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Current News
August 2007
Hello From the Wilson Home!
Our first year overseas is winding down and Paul and I are counting the days til we see you all again!
He has made another trip to Palawan to visit the new church work there. Also, he has traveled to the Islands of Panay and Cebu. We had another load of College Press materials delivered to the churches this past week. Our bodega is quite empty!
There is a good possibility that we may be relocating our storage area and printing presses to another location very soon. Another bodega very close to our home is being renovated and will give us more room and is much more accessible for churches to use for meetings and fellowship. Paul is looking forward to not traveling so far as this location is about 5 minutes away.
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I have greatly enjoyed my time with GPEC elementary students and NCE college students. They will continue to read and visit the library while I am absent for three months. I can honestly say it has been fun opening their eyes to the wonderful world of READING!!! I have been collecting books from various stores that have shipped in slightly used books from the States. Keep saving and shopping at garage sales for me!
Tomorrow we will attend the new church dedication for the building at Cadiz that has been recently completed. Paul will have a small part in the program.
Please keep us in prayer as we have many things to complete before our departure date on the 27th of this month!
In His Service,
Paul and Mary Wilson
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July 2007
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Hello from the Wilson Home in the PhilippinesJ
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Oriental Pastors have Meeting!
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Old Church Building with Grass Roof
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The New Church Building at Night!
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Paul and I are keeping busy and see each other coming and going it seems more and more these days. I enjoy my teaching and library work four days a week at the Green Plains Educational Center. Paul has been traveling and visiting churches, pastors and attending final meetings before we return to the states the end of August.
I have had a great time organizing the college library for the NCE (Negros College of Evangelism) and making the room an attractive place to learn and study. I will miss my classes and students for 3 months!!!
Paul is planning to make an 8 day trip to the Island of Palawan to visit a new ministry work and possibly locate land for a church building. He helped for many weeks with the building of the church in Cadiz City. He is also helping in the NCE internship program with the college students. The college has three graduating senior men who will complete their ministry internship this year. (NCE is located in the Green Plains Educational Center.)
.One of the constant pressures that VFM deals with is how to help ministers become self-supporting. This may mean working with quail, driving a motorcycle trycee, sewing, construction work, raising fruits and vegetables or a variety of trades. (Presently we have 1,000 quail in a trial program for pastorÕs income generating.) Please continue to pray for Paul to have GodÕs wisdom in helping the men to become self-supporting.
In His service,
Paul and Mary Wilson
Mary and her Pug!
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Vision for Missions, Inc.
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Hello from the WilsonÕs!
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May 5th 2007
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Paul and I are happy to be home in Bacolod after traveling for two weeks. We were on 3 airplanes, 1 boat, buses, tricees, vans, and many taxiÕs. We flew to Cebu and checked on the property that might be our future home for VFM. We are still waiting on legal action to be completed with a former buyer that defaulted on the purchase of the land several years ago. We keep thinking of things we would like to do with the property but we must wait before jumping too far into this project! Patience is hard when things seem to go so slow on Filipino schedules.
We traveled by fast boat (which actually was a 2 and 1Ú2 hour trip) to Leyte from Cebu. We had a wonderful time visiting and attending meetings at the Visayas Convention in Leyte. We had several of the same speakers from Australia attend this conference that was at the WomenÕs Conference in Bacolod. Our hotel in Ormoc was a 45 minute ride to the church where the conference was held. We had one very interesting trip by bus that took us 1 hour and 45 minutes to get there! We were so excited to see pastors that were former barbershop quartet members from Bible College many years ago, reunite and blend their voices again in harmony. A group of 10 provided special numbers. They are hoping to sing at several upcoming events. We told them we would provide ice cream after practices and help them with the purchase of a special shirt called a barong. We are hoping there will be 4 quartet groups in all with a total of 16 men.
For those interested in helping VFM financially, we have a building project for a church in a squatter area. The church will go from a dirt floor humble place to a block building starting this month.
