by Matt and Sora Colvin | Jan 2, 2016 | Indonesia, SAMS Missionaries
On Monday, we will hit the road for a month long trip on which we will spend Sunday’s in five churches in NY, MD, and VA, with a stop for debriefing at the SAMS office in Ambridge, PA.
Here’s an updated schedule of visits as of January 15:
- Jan 8 – Christ Church, Ithaca, NY.
- Jan 10 – St. Stephens REC, Sykesville, MD
- Jan 12-13 – at SAMS office in Ambridge, PA
- Jan 17 – Bp. Cummins, Catonsville, MD
- Jan 24 – Holy Trinity, Fairfax, VA
- Jan 31 – St. Jude’s, Richmond, VA
- Feb 7-14 – Ash Wednesday in New Jersey: Covenant Chapel and St. Luke’s REC
- Feb 25-26 – Synod of REC Diocese of Mid-America
- Feb 28 – Holy Trinity, Houston
- March 6 – Christ Our Hope in Dayton, OH
- March 13 – St. Paul’s REC (Indiana, Fr. Daniel Sparks)
- March 27 – Easter (at TREC)
- April 3 – All Saints REC in Raleigh, NC
- April 7-10 – New Wineskins Conference in Asheville, NC
- April 12 – RE Seminary
- April 17 – St. Paul’s, Oreland with Dean of Indonesia, Timothy Chong.
- May 1 – St. Nicholas Church in Owensboro, KY (Dcn. Rob Sexton).
- May 8 – Grace Church, Circleville, OH (ACNA, Melanie Shuter)
- May 15 – Christ the King in Dayton, OH
- May 22 – St. Barnabas Anglican (ACNA) in Covington, KY.
- May 29 – St. Stephen’s REC in Flowood, MS
by Ian and Polly Montgomery | Jan 1, 2016 | Peru, SAMS Missionaries
This has been another year of fruit-bearing ministry, both at home and overseas. Thank you so much for your prayer and financial support.
This last year had a very busy beginning. I was in Peru twice working with a team from Grace Anglican Church, Fleming Island, FL. Over the last three years we have been developing relationships with Peruvian Anglicans and have built a new chapel adjacent to San Mateo Anglican school in Lima.
In September, Polly and I went to Madagascar on mission with SOMA. I led a small team of five in the dioceses of Fianarantsoa and Toliara. I taught and Polly was the intercessor. The first clergy conference went well. The second, a men’s conference, ended after a day and a half with the death of a young participant. He was thirty and had a heart attack on the soccer field. This trip was hit with “attack.” The national airline canceled lots of flights, and we had significant illness among the team. We came home very much the worse for wear, however, we saw some effective ministry and the positive effect of your prayers.
2016 begins with a January trip to Peru. Our goals are: first to visit a new missionary area – Huancayo up in the Andes (altitude nearly 11,000 feet) – and second, to work with the new Peruvian bishops and clergy as they transition to Bishop Godfrey’s retirement later this year.
In late February, I have a SOMA board meeting in Jacksonville, FL, followed by a March trip to Peru with leaders from Grace Anglican who will survey ministry opportunities for their ongoing relationships in Lima and Huancayo.
In April, we have the triennial SAMS missionary retreat followed by the New Wineskins Missionary conference in North Carolina.
I shall be in Peru during late June setting up for the July team visit by Grace Anglican to Lima and Hunacayo.
In addition to all of this, I am functioning as the main supply priest at St. Luke’s, Cambridge, NY. This is a fulfilling ministry, but I ask you to pray that they may find a long term priest soon.
My passion continues to be clergy development and encouragement. This call of God on my life is an amazing gift in retirement.
by Matt and Sora Colvin | Jul 30, 2015 | Indonesia, SAMS Missionaries
Before leaving STT St. Paul’s in Bandung, Indonesia, I left the students some essay questions, which were then translated into Bahasa Indonesia by the Rev. Yopie B. I reproduce them here for our readers’ enjoyment.
(Recommended sources: R. Hays, Reading Backward; N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God; R. Bauckham, Jesus and the God of Israel.)
