Ralph and Cindy LaRosa

Ralph and Cindy LaRosa have provided us with some new information on their ministry. Their web site includes this same information and some pictures and contact information.

January - 20060p

Dear Family & Friends,

Once again, we have finished another year in the Philippines. We have continued to receive incredible financial support. Thank you for your generosity and faithfulness in 2005. Thank you also for the many cards, notes, emails, pictures, and encouraging words over the holiday season. We really had one of our greatest years for ministry and we'll update you on three highlights through this email and our web page. We also want to thank Ron Fash, Cathy Covellone, and the OGWM Board, for their great service and contribution to missions and missionaries.

Edification Outreach Team 2005: (See our web site  http://ralphlarosa4301.tripod.com)

Our primary objectives of evangelism, teaching sound doctrine, and training potential pastors and leaders can be accomplished in many ways. We now have seven men on staff with families that work for us full time. Three of them are a part of our Edification Outreach Team.  One of our ministries is to use the resources that have so graciously been given to us in reaching out to various groups in our community and others parts of the Philippines. Our strategically located church auditorium has become a popular venue in Metro Lucena. The Edification team also ministers to other groups in our region through conferences, seminars, and symposiums. The eleven groups shown in the attached pictures are only a part of the many opportunities we had in 2005.

VMI Foundation Books and Mission Teams: Village Ministries International (VMI), a member of OGWM, sponsored a team in our church for the translating of their one volume book, FOUNDATIONS, into the national language of Tagalog. They also provided the funds to print two thousand copies of this study tool for pastors and teachers. Pastor Larry Hofmann and Kurt Johnson from Westside Bible Church in Glendale, Arizona were a part of the VMI team that ministered with us for ten days last February. This was the second VMI team in two consecutive years that taught Foundations to many pastors and leaders. One of the pastors (Roy Casido) who graduated from seminary in the early 80's attended both conferences for the last two years and is now using this volume as a textbook to train pastors and leaders. On January 6, 2006, I had the opportunity to challenge 200 church planters, led by another graduate of our early 80's seminary, Pastor Leo Ordiales. I was able to provide 200 Foundation Books, graciously provided by VMI, to this group.  We are hoping to have a VMI team come again in February, 2007.

Metro Lucena International Learning Center: (See pictures http://ralphlarosa4301.tripod.com)

My wife, Cindy, started this school seven years ago with one assistant and eight students. This year the school has 107 students, an administrator, an accountant that comes weekly, a secretary, a guard, two janitors, plus fourteen teachers and assistants including Cindy. We'll have to use an entertainment center at the SM Mall on March 23, 2006 to accommodate all the children and parents for our graduation. Our school is having a very positive influence in the community. One of our staff members has started weekly Bible studies in our auditorium for parents, helpers, and nannies that hang around our facilities waiting for their children. We want to thank OGWM (shipping) and my son, Brian, and his wife, Cindy, for making it possible for us to have a first class library for this school. We also want to thank churches who have sent boxes of materials for our teachers and assistants. It's a great encouragement to us to see God bless this ministry.

God's Amazing Grace,

Ralph & Cindy LaRosa/Philippines