For prayer concerns, please remember three church members on the Island of Samar which were seriously burned and need surgery. They were accidentally hit by electricity while taking up an iron pipe on their water pump. The iron pipe touched the live electric wire and they were consequently burned. The surgeries are costing more money than the members had so they are waiting for people to help with finances. They do not carry insurance in the Philippines like in the US so everything runs by cash for services. Very sad when they do not have money and can not receive medical attention until family members provide, borrow, or plead for help. This is the way it is – a fact of life over and over again for Filipino families. VFM often has requests for financial help because the families just donÕt have money for emergencies. Pray for the new church outreaches in several areas!
One exciting note to share, Abel and Nida Lobos are already seeing fruit of their labors in the new church work on the Island of Palawan. One of the men in the barangy has been a drunkard for 3 years. The community was constantly disturbed by his shouting and laughing from midnight to dawn. His wifeÕs sari-sari business (store) was suffering because he was giving away their stocks to sell, to his fellow drunkards for free. For 3 weeks they prayed fervently and persistently to God for his healing so he would not have to go to rehabilitation. This man was miraculously changed and has been coming to Bible Studies and now is a testimony to others for Christ. Abel said, ÒEveryone who knew him, wondered and started to ask why, because thereÕs peace now in the barangy. We always pointed to them that only God can change lives.Ó
Finally, teachers, please remember to save any items from the remainder of the school year that might be helpful for our shipment this fall to our preschools and classrooms. Thank you for helping the students and teachers. They are always so thankful and appreciate your donations.
In His service, Paul and Mary Wilson
Good morning from the City of Smiles :-)
March 3, 2007
Paul has been delivering the last of the VBS materials to Negros Oriental and Cebu Island the past few days. He plans to catch the afternoon ferry from Cebu to Negros and return this afternoon. The ship holds a lot of cargo (usually buses, motorcycles, semi trucks, and passenger vehicles) and is a pleasant trip for approximately 1 1Ú2 hours. He had many stops to make and visits along the way that I decided to stay home and Òhold down the fortÓ with our dog, Brandon.
This is holy week here in the Philippines, so many people will be traveling on public transportation for Easter visits with friends and family. So far, I donÕt believe we have a speaking engagement. Paul was asked to speak at a very important life insurance meeting at a formal banquet last Saturday night. We attended mass for one hour (I believe this was my first ever) and then dinner and many awards and a full program for 3 hours or more. We were very surprised to see one of the agents (age 82) still selling life insurance and received #5 status as a top selling agent! What an inspiration to others! We were also surprised that the agents and managers were mostly all women – only a couple men were managers. Our neighbors own the agency and asked Paul to share an inspirational message.
We have attended 3 college graduation ceremonies, (one in Bacolod and two on Cebu Island) one pre-school and one elementary/high school program. I witnessed many new traditions that I had not known of before. In the Philippines, families are involved by helping with the giving of medals, awards, placing the collars on the robes, etc. Of course there are less students here receiving the awards so there is more time to do this. There is also a closing when the families and friends bring a lei or home-made candy lei to put around the neck of the graduate. We decided to be involved in this at the elementary/high school program (ACE school), so Bing-Bing (our helper) made 18 candy leis to give the graduates. Mary, our other helper, had 6 graduates. Mary is now off for the summer since school has concluded, so we will see her more than usual. Both girls are very active in church ministries and are very trustworthy and helpful to us.
VBS activities are planned for this month of April involving all of our college students, pastors, and church workers. They are so excited for the materials in Illongo and Cebuano language. There are 5 lessons with coloring and activities for the children to do each day. They have VBS program kit supplied from College Press using the theme from Australian Outback this year. We had a lot of fun counting and sorting the materials on assembly lines. We did this twice – once for the Illongo and once for the Cebuano distribution. Wish you could have seen the excitement of working together on this project!
Paul and I will be attending several other meetings this month. I will be at a WomenÕs Conference here in Bacolod the middle of the month. Then we will travel to Leyte for the 42nd Visayas Convention of the Churches of Christ/Christian Churches on April 24-27th. I am looking forward to this as I have never been there before. This is where General MacArthur has his monument showing his return to liberate the Philippines from JapanÕs occupation.
Thank you for remembering us in your prayers and giving to VFM. We are blessed with good health and our needs are continually met. God continues to show us and use us in mighty things! Pray on the possible change of location to Cebu Island in the near future as His will for us.
