Martin Family Update - December 2010

Baptisms
19 more people were baptized in November! They were mostly the children
of the parents that were baptized almost a year ealier. We are so
excited to see that not just some family members, but entire families
are committing their lives to the Lord. Parents baptized their children
in the ocean, and then we celebrated with lunch on the beach. I had the
provelege of baptizing our daughters Imogen and Arwen as well that day.
I am so thankful for their faith. When I asked Arwen, "Who is Jesus in
your life?", she said in a matter of fact way, "He's my daddy". How
great an example of the kind of faith God wants us to have as we call
Him our "Abba Father".

Krista Eucker and Womens Event
We had the privelege of hosting Krista Uecker as she visited the
Philippines on a vision trip. A vision trip is when some knows they want
to serve God in missions and are exploring the different locations to
see where God would have them work. If you know someone who is
interested in missions but not sure how to get started, send us an email
and let us know who they are. We would love to help get them started on
a journey of discovering how God can use them in missions. We were so
happy Krista could come and visit with us, and we are praying that God
would give her clarity about where she is to serve. We are hoping it is
with us!

Another event we had while Krista was here was the "Coffee and Craft"
womens gathering. The missionaries taught several women a craft that
they could do on their own and sell to help support their families. It
was a great mix of believers and non-believers who attended, and we are
hoping to start a Bible study as a result of the believers reaching out
to the others. We are also happy to see that some of the women are able
to earn some money to help their struggling families.

Christmas Cheers
Sometimes we are surprised at what works and what doesent. In World
Team, our vision is, "Innovative teams multiplying disciples and
communities of believers, bringing the Gospel within reach of lost
people everywhere we go.". Our team takes the "innovative" to heart and
practice as we try different approaches to evangelism and discipleship.
One thing we tried that has been effective is a men's dance group. We
have now danced at several different occasions, to the point now that we
are being requested to perform at various functions! It has been a great
way to draw in new men and disciple men that are already believers.

Mens' Retreat Update
Thank you to those of you who prayed for our last men's retreat! It
was a great success, with another record attendance at 32. We stayed
overnight on a white sand beach and went fishing, snorkeling and
spearfishing. We had some great times of studying God's Word and
worshipping through songs together. For a few of the men, it was the
first time they had ever read the Bible. The most exciting result of
this men's retreat was that a group of men decided to start studying the
Bible the following week! We have been meeting with them ever since, and
they are growing in their knowledge of God and His path of salvation.

Martin Family Newsletter October 2010

Hi everyone! Attached is our most recent newsletter.

Bryan

Martin Family Update, September 2010

Bryan and Jacinda Martin are missionaries in the Philippines on the island of Catanduanes. Cemeteries in Payo It has been a prayer request for a long time - that our town would get a public cemetery. That may seem like a strange thing to pray for, but it is key to the health of the church here. The Catholic church owns the only cemetery in our town, so if they take you off their "list" of good Catholics, then you cannot be buried there. Our Western values may lead us to say, "so what, just bury them some other place". But the worldview of the people here makes it a very important issue as to where someone is buried. If the people must take their loved ones to be buried in some other town, they feel they are just "throwing them away". It has already happened that a Bible study was destroyed when one of those attending was not allowed to bury his father in the Catholic cemetery. After that, everyone was too afraid that the same fate may fall on them if they continued to study the Bible. The local government has recently allotted an amount of money to purchase some land for a public cemetery. We have been working with the Vice Mayor and others in the local government to ensure this gets done, which is also giving us some good contacts which we may use to start a Bible study at the municipal hall. Last week we visited the proposed site, as seen in the above photo. Tom Buursma and Teng Candelaria are pictured talking with the Vice Mayor at the site. Field Director and Area Conference As less young people are committing to long term missions, our numbers are starting to be affected. Our field was in need of a field leader, but everyone was already involved in full time ministry that they did not want to leave in order to be a full time field director. This created a leadership crisis. We decided to step into the role of field director, but with a different structure. Instead of having 1 leader who would be full time and based in Manila, we decided to divide the job up into the different parts. I assigned people to the different roles according to their gifting, and in this way we were all able stay in our current ministries but fulfill the leadership roles needed to run the field. I am very thankful for the competent and hard working people that God has brought to the Philippines which has enabled us to operate this way. Jacinda has also accepted a role as the Asia Area Conference Coordinator, which means she will be planning an international conference in Indonesia from our small island out here. The conference will be for all of the World Team missionaries in Southeast Asia which account for over 100 people. Pray that we will not be overwhelmed by these new roles and that God would continue to use us to reach the people of Payo with the Gospel. San Andres Survey It was an exciting day as we traveled to the town of San Andres, Catanduanes. Amy and Edwin Samson, Teng and Edna Candelaria, Tom Buursma and I went to San Andres to survey it as a possible destination for a church planting team. Weeks earlier, while at the municipal hall here in Payo discussing the cemetery issue with the Vice Mayor, we met another man working there who is from San Andres named Joel. We told him what we were planning to do and he offered to introduce us to the government officials and give us a tour of the town. With him as our guide, we were able to go straight in and talk to anyone in the local government we wanted to. Everyone was very welcoming and positive about the possibility of having a team of people living and working there. We are thankful that God answered our prayers to go before us that day - He certainly did! Now all we need are workers - anyone interested? Mens' Retreat It is time again for another men's retreat, which will be held this Saturday on an island just off the coast from Catanduanes. The theme for this men's retreat will be "Men of Faith", where we will be talking about different men of the Bible who trusted in God. Pray for our time there, and that we will be able to sart some new Bible studies as a result. Other Info Check out our : Blog The World Team Philippines Website Our Youtube Videos To Make a tax-deductible donation to the Martin's ministry in the Philippines, make checks payable to World Team with Bryan Martin in the notes section, and send them to: World Team, 1431 Stuckert Road,Warrington, PA 18976 To give online, go to: World Team Website

