Photo Corner

VOICE Philippines

An initial 20th Anniversary Celebration for VOICE Philippines.

The culmination of the Biblical Values class in Payatas, Metro Manila; the children are showing their Certificates of Completion

VOICE Philippines has seen encouraging signs of ministry among and with the police being reestablished. 

Another culmination celebration, this one in Orzamiz City, Mindanao

A group picture of a VOICE Training held in Malolos, Bulacan

The newly elected current Board of Trustees for VOICE Philippines

Group picture of one class of University students who were involved in co-teaching Biblical Values classes, either in a school or in the community. 

A new church in the Metro Manila area was started as a direct result of the VOICE Ministry! Here's their first meeting together as a group. 

A second group of students who have been saved, baptized, and become members of a Bible-believing church as a result of being taught values in their school classrooms. They came to the VOICE Philippine office to share their gratitude for what God has done.

 VOICE Africa

A Biblical Values Class

One Values Class  that has received a bookmark for completing the required number of activity sheets. 

Another Values class, studying Purity.

Group pictures of Christians trained to use several of the VOICE Africa curricula.

Teaching the theme verse of the Truth module, John 8:32

An outdoor Biblical Values class studying the module on Purity

Scripture Union Uganda videoed the teaching of the Truth module on the Lower Primary level about a year ago and have made it available on line. Now, they have just finished videoing the Forgiveness module on both the Lower Primary and Upper Primary levels. Once edited, it will be uploaded for viewing online. These three staff members and volunteers were the "teachers."

Another group who were trained to use several of the modules.

Group picture of those trained recently in Jinja to use the Forgiveness module.

A segment of the above training.

Group pictures of those who were trained to use the Obedience module.

A segment of the above training.

A lesson demonstration as part of the above training; lesson 6 which is the final lesson and focuses on the Gospel. For the module of Forgiveness, the lesson is the Prodigal Son.

A rare picture coming from South Sudan of a class that is being taught the Gospel using the CrossTalk tract. 

A load of Bibles arriving at one of the South Sudanese Refugee Camps in northern Uganda.

A Bible Class which is part of a Camp in one of the South Sudanese Refugee Camp.

A Biblical Values class being taught in one of the refugee camps.

Earlier in June, Dickens and Chris traveled to Tanzania to do some training with Scripture Union Tanzania. Since the Self-Control module will soon be printed, Lord-willing, in the Kiswahili language, they introduced the module, using the English modules.

Group picture of those who were trained in Tanzania. In the 3 chairs in the front, from left to right - Chris, Dickens, and Stella, Scripture Union Tanzania National Director

Chris (right) and Rodrick, one of the lead trainers in Tanzania, teaching the definition of of Self-Control.

As part of the training, these two of doing a demonstration of the first lesson from the Truth module, teaching John 8:32 in Kiswahili. 

Another training which Chris and Dickens led in Tanzania.

Back in Uganda, Dickens, Beth, and Chris are standing in front of the truck God has provided for the ministry. 

 Pictures from Canada

April 30 - Dickens with Ruth's nephew and family.

May 8 - Beth arrived in Saint John!

May 12 - Beth & Laura met with True Life Church Missions Committee.

May 19 - Beth & Laura enjoying a New Brunswick food--fiddle heads!

Beth enjoying a meal on Laura's back deck with Laura and the Filipina who boards at Laura's home.

May 3 - Laura and the Filipina gals during their Values/Baking Saturday morning class; chocolate chip cookies were enjoyed that day.

May 29 - Laura's Mom enjoying company.

June 1 - Mom & Laura back to their favorite together-activity--dominoes.

June 2 - Laura visited a Filipina mother and her first born.

June 7 - A long-time friend of Laura's turned 90 and Laura joined her party.

June 7 - Laura snapped this picture of Mom with her now-a-few-months-old "97" balloons and quoted Mom as saying "97 and waiting for heaven."

