our pastors, some Baptists, Pentecostals and CMA and 10 more attendees than we planned (20) for, but our budget was still met with no overage. We (Ernie, Dorcas, Ian and me) bunked at the church in the Elementary School room on tables with swimming pool mattresses we brought with us 3 years ago.
On Tuesday, our friend and brother Pastor Bobbi Badillio attended. Yes,this is Bobbi who has had me teach at the Police Academy and do a broadcast that goes to Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines the past two years… and yes, we headed there Tuesday evening to do both, live from the Academy.
I taught at Wed. eve prayer service as well.
We left for Cagayan DeOro on Thursday, a 9 hour trip by bus, stayed in Opol, with Ernie’s brother and sister in law, like last year, where we have our church and was there for Sunday A.M. That afternoon we travelled to the other side of the city where we stayed for our conference for three days with Pastor Jesse, who hosted us, not one of our churches but a Southern Baptist fellowship. Another 30 attendees. There were 50 requests… maybe next year.

Our study was in Hebrews. Obviously, not a verse by verse but we had three goals in mind with the chapters we did use.
1. Beginning with the Chapter1 v.1-2 we laid the foundation for the author using the Historic-Redemptive approach of seeing the Big Picture of Redemptive History.
2. Christ is the priority of Scripture and our hermeneutic. He fulfilling His redeemer role and all that includes as Isaiah’s Servant and so on.
3. The contrast of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant by the authors use of OT passages being applied in the NT scriptures to explain the purpose and nature of the New Covenant. This took us to Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Exodus, Psalms, Isaiah, 2 Cor.3 – directly from texts in Hebrews.
For the first time, many saw that the Doctrines of Grace are biblical, and nothing to be afraid of if properly understood and applied. They have mostly been exposed to the cult of Hyper-Calvinism.
5. None had a problem with grasping the Incarnality of Christ as the New Covenant in His person and was a joyous revelation from the Scripture.

We are praying and making plans for our full time conference center and Bible Institute in Pantukan, where Ernie lives on a property that belonged to Dorcas’ family.
This includes digging a deeper well and providing a pump and water lines to an outside comfort room, kitchen and into the house. At present, Ernie must travel 2.3 km one way each day for fresh drinking water. Once the well is updated, we can treat it with chlorine and have potable water on site, pumped into the house and other facilities.
We are planing to add another building to be a bunkhouse/guestroom for up to 20.
Final phase (as long as it takes) is to tear down the older building that is termite infested, and make that our lecture hall with two guest rooms upstairs.
Our current outdoor lecture hall will become an outdoor kitchen
We can function well without the 3rd phase as we grow the Institute.
Plans are moving forward for completing our building in Carmen.
These are our needed vehicles to help with for many projects as we are looking to the Lord in prayer.

Our outdoor classroom

View from the road and outdoor comfort room and shower

Ministry vehicles/ Future Bunkhouse area

Old outdoor kitchen- eventual lecture hall and two guest rooms upstairs

Cost of well project…$750.00 we were able to pay for this since I returned

Bunkhouse… approximately $2000.00

2 story lecture hall/guest rooms approximately $7500.00

Ministry vehicles. Motorbike $75.00/month through September 2013 (one year already paid off)
Passenger-equipment van $313.00 per month until October 2013 ( we already made a downpayment and two payments)

Once we have all our church buildings completed in Carmen and Opol (update on Opol at a later date) and we will also establish a church at our site in Patukan, we will partner with the government and provide public school education, as free as possible. We will start with Kinderschool and then once that class advances, add on 1st grade and so on, building from the bottom up, as an outreach to the communities. We will follow a government curriculum for the basics, including native languages and English and we can also teach ANYTHING else we desire. We do not need any special teaching certifications. The government sees churches willing to participate as a plus ( it saves them money in many communities) and accept the fact that pastors read, study, write, etc. Public education costs $200.00 per student. Many families cannot afford this. We hope to provide this education for as close to $0.00 as possible with the help of others. If we can help children to read and write, they can have more of a future.

