MANILA CHRISTIANPUBLISHED BY THE PHILIPPINE MISSION CHURCHES OF CHRIST (UNDENOMINATIONAL^

Benj. F. Allison, Editor P. O. Box 2774

Year XXIV9

February, 1950, Manila, Philippine Islands Number 1

Seminary NewsBy J. Willis Hale

Of the eighty-six students in

the Manila Bible Seminary duringthe first semester, we are happy

to present the above picture o:

those attending night classes. Thiswas taken at the close of one of

the weekly chapel services. The

little girl in front is the six-yearold daughter of Brother and Sis

ter Romulo. Her father is the

minister of the Cruzada church.

She attends the first year song-

leading class every night and islearning how to lead the singing.It is amazing how well she does.If she has to miss her class she

always insists that her father present her excuse to Mrs. Hale.

Children are not admitted to the

class but Dina lives nearby andattends anyway.

This year we have hermeneu-tics, sight-singing, and speech hthe morning and beginning at twoin the afternoon, we have classesevery hour until nine in the evening. Since many of our studentsstudy elsewhere, we have to provide classes here which will fit

into their schedule. Three young

ladies, who are gx-aduating from anearby Teachers' College, havelived in our girls' dormitory andsupplemented their normal train

ing with story-telling, song-leading, and Bible courses in the Seminary. They have been a bighelp to their home churches.

Recently, a young man who attended our classes before the war

and now a school teacher, said tome, "I teach hymns to my children for our school programs,

and their parents like it." Thereare many things that a godlyschool teacher, with a little Bible

training, can do for the good ofthe work.

Our students are making fourdefinite contributions to the

church work at the present time.

The teaching methods class taught

by Mrs. Allison conducts a weekday school for children wherethose learning to teach are gettingtraining under supervision. All

of these young people are foundactive on the Lord's Day,

Second, the young men andwomen go out over the weekendto teach childi-en and help withthe music.

Third, the song-leading classesand chorus, taught by Mrs. Hale,

are putting a great deal of interest into the music of the churches.

Fourth, the preachers go out onthe Lord's Day to preach thegospel. Yesterday, a young mancame in and said, "I had a baptism last night." Last night afterall the examinations were over,one of the boys was in the libra

ry laboring hard when it wastime for "lights out." Mrs. Halewent up and said, "Why are youstudying now that the vacationhas begun?" He answered, "I am

making sermons to preach whenI go home Christmas, for I amhoping to preach every night."

Manila Bible Seminary

Celebrating The GoldenJubilee Anniversary

The Churches of Christ in the

Philippines will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the preaching of the gospel in the Philippines this coming Aprii 14-16during their annual convention. Itwill be the high light of thegathering of all the brethi-en

throughout the Islands. Inspiiingmessages from the missionaries andthe native leaders, and a reviewof the strides and progress of thegospel for the last fifty yearswill be the main features. Annual

reports will be made by thechurches and evangelists. We willthen be able to give you completereports of the Lord's work for theyear 1949.

The Rees Family

William and Melba Rees and

son, Ben Allen, were Manila

visitors at the Philippine Mission

—Juan L. Baronia a short time ago.

This mission is strictly unde

nominational and maintains New

Testament teaching and practices.For its support it depends whollyon voluntary offerings of interested churches and brethren. It has

no debts,

'• oOo-

Missionaries may beAddressed as followsMr. and Mrs. Benj. F. Alllsen

Mr. and Mrs, J. Willis Hale

Mrs. Carrie A. Wolfe

Miss Ruth L. Smith

P. O. Box 2774

Manila, Philippines

Mr, and Mrs. Charles SelbyAparri, CagayanPhilippines

Mr. and Mrs. Robert

Sc^ondelmayerc/o H. K. SchondeLmayer805 Storer Avenue

Akron 20, OhiooOo

Training For theFutureby Charles W. Selby

After a summer of extensive

evangelistic werk throughout aUof northern Luzon Island, we settled down to another school yearhere in Aparri beginning the firstweek in July. We are very happy to report that this year is thebest we have had in our trainingschool since we arrived in 1947.There are many things that contribute to this success. In the firstplace, we have a chapel buildingthis year in which most of ourclasses meet. In October, 1947, thechapel building was destroyed bya typhoon which left us withoutmuch of any place to have ourclasses. In 1947, we were neversure of having lights at night forour classes but this year, as wellas last year, we have had ourown generator and are pretty sureof having lights every night. Thespirit of the student body is muchbetter this year than ever before,mainly I think because we arebetter equipped to meet ourclasses regularly.