June 12 - Laura met with some of her elementary school classmates for a meal and reminiscing.

June 12 - The niece of our "favorite" helper during our Philippine ministry immigrated to Canada for join her husband who has been here for two years...to Summerside, PEI! And the day after they arrived, they drove to Sussex to visit Laura and deliver a "pasalubong" (Filipino culture of a gift from where you have been) of fresh peanuts from the area of the Philippines where she and her family live. What a surprise and fun connection!

June 14 - Laura visited a Lemonade Stand being run by a Filipino boy and met several other Filipinos patronizing the business.

Laura and her Mom often enjoys fellowship around the Daily Bread readings.

June 22 - Ruth is back in Canada for a quick visit and enjoyed reconnecting with Laura and some of her family, especially her dear Mom.

Pictures from USA

Beth attended a week of orientation with the mission, Global Outreach in Mississippi the first of June.

Beth with the Global Outreach group, participating in one of the final gatherings together.

During Beth's final week in North America, she visited this young family and enjoyed their twins.

May 1 - Celebrating a mutual friend's birthday at Ruth's brother and sister-in-law's home. 

May 9 - Celebrating Ruth's brother's birthday with family and friends in my home.

May 31 - Ruth and her brother joined a cousin's family as they laid to rest an Uncle's remains.

June 16 - Ruth celebrated her Uganda friend's birthday by going for ice cream. 

June 19 - Back to the same Ice Cream place to celebrate a both a birthday and an anniversary within our family--always a fun time together.

Pictures below are from the previous blog.

  VOICE Philippines

A group of  students from southern Metro Manila who have come to Christ as Savior through the Values Classes in their individual schools, been baptized, joined the sponsoring church and are now serving in the church. Of the 40 such students, these were able to come to the VOICE office to share their testimonies and be an encouragement to the VOICE staff. VOICE gave them a copy of a Laura's "The Forbidden Book/How the Bible Came to the Philippines."

Those who attended a VOICE presentation of the constitutional freedom the Philippines has to teach godly values in the public schools

Many if not most of these young people are formerly non-churched (or at least non-evangelical church) children/teens who are now attending the youth group of a church that has been teaching godly values in the nearby school for a couple of years now.

University students who were involved in teaching godly values this past school year while being mentored/trained/prepared by VOICE trained volunteers from local churches. All of them received required community service credits through this program...and were exposed to the Gospel and the Bible.

The above was taken from Facebook.

One of the groups where the shortened "True Love" seminar (based on the VOICE module with that name which teaches Biblical morality) was presented around Valentines Day.

Another group where the True Love seminar was presented, using the Bible.

Another group of University students who were involved in the teaching of godly values either in the public schools or government community programs.

Some of the university students actually teaching values in a public school.

Prior to actually co-teaching the Values classes, the university students meet with their mentor and prepare the lesson they will teach--which becomes much like a Bible study. Here's a couple of such studies going on.

 VOICE Africa

Preschool children who are being honored for completing all of their Activity Sheets for the Honesty module; their teacher, Paul, is with them.

A Values Class focusing on Responsibility

Another group Values Class, learning the theme verse of the Honesty module

A large group Values Class, held outdoors as students stand, focused on the value of Obedience.

Teaching "Truth" to  a Kindergarten class

Practice Teaching during the VOICE Training; group picture of those trained in the following picture.

VOICE Training focused on the Honesty Module, held at the Scripture Union Uganda National Office in Kampala

Biblical Values Class being taught to children on a Sunday morning, St. Lukes, Kibuye

A huge Values Class being taught to all students at the St. Mark's College (High School)

Supporters of Beth Baleke sponsored 3 containers full of Bibles to arrive in Uganda. Beth has had the time of her life distributing them in many different situations, including Christian Students at schools where Scripture Union Clubs are held.

