Updates and ramblings

We arrived safely in Los Angeles and have been enjoying catching up with family and friends. I have also been busy doing some research for my doctoral project at the Master's College and Seminary as well as at Talbot Seminary. Please pray for a productive time during the rest of our stay here in the U.S. We will be visiting several churches, friends and supporters. We will end our trip here with a one week Missions Conference with Grace Community Church in August and then head back to Manila on the 23rd. We are hoping to raise some support as we have learned from GMI (our mission) that our incoming monthly support needs to increase substantially. We still have several supporters who did not carry over when we made the swithch from Reach Global to GMI a couple of years ago, but we trust that God is faithfully working all these things out.

It's been nice catching up on my mexican food, In-n-Out as well as other favorite foods that we have been missing. We took the kids to Sea World last week along with some family who were visiting from Kansas. The baby is 2-3 weeks away from arriving and Jessica and I have been going to weekly doctor appointments. We should be delivering at the Adventist Hospital in Glendale. My mom will arrive next week and spend several weeks with us as well in anticipation of the baby's arrival. It's been a few years since we have seen her and we all look forward to the visit.

After the baby is born we will need to get his birth certificate and passport in time to leave on the 23rd. Please pray for the baby's safe delivery, for the timely processing of his passport, and also for me, as I seem to be battling a cold and soar throat (want to be completely healthy before our newborn arrives). Also pray for our students at Greenhills Christian Fellowship, Christ Commission Fellowship and at The Church of the Triumphant Christ. We miss them all and look forward to getting back to helping further equip them. Lastly, pray for Kian as he considers where to go to college in 2011. We toured that Master's College which was great and he really liked it. The little ones (and 9 month pregnant mommy) particularly enjoyed the tram ride.

Blessings,

Addendum

A friend kindly pointed out that I neglected to mention some important details about the conference we took part in. It was organized by "Purpose and Passion", a ministry of our church, Greenhills Christian Fellowship in Ortigas Center (in the Manila area). I mentioned that in addition to Rick Holland, there were many other local pastors, missionaries and ministers who spoke. Click here to read their bios and to learn more details about the conference. Please forgive my error, no disrespect was intended and thank you to everyone who took part and made this ministry possible. To God be all the glory.

A Module, Conference, Packing, Moving and International Travel all in 2 weeks.

Pastor Rick Holland from Grace Community Church arrived in Manila today and will be our guest speaker for a three day conference starting tomorrow. The theme of the conference is the Master's plan for the church. In addition to the 7 plenary sessions built around the conference theme that pastor Rick will be teaching, we will also have several break out sessions on topics including expository preaching, a biblical philosophy of ministry, team leadership in the church, mentoring, biblical counseling and several sessions for women. The speakers include myself (Sean Ransom), my wife Jessica, Lisa La George from the Master's College, Ruth Ortiz from Action International and fellow Master's Seminary alum pastor Felix Ballon.

Last week we taught a 5 day hermeneutics module with pastor Felix as our guest professor . He also taught my monday night class who are currently taking theology (pictured below). It was evident to all how he connected with the students. In addition to being born and raised in the Philippines till he was about 12 years old, he is a very gifted teacher, blessed with the ability to clearly teach and explain the bible to all levels of students. After we taught basic principles of Bible interpretation, we modeled how to use these principles in various passages. Then, on the last day the students enjoyed asking questions about the interpretation of texts that they had always wondered about. Pastor Felix also taught them how he studies passages and divides them up into a logical order and outlined so that they can be taught.

We were also blessed to receive a container from Grace Community Church containing among others things, books, books and more books. These will help many pastors and churches who lost books during typhoon Ondoy or who do not have good resources or libraries for their pastors, leaders, and teachers to use.

In addition to the module last week and the conference this week, we need to pack up our house as we prepare to head back to the states next week. While there I will spend time for some research, we will also attend a missions conference with Grace Community Church, visit family, friends, supporters and o yah, have a baby in July.

We appreciate your prayers for the conference, our travels, U.S. visit and the baby. We just had an ultra sound today that confirmed again that the baby is a boy, on schedule and already weighs about 5 pounds. I look forward to reporting about the conference and posting pictures soon.

