A new name for our training ministry

Our training center has a new name. We have been going by The Master's Academy International, but that is actually the name of the association that we are a part of. We are joined by 14 other training ministries, all with various names, but all are a part of the TMAI association. So what is our official name? Well, unofficially our name is The Expositor's Academy. The reason I say unofficially is because our paper work is still in progress, but we hope to have everything completed by the end of this year or early next year. Our web-site is also in the works and I will announce it as soon as it is finished.

Currently, we have three classes running, 1) Preaching 1, 2) Old Testament Survey, and 3) Biblical Interpretation. A few more weeks and our classes will take a break till 2010. We will have a Christmas party at my house to celebrate a good year of teaching and preaching. Our students are progressing well and it is exciting to see them grow. Pray that God will continue to use me to impact their lives for the kingdom and that they will continue grow as His servants.

On the lighter side; The joys of family

It was somewhere between midnight and six a.m. when light spilled into our dark room from the hallway. Our two little girls had once again made their almost nightly pilgrimage into our room, long after mommy had already read them a story and they had already fallen asleep in their own beds. At some point, they snuck into our room and climbed into our bed . . . and it wasn't long before Isabella proceeded to alternate putting her feet on my head or into my ribs. You may wonder why anyone would tolerate this for even a minute. I know how American culture generally deals with this situation. Even before our babies are born, we often paint their rooms (some call it the nursery) and follow the trend of putting the baby in it's own room as soon as possible. Many feel that this is healthier for the children as they don't become overly dependent on mom and dad, while also giving parents a little time and privacy together. I guess this is where Jessica and I are more Filipino. We purposely bought a king sized bed years ago because we decided that we love having our kids with us and find that instead of making our kids overly dependent on us, it builds a stronger sense of connection and comfort between us and our kids. Some who read this might be looking back at the days when their own kids were little and would give anything to sneak backwards in time to enjoy snuggling with their little ones who are now grown up and long past those years. We intend to savor every moment of that as long as we can. We are not worried about not having "mommy and daddy time". I think after having five kids, one can see that we somehow manage to carve out our time together.

Our girls are now 7 and 3, and we can already sense their growing independence and know that the days of their sneaking into our room are not far from being over.

It seems like it was just yesterday when we would hear the train of sliding pajama'd feet from down the hall getting louder and louder as our first two sons would shuffle across the wood floors of the hallway, sneak into our room and jump in our bed.

Those days of little jammies and blankies are long gone as our 16 and 13 year old sons are in their own rooms and are quite independent as they stay after school for sports, to join study groups, or go and hang out with their friends from time to time. Yet, they are still comfortable to come in our room and chat with us and plop in our bed to watch a movie together or spend some family time reading a book.

I don't want to leave out our third son Tyler, who although is also growing up fast, still joins his two sisters in sneaking into our bed from time to time.

I bet my mom would give just about anything to spend a little time with her two little boys again if she could somehow go back in time. We're not in a hurry to end these precious times, I don't care what that Dr. Spock guy says, and who is he anyways?

Time to Clean Up The Mud

http://RansomReport.com/Typhoon_in_Manila

This week, I was scheduled to teach at a conference on the island of Mindoro. Getting there would mean a 3 hour drive followed by a 1 to 2 hour boat ride, so I decided to postpone my Monday morning departure until I felt sure it was safe. Besides, I didn't really want to leave Jess and the kids while the house still had no power and our van was still stranded. The weather on Monday actually turned out to be pretty good, so by the afternoon we were able to pick up our van. Then power came back on late that evening, so Tuesday morning, after I had gotten confirmation of safe travel from Pastor Leo Ordiales (who headed out on Monday as scheduled), I made the trip. I will write about that trip later, but for now, please visit a link to an article Jess wrote about what she and the big boys had been up to while I was gone.

Click here.

A months worth of rain in six hours

I can still see the faces of our friends from the bridge as they huddled in the dark under a tarp, trying to keep the rain off of them. They were now on higher ground between the rail of the bridge and the hollow block wall of their neighbor. They had carried out as many of their possessions from their homes and piled them up under the tarp before the floodwaters swept away five of their homes and submerged the rest. Sleeping in my own bed and being in our house reminds me of God's kindness, but I can't help but feel a sense of guilt to know that so many others have no bed and are sleeping on the wet ground.