We have twenty different students taking classes this year.Most of these are part time students who are taking their highschool and college training herein Aparri and studying the Bibleeither early in the morning or atnight. Brother Peneyra, Roberta,and Xare teaching a total of twen

Manila Christian

Notes

February, 1950

Baronla Romulo-Alllson

on Saturday evenings in the Bi-on Sunday evenings preaching inEnglish.

This station does not charge us

for our broadcasts. They are notconnected with the united work

and no modernists are allowetl to

preach over this station.All of these broadcasts are on

both long-and short-wave. DZAShas been heard in the United

States. At the present time, thestation is broadcasting in twenty-four languages and dialects. Letus all thank the Ix)rd for this opportunity that is ours in the Phil

ippines in preaching the gospelover the radio three times a week.

BFA

ty-nine classes a week. We haveseven classes a day, Tuesdaythrough Friday, and one class onMonday night. The Monday night

class is taught by Roberta and isa class in teacher training. Thesestudents get practical experienceevery Saturday afternoon whenthey go out into three differentsections in Aparri to hold Bibleclasses. These girls teach an average of sixty children every Saturday and some of them are developing into very fine Bible teachers.

This year, we have twelve boysin the dormitory on the groundfloor of our house and next year

we hope to double that numberby putting in double-deck beds.We feel that our training schoolis a most important phase of ourwork. With world conditions asthey are, we never know whetiwe might be called upon to leavethis country and If we do haveto leave, it is very important thatwe have trained workers to leave

with the work here that it mightbe carried on. The opportunitiesfor evangelization are great butbefore we can make any lastingprogress, we must have trainedworkers to hold the ground wehave gained.

We are giving a little help eachmonth to seven evangelists whoare daily carrying the gospel intothe towns and villages and evenat times holding services for theharvesters in the rice fields. There

have been more than 200 baptisms

reported so far this year in the

Ilocano field.

The churches of Christ in the

Philippines will celebrate the

GOLDEN JUBILEE ANNIVER

SARY this coming April 14-16.

Chaplain Herman P. Williams first

preached the gospel in the Philip

pines in 1900. Then he and Mrs.

Williams and Mr. and Mrs. Han-

na came to the Philippines in 1901as missionaries. After our conven

tion in April, we will be able togive you a complete report forlast year.

Please make your gifts payableto the Philippine Mission Churchesof Christ. In case you don't write

a letter, just note in the corner ofyour check the purpose of thegift.

We are indeed grateful for theBible school literature which themission receives. We can use yourStandards, Lookouts, GirlhoodDays, Boy Life, Junior Life,Teacher's Quarterlies, pictureroUs, and beginners' papers.Sometimes your packages are along time on the way, but weacknowledge them all. We thankyou for sending this literaturewhich is so important for thechurches to have.

Mrs. Wolfe and Miss Ruth L.Smith will be back in the Philippines in a few days after spendingalmost a year in the States. Wewill surely be happy to have themback.

Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Schon-delmayer, Paul and David will bereaching the United States aboutthe same time that Mrs. Wolfe andMiss Smith reach the Philippines.They passed each other somewhereout in the great Pacific. You mayget in touch with Brother andSister Schondelmayer for speaking engagements by writing tothem in care of H. K. Schondelmayer, 805 Storer Avenue, Akron20, Ohio.

Evangelistic MeetingsThirty evangelists met at our

home yesterday to plan for evangelistic campaigns during the nextfew months. Ten of the evangelists are planning to open evangelistic meetings within the nexttwo weeks. Conditions are verymuch unsettled throughout thePhilippines and it will be impossible to conduct meetings in several places, but several meetingswill be held in spite of the conditions which make it very difficult.

