experienced a changed heart and changed life from the Lord while incarcerated. When Noel was 17 he was charged with robbery and homicide and was also sent to prison. Over the next 4 years, he responded to prison life by becoming a hardened criminal. In 1982, when a group of Christians shared Christ with him in the prison, he accepted the Lord. His life changed radically. His first decision was to write a letter to his judge, pleading guilty to his crime. As he read God’s Word, he began to hate sin and tried to expose illegal activities in the prison. This put him in great danger. He also began to visit prisoners in solitary confinement or in the prison hospital. Noel promised God that if he were ever set free, he would serve Him the rest of his life. Since his release in 1989, Pastor Noel has devoted his life to prison ministry and reaching the lost who are languishing in the prisons and jails in his country. This campaign originally planned a lofty goal of 11 prison services in 5 different provinces plus an all-day Basic Conference and a Half-Day Advanced Conference. Add to that, the PFC President and Founder taking a mid-country flight leaving the team for 3 days to visit a neighboring island to accomplish a ministry expansion vision for The Philippines. No problem! Upon arrival we all learned the art of flexibility and perseverance as we eventually completed a record making 24 prison services, 126 baptisms in the prisons, several boodle fight experiences, outstanding conference attendance, and seasonal trip dates on the hottest days of The Philippines summer season! Our team of eight members included the founder of PFC, Greg Von Tobel, 3 first time prison ministry aka “newbies”, Steve Rowe, Jaycob Peterson, and Kathleen Retan, the youngest PFC team member at 16 years old (Jaycob again) then mix in a few veterans of various ranks to round it out, Mark Richardson (15 th trip!), Tim Rice, Eddie Smith, and Dee Peterson. And then there was that one time the jail in Mindanao allowed six inmates to be escorted out of the facility to be baptized in a hotel swimming pool by Greg Von Tobel and our National Partner, Pastor Noel. Read on! It all began on Tuesday, April 8 th very very late at night…..
The team of eight (L-R) Greg Von Tobel, Mark Richardson, Steve Rowe, Dee Peterson with her son Jaycob Peterson, Kathleen Retan, Eddie Smith (Team Leader), and Tim Rice (Team Leader) all met at SeaTac Airport at 10:00 p.m. for the 1:00 a.m. flight on April 9th. One good thing about this time of night at the airport, it is not as congested through the security checkpoints.
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