Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ our Savior, I am soooooo happy to announce that we have reached our goal for the poor saints in Mindanao, Philippines!!! Brethren from all over the country answered the call for our needy brethren. We are getting in notices from all over Mindanao that a good amount of the food already has been delivered and the rest will be once the remaining funds reach Mindanao. So that you will see that these good brethren are doing everything they can to keep good records of all their deliveries, here is a link to one of the receipts they are obtaining for their records and mine. It most likely will take an additional month or so to get all the deliveries recorded because some of the areas are remote and not accessible by motored vehicle. In these locations, deliveries are being made by oxen, mules, etc. (see pictures). These brethren do not want to be considered as brethren always having their hands out for help. As much as in them is, they want to earn their own way. I personally asked them to give me some ideas on how we could help them establish productive businesses and work opportunities that would benefit a good number of the brethren, and thus increase the possibility of their local congregations becoming completely self-supporting. I don’t know of very many third-world countries (if any) that have self-supporting congregations that are able to take care of their own when a financial need arises, support a fulltime local preacher, and send others out to evangelize. But, that is their goal, and I admire them for having the belief that they can accomplish their goal. Instead of our brethren continuing in poverty in this area and thus, from time to time, they are unable to feed themselves, some of us are more interested in trying to help them work their way out of this degrading dilemma. I think the following quote fairly well sums it up: “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.” Several members from Mindanao have given me what I and others consider to be excellent ideas for helping these brethren help themselves and provide substantial essential family needs. This will be a private venture (brother-to-brother) and no congregations will be directly involved on either side. I have consulted a few U.S. businessmen (brethren) about helping these brethren in Mindanao help themselves, and I have received very positive feedback from all of them and some money has already been committed for these projects. The Livelihood Projects that we have chosen appear to be very good ones with the potential for putting hundreds of brethren to work with steady incomes, thereby feeding their families and better-supporting their local congregations. It appears that our private efforts can put that many brethren to work over there for about what it would cost us for a single, nice, shiny car. The Mindanao brethren are more comfortable with “earning” their shares so that the investors are not giving them something for nothing. (Investors can also reinvest their earnings in other future Mindanao projects, thus putting even more needy brethren to work.) If you, as a private individual, would be interested in knowing more about these Livelihood Projects, please contact me at gospel@nt-c.org In His Service,   David Risener P. O. Box 57 Sulphur, OK 73086 817-710-4291 voice 817-473-6164 fax gospel@NewTestamentChurch.org http://www.NewTestamentChurch.org