note

I forgot to post photos for the October letter - my memory has improved.

Try to search  "From Four Laws to Four Circles"  great article in Christianity Today from 2008

Ambruce & family

Vizcaya Ladies & Pastors' Wives

Harms' news January 2012

Bayombong, January 28, 2012

Dear friends

We would like to share to you what God in His grace has done for us here in our area of ministry since October when we last wrote to you.

PRAISES - SALLY

1. Pastors' Wives and Lady Worker's Retreat on Nov.11 and 12 went very well. 39 attended. This months retreat in Sta Fe on January 20 had 26 attending. This area is an hour south of us with a largely different group. We have almost 70 in our list now, with the next schedule for October. Praise the Lord for the core group working with me to minister in this way
2. The Nueva Vizcaya Christian Ladies Fellowship (NVCLF) held its 20th Anniversary on Nov. 26. with 189 attending. It was a glorious day. Many churches represented. I gave the history of the organization. Besides the messages- we had fun times like presentation from different churches, give-aways , prizes for best Filipino costume or tribal costume.
3. Preaching – I preached the Christmas message to our Bayombong church on the 18^th of December, then on the 25^th to the Ineangan church and then on January 1, to our Bascaran church as Pastor Edwin got sick. I praise God for wisdom and strength.
4. My Thursday Bible Study group met on Dec. 10 for our Christmas program and we were about 30 and as a tradition I gave each of them the Daily Bread for the whole year. Again we had fun times and an offering for the JOIN HANDS FOR CHRIST fund to help the indigents.
5. On Dec. 17, we invited our 60 indigent families from Vista Alegre, Bonfal West, and District 4 to come to our house and we distributed used clothing and also groceries for them. Everybody was thankful and happy.

EVANGELICAL CHURCHES

The Seminar for our 5 outreach churches from Ifugao and Mountain Province was held on Nov. 19 in Potia was attended by 37 by pastors, lay leaders and members. Speakers were our Pastors here in Nueva Vizcaya. The teachings were very much appreciated and also the used clothing that were given to them.
Evangelical Church Youth Camp

A Youth Camp was conducted December 20-22 in Solano, near here instead of Potia, for the evangelical group of churches with 100+ attending when they only anticipated 60

FAMILY

Family reunion here, was on Dec. 30 with Sally's sister's family. Her son, who is now an anaesthesiologist in Ozamiz City could not come until after Christmas.
January 7-13 we were in Manila for the renewal of our Canadian Passports and my Philippine passport. Also for doctor's appointment and for shopping. And we timed it so that we are in Manila for our 43^rd wedding anniversary, to enjoy different restaurants and to have a little bit of rest. But we also ended up running errands. But praise and thanks to God for strength, safety and provision.
Our son Jonathan has a ticket to arrive in Manila March 31, unfortunately Maike does not have enough vacation with her new job to come this time. It is almost 2 years since we saw them in Capetown, when we were able to be there for Jon's birthday 2010, this time he is coming here for his birthday which is on Good Friday,

While there is more incentive for us to visit Canada with Jon & Maike being in Toronto, we have decided not to follow our schedule of coming every three years, and will not be going to Canada this year. With his arthritis, Dennis finds travel to Manila to be uncomfortable. We manage normally at home and with ministry.

ICMS

Ben & Erna Thiessen, a couple with ICMS who visited us about 5 years ago, will be visiting another of their affiliate Missions in Bataan, (closer to Manila). We plan to see them there February 14-16 just before they leave and also to visit Timothy Bible Institute there again.

I have been to Bataan twice, Ambruce accompanied me once. This time Sally and I will go together and then go to Manila to attend a House Church seminar February 18.

CAMPUS MINISTRY & HOUSE CHURCHES

Last semester, which ended in October, saw more students taking leadership in boarding house evangelistic Bible study groups, these are continuing. Other activities are small groups of believers meeting weekly for Bible study, and a monthly overtime prayer meeting.

In December & January we have been meeting monthly with the House Church leaders for fellowship and to look for ways to increase the number of adult & family House Churches, which have only a few continuing. One new group started last Sunday

PRAYER CONCERNS

Please pray for Sally and the core the group coordinating Pastors' Wives ministry, and for the ladies Bible study group which will continue monthly.

Please pray for Sally's monthly preaching schedules at Bayombong and Dupax

Please pray for Sta Rosa district, which will be added to areas where we are helping senior indigents with medical clinics twice a month and gifts of clothing and groceries as funds permit.

