Sharing God's grace in a little out of the way community

Yesterday a few of us visited the pastor and his wife of Real Christian Fellowship located in Barangay Capalong in the town of Real, Quezon and we had a delightful time catching up with each other. This church of 40 followers of Christ is the fruit of our relief and development work in Capalong after super typhoon Winnie (international code name Nanmadol) hammered the towns of Infanta, General Nakar and Real in late November '04. Before Winnie there was no evangelical church in the area and the people where generally opposed to the gospel but the devastation and death followed by an out-pouring of practical love from many people and organizations opened their hearts to the Good News. About four years ago we met the church-planting team of New Testament Baptist Church (NTBC) located in Paete, Laguna who were planting a church in General Nakar and when they finished their ministry there wanted to start one in Capalong. To make the story short we turned over the work to NTBC and they poured themselves into this baby fellowship so as a result she's grown in numbers and depth despite the many challenges they face. July 8 is Real Christian Fellowship's fourth anniversary and we're glad to attend their celebration of God's grace among them. We also discussed with the pastor our desire to help him in their outreach to the community so we're looking at starting a Fish and Bread feeding program in coordination with community leadership as well as have a seminar for 50 pasters and church leaders from the town of Real on how to use the New Living Translation Study Bible followed by an evangelistic film showing. The nature of God's grace in our hearts is to share it with others so that's what's happening in Capalong this little out of the way community along the Pacific Ocean.

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