Students helping her carry boxes of Bibles to the school classroom

Beth gives testimony that as she was distributing the Bibles to students, God nudged her to offer one to the security guard. The guard was wondering from her faith but God had been working in her life and giving her a desire to read God's Word...of which she did not have a copy! Her smile tells a lot!

Bibles being picked up to be taken and distributed to various places.

Oh, those smiles of people who have boxes of the most treasured Book of all books!

And the smile of the person God chose to make God's Word available to His children who long for a copy of His Word but don't have the resources to purchase it.

Beth sharing the Gospel with students using the CrossTalk of which every student had a copy with which they could review the message and then explain it to others.

A VOICE Training in Tanzania; learning the Forgiveness theme song (in Swahili)

Another VOICE Training led by Rodrick in Tanzania; this one is for the Truth module

A training class in Tanzania focused on how to use the CrossTalk tract.

Group picture from Tanzania of those who are completed the "Seedling" Training which is connected to the CrossTalk evangelistic tract.

Just a believe-it-or-not picture sent to us by Beth Baleke

These last three pictures just arrived from the South Sudan Refugee Camps in northern Uganda. At least one, and maybe more Easter Camps, were held last week. And...Chris, Beth & Dickens' assistant, was able to get boxes of Bibles to them in time. They are being delivered from the bus to the camp via motorcycles.

BUT they met a challenge! Praise God for people who helped push the motorcycle through the water and somehow protect the boxes of Bibles from getting wet.

And proof that they did arrive and were distributed at this conference/camp.

And just when I thought I was finished, these pictures arrived from Tanzania via Beth. This is one of their April Children's Camps; the children are learning the the theme song from the module of Forgiveness (Swahili). Often their camps are held on school property using school classrooms for meeting places.

Learning the Swahili Truth theme song

And the gospel is being shared with the children through using the CrossTalk.

A Teacher's Training also took place during which they also learned how to use the CrossTalk tract.

The same group of teachers with copies of the VOICE curriculum which they were trained to use.

 Pictures from Canada 

April 8 - Mom Bonney turned 97 years old; Laura's birthday was the day before but she didn't get a special sign telling her age!

February 15 - Laura's Saturday morning Baking/Values Class enjoying what they cooked.

February 22 - Another Values/Baking Class...and a surprise birthday party for Laura's assistant, Nancy.

March 21 - Another birthday party for one of the girls who attends Laura's Saturday class held in the girl's home.

March 29 - A joint birthday party for this gal and for Laura (a bit early).

April 6 - Laura's "official" birthday party which she put on herself (Filipino style), although others helped with the cooking. This is the larger of the two groups who came at separate times during the day.

April 19 - Celebrating Easter as part of the Saturday morning Baking/Values Class.

April 25 - Dickens, the former National Director of Scripture Union Uganda with whom we worked closely when we were there, arrived at the Saint John, NB, airport to speak in several churches who have been praying for and supporting the VOICE Africa ministry. Laura picked him up.

Their first destination was True Life Church, Quispamsis, NB, where Ruth's nephew, Josh, is the Family Pastor (right) and Ken is the Missions Committee chairman. Dickens participated in their Annual Missions Fest this weekend.

April 27 - Laura shared an update on the VOICE Africa ministry in both morning services of the New Hope Community Church in Moncton, NB. You may recognize the slide as one that is also in this blog.

After speaking in Moncton, Laura drove to Erb's Cove where she met Dickens and introduced him to the congregation who gathered at 3:00 p.m. to hear Dickens speak. The Pastor is standing beside him in this picture for a comical reason...the pastor's first name is Charles and he told his congregation that for the first time, they had the opportunity to meet Charles Dickens! 

Pictures from USA

Beth Baleke and Dickens arrived in North America last month. Beth sent this picture soon after her arrival--I don't know the story behind this picture, but I couldn't resist including it! 

