Another Fruitful Day!

A Amountain range runs from southwest to northeast on Negros Island, separating the two sides of the island into two separate provinces (Oriental on the east side - where we are- and Occidental on the western side of the mountains. The separation even affects the language. Here in Oriental, the natives speak Cebuano dialect while the residents of Occidental speak a dialect called Illongo. The mountain range is anchored on both ends by two large volcanoes - Mt. Canlaon in the north and Mt. Talinas here in the south.

Mt. Talinas looms over the southern end of Negros Island and dominates the skyline. It is visible from all over this end of the island and it's summit is often covered in clouds. Our team left early this morning (7:00 AM) for a village near the summit of Mt. Talinas.

Near the top of the mountain there is a huge power plant that provides all of the electrical power for the islands of Negros, Siquijor, Cebu, and Panay. The electricity is generated by geothermal energy from the volcano, itself. The road up the mountain is steep and rough - only a dirt road in some places. Guard rails are spotty and the view of the drop over the edge of the road is dizzying. The amazing thing is the sheer size of the power plant when one finally reaches the area near the summit. It is huge and is spread in several units over a large area. The smell of sulphur is very strong as gasses from beneath the earth are released in the generating activities.

Our destination was Phanhug, a remote barangay of the municipality of Valencia. The village is literally spread about the side of the mountain and when there, one feels as though he can almost touch the clouds, which hang just overhead. The Barangay Captian (an office equivilent to that of village mayor) is a very pleasant 33 year old lady who has just been elected to that positition. She had responded positively to the request of Pastor Valdez to have an open air meeting there, and we were welcomed with open arms by the Captain (who is in the orange shirt in the photo), and the Chief of Police (in the blue shirt and hat).

The temperature up there was probably in the low 70's - a good 15 degrees lower than here on the coast. The Filipino members of our team from New Life Church, wore sweaters or long sleeved shirts and complained about how cold it was. We four Americans were quite comfortable!

The service was held in the usual place with the typical beginning. We set up the karaoke machine like sound system on the stage of the barangay hall building which overlooks the basketball court. Most every village we have ever visited has a basketball court at the barangay headquarters, and it is the gathering place for public events. The loud music began to play and people come out of their homes to see what is going on. Darrell began to sing and the crowd of curious neighbors began to grow. Eventually, Pastor Valdez began to speak, in Cebuano, telling them (I think) who we are and what we were doing there. He encourages them to call for their neighbors and the crowd continues to swell as people continue to file into the basketball court area.

Each team member "works the crowd" greeting people with a smile, introducing ourselves and asking their names. Foreigners are plentiful in Dumaguete City, but we are quite a curiosity to most of the folks in the rural areas. This morning was Darrell's turn to bring the message. I also shared my testimony with those in attendance. The village school children and their five teachers joined the gathering as school was dismissed for the occasion. While the adults listened to the message, Pastor Joseph Zerna and wife, Juvy, shared the Gospel with many small children, and Juliet Dales shared the Gospel with the older children in a separate group. Each of the small children received a Bible story coloring book and crayons, and the older children were given a "comic book" type of book depicting the story of David and Goliath.

We keep no records about professions of faith among children, but when the invitation was given to turn from sin and accept Christ as Savior, SIXTY adults responded and prayed to receive Jesus! What a wonderful harvest of souls!

The next hour was spent with the Filipino members of our team counseling respondents, collecting decision cards for followup and Bible Study, and with each new believer receiving a Bible in the Cebuano dialect. Mrs. Valdez instructs them about the basics of how to use and study their Bibles. The prayer of Pastor Valdez is that a new church congregation might be planted in that remote area. A regular weekly preaching point has now been established, and we very likely witnessed the beginnings of a new church this morning.

In the afternoon, Randall and Darrell went to the area of Upper Batinguel for a Bible Study at the home of Mrs. Rose Villenueva. Randall did the Bible Study there and all of those who were in attendance were believers and members of the New Life Church. At the same time Mrs. Valdez, Joseph, Juvy, Thamer, and I traveled to Sibulan to attempt to reserve a large covered outdoor arena in the heart of that city, on the heavily traveled highway, for our Evangelistic Crusade when I return with the New Orleans team in May. If you think bureaucracy is bad back home, you should see the red tape in dealing with local government officials here! We were told by the administration office that we must submit a written request to the Mayor. We made two trips to the Mayor's office and finally got to leave the letter with his secretary on the second trip. He was not in, but we have been given an appointment with him for 3:00 PM tomorrow. We also visited a company that rents chairs (and other stuff) and were able to reserve three hundred chairs for each night of the May crusade.

