April 2009 Preacher Training Classes
by Harry Osborne
March 29, 2009

The Lord willing, this year's trip to conduct preacher training efforts in Tuguegarao and Cebu City will begin tomorrow. The first leg of my journey begins with an early morning flight from Oklahoma City and ends late Tuesday night, local time in Manila (about 10am local time in OKC). The total travel time from my departure to arrival is scheduled at a little over 27 hours. Steve Wallace, Ron Halbrook and I are to meet in Detroit and fly together from there. Upon arrival in Manila, we will have less than 8 hours in the hotel before we leave for the flight the following morning to Tuguegarao.

Classes in Tuguegarao
An orientation session for the students will be conducted by Rody Gumpad before our arrival. The scheduled classes are due to start on Wednesday afternoon, April 1. Books will be handed out to the students followed by three hours of class time before the supper break. The evening will begin at 7pm that evening. On Thursday, April 2, we will begin our first full day of the regular schedule as follows:

This series of classes is to be conducted over a 17-day period from April 1 - 17, 2009. Classes will be held each day except Sunday when we will attend worship with local congregations in the area.  The "Denominational Doctrines" classes will cover Catholicism (2 classes taught by me), Calvinism (3 taught by Ron Halbrook), Pentecostalism (3 taught by Ron), Premillennialism (2 taught by me), Mormonism (1 taught by me), Jehovah's Witness (1 taught by Ron) and Islam (2 taught by me).

Classes in Cebu City
Jonathan Carino will conduct the orientation session for the students before our arrival on Friday night, April 17. Books will be handed out to the students that evening. Our regular class schedule will begin Saturday morning following this schedule:

This series of classes is to be conducted over a 15-day period from April 17 - May 1, 2009. A full schedule of classes will be held each day except for Sunday. However, there will be classes on Sunday afternoons following worship with local congregations in the area. The "Denominational Doctrines" classes for this training effort will be divided as follows: Catholicism (2 classes taught by me), Calvinism (2 taught by Ron Halbrook), Pentecostalism (2 taught by Ron), Premillennialism (2 taught by me), Jehovah's Witness (1 taught by Ron) and Islam (2 taught by me).

Keeping in Touch with the Work
The Lord willing, I will post entries to a blog daily while in the Philippines. You may follow reports of the trip in several ways. First, you may type the address for the blog (http://harryosborne.blogspot.com) into your internet browser and go straight to the reports. The blog will have pictures posted along with the written reports. If you go to the blog today, you will see a post from March 21st showing a satellite view of the Philippines that has labeled the cities to be visited. Second, you can receive the reports without the pictures via e-mail by writing down your e-mail address and giving it to me with a request to be placed on the mailing list. If you have been receiving e-mail reports from me, but would rather read the blog instead, please let me know and I will remove you from the list for posted reports. Third, a link has been set up from our website (www.reason-for-hope.org) to my blog. Simply go to our website and click the button at the top, right of the page to read the blog with the accompanying pictures. Please keep up with the work and feel free to e-mail me at rfh2005@pldi.net with comments.

A Word of Thanks
Words cannot adequately express my appreciation for all who are helping to make this effort possible. Without the help of this congregation collectively and numerous individual here, it would not be possible for me to be a part of this vital work. Without the generous support sent from other local churches and individual brethren across the country, this work could not be undertaken. This is not my work or the work of a few other men. This is truly our work as we have fellowship in the furtherance of the gospel. Please keep this effort in your thoughts and prayers

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