Getting home wasn't easy. It all started on Saturday morning when we left for Christian's volleyball game. It was only drizzling at the time and there didn't seem to be any reason for concern. By the time Christian's games were over the rain was coming down in sheets and were driven by winds. We got texts that traffic was heavy and that the varsity volleyball team was stuck on the road and didn't even make it to their game. We decided to wait it out at the mall across the street till the traffic died down. Our last communication with our other four kids in the early afternoon was that they were all at home safe, but that our power went out. Anxious to get home to our kids, we set out at about 4 p.m. to drive home - I was thinking to get home while there was still light. We were amazed at how clear the roads were. I figured a lot of people were just staying home because of the heavy rains. Well that didn't last long. We hit a wall of traffic and moved very slowly for about an hour, only traveling about a mile till they opened up the opposite side of the street. We joined hundreds of cars driving on the other side of the street and quickly moved down the road to some short cuts that I often like to use. Leaving that mess behind, we tried taking another way home, but when I saw lots of cars piled up on that road we tried an alternate route. Since that took us near Manalo Bridge we decided to take a detour and check in on our friends there.

Before

After the typhoon

To our surprise, I saw that all their homes were either gone or under water. We had been texting back and forth with them earlier and knew that those in the lower houses moved to higher ground to stay with their neighbors, but I didn't expect to see everything covered in water. The river which was usually about 25 feet below the bridge was getting close to the level of the road on the bridge. I walked up the street looking for our friends and I found them under the tarp. Everyone was safe. Around 20 adults stayed behind while the rest of them, along with about 40 children, went to a local covered basketball court to wait out the storm.

My first thought was to pile all of them into my van and take them to our house, but they were worried about leaving their things and we still didn't know if we could even make it to our house or not. We decided that if we could make it to our place, we would leave a few of them behind to watch their things, but then take the rest - especially the kids. But first, Jessica, Christian and I would go ahead of them to make sure that we could get through. I gave them all the cash I had so that they could all buy some food and candles. Then we drove down the road for about a mile only to find the road covered in water.

I drove till the water was about knee deep and then turned around (much to the relief of Jessica). We tried four other ways which were also flooded out in front of thousands of stranded cars. One of them near the Marikina River was flooded about two stories high. We returned to the bridge and told them that we couldn't make it home and then began to look for a place for us to sleep. By the time we arrived at a familiar missionary guest house, the first leg of our adventure lasted about six hours.

Early the next morning, we attempted to make it home again. The news report on the radio said that we got a months worth of rain in 6 hours. However, by this time, a lot of the flood waters had gone down and we were moving along pretty good, but once we hit the main road going to our place the traffic began again. We weren't the only ones trying to get back home

We inched along for more than three hours, in which we traveled for only about one mile. Part of the problem was that there were a lot of abandoned cars scattered all over the road. We had to drive around them and the thousands of people who were walking on the streets.

Finally, we could go no further because the water got too deep so we pulled out. We found some high ground, parked our van, and decided to walk the rest of the way home. I'm guessing that we were about 5 miles from home and we didn't know if the roads were passable, but we were determined to get to rest of our family.

After that first step in to ankle high water we were no longer timid. We started dredging along like everyone else. The water soon turned to calf, then knee high and then waist high (higher for Jess) :). I couldn't help thinking about Israel's exodus from Egypt as we joined thousands of people who were determined to get home.

When we got to the top of the road, past the flooded portions we found some enterprising tricycles (motor cycles with side cars) waiting for passengers. We were happy to find a ride the other four or so miles to our house. We came home to some little ones who were happy to see mom and dad. Even without power, we were happy to be able to enter a home that was still standing.

Someone made an interesting observation about one of the above pictures of our friends at the bridge while they were under a tarp. Their homes were flooded or destroyed, most of their meager possessions were lost, they were soaked, hungry and did not know what was going to happen; and yet, they were smiling. The woman smiling is a long time attender of one of our bible studies and I would like to think that she is smiling because she now knows that having Jesus, plus nothing, means that she has everything . . . and that even if she did have everything in the world, they would mean nothing without Jesus. Pray for the millions who have been affected by this. For those who are still stranded, those who have lost loved ones, and those who have lost their possessions. More importantly, pray that these hard times would be the beginnings of the best of times for many who respond to God's voice in all of this, see His hand of Grace and see His people showing the love of Christ. Pray also that the saints in the Philippines will boldly proclaim the good news that Jesus Christ wants to save those who don't know Him from their sins in this world so that they can live with Him in the next world, which will never have floods, pain, suffering or death.

Starbucks and Preaching

I jokingly call it my office, but I have spent hundreds of hours in Starbucks for meetings, studying and reading. You just can't beat the deal they offer - free coffee, air conditioning, and a place to work, you just have to rent a table for about 3 dollars a session. Some locations even have free internet. I have a semi regular meeting there every Thursday from about 9 am to noon. It is open to any pastor who wants to get together for fellowship and to discuss preaching. Last Thursday I had a great time with pastors Richard and Pastor Ogie.

After discussing life and ministry issues we got into their upcoming sermons. We started with Pastor Ogie's text from Romans 11, which went well, but it got really interesting when we started discussing Pastor Richard's text. He was preparing to preach on 2 Corinthians 1:1-11 which says...

