The Mercers in Manila

Oops! Almost two months since I updated the blog!
Well if you are reading this then maybe you noticed :-) Too many things have happened to list but I'll try now...

• I graduated with honors from Every Nation Leadership Institute and Asian Theological Seminary. Got to attend both schools' graduation ceremonies and recieve a Master of Arts in Christian Leadership degree and a Graduate Diploma of Missions degree. Also received the gold medal award for academic excellence. Wow, look what Jesus can do with a former high school dropout!
• Satomi's parents came to visit us for the first graduation ceremony. They are back in Japan now.
• The church here had a big outdoor "convergence" service last Sunday. I'm not sure how many came exactly, but I would estimate about 20,000 people showed up! Satomi's parents also came and it was a big change from their usual Sunday experience because the church there usually has about 100 or so. I got to pray with someone to recieve Jesus as Lord, which was awesome. His friend is now following him up and getting him involved in a discipleship group.
• I got another email from a student in La Union (wrote about that outreach in the last entry). She is a computer major but couldn't afford a computer! I prayed with her and ask Jesus to bless her with a good computer. She emailed that she now has a new computer!
• Pastor Scott and Naomi Douma also visited Manila during the graduation and we got to spend time with them. I'm looking forward to going back to Japan on the 18th and working under Pastor Scott in Yokohama.

I will post some pictures when I get them. Please pray that I can get a new camera soon since the old one has just about given up the ghost. New batteries last for only a few shots now, so I am depending on friends to send me shots of the graduation and stuff.

Also please pray for the guys in my discipleship group here that they will all get plugged in to other groups and continue to seek God and reach out to others.