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February 19, 2005
All of us going in different directions
Last week saw us all going in different directions. Wil enjoyed his week of Outdoor Education which included a day and over-night at Taal Volcano and another at the seaside studying marine life. Karen was involved in OMF Admin. Council meetings at the OMF Manila Center for three days. Dave was working on PMA projects and keeping the ‘home fires burning’. Last Sunday was the 13th Anniversary of Lord of Life Christian Fellowship, the church we helped start in Fairview, Quezon City. It was great to be with them on this occasion, to see the growth of the church and see friends we haven’t seen in a long while.
This week Karen and Dave attended a 2-day training course to equip us to lead the new 3rd edition of the Condensed World Missions Course (CWMC). Karen will be directing one such course starting next week in Quezon City, meeting twice a week for four weeks, with Dave assisting on occasion. We have also been involved on a committee that is developing a curriculum for training Filipino missionaries. On Thursday the proposed curriculum was presented to a group of pastors for their input and suggestions. That was a very helpful meeting, as they gave insightful ideas acknowledged that much involved in equipping missionaries is the responsibility of the local church.
On Friday and Saturday (Feb. 18 & 19) Karen is speaking at a women’s retreat for some 150 women from Southern Luzon. The retreat is being held in Lucena City, a 4-hour bus ride south east of Manila. Pray for lasting impact in the lives of these women through the things that Karen shares with them.
Upcoming activities include the CWMC, a PMA fund raising dinner, a band concert for Wil, a follow-up event for the young people who attended the National Youth Missions Congress in Dec. and the 2-day annual General meeting for PMA, March 7 & 8. We also now have our church small group Bible study meeting at our home on Thursday evenings. The plan is to split the group into two in a months time with us taking on the leadership of one of them.
As you may know, on Feb. 14th, Valentines Day, terrorists planted bombs that exploded simultaneously in three locations in the country, one here in Manila. This has left the country apprehensive and the government looking at new ways of preventing such happenings. Pray for safety and for the government as they seek to apprehend the terrorists and bring resolution to long standing conflicts between the government and certain rebel groups.
Posted by David at 8:37 AM
February 5, 2005
Ben's first anniversary in heaven
Ben was happily remembered on the anniversary of his graduation to heaven February 2nd. The program began in the new elementary library where a reading corner has been set aside in memory of Ben. A plaque with his name and favorite verse was purchased with money raised by his classmates, and other purchases (like an LCD video projector for the elementary computer room) were mentioned. Thanks to a sizeable gift from OMF, the total in the Ben Lampinen Memorial Fund was about $7,000 and Faith Academy has been able to use that to meet a variety of needs. Elementary principal Steve Taylor, a fellow OMFer, led that portion of the program in the library and we then moved to the audio-visual room for a short candle-lighting service led by FA Chaplain Don Mackay. We were able to view the PowerPoint of Ben’s life (using the new LCD projector!). Some of Ben’s friends and their parents shared memories of Ben (mostly about his peculiar likes and dislikes food-wise and fun things they had done with Ben). One mom shared how Ben had given her daughter a bloody nose hitting her! It was an accident; he was trying to hit a boy who was being mean to her; the boy ducked and Ben ended up hitting her instead! At least he was trying to be chivalrous!
We’ve struggled with painful memories and the sense of loss particularly in the past few months (with the celebration of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Ben’s birthday, etc.) but most of our memories of Ben are of happy times shared, his sense of humor, his love of hugs and of special family times. We adapted prayers from a book called “The Empty Chair” for the candle-lighting. Beforehand, when Wil read one of them that said, ‘How we wish he could return’ (speaking of Ben), Wil said, “But I don’t wish he could return. I wouldn’t want him to be in pain like that any longer.” And Wil is right. We are far happier to have Ben completely healed and happy in heaven than to wish him here with us as we last saw him, so weak and in so much pain. We started to wonder whether in heaven Feb. 2nd is celebrated as Ben’s birth-day, the day his life in heaven began. Since Ben’s choice of food for his birthday was usually pizza, chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream, that’s what we had on the 2nd. Wonder what he had in heaven? I think the day was one of healing for us, and for the Faith Academy community who couldn’t be with us for the memorial service last year. Take a look at the photos.
Thank you to all of you who remembered, wrote, and prayed for us. We again felt the thick layer of prayer holding us up. We are so aware that God in His mercy took Ben out of the pain of this world, and by His grace is keeping us going while we wait for the day when we too will get to join Jesus in our heavenly home. Our job in the meantime is to make sure that everyone in the world knows they are invited to the banquet being prepared for us in heaven where we can spend eternity with our Creator and Savior.
Posted by David at 7:28 AM
The PMA newsletter
Dear Team,
The PMA newsletter was 8 pages long this time and we finally got it finished and printed at the very end of January. Now it is in the post and we can start work on the next issue which should come out early in April. The first quarter issue focused on tribal work here in the Philippines and next quarter will feature work in countries where Buddhism is the dominant religion, especially looking at the contribution of Filipinos serving in these countries.
Thank you for praying for the service at Faith Academy on Feb. 2nd. Planning and preparing for that helped us with the healing process and made it easier to get through the first anniversary of Ben’s promotion to heaven. And we were so conscious of how we were being lifted in prayer. We had numerous emails, cards, text messages by cell phone, and even phone calls from abroad reminding us that we aren’t alone in missing and remembering Ben. For more details of that service and photos, check out our website: www.lampinenlog.com
Feb. 1st I got a call from Fanny Madlang-awa, formerly a teacher at the OMF language center in Batangas, asking if I would speak at an ABCCOP Women’s Conference Feb. 18-19 on ‘Developing the Woman with You.’ I needed time to pray about that, and believe God wants me to speak, despite the short notice, and the topic! The Lord has already begun showing me what He wants me to say. Pray it will fit into the three messages they are expecting and come out in clear Tagalog.
Wil’s backpack is already up at Faith Academy and he leaves Monday for a week of Outdoor Education at Lake Taal in Batangas province. All of the middle school is going and this year there are about 200 kids plus adults on the trip. They will visit Taal volcano, in the middle of the lake, which is still an active volcano which has been rumbling recently. Pray for safety for all and that this will be a valuable learning and bonding experience for the kids.
Dave and I really appreciated the Precepts training seminars we were able to attend last month and are looking for ways to get these materials out to more Filipinos. We’ve suggested to our church that the 40 Minute studies be used by some of the church’s 250 cell groups. We want to see more and more people getting in to inductive Bible study for themselves. Much as we valued the training, it was costly in terms of time and energy, and we both got sick the following week! We’re doing better now, but Dave’s right foot is still painful (for two days it was too swollen for him to be able to walk). Pray that as our days, so will our strength be.
Our helper Pusing had a baby boy on Jan. 15th. He’s a healthy, cute little fellow and we’re glad she was able to have a normal delivery. We like her and she badly needs work, so we’ve said we will wait until she is able to work again two days a week (bringing the baby so that she can continue to breastfeed him). In the meantime it means Dave and I are needing to fit laundry and cleaning in to our schedules. It really is making us appreciate all the help Pusing is to us. Pray she will be strong enough to return by mid February.
Yours in Christ’s service, Dave and Karen
Posted by David at 7:24 AM