Blessings

Building a Model Church to Establish an Expository Ministry

This week, fellow Master's Seminary Alum Travis Allen is visiting our church, Greenhills Christian Fellowship (GCF) to meet with the pastors and elders in the church to get an over view of the church's ministries, as well as with our ministry, the The Expositor's Academy. The reason for this visit is that the former Senior pastor of GCF retired earlier this year and the pastoral search committee is getting to know Travis to see if perhaps he might join them as their preaching pastor.

Travis has been working for Grace to you for about 10 years now and has been involved with teaching in the Grace Life Fellowship at Grace Community Church. About a week ago while Travis was working, he got a call from his supervisor telling him that he needs to come into the office right away. He arrived to find himself in a small meeting with Don Green, Phil Johnson and John MacArthur. Half joking, they told Travis that they were planning his future and then told him about the opportunity at GCF.

You see, about two months earlier some of the elders of GCF made a personal appeal to pastor John asking him if he could help them find a new pastor for their church who is a skilled expositor of Scripture as well as a men skilled in pastoral ministry. After some searching pastor John hand picked Travis and recommend him to GCF.

When Travis was told about the opportunity that Thursday he was very excited and went home to tell his wife. I think that it is safe to say that most mother's of 5 children would not respond well to their husbands asking them, "What do you think about moving out of the first house we ever owned, the one we just bought less than a year ago, and move to Asia to serve the Lord?" It appears that his wife Melinda is open to this opportunity as it has been something they have discussed in the past. Not specifically going to the Philippines, but serving God in the Asia area among English speakers in a ministry that would allow them to have a wide impact. What may have seemed to be an unreasonable request, (A ministry in Asia to English speakers) may just be what God has been preparing them for.

Two days later Travis had purchased plane tickets and after church on Sunday, packed his bags and got on a plane headed to Manila. He had no idea the week before that he would be in the Philippines visiting GCF. He arrived on Tuesday morning (about four days after his meeting with John, Don and Phil) and has been on a whirlwind tour ever since.

In our excitement, Jeffery Co and I joined elder Mike and Goby to pick Travis up from the airport. We took him straight to his first meeting, breakfast with elder James Oh and pastor B.J. Sabastian.

That same evening we took Travis to a dinner meeting with about a dozen GCF elders so that they could get to know each other better. The next day Travis had breakfast with third year students from our training ministry, the Expositor's Academy, followed by a visit with Compassion International, a ministry partner of GCF.

He ended the day by preaching at GCF's midweek service. On Thursday we took Travis on a tour of Faith Academy, followed by a visit to a ministry we have to the poor. He ended the days with another dinner fellowship with GCF leaders.

On Friday he visited the Far East Broadcasting Company where he spoke at the staff chapel service and led a devotion on Saturday with GCF staff. This Sunday he will preach at two services before getting back on a plane Sunday evening.

God's providential hand in arranging all these opportunities was evident as all these meetings and times to preach came together in a matter of days. If GCF follows pastor John's recommendation of Travis and brings him on as their pastor, it will not only be a great benefit to the church, but it will also greatly help to establish the ministry of the Expositor's Academy to not only teach men to establish expository ministries, but it will allow us to have a solid model of what that looks like for our students and other churches here in the Philippines.

Please join me in praying that God would guide the leadership of GCF to choose the right man, weather it be Travis or someone else, to lead and feed us. Pray also that this pastor would be able to partner with us to train godly men and women for the ministry.

A little business and a little pleasure.

Let me start with the business. I've been back in the Philippines for almost 3 weeks now and I, along with the ministers who joined me, are still riding the high of the Master's Academy International (TMAI) symposium and the Shepherd's Conference.

We were blessed with a very edifying and productive time which included 3 meetings with John MacArthur, 2 with Mark Tatlock (the vice president of the Master's College) meetings with churches, various ministries and other men from TMAI training centers all over the world.

One of the highlights of our time was when I learned that John MacArthur was excited about what God is doing in the Philippines and his desire to come along side of us and help. This help included his willingness to come out to the Philippines to teach if the Lord allows it. We were also excited to see that the Master's College is also committed to partnering with us where then can to help pastor's, local churches, and Filipino Christians to further their education and skills in the ministry.