Martin Family Newsletter June 2010

Attached is our latest newsletter. We are so grateful to God for all
that He is doing.

Bryan

Martin Family Update April 2010

	Martin Family Update April, 2010 ELECTIONS What is that noise? It is a Jeep piled up with speakers and thousands of watts of sound system driving all around town blaring the latest jingle of one of the local politicians running for office. Elections will take place on May 10, and that is about all the people here can think about! For the most part the fervent campaigning does not interrupt the ministry. But as the elections draw near, people are more and more becoming wary of leaving their houses. Not because of violence or anything like that - the politicians will soon be going around from house to house offering each household a significant amount of money for their vote. If they are not home when the "man" comes by, then they miss out! MENS RETREAT We took 26 men out to a remote section of white sand beach for an overnight retreat. For some, this was the first time they had ever been taught from the Bible or been in fellowship with other believers. They enjoyed the Christian community and many are now joining Bible studies. How do you bring enough food to feed 26 hungry men? We didn't! We relied on the ocean to provide a good portion of our food, and everyone had fun fishing, spearfishing, and going out at night with nets to get it! How did we get 26 men to come to the retereat? We didn't! It was the believers themselves who invited the other men to come. There is a momentum that builds as a core group of committed men get together, pray, and invite friends to join them. What a privilege it is to watch these men develop a vision for reaching their friends and families, and to see God answer their prayers. TIMOTHY GROUP TEAMS As we have mentioned in other emails, we are training a group of leaders that we call the Timothy Group. We were struggling with the idea of how to instill and motivate the leaders to develop a vision for reaching the people around them, so we decided to group them into 4 teams. The first time they met together there was a new excitement, a list of prayer items, and action steps they were going to take to work out the vision that they came up with together as a team. The missionaries role on these teams are as advisers, and a team leader was decided upon by each team. One team has started 2 Bible studies in a town where there were no Bible studies happening, another team is using their family contacts to open a new Bible study in a remote town, a third Bible study has started a mens Bible study in their town, and the team I am advising has completed a DVBS (daily vacation bible school) in an unreached town. It is exciting to see the teams work out their vision and to be with them as God answers their prayers and people come to faith as a result. DVBS As I mentioned earlier, the team I am advising completed a DVBS in an unreached town. It was so exciting to be an advisor and a coach to the team as they worked out their plan. To be honest, at the beginning I was not sure how they were going to pull this off, but their vision came from the fact that 2 of the families on the team had come to faith as a result of a DVBS in their town. One of the highlights for me was seeing the synergy of the team (no, synergy is not just a word on one of those cheesy posters at work) as each person used their gifts to contribute to the work. One couple had gifts of helps and giving, so they did most of the setup, fund raising, and they gave a significant amount personally to help with the costs of the event (the missionaries did not fund this event, they raised all of the funds themselves). Another couple had gifts of teaching and administration, so they kept things organized and taught. The final day of the DVBS there was a graduation ceremony, and the local elected officials attended and afterwards requested that we start an adult Bible study in their town! We had the whole team and their families over for dinner to celebrate what God had done. Even though it was a lot of work, nobody seemed burned out and everyone was smiling. One person commented about this, "I guess that it what it is like if you are doing God's will". THE ADVANCE OF THE GOSPEL When we arrived on Catanduanes, we as a team decided that our focus would be on the municipality of Payo (Panganiban). The island is just too large to try and reach it all at once, and our efforts would be spread so wide that we would not be able to cultivate deep relationships with anyone. Almost simultaneously, there are now 2 groups of people from Payo who are taking the Gospel to the municipality next to ours, called Bagamanok. It was always our vision to see the believers take the Gospel to the whole island, but we were surprised to see it start to happen so soon. The DVBS was held in the municipality of Bagamanok, just outside of Payo, and there is a new effort happening on a small island just off the coast of Catanduanes where the believers there are starting a new Bible study in a town (called Sukhan) that is also part of the municipality of Bagamanok. We are excited to see the believers in Payo take the lead in reaching the next municipality and we will be there providing encouragement and coaching as needed. Please pray for them as they invite the people in their town to attend a Bible study. The advance of the Gospel happens according to God's plan, not ours. I am thankful to be able to play a small part in seeing this happen and to be able to witness God at work. Thank you for continuing to pray for us and support us financially. We are priveleged to be able to minister here and to have so many faithful partners in this work. Bryan