Essays:
In 10 pages or less, answer ONE of these questions:
1. Explain how the NT epistles and the book of Revelation identify Jesus as divine while still holding to monotheism.
2. Explain how Jesus Himself and the authors of the four canonical gospels use the Old Testament to make the claim that Jesus is identified with the God of Israel.
3. List and explain five main ways that the OT asserts monotheism and show how the NT used those ways to say that Jesus is included in the identity of Israel’s God.
by Matt and Sora Colvin | May 24, 2015 | SAMS Missionaries
Thanks to my friendship with Pastor Vic Bernales, I was introduced this afternoon to Rev. Michael Hong, the owner and proprietor of Mango Radio, which broadcasts evangelical radio programs in Zamboanga and here in Davao City. Pastor Hong has a heart for bringing the gospel to Muslims here on the island of Mindanao by using radio.
It was a fruitful discussion, and the result was that I will be starting a live one-hour radio show on June 1st. There will then be a four week break while our family is in Indonesia and Cambodia in June, and I will resume broadcasting after June 28. We hope to air the show at rush hour, but Mango is currently still trying to obtain a frequency for broadcasting in Davao. It will also be broadcast via the Internet.
The show will be devoted to explaining Scripture, using history and the original languages and the Jewish background. I’ll be trying to make these things clear and accessible — something I have striven to do for many years in my high school classes.
I need a name for the show. Any suggestions?
Above: Matt and Pr. Michael Hong in the Mango Radio studio.
Pray that the show will be a success and a blessing both to Filipino Christians and to those who do not yet own Christ as the world’s Lord.
by Matt and Sora Colvin | May 1, 2015 | SAMS Missionaries
I’m feeling a bit remiss about blogging. We keep to our deadline for publishing our monthly newsletter, but it’s easy to forget to write on this blog, and that for two reasons, both of which are good for missionary work, but not for missionary communication: first, life in the Philippines feels more “normal” for us than it did during our first two years; we encounter less that seems remarkable and needing to be photographed or shared. Second, we are both crazy busy with our respective ministries and have a hard time carving out time to blog.
Here are some photos from March and April, which may be taken as fairly representative of what we’ve been up to:
On the way home from dropping the kids at school one morning, the words of the Psalmist came to mind: “Many bulls have surrounded me; strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.” OK, maybe just cows, and a calf that decided the middle of the road looked like a good place to enjoy sunbathing.
Sora continues to do outreach with other midwives from the birth clinic to bring prenatal care to the women of Isla Verde. Here, laundry hangs on a line and bicycle taxis (pedicabs) ply the streets beneath the coconut palms, while the ubiquitous Coca-Cola ad serves as a silent missionary of Western consumerism even in this very poor neighborhood.
Of course, the birth clinic continues to welcome Filipino babies into the world, and Sora continues to supervise shifts and take care that they arrive safely. Here are three from the past few months:
Sora continues to teach, too. Most recently, she’s been teaching statistics for this enthusiastic bunch of student midwives. Here, the students are lined up in a “living histogram” by height:
Water lillies from Sora’s visit to Thailand in March:
Matt’s ministry continues apace. Introductory Greek is finished now, so we have moved on to Hebrew, while continuing to read the Greek New Testament so that students don’t lose their skills. Here, Carl, one of Matt’s friends who has been with him from the beginning of his classes here in Davao, puts up answers to the second Hebrew homework assignment on the whiteboard.
by Matt and Sora Colvin | Mar 23, 2015 | SAMS Missionaries
A truck has been parked on the street leading to the clinic for months now. It is a disabled dump truck parked with its box in an elevated position. Since it is a convenient distance from a concrete wall, an enterprising fellow stretched some tarps across the intervening space and turned the truck into a dwelling, complete with a refrigerator. To make it feel a bit more like home, he also painted various parts of the truck in brighter colors: purple, yellow, green. I say “he”, but I’m pretty sure there were multiple people living there. A family?
Well, someone evidently persuaded them to move out, for the truck is now no longer inhabited. It’s not running either. But that doesn’t mean its usefulness has been exhausted. Behold, what Pinoy ingenuity has devised:
Yes, that is a basketball hoop. And it is at a pretty good height, with what can only be called a very expansive backboard. You could hit all kinds of interesting bankshots off that box.