From September to Decemberlast year, the evangelists reported258 baptisms. A complete reportwill be made for the year of 1949after our annual Tagalog convention in April.

Brother Oro is planning to conduct an evangelistic meeting in aplace where a new village hasbeen formed by several hundredevacuees who had to leave theirhomes and take with them.only

iConivmted on FaSe 8)

Selby Baptizing

We ask for and greatly needyour prayers for this work. We aredeeply grateful for the gifts ofmoney you have sent and for the

Bible school literature. We prayGod's blessings upon each of youas you labor for the Lord wherever

you are.

Three BroadcastsA Week

Last year, we began broadcasting the gospel three times weekly over station DZAS. We feel thatthis is a great opportunity and wedo thank the Lord for it. BrotherBaronia broadcasts on Friday evenings in the national dialect, Ta-galog; Brother Romulo broadcasts

AVisit To SiorgaoBy Robert H. Schondelmayer

Late in the summer, we receivedan urgent call to visit the congregation in Calipay, Numanciaon the island of Siargao. This isa small island off the northeasterncoast of Mindanao which wereached by travelling 614 milesby jeep, then by ship, truck, andhiking.

Brother Napone and I had planned to fly as far as possible butat the last minute the plane wascancelled for that day. We packedthe jeep and left home at noonMonday, hoping to reach thetown of Siargao by noon Wednesday. We were to meet BrotherConsigne at that time and therewas no possible way to contacthim if we could not make it in

time. We arrived in Siargao justone hour early.

There are only two shipe aweek to the little island of Siar

gao. One was to leave the verynight we arrived and return to themainland on Monday. This was

just as we had planned beforeleaving Cotabato, although weknew nothing of the schedulethere. I believe the Lord was

guiding Us in these plans. Wereached the island and found that

we had twenty kilometers to goby truck which took us overthree hours. Then we hiked sev

en kilometers in the rain throughthe forest and rivers.

When we arrived, we foundabout twenty homes and a very

warm welcome. We learned thatthe congregation was a part ofthe United Church of Christ but

they wanted to be a New Testa

ment church of Christ. In a round

about way, they had heard of usdown in Cotabato and asked us

to come to them. In the presenceof the Moderator of the United

Church of Christ, they had votedthirty-two members to leave thatdenomination and only five mem

bers to stay. They had alreadychanged the name on their bul

letin board so that it read simply"Church of Christ." Their chapel

was built during the Japanese occupation and made of round polesand bark from the trees of the

forest. They were planning tobuild a new chapel soon.

Brother Consigne, who wroteasking us to come, is well known

Manila Christian

each month and the brethren from

all the churches in the provinceof Zambales meet to praise theLord for what has been accom

plished in the preaching of Hisword during the past month andpray and plan for the month ahead.Let us remember especially theevangelists in eur prayers thatthe Lord will watch over them

and protect them in their evangelistic meetings. — BFA

Evangelizing AmongPrisoners

Three years ago, Brother Hanson and Brother Isleta beganpreaching the gospel in the national penitentiary. After startingthe work there, Brother Hansonturned it over to Brother Isleta

and Brother Principe. In threeyears, they have baptized overthree hundred prisoners.

Napones and Schondelmayers

all over the island and is a won

derful worker for Christ. Many

asked about the church of Christ

every place <ve went, for he hadtold them of our coming withteaching about the true church.After three days with them,teaching and visiting among themall the time, we took the confession of twenty-eight and BrotherNapone baptized them Sunday afternoon,

Wien. we .arrived back in Cotabato several days later, we feltour time had been well spent andthat the Lord had blessed us all

the time.

Our latest news from BrotherConsigne was a letter telling ofthe terrible typhoon which sweptthrough their little island andcompletely destroyed their chapel, homes and their crops. Surely this congregation of "new-bornbabes in Christ' will have your

prayers! rrincipe • Isleta

Evangelistic...(Co7iti7iued from page 2)

what they were able to carry. Hisplans are to begin a meeting thereand continue until he has organized a church. This evangelist issurely to be praised for this undertaking.