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God in Corinth, together with all the saints throughout Achaia: 2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. 8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9 Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

We always start out by reading the text and then answering the question, "What is the main point of this text? What is it saying?" We discovered that 2 Cor. 1:1-11 talks about how God allows us to suffer and go through hardships so that we can learn compassion and be a comfort to others as well as our suffering leading some to salvation and teaching us to depend on Jesus. Then we discussed how to outline and preach the passage.

What made this text especially interesting was that Pastor Ogie had just lost two young children in a fire. I said to him, "Pastor you can preach this passage better than both of us. You know what it is to suffer despair at a level that most will never know, and through it God is giving you compassion and the ability to comfort others beyond what most are able." It was hard to discuss the passage because my heart breaks for this dear humble brother. I thank the Lord that even after this tragedy, Pastor Ogie has been able to see God's grace in it all and continues to find joy in serving Him. He is also very eager to learn how to handle and preach God's Word better. Richard and I were able to encourage him, but I'm sure the pain of his loses will always be with him. I told him that there is a family reunion waiting for him in heaven. Please pray for Pastor Ogie and his family as they faithfully serve the Lord and also pray that my regular office hours at Starbucks will be a fruitful blessing to pastors and those they minister to.

PETRA Shepherd's Conference 2009

On August 27-29 we participated in our 3rd annual Shepherd’s Conference which was sponsored by our partners the PETRA foundation and Greenhills Christian Fellowship.  After going to the Shepherd’s Conference at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley California earlier this year, our team from PETRA/GCF was full of ideas to enhance the conference here in the Philippines.  Over 650 ministers enjoyed three days of hearing God’s Word being preached and break out sessions on various topics including expository preaching, local church ministry, conflict resolution, missions, ministry to the poor, and three sessions for women taught by my beautiful wife Jessica Ransom.  She will also do a follow up class on parenting using the book “Shepherding the heart of a child.”

Jessica Ransom

I taught on preaching and interpreting the Bible to a few hundred eager ministers and will follow up the conference with two 14 week classes on those topics.  I spent time with them showing them how to discover the main idea of the original author and encouraging them to proclaim that rather than focusing on what people want to hear.  Several of them shared their appreciation for what they had learned and expressed their desire to enroll in our TMAI classes to learn more.

Sean Ransom

A few things that we learned and implemented from Grace Community Church's Shepherd's Conference were getting members of the church involved in serving and supporting the conference.  Members helped provide food, rides, clothing, medical/dental/vision care as well as serving at the conference.  Elder Mike Asperin taught on ministering to the military and elder Dan Cura taught on Worship, while pastor B.J. Sebastian taught on preaching 

Other speakers for the conference included TMS graduate Roger Ng from Singapore and Pastor Chris Chia (also from Singapore).  Pastor Chris taught on 1 Timothy 2 regarding the walk of a christian leader and Pastor Roger taught on confronting false doctrine and preaching with passion and purpose.

Pastor Roger Ng

Pastor Chris Chia

It was an added joy to see several of our friends and students at the conference and the joy that they were experiencing as the fellowshipped, worshiped, are were further equipped for ministry.

Pastor Noel Alberto

Pastor Ogie and his wife Gina

Pastor Ogie and Gina suffered a tragedy a few months ago and we were eager to minister to them at the conference and into the future.  Click here to read their story.  Join us in praying for the many ministers who attended this conference.  Pray that would continue to fell refreshed, challenged and encouraged in the Lord.  Also pray that God would continue to build them up and that He would gain more glory as they grow in their passion and abilities to teach God's people and make Him known.

Directions in the Philippines

In the GPS and map quest world of the U.S. and modernized countries getting around is becoming easier and easier.  Now-a-days, you can jump into your 

car and with no more thought than entering an address into your GPS, you can mindlessly drive your car as an electronic voice guides you on the road.  Well, in the Philippines, driving directions are done differently then they are in the States.  First of all, many, if not most of the streets are not marked with a sign to identify them.  Second, even if you had a map or GPS of where you are going, that doesn’t guarantee that you will get there because many of the streets are blocked off or converted to one-way streets to help expedite the flow of traffic.  That being the case, directions in the Philippines are more often given using land marks than with street names and addresses.  Here is an example using some directions given to me for the hotel that I stayed at while teaching a preaching module in the city of Batangas. 

“…going to d port, after flyover count 3 humps then left turn before cross roads, u’ll see n your left side d TRAVELLERS INN.”

Well, somehow I found it.  Often finding your way using someone’s directions in the Philippines often involves a lot of sanctification, many u-turns, asking people on the sides of the road where a place, marker, or street is and a lot of prayer.  It’s not perfect, but it almost always works.