Our church family in Carmen

Pantukan Conference

Kalinan Conference

Cagayan De Oro Conference
We already have a number of pastors, at least 25, asking us when we can start the Bible Institute classes. Pastor Jesse has already offered us his building as an extension campus on the other side of the island in Cagayan DeOro. We are putting together a curriculum, I have an academic advisory board on this side of the pond and we are working on a budget. There will be NO tuition. Most of the pastors we would work with are subsistence farmers. There will be no textbooks. Some of our course work will be translated into Cebuano or Visayen. I am looking into a pdf reader that is made in China that only costs about $32.00 ea. Most cell phones have mp3 players. Our lectures will be distributed on dvds and audio, at least that is the plan for now. We will video many lectures here and upload them to Ernie. He can translate, when necessary as the videos are playing, although, most times, English will be sufficient.

There is so much more I could share, so if you like, write me or call, or Skype, or Google Hangout and I’ll share all you want. Of course you can follow our entire four year history on our blog at www.fbceny.org/blog and our website www.fbceny.org . This includes our relationship with Christian Aid as a recognized indigenous ministry and being chosen as a disaster relief arm when needed. The church building in Carmen as you see it, came from funds Christian Aid raised on our behalf. I will have more pictures than posted here on our blog and maybe a few more details. These are just the facts, not the great personal moments of being with our brothers and sisters on Mindanao Island.
Just because you are a small fellowship of believers does not mean you are limited as far as God’s sovereign purposes are concerned. We are only five families at NCBF and we did not go looking for this mission.

The Lord has provided for these things with help from friends like you and from some resources we have by not being a “traditional ” church.

Philippines Update.

As we have previously reported, we are the feet on the ground for Christian Aid in Mindanao, concerning the recent floods and loss of life and property there. Ernie has just returned from Caygan De Oro having distributed materials such as clothing food, health items and other needed essentials. Chritian Aid raised $11,677.00 for that relief and entrusted our ministry with the distribution. God is gracious and we love serving Him in multiple ways through our church planting, evangelism and pastor training work via TheoDoulos Church Planting Movement.

Pastor Ambin’s wife is returning from Dubai this week, and they will be moving into the new small parsonage we built for them in Pamuhatan on our church property there. Again, thank you to all who helped with that project. She was in Dubai for a year doing domestic work, to earn money, so Pastor Ambin could continue to serve the church and our tribal work on a near full time basis. He has a small income driving people for rice pickups with his motorcycle. This is how committed our partners are in Mindanao, many of whom are only substance farmers.

Temporary sheters are being built on our two newest parcels of property in Opol and Carmen. Pictures will be posted soon.

I will be teaching three conferences this year in October, between Oct 6 and October 26.

We may have to move the location of one. It is , well not in the center, but near the area of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Manila forced the Islamist group to cut its links with various terror groups to whom it had offered sanctuary.

The MILF is one of the groups which is fighting for the creation of an Islamic state on Mindanao where it controls a few provinces.

So, we are looking at our options,. Not as much of a threat for the Filipino’s but with ther foreign guy with them, it is more of a potential target.

I’ll post my schedule soon and our budget for the conferences. Remember, we charge nothing to our attendees. We cover all costs at about $30.00/person for 4 days.

Thanks for your prayers.

Thank you for your prayers.

Philippines Update-Lots of News

Dear brethren,
This is a big update for us.
1. The parsonage in Pamuhatan will be finished this week. We were able to put together a final $350.00 to finish the project.
2. Our bible study in Carmen, with Brother Ray at the helm, had its first official Sunday service as a church, last Sunday, with 22 in attendance.
3. I have mentioned Christian Aid Mission before.This is one of the Mission Insider updates. Ernie sent the pictures after being interviewed by Steven Van Valkenberg, the SE Asia representative we have been working with. We are now listed as one of their recognized Indigenous Ministries under the name of Theos Doulos Church Planting Movement. They have listed us for prayer, with a picture of our tribal meeting in their monthly newsletter/brochure for Feb 1. At present the electronic version Prayerline link is not working. At the website, Bob Finley’s book is a must read if you are serious about true indigenous work. He has , after 50 years, just stepped down as CEO of ChristianAid Mission. As I have mentioned in the past, Deborah and I have supported work through Christian Aid for over 20 years.Christian Aid Mission :: Philippine Flood Survivors Say Hundreds of Children Were Snatched from their Beds – Print