Forty-seven baptisms were reported for January, but this is notcomplete. The evangelists of Zambales reported at our meeting concerning their evangelizing theyear round and stated that theyhad just planted a new church.They have what they call a littleconvention the last Saturday of

We are mighty proud of thework that these two evangelists

axe doing. Brother Isleta is aninsurance man and Brother Prin

cipe is a student in our ManilaBible Seminary. Each week theygo out to the prison, teach twoBible classes, preach, and serve theLord's Supper, besides talkingwith the boys and encouragingthem individually. We would likefor some church to help BrotherIsleta in this work. He needs

$25.00 a month. We would be happy to hear from you. This is agreat work, "I was in prison, andye came unto me." Many of ourboys have been released and areholding good jobs and have become good Christian citizens. BFA

Building ThroughEvangelism

"Thanks be to God, who givethus the victory through our LordJesus Christ" (1 Cor. 15:57). Agenuine New Testament evangelism means the preaching of thegospel, the teaching of men andwomen concerning the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ.

To do this, we must have trained ministers and evangelists.Ninety-two have been enrolledin the Manila Bible Seminaryduring the school year 1949-50.In Aparri, over tweity were enrolled during the same .periodpreparing to preach and teach Hiswoixl.

Leslie Wolfe was assigned tothe important task of inaugurating in 1908 the first preacher-training class in Manila, and toBruce L. Kershner belongs the

distinction of having developed a

Bible college. Orlina, Baronia, Pe-neyra, and other outstandingevangelists were among the boys

to be trained in the early daysby the first missionaries. TheseFilipino evangelists have heldsorhe great evangelistic meetingsduring the years. The Lord's workhas grown in the Philippines because of the evangelistic spirit.

At the present time we have

several outstanding evangelists inthe field who are just in theirearly thirties. The training ofpreachers and evangelists has

been most important in the woricof your missionaries all theseyears. , j

Ihiring the past four months in

the rainy season, the evangelistsbaptized 258 in personal evangelistic work and forty-seven baptisms have been reported for the

month of January. We believe inevangelizing the year round, butso much more can be accomplished during the dry season.

Webster's Dictionary definesevangelism as "preaching or promulgating the gospel; the holding of special services to secureconversions." Now that the dryseason is here again, our evange

lists will be holding many open'air meetings. Brother Principeand Brother Isleta are doing a

great job in evangelizing in thenational penitentiary. There isseldom a week that passes without

iContimied on Page 4)

Manila Christian

that could be rented for a church

building. Our living room is nov/too small for our Bible school so,since we decided to continue to

rent this house, we are making achapel under it. This house isover eight feet off the groimdand sets on twenty-four posts that

are each six inches square. Theyare arranged in such a way, however, that we have been able tomake a place of worship betweenthem that is forty feet long andten feet wide. Besides this, wehave three class rooms that openinto it. We feel that this will givethese brethren a wonderful placeto meet. With it and Brother and

Sister Napone to lead them, wefeel sure that the work here will

continue to grow during our furlough.

The Schondelmayer Family

Building Through...(Continued from Page 3)

their baptizing. Over three-hundred have been baptized in threeyears.

Brother Selby, in his article"Training for the Future," says

that more than two-hundred were

baptized in the Ilocano field.

Brother Schondelmayer and

Brother Napone baptized twenty-eight on just one trip where anentire church group accepted theNew Testament teaching only andbecame a New Testament church.

Evangelizing over the radio is•a great opportunity. At the pre

sent time, we are broadcasting intwo dialects and in English enboth long- and short-wave. Wefind that these broadcasts are

helping our brethren throughoutthe Philippines wherever we havechurches and membei-s. Manyhear for the first time concern

ing Christ over the air and then

are later led to Christ by evangelists in personal work and in tent

meetings.

