{"id":3891,"date":"2026-10-11T18:23:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T22:23:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/?p=3891"},"modified":"2026-10-11T18:23:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T22:23:39","slug":"gods-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/2026\/10\/11\/gods-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"God’s Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yesterday, we received news from the Philippines that Joseph, our friend and brother in Christ passed away.\u00a0 He was recently discharged from the hospital, and we thought he was recovering.\u00a0 But in the final hours, his body couldn\u2019t overcome the infection.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Joseph and his Son in 2003<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Back in 2002, we surveyed the village of San Nicolas and moved in among Agutaynens in the Philippines.\u00a0 Within days, we met a man named Joseph and he became our first language helper.\u00a0 In those early years, Stephen went wherever Joseph went:\u00a0 fishing out in the ocean, harvesting rice in their fields, spending many hours at Joseph\u2019s house learning his language and culture. In doing so, Stephen gradually learned the language and a relationship was built.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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Joseph Teaching Stephen the Agutaynen Language<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Years later, Joseph was one of the first Agutaynens to believe the Good News.\u00a0 At that time, Joseph said to Stephen, \u201cWe thought you came to find gold, but now we know you came to give us God\u2019s gold.\u201d\u00a0 In the years to come, Joseph himself was involved in teaching evangelistic lessons, along with his wife and daughters who worked with Ginger in Kids\u2019 Bible Club.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Joseph Helping Stephen with Bible Lessons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Joseph (on the left) Baptizing his own Daughter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Joseph Teaching Evangelistic Lessons in his own Home to a Neighbor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Please pray for Joseph\u2019s family during this difficult time.\u00a0 Please continue to pray for the salvation of those in the village.\u00a0 And please pray for Faith Bible Church.\u00a0 Men were already a rarity in the church and losing Joseph will affect the church.\u00a0 May Joseph\u2019s death spur on the believers anew to reach their families and neighbors for Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Family Picture in 2021: Jomela, Melani, Joseph, and Pamela<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, we received news from the Philippines that Joseph, our friend and brother in Christ passed away.\u00a0 He was recently discharged from the hospital, and we thought he was recovering.\u00a0 But in the final hours, his body couldn\u2019t overcome the infection. Back in 2002, we surveyed the village of San Nicolas and moved in among […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":3892,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3891"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3903,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3891\/revisions\/3903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}