One of their first engagements was EvanTell's Anniversary Celebration in Dallas, TX. Evantell has provided East Africa (and the Philippines too) with many copies of their tracts, especially the CrossTalk, translated into local languages as needed. Here Dickens & Beth are with the Director of EvanTell (2nd from the left) and others who attended.

Both Beth & Dickens shared together in some areas including Indiana. Here they are with a couple that has come out to work with Beth in Uganda on a number of occasions.

March 4 - Celebrating with others in Ruth's kitchen the birthday of Ruth's long-time friend.

March 14 - Enjoying fresh hot maple syrup (on pancakes) in Ruth's brothers' sugar shack.

Ruth's brother also treated us to sugar on snow (not pictured) and maple candy which he is making in this picture--yum!

March 28 - Another sign of spring-kid goats that Ruth's niece purchases a day old from a goat dairy farmer and raises for a couple of months to sell as pets. Ruth gets to be part of the fun!

April 9 - 25 - Ruth joined two of her siblings and their spouses for an RV vacation to visit family and friends plus see some new sights. This is an evening meal in Ruth's sister's RV.

Our first night on the road we stayed in this Pennsylvania campground.

They had an exploratory area, especially for children, looking at the different reptiles, wildlife, birds, plants, bugs, etc. Ruth went through one of the tunnels with "peek-holes" to see pictures of various things one might find in such a tunnel, and her brother snapped this picture as I emerged! The displays were very well done.

The second night we stayed at the Natural Bridge and Caverns National Park in Virginia. Not only did we enjoy that phenomenon, but also signs of spring including flowering trees (above this picture).

And spring wildflowers including Dutchman's breeches.

And Jack-in-the-Pulpit.

 

April 11 - A treat for us to eat at Chick-Fill-A

April 12 - Our first visit was with our nephew in Tennessee. We went biking with his family, minus his wife who was tied up with a meeting--great fun!

Group picture the evening before we left. One of their sons met an accident the night before thus the patch on his eye.

From there we were on to Alabama to visit another nephew and his wife. One afternoon we enjoyed a wonderful stroll on a nearby walking trail through the woods.

Group picture of our last meal together; enjoying blueberry pie which my sister made from frozen Maine blueberries she brought down! Quite a treat for our hosts (and we enjoyed it too!)

Also in Alabama, we went to eat at the restaurant that our youngest brother owns. His daughter was our delightful waitress. Group picture after our meal together.

The next morning we returned for a short visit to meet for the first time our niece's youngest son; we were hoping to see her older daughter again but she was sick.

From there we headed to North Carolina to visit our sister's former church mates who now live there. My sister-in-law played their piano as we sang hymns and two of the men played Chess...great relaxing time together.

We joined them for their Easter sunrise service, church breakfast, Sunday School, and morning worship. Snapped this group picture in front of our sister's RV just before we left.

From there we traveled on to the Outer Banks in North Carolina and enjoyed a couple days on the beach. Here's my sister trying to capture the beauty with her phone camera.

While there we went to see the tallest brick lighthouse in the USA, Cape Hatteras, which had to be moved due to the ocean's erosion. It still was being worked on with all of the scaffolding in place.

And what is a trip to the beach without stopping for ice cream?

None of us went swimming, although the dog got pretty wet playing in the waves, but we did enjoy wading in the warm ocean water.

Both mornings that we were there we tried to catch a sunrise but clouds interfered both times; this is the best of our attempts.

Leaving The Outer Banks with their huge sand dunes; we all enjoyed them.

The following night, we camped in a campground in Delaware. From there, our sister and husband headed back home to Maine, and we went on to New Jersey, staying overnight at the Jenny Jump State Forest.

From there headed north to spend a night with my sister-in-law's college roommate and her husband in New York.

And back to New Hampshire on Friday, April 25. Wonderful trip with God's gifts of safe traveling and good health for all of us. My brother's early yellow tulips welcomed us back! 

Before I left their home and went across the town to my home, I harvested some kale that had come back on its own and some rhubarb from my brother's garden!