The Golden Jubilee Anniver

sary will be celebrated this year

in the annual convention on April14-16. The churches and evange

lists will report concerning thework of the Lord for the year

1949 and also give a resume ofthe work of the Kingdom for

years past.

We are so grateful to all inAmerica who have a part in help

ing to evangelize here by sendingofferings and remembering the

evanigjelists and missionaries intheir prayers. In the next issueof the Manila Christian, there willbe a complete report of newchurches planted and the number

of those buried with their Lord

in baptism during the last yearand also a financial report.

We must evangelize to reach allwho are out of Christ. Christ toldus to "go ye therefore, and teachall nations, baptizing them in thename of the Father, and of theSon, and of the Holy Ghost:Teaching them to observe allthings whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am withyou always, even unto the endof the world." He said, "Ye shallbe my witnesses" and to witness

is to evangelize. With buoyantfaith and trusting hope, may wego on evangelizing, knowing thatHe will be with us, even untothe end of the age. B.F.A.

oOo

A LETTERMy dear Brethren:

As our ship drew near the dock,we saw iMr, Hale fii-st, thenEdith and Ben, and Mr. Baro-nia, and other American, Filiplim,and Chinese friends. It is goodto be back. They all looked welland happy.

Sunday evening, when we wei*elistening to the radio on our shipthree days out from Manila,Mr. Allison's voice came in clearlyannouncing the *pnglish service.Remy, one of our church boys,sang a solo and after the Sei'ip-ture reading Lettie, one of thedear orphan girls living in theAllison home, sang a song. Thencame Ben's sermon. I could hardlykeep the tears back, so near andyet so far from them all, yetjoining with them in worship.Miss Squires, our American friendand faithful worker in the church

while serving here for the U.S.government, took Ruth Smith

home with her and I went withEdith and Ben. Mr. and Mrs.

Hale came over and we all had

lunch together. They all hadmuch to tell us and they want tohear all about you dear ones inthe States. God continues to blessthe work over here.

Everyone is very busy. TheManila Christian is just ready togo to the press and Ben wants toput in a little message from us.Ruth and I are happy to be back.May the Lord bless you all whomade our furlough such a happyone. Carrie A. IVolfe

Going On FurloughBy Robert H. Schondelmayer it was decided last April, when

all the missionaries were at theMajorie, David, Paul, and I are convention of all the churches of

planning on sailing to the United Christ, that as soon as Mrs.States on the "Lighting" on Jan- Wolfe and Miss Smith return, weuary 14. We should arrive in San will go to the United States; uponFrancisco on about February 7. our return, the Selbys, then the

Hales, then the Allisons, andIn order to be sure you under- around again,

stand the full importance of thisplan at the present time, we wish You may wonder what willto say at the beginning that we happen with this work on Min-are not going to the States to stay, danao while we are gone. It hasWe are planning on returning to been decided that we continuethe Philippine Islands within one to rent this house while we areyear of the date we leave here, gone to keep our furniture andThis is only a routine furlough, other personal belongings and toBecause three families arrived in have a place where a nativethe Philippine Islands in 1947, it preacher can live. Brother andhas been necessary to work out a Sister Napone, who were willingplan of rotating the furloughs so to come here to live and workthat only one family will be gone for Christ, arrived October 5. Ifrom the Philippines at a time. If am taking Brother Napone withthe three families that came injme to visit as many places as1947 all left for their furloughs possible where we have membersafter the same number of years of the church. Mrs. Napone willhere, it would mean that only Mrs. spend her time in personal worKWolfe, Mr. and Mrs. Allison, and and childx-en's work in Cotabato.Miss Smith would be left here to How happy we are to have themcarry on the work in the whole here. They will live with us untilPhilippine Mission Churches of we leave and will then carry onChrist. With the present arrange- this work until we return fromment, only one family will be our furlough,gone at a time leaving the restto carry on the work. That will For several months, we havemean that there are always the looked for a place where we couldsame number of workers here help these brethren erect a smalland only one family in the United chapel. We couldn't find any place

States at a time to present thework to the brethren there.