You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
2 Ti 2:1-2 NKJV

To all of our friends and family in Christ,

We pray that you are enjoying the Lord's blessing this summer. We are all doing fine by God's grace. Our summer has already come and gone faster than we would like to think. We were able to spend a little bit more time together during the summer, and we even had the special blessing of having Stephanie visit us just before our new school year began.

Since it has been a while since our last update, I thought it would be helpful to give brief updates on all the different ministries we are involved with and then to give some quick personal updates. I am going to try to start something new next week by sending out brief weekly updates with a picture or two so that you can get a better week-by-week idea of what is happening here.

CCTC - Even though we just passed our summer break, it has been a busy time at CCTC. Back in March, we held our 10th graduation. This year's graduating class was smaller than last year's, but it is always such a blessing to see God raise up young men and women to serve Him!

As always, the graduates don't have much time to relax. All of them are now serving their 1 year internships. One of the interns is serving under Pastor Art (a CCTC alumnus) in Olongapo, one is serving Pastor Bong in Cebu City, one is serving in our local mountains under Pastor Elmer (a CCTC alumni and Bible College teacher) and one intern is serving under Pastor Jimmy Morales in Las Vegas, Nevada. Please keep all of our interns in prayer -- it is always a challenging time for them.

During the summer break we tried holding an ESL (English as a Second Language) class for Koreans for the first time. We broke the class sessions down into 2 parts over the course of the summer. Richie Boy, one of our former graduates, headed up the program and Amanda and an American Bible College student assisted. It was great to see Amanda ministering at CCTC during the summer! Overall, the program went well and we plan to do a few more of them this year, Lord willing. As a result of those summer classes, 4 of the Korean students have stayed over to now attend the regular Bible classes at CCTC.

On June 5th, we began the 2006-2007 school year. God is indeed doing a great work at CCTC and the school is growing very quickly. At this point, we have 23 students in our first-year English class, 14 in our first-year Cebuano class and 17 in our second year class. We have now officially outgrown our dorms! It's a great problem to have, but it has also caused us to make a lot of changes and adjustments in order to accommodate that many students. We thank the Lord for the way He is growing and developing the ministry to reach more and more students.

We also had a visiting short-term missions team visiting in early June. For the first time, Donna and I were able to spend a couple of days helping to host the team. It was a joy to spend time with the team and we praise the Lord for the new opportunity.

RAINBOW - Donna took the summer off from serving at Rainbow, but she is now back part-time. Over the past couple of months, there have been some great things happen at Rainbow as well. Of course, since it is an orphanage, there have been a few new arrivals, and Praise the Lord, a few adoptions as well. The preschool room has been undergoing some structural maintenance, so Donna and the kids have had to meet outside or on the patio quite a bit, but that doesn't seem to slow the kids down a bit! Some of the preschoolers are now attending the elementary school just down the street, so the class is down to a few kids right now.

During the summer, we were able to have the Agape Girls over to our house a couple of times. Many of the girls come from very difficult backgrounds, so it is so exciting to see the healing that God is doing in their lives. One thing that is brining us great joy is to see 2 of the Agape girls become students at CCTC! We are praying God will continue to do great things in them.

CCNI - Up at C.C. Negros Island, God is still at work in the church. I met with July and Arvin about taking a more active role in leading the church. After much serious prayer, both of them agreed to step out in faith. July is now serving as pastor both in Bacolod and in E.B. Magalona (about 30 minutes north of Bacolod). He feels that his more permanent calling is in E.B. Magalona, but he is willing to serve in Bacolod until the Lord raises up someone else. Arvin is serving as the worship leader and very possibly he will become the pastor in God's timing. I am still trying to go up to Bacolod, but I am limiting myself to once every 5-6 weeks instead of every other week. I am now trying to concentrate on further discipleship with July and Arvin. On an exciting note, both Arvin and July are new fathers! --
                                                                                                                      Ivony and Kiziah Praise

FAMILY - Of course, the biggest news in our family has to do with Freddy and Erica. On the morning of March 19th, Freddy left us to join his adoptive parents, and in the evening of that same day, Erica came to live with us. Just in case you don't know the background on them, Freddy was our foster son for 10 months and we were praying about adopting Him. God answered that prayer by miraculously allowing the Butterworth's to adopt him -- something they had been trying to do for 9 years! As that situation was unfolding, we also began to pray about the possibility of adopting Erica. We are at the beginning of that process right now. The first step in that process is for us to become officially recognized as her foster parents. The case worker assigned to her has been on leave for a while, so please pray that she would return soon and that the Lord would give us favor in becoming officially recognized.

Donna and I are both still busy with ministry, but we are trying to adjust and make sure we have plenty of time with the family. As I mentioned earlier, Donna has gone to part-time with Rainbow. The biggest part of that decision has to do with being home for Erica, but she is also spending plenty of time home schooling Nathan.

Amanda didn't want to spend a lazy summer at home, so she volunteered to work with the Korean ESL students at CCTC and she also helped in the student store there. In June, she began her 3rd year as a Biology student at Silliman University. She is doing very well in her studies and she seems to enjoy her time at Silliman. She still isn't exactly sure which direction she is going to go with Biology, but I think her latest thought was to pursue Veterinary Medicine.

Nathan had a nice long summer and he is doing well. He started home schooling again a few weeks ago. Schooling here in the Philippines has been a challenge for him in several ways. He seems to do much better in home schooling. He is already much happier and beginning to enjoy learning again.

Erica is an exuberant addition to our family! Her personality has changed quite a bit from when she first came to live with us. She has transitioned to a shy little girl into someone just bursting forth with personality! She is very aware of her new family -- she often wakes up from her nap asking, "Where's daddy? Where's Amanda? Where's Nathan?" As soon as she finds out, then she rushes out to play. This next Friday (July 7th) we will celebrate her 3rd birthday! We are hoping to take her to a local water park, so we are praying for good weather.

Until next time, may the Lord Bless you abundantly!

Todd, Donna, Amanda, Nathan and Erica

Intern Photos

Praise Reports

Prayer Requests

• Freddy has been adopted
• Erica has come to live with us
• Stephanie was able to visit us
• God's faithfulness to us in all areas
• July is pastoring CCNI
• Amanda and Nathan are doing well in school
• Student growth at CCTC
• The 2 Agape girls studying at CCTC
• God's provision and protection

• Keeping our relationships with the Lord fresh
• A more reliable car
• The social worker assigned to Erica would come back from leave
• Adoptive parents for P.J. and Miranda
• Wisdom handling the growth at CCTC
•  Maintaining the right balance between ministry and family
• July and Arvin and the body at CCNI
• July and Ivony, Arvin and Rogelin and their new babies
• Erica's whole adoption process