In His Service, Paul and Mary Wilson
March 29, 07
The presses have finally stopped for the large task of printing 100,000 pages of VBS materials in 2 languages and four age levels. Praise the Lord we have it printed and now we are delivering the materials to the churches. Yesterday I was on Cebu Island, today I delivered materials on Negros Island and tomorrow I travel to the Panay Island to deliver their VBS packets to the churches.
Thank you for praying for us!
An unbelievable Praise! Another mission has offered to give VFM a large property for us to live at and build our printing place. The house has been occupied for several years by goats and nobody has lived there for 10 years. Many details have to be worked out so keep us in your prayers. Sometimes God works in ways that are incomprehensible, more than we can ever imagine orthink!
We also have heard that the new church work on the Island of Palawan is doing well and another worker is moving there the 9th of April. Also, we have a pastor spending three weeks helping the churches of Masbate Island where we have a building under construction.
Last week I spoke at three graduations and this Saturday we are to be at three different end of the school year events. Summer has started in the Phillippines so keep us in your prayers!
In His service,
Paul and Mary Wilson
September 22, 2006
Paul and Mary Wilson are now living in Bacolod City, the capital City of Negros Occidental Island. Negros Island has about 3.7 million people with a land area that is the size of the Panhandle of Oklahoma. The land area is 15 times more populated than the state of Oklahoma. The Negros Island is divided into two parts (like states) and each speak a different language. Instead of four seasons of weather, the central Philippines has the hot and dry season and the hot and rainy season, with it being some cooler during the rainy season.
The city of Bacolod now has several large shopping centers, horrible traffic and about 500,000 people, with easy access to a major airport. Our house is in guarded subdivision that is located across the street from the airport and has about 1,400 square feet. It has been very busy getting the needed furniture and items for the house so that we will feel at home here n Bacolod. We are so thankful for this house and its location in the city. Mary has already found a pug puppy to live with us, and we are content and happy in our new home.
Much of our time will be spent away from home traveling to many of the other islands in the central Philippines. While on the Negros Island we have a 2003 Toyota Revo vehicle that can seat 9 people. We are already using it for transporting people between meetings. Again God has provided for us a very adequate vehicle for our traveling. In the 1980Õs when I lived on the island before, a great amount of time and money was spent on vehicle repairs. We are hoping that will not be the case this time, just many flat tires! Each month we will be traveling by plane, ship, bus and jeepney to many of the other island areas in the central Philippines. The population area where our churches and outreaches are located has about 17 million people. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel to many new places and that we can encourage the churches and workers in their present ministry and to start new churches. We will often be bringing needed materials with us when we travel.
One of our immediate priorities is to provide Christian literature for the churches. We have rented a place to begin sorting and later to print materials. We have possession of this space the first of October and it will then take several weeks to unpack and organize the many pallets of materials from College Press and from the churches. We have set the huge task of developing VBS materials for all the churches in the central Philippines by the first of March. Several people must write, provide graphics layout and print the materials in four age levels, in two or three languages, for more than 5,000 children so we can have VBS in 2007. Then we must distribute the materials and have teacher training on many of the islands before April of 2007. We are hiring a couple people to begin this monumental task of providing VBS materials. Pray for this needed ministry for the churches of the Visayas area (central) Philippines.
Another great need is for the expansion of our Bible College located here in Bacolod to train more preachers. Presently the college, Negros College of Evangelism, only has nine students and has limited involvement and support by the area churches. We hope to expand the involvement of the local churches for the NCE, re-evaluate the curriculum and programs, and enlarge the student body to 30 students by the beginning of the 2007 school year in June. We have many churches on the Island of Negros that does not have a pastor. Since the goal of Negros is to have 137 churches by 2010, we urgently need many more trained preachers! Let us obey Jesus, and Pray for more workers! Our focus will be to train Ilonggo students and leaders for the western part of the central Philippines.
We have already looked at land for several churches and are presently helping with the construction of a rural church on the Island of Masbate. Pray for us to have wisdom in knowing which churches to help with land or building each year. Many of the churches are meeting in houses and other locations and will hopefully grow and need a permanent place to worship in the future.
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