In two days it will be October 1st. It has been seven years since I moved here and married my wife Jen. Wow, time moves so fast! I can honestly say I am not the same man I was seven years ago. Hopefully I am more Filipino than American, in a spiritual sense. I can now speak the gospel with confidence, and I am coming to understand this culture and these people in love far better. Thank you for your prayers. I really appreciate it.

Just today I was in the food market buying bananas, and I love to give the gospel to those I buy from when I can. So I started speaking to Roller, named like the ride coaster. As I presented the gospel, three women walked up and were listening (Filipinos love to listen in on other people’s conversations, even more so when it is a white man speaking Tagalog). As I spoke, two of them were nodding their heads yes, yes, yes, while the other was shaking her head no, no, no. So two believed in our Lord, called upon Him, and entered into a living, growing relationship with our Savior. For the other, a seed was planted for another day. My goal and prayer is that 450,000 would come to Jesus while I live here in Tarlac City, perhaps one person at a time.

Sharing the gospel with Roller at the market, where two of the women listening believed and gave their lives to Jesus.

So many of you who read this letter already have some sort of relationship with God, but let me share the gospel I speak to everyone I am allowed to. First and foremost, God loves all people, no matter what they believe or what they have done or are doing now. John 3:16 tells us God the Father loves all people for all time. God wants us to come back to Him through Jesus’s blood, not through good works or church attendance, or the lack of it. When that happens, it is called the born-again experience. We agree with God in prayer that there is no way we can be perfect, holy, loving, kind, or forgiving without Him, and we ask Him for the free gift of righteousness and holiness. The Bible says those who call upon Him will be born again, and at that moment He gives us Jesus and His Holy Spirit forever (Ephesians 1:13). God comes inside of us and gives us His nature, and we become a brand new creature, never seen upon the earth. It is like He takes us back to the Garden of Eden, but now He is living and loving us from the inside out (John 15). He is the vine, we are His branches, and we abide in His gift. We become light, fruit, and love to the world with Him. How close you walk with Him, how you express your love, and how much fruit you bear is up to you, but the Holy Spirit will guide you all the days of your life. When we reach heaven, we will be rewarded for how we treated people, and how we loved God and others.

About four years ago, I was sharing the gospel with a tricycle driver who had dropped me off in front of my home. As Ed Renardo Delacruz asked God for the free gift of mercy and holiness, I had a clear vision of the heavens. I saw a huge book with white pages and thousands of names written in black. As I looked, I saw the name Edward Renardo Delacruz in black (I had not asked Ed his name; I just saw it, and later he confirmed that is his full name). As I watched, his name began to bleed red, the blood oozing out and covering his name, and then it changed to pure gold. Then the vision left. I asked Ed if this was his full name, and he said yes. Later in prayer, I asked God why I had seen that vision. The Holy Spirit said it was to encourage me. A few months later I had the honor of leading another person to Jesus, and again I saw the same process happen in the heavens. This time, though, the Holy Spirit told me to stop, and He has not allowed me to see that vision again.

My question to you is: are you born again? If not, why not stop reading right now, go talk to God, and ask Him for His free gift of love and forgiveness. He will show up and welcome you back to Himself.

Please continue praying for us: for our daily walk with the Lord, for our family, for the ministry at Empower Church and here in Tarlac City, and for the building of our home.

We are continuing to raise funds for the House of Refuge, our future building here in Tarlac City. So far, we have received $14,500 of our $75,000 goal. Thank you to everyone who has given toward this. Every gift, large or small, brings us closer to having a home base for ministry here.

If you’d like to join us in building, here’s how:

Note: All your gifts are tax-deductible. Thank you to everyone who has given. Please pray the funds come in quickly.

Every December we put together food bags for people in our community who could use some extra help around the holidays: garbage collectors, delivery drivers, and others from our church and neighborhood who are doing it tough. Each bag is a small, practical gift that says someone sees them and cares.

We are already starting to plan and save for this year’s bags, and we would love for you to be part of it. If you would like to help provide a Christmas food bag for a family in need, you can give toward this through any of the options below; just let us know it is for Christmas Food Bags.

A few weeks ago I found myself locked in my office with the lights off, and I couldn’t tell you exactly why I turned them off. I just needed to sit in the dark for a while. Old memories started playing back, failures I thought I’d already dealt with, hurts I thought I’d already forgiven. And underneath it all, something ugly started rising up in me. Anger. Rage, honestly. I could feel it building, and for a moment I didn’t know where it was going to take me.

But the Holy Spirit stopped it before it became something I’d have to clean up later.

That same week, I was reading through “Guarding Your Heart in Wisdom,” the message Wendell was preparing to preach at our Night of Worship. I was finalizing his PowerPoint slides when I realized God was teaching me the lesson before it ever reached the pulpit. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” Not your actions first. Not your words first. Your heart first. Whatever is stored up inside you is going to come out eventually, especially under pressure. Jesus said the same thing in Matthew 15: what comes out of a person’s mouth starts in the heart.

Sitting in that dark office, I learned something I won’t forget. A bump doesn’t create what’s inside a cup. It just reveals it. The hurts and failures I was replaying weren’t new. They’d been sitting there, unaddressed, waiting for enough pressure to spill out. And I had a choice in that moment: manage my behavior and hope no one noticed, or let God actually search what was underneath it.

I chose the second one. I’m still choosing it.

This is part of what I’m processing in my second mini-book, “Transformation Through Trials,” which I’m working on right now. It’s about the hurts and failures we carry and what it actually looks like to let God transform them instead of just hiding them better. I’ll share more as it comes together.

If you’re carrying something you’ve been managing instead of surrendering, I’d ask you the same question I asked myself in that dark room: what’s really in your heart, and are you willing to let God clean it out?

Today, September 30th, marks two months since our granddaughter Ruth Angelica was born on July 30th. I wanted to share her story because it’s one more reminder of how faithful God has been to our family this year.

When Ruth was born, the doctors found she had ABO blood incompatibility, which happens when a baby’s blood type reacts against the mother’s, causing the baby’s red blood cells to break down faster than they should. On top of that, she developed a blood infection and pneumonia. She had to stay in the NICU seven extra days so she could finish IV medication and phototherapy, the light treatment that helps clear the jaundice caused by all of this.

I won’t pretend those seven days were easy. I remember the fear of watching my granddaughter under those lights, tiny and tangled in tubes and IVs, and not knowing what the next test would show. There’s a particular kind of helplessness that comes with loving a baby who’s too small to tell you where it hurts.

But God was faithful. Ruth came home. She’s two months old now, growing, and healthy. Psalm 34:19 says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” He did exactly that for her, and for our whole family during those seven days.

Thank you to everyone who prayed for her. If you’re waiting on God for your own family right now, I hope Ruth’s story reminds you that He still delivers.

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