OceanSide church of Christ

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A CHANGE OF PLANS IN OUR MISSION WORK SCHEDULE

Victor M. Eskew

 

            At the beginning of this year, the elders announced a new theme for Oceanside:  “Seeking and Serving the Needy in 2022.”  With this thought in mind, they chose twelve (12) works for us to support in this New Year.  Each month, all the funds collected over our budgeted amount would go to a specific work.  At the first of the year, the twelve works were announced.  Each work was assigned to a particular month so the members would be able to assist the works that meant the most to them.

            Since that list was posted, we have had two requests for assistance.  One of them is from Michael Stock who labors in the Philippines.  The other is from a preacher who labors in the country of Honduras.  His name is Cesar Gutierrez.  He was one of our translators when OceanSide went on a mission trip to Latin America several years ago.  It was felt by the elders that these requests needed immediate attention.  Thus, they decided to change the schedule of our works in order for OceanSide to respond to the needs quicker.

            In the month of March, all funds over budget were supposed to go to Latin American Missions which is overseen by the Forest Park church of Christ in Valdosta, GA.  We will now support it in September.  We have moved the Philippine work up to March.  In like manners, we have moved our support of the Raintree Village Children’s Home to December.  We will be supporting brother Gutierrez in the month of May.  The new schedule appears elsewhere in this bulletin.

            Michael and Deborah Stock labor as missionaries in the Philippines.  Deborah is a native of that country.  Their work is under the Piedmont Road church of Christ in Marietta, Georgia.  As some of you may have heard, a Category 5 typhoon struck the Philippines in mid December.  It was named Typhoon Rai/Odette.  Four hundred ten people lost their lives.  Eighty are still missing.  The cost of the damages has been estimated to be $794.72 million, making it the third costliest storm in Philippine history.

 

Rai 2021-12-16 0159Z.jpg

 

            Recently, Deborah contacted me about the situation there.  Here is what she wrote:

 

 “Hi Victor, my husband and I are missionaries in the Philippines.  Please if you or your congregation or any congregation you can think of that can help our brethren with the recent super typhoon Rai/Odette (Category 5) in the Philippines, please send help to: Piedmont Road Church of Christ, c/o elders:  Roger Winslett (Philippines Missions), 1630 Piedmont Rd., Marietta, GA  30066. One of the provinces that was heavily devastated is my home  province, Southern Lyete.  They experienced 3 landfalls.  This province is part of our work.  We have lots of brethren who lost their homes.  The province of Bohol which is our home-base for missions was also devastated.  We will doing rebuilding in the  areas where we are working.  Thank you!

 

Living in Florida, we understand the power of a Category 5 storm.  We also realize the damage a typhoon can cause is a very short amount of time.  Brethren, the elders do not want to wait till the end of September to assist these brethren.  They feel the need is urgent and want to help as soon as possible.  Therefore, we will be giving to this work in March.

            The second work that we have moved up involves a preacher in the Latin American country of Honduras.  His name is Cesar Gutierrez.  As stated earlier, we met Cesar on a campaign that we did in Latin America several years ago.  Cesar sent an email that provided some useful background information about him and his family.  Here is a portion of that email:

 

“My name is Cesar Augusto Tabora Gutierrez, local preacher in one localty known as ‘South Israel’ Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. I was converted in August 10th, 1986.  I am married. Our 3 children are faithful members of the church.  I came out of the School Of Preaching, in Panama in 1991.  I came back to my country, but in 1992, I started to work alone to stablish this congregation where I am still the local evangelist currently…God has blessed us with 3 marvelous children, Gissela Abigail Tabora, who is a general Dr. in medicine, she studied here in our country 8 years to get this career, (she is married to a fine Christian, whose parents are missionairies in Switzerland- both live in Texas), and our youngest son Hector Samuel Tabora, he just went to Harding with a scholarship.  Our second son, Jonathan Joel Tabora is planning to go to Southwest School of Preaching there in USA, in Austin, Texas, Lord´s willing.”

 

Below are two pictures.  The first is of Cesar and his family. Cesar is the second from the left, in the peach-colored shirt.  The other is a picture of part of the church with which he works in Teguciglapa. 

 

    

 

The reason we have moved this work to the forefront as well is because Cesar has lost his support as a gospel preacher.  We know Cesar is a faithful minister of the gospel.  He assists as a translator with many of the campaigns conducted in Latin America by Latin American Missions out of Valdosta, Georgia. Thus, we want to assist him and do not want him to have to wait too long for more support. 

            The church responded in a magnificent fashion to our first work of the year.  Brother George Mcnulty will be receiving $8,335.00 to assist him in his labors in Ireland.  He was notified and was extremely appreciative to the church here.  Let’s continue to be generous in our support of the rest of the works on the schedule.  Remember two things.  First, our theme for this year:  “Seeking and Serving the Needy in 2022.”  Second, remember the Lord has a place in His heart for the needy.  David wrote of the Lord’s response to the needy with these words:  “For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him” (Ps. 12:5).