Please uphold Ambruce, student leaders and House Church leaders in prayer. And pray for a family who are good friends and with whom Dennis has had deeper discussions about Jesus recently

Serving Jesus together

Dennis & Sally Harms

thot: We are not all apostles, but we are all disciples.

We are not all evangelists, but we are all witnesses

“Evangelical Christian Ministries” at (ICMS)

INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN MISSION SERVICES
Box 24, Stn. A
Abbotsford, B.C.
Canada V2T 6Z4 www.ICMSgo.com

Weather report

Weather Report 

The super typhoon (hurricane) earlier this week did a lot of local damage – including a large tree falling on a house we were renting 20 years ago. There was only minimal damage to the GI (steel) roofing on our house now, and some water blowing in through the jalousie windows. The next province had a lot of storm damage to homes and many landslides & one main bridge destroyed when the foundation washed out.

The storm had a lot of wind which washed huge waves over the sea wall in Manila and then the sea wall prevented it from draining back to Manila Bay – the US Embassy was flooded and closed

Lots of trees down and power was out from Tue to Thu. It is not unusual for the power to be out for 4-8 hrs for maintenance or upgrade or for other reasons but we learn to appreciate it more when it is out for 3 days, other places of friends might be out for weeks.

Saturday – another storm has arrived, while the previous one is doing damage in China now

Most ministry schedules should be able to continue, but the main university for our student ministry was closed for most of the week – another interruption in addition to a 4 day week-end recently, and mid term exams. Please pray for the new believers to continue in their Christian life.

Sally and her ladies visited some of the indigent families that they are helping on Thu, but most were not seriously affected by the storm

Ambruce and 2 of his children have been sick this week. Pray also for their recovery – thanks

Dennis & Sally

Update on Campus Ministry

Bayombong

August 3, 2011

Dear friends:

We are spending more time in prayer, please continue to pray more intensely with us

The Campus Ministry that I mentioned in our newsletter in June is getting a good start:

*About 6 or more students have begun to do personal evangelism

*Gilbert shared the gospel to his parents when he went home for a weekend, and they trusted Jesus

*Chiquito is leading evangelistic Bible Studies with 2 dorm groups, together with Arnel and Juanito

(in addition to the 4 dorm groups under Ambruce)

*5 students were baptized in July

We are hearing about great harvests being gathered in different places around the world, pray with us that we can see this happen here.

Jesus said “...open your eyes and look at the fields. They are ripe for harvest.” John 4.35b

“If nature's principle of sowing abundantly to reap abundantly is true, the so is its opposite: if you sow sparingly you will read sparingly.” from Church Planting Movements by David Garrison

One of the questions that caught my attention in the Training for Trainers (T4T) material was -

“How many people will hear about Jesus today?”

We are hearing about great harvests being gathered in different places around the world, pray with us that we can see this happen here.

Specifically:

*Prayer for Ambruce and myself

*Pray for prepared hearts among the 5,000 students at Nueva Vizcaya State University and

3,000 at PLT College

*Pray for the new believers, perhaps 30 or more – for their spiritual growth and involvement

*Pray for more workers from among these new believers

“Ask the Lord of the harvest... to send out workers into his harvest field.” Luke 10.2b

As I mentioned in June, we are praying that this will happen with the new believers quickly sharing their faith with others – Instant Obedience

Extraordinary prayer will be needed in order to see the abundant evangelism and the great harvest.

Thanks for praying

Dennis Harms

ps.See www.missionfrontiers.org March-April under Past Issues, for a number of great articles on “Church Planting Movements” in the online magazine of “US Center for World Mission”

June 2011 Newsletter

Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya

Philippines 3700

June 10, 2011

Dear friends,

A very Blessed Day to you. Hope that this letter will find you enjoying your summer season.

As for us here, although summer is finished, it is still very hot during the day usually reaching over 30 degrees centigrade. So the fan is going the whole day and no walking outside at noon time. It is a relief when it rains in the late afternoon or in the evening.

Here is another Ministry and Family update. May you be encouraged as we give you a report on what happened in the last few months. Please pray for the needs of the ministry and for us.

MINISTRY TO THE POOR--”JOIN HANDS FOR CHRIST”- We are ready to sponsor 70 indigent families for Phil Health Insurance beginning Aug 1,2011until July 31,2012.

For the month of June &July we will do screening of indigents and processing with Phil Health office and also orientation for the new beneficiaries.