Martin Family Update March 2010

Hi everyone!

CMM FORUM
As in most lines of work, missions has its share of acronyms to get used
to. I will spare you most of them, but this is one that I would like to
share with you all. CMM - or Church Multiplication Movements is what we
are praying and working towards in our ministry here in Payo. A CMM is
defined as: "a rapid and exponential increase of indigenous churches
planting churches within a given people group or population segment."
There are many examples of CMM's happening throughout history and there
are many going on today. While a CMM is a miraculous work of God, there
are things that we can do to stop one and there are things we can do to
help foster one to happen. At the end of February, World Team
Philippines hosted a forum on CMM's in the Philippines. We invited
everyone that we knew of in the country who is working towards seeing a
CMM happen in their area, and we asked several to share who have seen
some amount of success. Everyone was greatly encouraged by the meeting
and we all learned a great deal that we would like to bring back to our
ministries. We all believe that the Philippines is on the brink of
seeing several CMM's happen in different areas of the country. Please
pray that God would pour out His spirit upon the Philippines so that we
may see many saved and churches planted.

INDONESIA LEADERSHIP MEETINGS
Jacinda and I left the kids on the island with our teammates to attend
the Asia Area Leadership Meetings in Bali, Indonesia. It was our first
time to visit Indonesia, and we were surprised at the many similarities
there are to the Philippines. Jacinda was tasked with organizing a good
part of the meetings, and she enjoyed the chance to use her gifts in
organization on a larger scale than she usually can in Payo. The focus
of the meetings was training on developing leaders in Asia, and we
learned a lot that we want to implement in our ministry here in
Catanduanes. We also had the opportunity to hear reports from the other
fields that World Team is working in in Asia, and our leaders shared
their visions for Asia and for World Team as a global mission. We were
encouraged to hear the reports from others of how God is working in
Asia, and we are excited about what God has for World Team in the future.

RECRUITING
Are any of you out there unsatisfied with the amount of time you are
able to give in serving God and others? Or maybe you have achieved the
"American Dream" but are still left asking the question "What was it all
for?". Are any of you willing to step out in faith and see if God can
take your 10 and make it 1000? Don't answer these questions with
another question. If your answer is yes, then your next questions are
matters of faith. "What about raising support?" - does God not promise
to supply all our needs (seek first the kingdom...)? "What about my
kids?" - do you think that God does not care for your children even more
than you do? "What if I fail?" - did Jesus not promise to be with us
after commanding us to go? Are you willing to trust Him with your life?
- "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses
his life for My sake will find it." Matt 16:25. If you want to know
what it is like to be a missionary, have questions about the process of
stepping into missions, or have any other questions, feel free to send
me an email!

BIRTHDAYS!
We celebrated 2 birthdays in February - Arwen turned 7 and Elias turned
2! Arwen had a simple birthday with all of her classmates attending as
well as a number of other friends in the neighborhood (about 40-50) with
a kite theme. Elias celebrated his Birthday with a farm theme, and we
had 60-70 people over for hamburgers and baked beans. It was the first
time anyone has tried a hamburger off the grill and it was a hit!

We are thankful every day for the chance to be here and especially to be
able to witness God working in the lives of people living in a community
which has until recently never had a chance to understand what Jesus has
done for them. Thank you for being our partners in bringing the Gospel
to the people here in Payo! We are all playing a role together in
seeing God's plan worked out in this place.

Bryan