I am Armando Lagda Valdez, married to Lilybelle Grace Mamaril.  God blessed us with four kids (3 boys and 1 girl), plus added precious children under our care.  I am a product of “Calvary Bible Institute” – supervised by Sir Ken Sandberg.  My wife and I are pastoring a church in Davao City, that is affiliated with – Maranatha Fellowship in Maryland, USA (IPHC). 

We have established relationship with Sir Ken & Ma’am Cris and partnered with them in equipping the saints through conferences, summer camps and at CBI. And just recently, after our Sunday morning service (Nov. 8, 2009), we received a phone call with the grandest surprise – A TRIP TO ISRAEL!  It blew me away and made me shout for joy!  Hallelujah, glory to God!  To step in the soil of Israel was only a dream that we hope would come true sometime in the future. Now, that the door to visit the birthplace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is in progress, I can’t explain the thrill and excitement going on as the days go by.  The trip to Israel is truly a big inspiration to us and this is happening because of the Lord’s kindness through my Bible School mentors (Sir ken & ma’am Cris) and through your generosity.  Honestly, we don’t really know how to express the gratitude and the joy that is within us.  Words may fall short to express it, but we sure are grateful to the Lord and to you.  May the good Lord multiply your blessings! Again, i want to let you know that we appreciate the love, the blessings and the big heart.  Thank you for sponsoring our trip.  Indeed, we don’t know how to repay you.  Simply, because we don’t have the capacity to do it.  But the Lord Yeshua HaMashiach will! God bless you and your family Sir Byron and Ma’am Tammy.  God bless you sir/ma’am John Turner.  God bless the “Father’s House Foundation”.  God bless “CBI” family.  We look forward to see you on December 5 & 6, 2009. To Sir Ken and Ma’am Cris, thank you for the high level of trust and favor.  God bless us all. In Christ, Armand & Lilybelle V

Thank you Father’s House for your part in tikkun olam through educating pastors in Israel, taking orphans of the streets of Davao City, Philippines, providing a way through Hannah House for babies to live and not die and their mothers to learn the life skills they need to make better choices, for supporting the education of Israeli sabra youth in cutting edge media so that they can compete in the world market. May the blessings continue to flow through you as you continue to give into the repair of the world.

The pictures are beautiful, but do not do it all justice. Can’t wait to go back!

This trip is one of my FAVORITE memories! So beautiful and amazing! To be where Christ did most of his miracles made me feel so close to our Savior.

It is amazing and will change your life. I can’t wait until we get to go back!

I am so very thankful and grateful to the FHEF for allowing me to travel with the Paschal-Hope Group. I can’t express the pure joy of being in the Holy Land!  Everything was perfect from start to finish. What a privilege to have 10 glorious days of nothing but the Lord Jesus Christ on our agenda!!!  I absolutely loved our times of reading the Bible, praying, singing and worshiping together.  Moshe was so informative, enthusiastic and passionate concerning everything he shared with us about Israel. Sami was an awesome driver and a joy to be with; Moshe and Sami make a great team. Byron was so very caring and watchful and made the trip easy for us!  I enjoyed getting to know so many loving, kind and joyful Christian brothers and sisters. The entire trip increased my love for Israel and the Jewish people.  But the most important event of the trip for me was:  my love, devotion, excitement and joy in Him was dramatically increased+++  I was in love with Him before the trip, but now I am melted and submerged in Him with joy inexpressible….TO HIM BE ALL THE GLORY PRAISE AND HONOR FOREVER MORE…. AMEN AND AMEN+++ His servant, Betty Robinson

I just keep thinking how I can read the Bible in color now! Being able to “picture” it will change my relationship with God. Also gave me such a hunger to grow in my walk! Thanks for everything. What an amazing time!

God’s message is everywhere. From the beginning of time, God has spoken through and in the land of Israel. The land speaks of God and His majesty, His love, and His grace. God is not finished with Israel & the amazing thing is we get to be a part of what He is doing there!

I have been challenged in several areas spiritually and will be using this next year to work through some of the spiritual truths that were shared on the trip. On my first trip to Israel two years ago, I felt like it was more learning about the places and what happened there, but on this trip I really sensed a greater connection between the places we visited with the spiritual themes being emphasized. The repeated spiritual truths and connections were great. I am so grateful John got to share spiritual insights I could grasp. He greatly increased the spiritual growth experience and was always ready to answer my many questions. Ron was also easy to understand and I appreciated his teaching as well. I thought it was great how well they worked together to help us understand the spiritual truths related to what we were seeing. The boat ride on the Sea of Galilee was a spiritual high this trip. After experiencing the wilderness, the beauty of the sea and the worship music was very moving.