Today has been a wonderful day of celebration at the New Life Church as they rejoiced in the 8th anniversary of the founding of this congregation. We heard wonderful music, good preaching (in my opinion), helped perform a wedding ceremony, ate well, and had wonderful fellowship with old friends and made many new ones.
The theme for the anniversary service was "Yes To Jesus, The Lord of Peace". I brought my message from John 14: 27. Darrell sang in the worship service and also provided special music for the wedding ceremony. Randall Robertson officiated the nuptuals for a couple from Mayaposi Church where Joseph Zerna is the young pastor. Special guests at the service included a local government official who was a retired professor from Silliman University; local Gideon Camp former President, Jack Washington (retired US Air Force) and a local judge, who is the brother in law of Pastor and Mrs. Valdez. There were a large number of brothers and sisters from the Mayaposi daughter church that had come for the weekend of joint anniversary and wedding celebrations.
Thamer Calhoun provided much support for us, as he makes friends with all of the people. Language is a bit of a barrier, but he manages to communicate the love of God to everyone here. The children especially love him. After the wedding we enjoyed the feast of roast pig, grilled chicken on a stick, a pork rib (in egg batter) dish, and rice. Lots and lots of rice! I'm not much of a macaroni salad kind of guy anyway, so I passed on that stuff that had been sitting a long time in the 86 degree heat. We also enjoyed fresh papaya.
Two of the great blessings of the day were opportunities we had to help the two pastors families with particular needs. I was able to give Pastor Valdez' wife enough money to fix a very bad hole in their (thatched type) roof. This will keep the rain out of the house that has been a very bad problem for them. The little "Nippa Hut" where they live is a very humble abode, and the roof had been badly damaged in a storm last year and they were unable to afford to have it fixed. That should now be taken care of this week.
Also, we were blessed to be able to make a special purchase for young Pastor Joseph Zerna. Joseph did not own a Barong. Barong's are the official dress type shirt that is worn in the Philippines by professional people, government officials, and ministers. We went together and bought Joseph two Barongs at Lee Plaza after he brought us home for the celebration. He and his wife, Juvy, were very thankful. Joseph has been used by God in a wonderful way at Mayaposi, helping build the congregation from one family a couple of years ago, to 15 families today. We were thankful to be able to help him look his best!
Tomorrow morning our traveling ministry begins in earnest. We should cover a lot of ground over the next seven days and we have 400 Cebuano Dialect Bibles to give away. I am posting a few photos to give you a feel for the day. Our team is all healthy (but tired) and we will "hit the road" in the morning beginning a very busy week of ministry in many villages and towns.
Please keep us in your prayers.
No comments:
Post a Comment