Friday Morning In Dumaguete

Yesterday was a day of preparation for the rest of the crusade and a day to try to adjust to the 13 hour time difference.  Randall and I have both awakened around 3:00 AM the past two mornings.  That makes it pretty rough around 7:00 PM when it is almost impossible to hold our eyes open!

We began the day with a good breakfast here at the hotel, in the cafe overlooking the sunrise over the Sulu Sea.  Our hosts met us at the hotel at 9:00 AM and we all went to Lee Super Plaza (the huge department store in downtown Dumaguete) to exchange currency and to purchase some needed items. We will be doing ministry in three schools this trip, and Pastor Cadiao has asked us to purchase some give away items to the children and their teachers.  We purchased 1,000 pencils and 1,000 Gel Pens for the students. We also purchased 135 each of the better ink pens in black and red for the teachers.  We will meet with the students at one school at 7:00 AM today, and with the principal and teachers shortly thereafter.  Bub Amis will share the Gospel with the students and Randall Robertson will share with the school faculty.  Please pray for God's presence and anointing in these men.

Then at 1:00 PM we will have the opportunity to share the gospel with the parents of the school children.  Pastor Paul Harris will speak to the parents.

After the lengthy stay at Lee Plaza, the entire team went to Robinson's Place, the new shopping mall that opened in Dumaguete about three years ago.  I cannot help but marvel at the changes that have taken place in Dumaguete  the 13 years that I have been coming here for ministry.  Our team had lunch at Shakey's  Pizza and we treated our Filipino Teammates to a great lunch there.  We all had a great time of sharing and fellowship together.

We did some other odds and ends around town and then took off for the Bacong Church where we had a wonderful time of worship, fellowship, planning and orientation for the remainder of the crusade activities. Our hosts have a very vigorous schedule set up with ministry scheduled over a LARGE geographical area. We're going to spend a lot of time in the Easy Ride pictured here!   It was almost tiring to just realize how many miles we will cover for the Lord in the next 9 days, but we know it will be worth it!

I had opportunity to speak at the orientation meeting last night and what a joy it was to address many members of our combined Filipino and American joint team. These people love the Lord and it is a joy to work with them!  Each team member had opportunity to share and we closed the meeting with a season of fervent prayer for God's will to be done in all that we do.

Please keep us in your prayers.