I am back to teaching 3 classes a week and a weekly mentoring meeting with a group of pastors at my house. Our current classes are Theology Survey, Old Testament Survey and Preaching 1. I am working with our church here (Greenhills Christian Fellowship) in planning our up coming conference in June. Rick Holland from Grace Community Church will be our key note speaker and myself along with a few grads from the Master's seminary will be teaching some break out seminars. Jessica will be joining in teaching some seminars for women. A couple of days after the conference, the whole family and I will be jumping on a plane and flying to the U.S. for a couple of months. During that time I will be doing some research at the Master's Seminary for my doctrinal program. Jessica will be having out 6th baby in late July (Lord willing) and we will visit family, friends, supporters, and our supporting churches. Then in August we will be going to the Grace Church missions conference.

Now to the pleasure. My wife Jessica lost her wedding ring some time ago and I was able to sneak away for a few hours to buy her a new ring. I felt like I was taking a big chance by buying her a ring that she didn't pick out, but after 20 years of marriage I feel like I know her and her taste well enough. I figured that in a worse case scenario, even if she didn't like the ring, she would still love the fact that I thought of her and tried to please her. Fortunately she loves the ring (or at least that what she tells me) I keep catching her looking at it. I was planning on giving it to her on her birthday, but I couldn't wait. So the day I got back from the U.S. I took her to a quite little restaurant with a nice view. I even got on my knee as I gave it to her and told her how much I love her and am blessed by her. Mark Tatlock set me up with a friend how put together a really nice diamond and ring set for us. As an added benefit, I'm guessing that I won't have any trouble going to the U.S. for the Shepherd's Conference next year and that she will joyfully release me to go.

Please be in prayer for the pastors, minister and others who attend our conference in June. Also pray for a fruitful trip to the U.S. and for a healthy baby and safe delivery. If you would like to see us while we are in the States, then please send me an email so we can schedule some time together.

A quick and fruitful stop in L.A.

My week of conferences started off with a visit to Joni and friends a ministry that specializes in sharing the gospel with and helping people with disabilities. Joni has been one of my heros in the faith ever since I was a teen-ager. She broke her back when she was about 18 years old (some 40 years ago) and has been a living picture and proof that we can do all things in Christ, enduring the gravest hardships while glorify God. It was such a joy to hear Joni speak and to share stories with her and to finally meet her husband as well. My fellow TMAI brothers and I had an all day seminar at their office to expose us to a really good curriculum that they developed for ministering to people with disabilities.

The next two days we moved to Calvary Bible Church in Burbank where we meet to discuss TMAI training center specifics. It was a blessing to hear what God is doing in and through my brothers and their ministries.

On Saturday night I was joined by 5 friends from our church in the Philippines (GCF) with 11 more coming tomorrow and 1 on Tuesday. Monday and Tuesday will be the last days of the TMAI symposium and Wednesday through Friday will be the Shepherd's Conference. I will give a presentation on the Philippines on Monday. On Tuesday we have a private meeting with John MacArthur, followed by another meeting with some faculty from the Master's College. On Thursday we have a meeting with the Staff with Grace Community Church.

John MacArthur and the staff of Grace Church are really excited about the ministry in the Philippines and are eager to come along side of us and help us. I can't wait to see what the Lord will do in and through. Mark Tatlock and the Master's College are excited to build partnership with us to offer Masters degrees in biblical counseling, christian education, and biblical exposition. This can all be done in the Philippines which will be a great blessing and solution to what seemed to be a difficult hurdle. It can be difficult for Filipinos to get visas to go to the U.S.

Please pray for me, my guest, our many meetings and the speakers of this conference.

Happy to see her sick.

Jessica has been sick a lot for the past few months. We went to the doctor to get to the bottom of her frequent stomach ailments after some friends suggested to her that she might have an intestinal parasite. After a few tests, sure enough, we discovered that she has amoeba, which is fairly common in the Philippines and can be caught through contaminated food or water . This could actually explain months and even years of decreased energy levels as well as a few other symptoms she had been enduring. It only takes a few days of some strong medicine to wipe out amoeba, but there is one complication; three months ago we learned that Jessica is pregnant. The doctor prescribed the medicine to rid Jessica of her tenant and told us that studies say the meds shouldn't hurt the baby, but why not play it safe and wait one more month before taking the medicine?