4. They are raising funds for the Cagayan Flood victims, and from what Ernie told me this week, our ministry will be the conduit for distribution.
5.Another pastor who attended our conferences the past two years, want to join us to do a work among tribal peoples in the mountains. Please pray for Brother Philippe.
Remember, at present, we are not able to support any of our fellow pastors, except Ernie, our lead man, with any regular support. I will detail all of our 5 pastors backgrounds, again, in another update. The funds we have raised, with your generous help, have helped us with some property needs, where we cannot rent (in the mountains) and with our pastor training conferences.
6. Pastor Ernon, our Pentecostal brother who hosted our recent conference in October 2011, in Cagayan informed Ernie that he and his wife just returned from a meeting with a large number of Penetecostal pastors, where he taught the materials I presented at the conference, including biblical theology , a redemptive historical perspective and what all that means regarding NCT. THey want to know more and are willing to walk away from things they have come to understand as not being biblical in their approach to Scripture. If you recall, brother Ernon’s and the church made this approach their official policy for training teachers and ministry people in their church after our conference. Lord willing, this years conference will focus on the same things, but rather than primarily topically, doing it all in the context of Hebrews. We may even be able to do some teaching at a Bible College. An instructor who is a church member discussed this with me while there in October. You may also recall that two of the “pastor’s” were women and questioned their role as such as they began studying in a different way during the conference.
7. This week, Ernie will baptize 3 new believers in the ocean, in Davao city at our “mother church” plant.
Once Pastor Ambin is moved in in Pamuhaten, he will plant a new work from there, about an hour down the Federal Highway.
8. Our new bible study in Lacsun is meeting resistance form the Catholic Defenders. We are praying it through.
9. Our tribal work in Buhangninan ( up the road form Pamuhatan) has been disrupted by some political and low level insurgencies which has caused many of our families to leave the area. We are praying for the Lords direction in rebuilding/regathering this work.

We will upload some pictures of the new building soon. Ernie will be there next week and also in Cagayan doing some post- flood counseling.

Well that is all for now.
Thank you for your prayers and support for His glory.

Philippines Update#2-October 2011 Trip

Cagayan Conference:Pastors & Sunday School Teachers

Well friends, this is finally getting up. I had a busy schedule upon my return. Some more video will be added soon and some pictures. We have many. More will be posted at ourwebsite. I will update you.

We did two conferences, one in Davao City and one in Cagayan De Oro and I taught at two of our church plants – Davao and Cagayan (Opol). I also had the opportunity to teach the Police Academy Cadets, again this year in Davo. Pastor Bobby broadcast that meeting on his radio program. I also did his Saturday night program and he broadcast our final conference meeting in Davao.

Our conferences focused on Biblical Theology and New Covenant Theology as hermeneutical standards. It produced, by God’s grace, some very interesting results, which are mentioned in the video. The video is too long – 30 min.- to post here, so follow the link UPDATE.

This week we have a carpenter building a home for Pastor Ambin at our mountain church property in Pamuhatan, so his commute to the church and the work further in the mountains in Buhanginan among the Bogobo, is more easily travelled to each week. I will add some pictures by tomorrow.

Philippines Update

I am returning to Davao City and Cagayan De Oro in October. I will be there from October 13-November 1. We will do two pastor’s conferences, one at Hope Mountain in Davao and one at Word of Life Camp in Cagyan De Oro, the locations are the same as last year. We are adding two church conferences, one each at our church plants in Davao and Cagayan De Oro/Opal. We have a third church in Pamuhatan and you can read about all of them in previous blogs or at www.fbceny.org

Ernie , our lead elder, is scheduled for surgery for a cyst removal from his inner nose. Funds to pay for this were made available to us ands I sent them via Western Union.

We are currently raising funds for our work in October. Airfare has already been paid in advance, by faith. I usually pay my own way, but this year the airfare was $650.00 more for the international flight and the church decided that they desire to raise at least half of my airfare. The in-country airfare has been covered. A more detailed accounting will be included in a link once I post the video.

