“It is finished”  Those words, spoken by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ from the cross of His crucifixion nearly 2,000 years ago, announced the fact that the required sacrifice had been made, by Him, on that cross, to redeem and reconcile all of humankind to God.  The punishment for all sin had been meted out on the Son of God, the perfect man, who, in true love, gave Himself as the sacrifice for every sin that anyone ever has, or ever will commit.  Christ did all the work, and indeed, it is finished…because God said so!  Praise God!

“Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption (for us)”. Hebrews 9:12

“For I delivered unto you first of all (the Gospel) which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once…” 1 Corinthians 15:3-6a

“…What must I do to be saved?” And they said “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved…” Acts 16:31

Missionary Bob Carpenter

 

Hello, I’m Bob Carpenter, a sinner who has been saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, by His work, as mentioned above.  The Lord Jesus has blessed me with a tremendous ministry as a missionary to the people of the  Philippine Islands, where my wife, Glocil and I are  praying and working, asking the Lord to use us to spread the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the Philippine Islands, to the poor, wretched, lost souls in the poor areas that still have no Christian churches and have had little to no evangelization because of the ignorance and poverty of the people there. In the Philippines, hundreds, if not thousands of people pass through the door of death every week, to enter into an eternity of torment, without Christ.

 

Our ministry began in the fall of 2003, when we began a Bible School to teach adults the Bible.  We thought that they would then become missionaries to the Philippines, that they would begin the mission by traveling throughout the nation, and that the Bible school would prepare more Christians to join them.

 

The Lord had a different and better idea.  He gave us difficulty in getting the first Bible School class trained and it became increasingly difficult to find teachers for the school, but the Lord also gave us some very, very poor kids and the New England Primer, which, under God’s guidance, we use to teach English, and the Bible to teach the Gospel, creating ministries for our newly trained missionaries, who are now diligently teaching the Gospel and the English language to these kids who are so poor that they may never get a formal education.

 

The reason we teach these kids English is so they can use modern technology and reach outside of their linguistically isolated pocket of poverty and ignorance to become competitive in the world. We are praying that the Lord will raise these kids up as missionaries to their idolatrous nation when they grow up.

As we yet speak in prayer, our prayers are being answered as some of our children in our Christian center are taking the Gospel back to their parents and families, and some of these adult family members have come to our center to ask questions and see the environment that has gotten their children so excited.

 

This part of our mission is located in Lupon, Davao (Da-vow) Oriental on the large southern island (green) of Mindanao (Min-dan-ow).  Lupon is at the northwest end of the thin peninsula on the southeastern corner of the big green island in the south, on the map at right. 

We are endeavoring to spread our work west and north from Lupon, then to continue northward, through the northern most island of Luzon, where the capital, Manila is located. We are especially interested in the islands that are very primitive and too small to appear on this map.  The Philippines consists of over 7,000 (yes, three zeros) islands.

 

The year 2007 has been quite eventful for us.  Not only did our Bible School students complete their course of instruction and become ready to share the Gospel, hold prayer meetings and conduct informal Bible studies, but the Lord gave us the kids to teach.  What a great joy that is!  Additionally, the Lord has blessed us with a brother whom we have started supporting, who is about 100 miles west of Lupon, in Toril (Tow-reel), a suburb to the west of Davao City.  This dear brother, Alvin Alquino was saved through our preaching about 3 years ago.  He and his wife were saved at almost the same time, and they began following the Lord, learning, obeying and applying the Scriptures diligently from the beginning of their Christian lives. Alvin and Ellen, his wife, have been receiving many ministry opportunities from the Lord. 

Alvin works as a security guard at a large bank in Toril and has become known as “Pastor Alvin” because of his readiness to render Christian service and instruction to his co-workers and superiors alike.  We are understanding this and the many other ministry opportunities that Alvin is involved in (weekday Bible studies, prayer meetings and home visits with interested/curios individuals) as a signal from the Lord that He has assigned Alvin a vibrant ministry, which is the beginning of our work spreading throughout the Philippine Islands.

 

Our present day major projects are to establish a mission house in Toril, where Alvin and Ellen will live and where they will conduct home Bible studies and prayer meetings for the furtherance of this ministry.  I sense that some of the people whom Alvin is ministering to now are future missionaries who will, through some method the Lord knows, contribute to the continuing spread of the Gospel through the poor communities and villages of the Philippines.