We agreed to the doctor's suggestion, but Jessica looks forward to soon finding relief from her symptoms. In addition to the discomfort of those symptoms, Jessica has been feeling some morning sickness as a result of the pregnancy. When Jess would wince in pain or tell me that she felt nauseous from the morning sickness, I would always say, "Praise the Lord" , or "That's great." I suppose that sounds mean, but after two miscarriages in the last year or so, I was happy that she was having signs of a normal, progressing pregnancy. You see, with the last two babies we lost, there was little to no symptoms of pregnancy. So I must admit that I'm happy to see her sick. We rejoice in her having "morning sickness" which reminds us that the life in her is progressing.

We decided not to say anything to anyone this time until we safely passed the first trimester, which is the most critical time of a pregnancy. We just had an ultrasound today which revealed a strong heart and an active growing baby with all its' limbs. We are very encouraged by this because the ultrasound of the first miscarriage showed no more fetus (after heavy bleeding) and the ultrasound of the second miscarriage revealed a baby that had stopped growing several weeks earlier and whose heart was not beating. Both ultrasounds were at twelve weeks, and Jess is now in her 13th week.

Today, we shared the news with our kids who are all excited, especially the youngest three. In fact, less than a week ago the kids were enjoying throwing coins into a fountain. Our 7 year old daughter Grace went up and hugged Jessica and told her about two wishes that she had just made. First, she wished that her wish would come true, and second, she wished that we would have a baby.

We trust the Lord's will with this baby as we do with the last two that He already called home. Pray with us that He will allow us to enjoy watching this little one become a part of our family and sharing His great mercy and forgiveness to everyone who believes and follows Him.

Catching Up

Like everyone else, we have been experiencing a busy November and December. I just wanted to catch all our family and friends up on some of the latest.

On November 30, our son Christian had his 14th birthday. He had several of his friends over to celebrate (he wanted to have more over, but unfortunately our budget, van, and house could only handles so many). They started the celebration by going straight from school to an out-door paintball field, where they proceeded to pulverize each other as 5-year old Tyler watched from a distance.

I did my best to take pictures without getting shot up myself. Overall, the damages were little and most came out unscathed.

After the war games we went back to our place and had dinner, cake and ice cream, followed by a night of watching movies and playing playstation. The following day all the boys went to their school (Faith Academy) and hung out at the school bazaar (like a mini carnival).

All of our classes at the Expositor's Academy went on break after December 11 and we had a class party at our home with our students from the Manila area.

It was a joy to share a great time of food, fellowship and worship of God together outside of the classroom. I can say from experience that pastor's really know how to party.

The party ended with the giving of gifts. We gave each student a copy of an MP3 with selected sessions from past Shepherd's Conferences at Grace Community Church, and for our students who just completed the class on Bible study methods and rules of interpretation, we gave a copy of the MacArthur Study Bible (provided by gracious supporters from Grace Church).

Another significant event that we experienced was just a few days before Christmas. We had a nice visit from a small team from Grace Community Church. Pastor Rodney Anderson and his wife Glenna, Pastor Kelly Wright with his wife Vanessa along with Larry and Lauren Brown spent about four days with us.

In addition to great fellowship, we had the joy of sharing about our training ministry with them and our ministry among our friends living under Manalo Bridge. We started off by going to a local grocery store where we bought enough food to feed about 25 families for several days and a small toy for all the kids (about 40 of them).

From the market we proceeded to the bridge where we followed up the weekly teaching of the Word of God with showing them the love of Christ by meeting some of the physical needs.

I was blessed to see the team's eagerness to not only see our ministry, but also how they served with joy and without hesitation.

We thank the Lord for another satisfying month in which we could serve Him by enjoying Him through making Him known to others. We were also reminded again of God's grace of sending His Son into the World to save us by taking our penalty for sin by dying on the cross in our place and the place of everyone who surrenders their lives to Him.

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?