I am preparing a video newsletter that will be posted here and at our website. I hope to have it finished by the end of this week.

Philippines Update – September Trip

I will be adding photos, links, and a full report soon but to get you started, here is a half hour interview with Ernie, our church planting pastor in Davao City. Ernie oversees all four of our works in Davao, Pamuhatan, Baganihan and Cagayan De Oro.

Davao Church Update-New Tribal Bible Study

Ernie (in the blue shirt) and Pastor Bosay from our church in Pamuhatan, received permission from the tribal chieftains to start a new bible study. 20 were in attendance not counting children. This meeting was held in Baganihan on Friday, June 11. Our upcoming Sept-Oct 2010 pastor conferences and evangelistic meetings report can be found here – Davao-update

New Covenant Goings On-Davao Philippines

Below is a brief conversation I had with Ernie this morning as he returned from Pamuhatan from building the new building and is back in Davao to teach Bible study tonight. Then he is back to Pamuhatan tomorrow for more work on the building. The church there continues to grow. Pastor Bosay is doing home visitations in the mountains. I also met the Morales sisters.

Brother Joe,

Dorcas and I arrived from Cagayan last May 8, (NOTE:this is our newest work, 4 hours south of Davao, as documented in earlier posts. It is growing. Please pray with us for a man to work there with us. We had someone considering it but he has taken a position in Canada. We need someone full time at about $30+ per month support at least to start. ) this week and next week we are busy for the construction of Pamuhatan church building. I am here in Buhangin now because we have a Bible study this evening at 7 p.m. and we will go back to Pamuhatan tomorrow.

Anyway, here is the possible expenses of each high school scholars for the whole year: Tuition fee-1,930; Uniform-2,870; School supplies-1,282; Transportation-940. Last year’s budget to each scholar was 4,000 each students. We have 5 students prospects this year. The 2 of the 5 students are now with us living in our house. ( this allows for ongoing tutoring and disicipleship) Namely; Christianne Morales and Marianne Morales, they are sisters. (Note: the cost for complete scholarship for a high school student is $89.00 per year. Last year it was on we were able to help 2 students via two families taking on support. Public school is not free in the city proper. In the mountain areas like Pamuhatan it is free. Australia and Japan partner in this venture with the Philippine government.)

We praise and thank God because the churches in Pamuhatan, Cagayan and Buhangin are growing in number as well as spiritual. Let us pray for their spiritual growth as they continue to learn about the truth in the word of God.

I was not able to look for a venue for our coming conference in September (Note: I will be there from Sept 13-Oct 1) because I am busy. But the schedule is already done, I will finalize it next week and I will let you know.

Another consideration for prayer.

Ernie will have to move out of his present home/church building.

His landlord, who provided the facility rent free for the past two years, works in Dubai but is getting married in June and wants his wife to live there.

We are working through various ideas of finding a temporary/permanent location for the church in Davao and housing for Ernie. They may be separate locations at this time. The church can afford about $66.00/month for rent, which is not adequate enough for a location.

We have considered splitting the congregation into three locations in homes in Davao and having three meetings on Sundays. However, most of the homes may not be large enough to do so. We area also considering the possibility of approaching the manager of the government housing in the Buhangin district to see if there is some facility we could lease.

Our resources are very limited as you know.

We ask for your prayers concerning God’s provision.

You can contact me via our website or posting a comment.

https://www.ncbf.us/NewCovenantBaptistFellowshipEvansNY/AboutUs.html

New Covenant Church in Davao

Here are pictures of the roof repair of our church plant meeting place in Pamuhatan and pictures of the pastors from Pamuhatan who attended the mini-conference at Ernie’s home/church building. The conference focused on aspects of understanding New Covenant Theology and was based on a conference I taught on Samal Island last April.You will notice a small home with an extension to the front in one picture. That was the original meeting area for the church meetings. The new structure needing repair is on a neighbor’s property which was given to us for the church to put up a larger structure. We secured the property with a gift to the family. They did not want to sell it. [new covenant theology]