We were hoping to help 100 families, but at this point we do not have any help yet from the Municipal Government (although we are included in the Year 2011 budget). Their reason:Not enough funds. Lets pray that before the end of the year they can give funds and that we can expand this ministry

There is a new feature in our ministry to the poor- Dra Evelyn Nacionales, having seen our Join Hands for Christ CD (it was shown by Dr Galindez, head of the Veterans Regional Hospital, to the Executive committee of the Hospital) was touched and volunteered to render free medical consultation at the Community Hall twice a month together with diabetic testing and ECG machine. We praise the Lord for this act of compassion by her

Help us pray that we will have more funds for this ministry as we are reaching more people to share the gospel and at the same time alleviate poverty.

EVANGELICAL CELL CHURCHES

BAYOMBONG - We had a Daily Vacation Bible School last April where we had more than 60 children and high school students that attended and 9 teachers involved. These kids were from our local outreaches-San Nicolas, Bonfal West and District 4.

We will have our 28^th Evangelical Church Anniversary celebration this June 26 with Pastor Norbert Pinera as our guest speaker and the theme of the anniversary is “Making a Difference”.

Let us pray for the speaker and also the listeners that they will apply the message in their own lives.

We hope to have our lunch at the Cordillera Resort and include fellowship and swimming.

Church Camp-We had a record breaking attendance in our camp with over 200, from the group of nine churches, that came even when some were not able to come because of no ride available at one church. Topics included were ECC Vision, Handling Finances and Strengthening Family Relationship. I handled the Family Relationship part. It was held at a resort in Careb, Bagabag. There were games and then swimming after the camp. Everybody went home happy and energized. Praise the Lord.

FAMILY AND FRIENDS

In January, Jon and Maike transferred to Toronto from Capetown, South Africa. In May they moved to a more permanent apartment in downtown area. They are still deciding on job or business possibilities, please pray for them.

Pastor Dan, the missionary to the Muslim area, got married in April to Jennifer, who also has a heart for ministry, and we attended their simple wedding ceremony in Manila. Please pray for Jennifer, who is struggling with health problems for the past month.

Last month, I had a 4 day beach vacation at San Fabian, Pangasinan where I was born. I stayed with my cousin and I brought along Virgie Gamboa, a lady pastor who works with me in my Thursday ladies Bible Study and also with “Join Hands for Christ” ministry. We had a great time. Dennis didn't like to go to as it is even hotter there at this time. But with school and ministry starting in June, we though it is a good time to have a break.

House Churches and Campus Churches

Most elementary, high schools, colleges and universities began a new school year June 6

Ambruce' wife, Ruby has a teaching position at Ambruce' home town an hour away. She has moved there with their baby and 3 year old son, with a niece helping with child care. Ambruce will be staying here so that he can continue his ministry involvement and also for a better school for Ezrille who is starting grade 1. Please pray for the adjustments that the family is facing.

Ambruce will concentrate on campus ministries with his disciples from the last school year and we look forward to good results from a Discipleship and Evangelism Training program called “Training for Trainers” – T4T. We are also using this with some of the House Churches

“Training for Trainers” – T4T.

Ambruce and myself have a burden to see more effective evangelism and disciple-making here. After becoming aware of T4T and beginning to see some response last semester with families and especially with college students I am asking for targeted prayer support for this ministry for the current semester which will end in October. The two schools where we have the most involvement are PLT College and Nueva Vizcaya State University (NVSU).

One of the main emphasis of this approach is to encourage new believers to immediately reach out to their friends and families with the Good News about Jesus. T4T calls it “Instant Obedience” and it is obvious that this would be the most fruitful time for them to share their story together with the message of salvation.

Specifically, please pray for the students at PLT & NVSU to be prepared by the Holy Spirit to be responsive to the Abundant Evangelism that we envision, and then also be committed to be involved.

If you are part of a prayer group or Bible study group, could you share this prayer request with the group. I will try to send more frequent updates so that you can pray for definite people.

Also, if you can let me know if you can stand with us in this prayer concern and that you will be upholding us and these campuses in a special way it would be appreciated. - Dennis

Thanks for your prayers

Sally and Dennis Harms

dennissallyharms@gmail.com

Evangelical Christian Ministries at

INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN MISSION SERVICES
Box 24, Stn. A
Abbotsford, B.C.
Canada V2T 6Z4 www.ICMSgo.com

ps. our landline telephone # has been changed to 63.78.3620075