Thank you for your prayers on our behalf. God has blessed us with a wonderfully fruitful day, and Thamer is feeling much better and was with us in our activities today, doing what he does best - mixing with the children and adults, and handing out copies of the Word of God.

Tomorrow's plans call for a morning trip to Dauin (where we were "shipwrecked" three years ago) and Zamboanguita on the southern end of the island. Please pray that the Mayor of Sibulan will make the 3:00 PM appointment and approve our request to use the Pavilion.

51 People Accept Christ On Monday

Monday, January 7, 2008

Dumaguete City, Philippines

Our first full day of evangelism activities is now completed.

Thamer Calhoun was unable to join us today as he was recovering from about of rather severe stomach problems. He has re-hydrated today and is feeling much better this evening. He plans on going with us tomorrow to Puhagan, Valencia for our crusade activities in that town well up the slopes of the volcano, Mt. Talinis.

This morning, Randall and I completed a brisk paced two mile walk along the sea wall on Rizal Boulevard at 5:00 AM. Bro. Joseph was here to pick up our team at 8:00 AM and we headed directly for a place called Bajungpandan Habitat 1 for house to house evangelistic activities. Randall, Darrell, and I were paired up with two of the NLCC members each and walked through the community, visiting in people’s tiny homes and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with all who would allow us to do so. We came across several folks who claimed to already be believers in Christ, but when the three teams joined up at the close of the effort, we found that a total of 17 people made the commitment to follow Jesus Christ . Decision cards were completed on each of he 17 people, for follow up by Pastor Valdez and the people of New Life Chruch.

After a time of lunch, and a brief siesta back at the hotel, we were off again for an open air meeting in a barangay called Candu-ay. The place where we set up for services was along the banks of the Banica River in an area where many homes were located. Across the river a number of people were doing laundry in the river. Garbage was dumped along the river bank and one can only imagine the rat infestation in that area.

We pulled our “easy ride” into a common area and began inviting the residents to come out to the area near the basketball court. Darrell sang, Randall gave a message from John 3:16 and I shared my testimony. Pastor Valdez served as interpreter. When the invitation was given, 34 adults made professions of faith in Jesus Christ. Followup information was recorded on every new believer, and each one was given their own Bible in the Cebuano dialect. This area is within walking distance of the New Life Church and it should be easy for followup. Pastor Valdez has already scheduled future Bible Studies in this neighborhood on Saturday evenings.

It has been a good day. Hot and tiring, yes, but God honored our efforts and gave us much fruit. We are rejoicing to know that 51 precious souls have been born into the Kingdom of God on this day.

8th Anniversary Celebration for New Life Church

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.

More Photos

New Life Church Pastor, Doming Valdez Mayaposi Baptist Church Pastor Joseph Zerna with wife, Juvy.

Randall Robertson preaching at baptismal service.

Baptism Saturday Afternoon

We had a baptismal service at 2:00 this afternoon at Silliman Beach near the Dumaguete airport. Darrell sang, Randall brought a message, and I assisted Joseph Zerna in baptizint 9 new believers from Mayaposi Baptist Church. We drew a lot of attention on the beach and a number of folks came around to hear the singing and see what was going on. Good witnessing opportunity!

I hope a couple of these photos come through.

Here is Proof

Here's proof we made it to the Philippines. We spend a little time on the first day making photos. Thhese photos were taken early Saturday morning, January 5th.

Hello from Dumaguete!

5:15 AM
Saturday, January 5

We arrived safely in Dumaguete after 37 hours of (rather exhausting travel) about an hour behind schedule. (That would have been about 2:00 AM on Friday - Eastern time) That's not bad, all things considered. We were all tired and ripe and ready for a shower and a shave.

There must have been about 25-30 people to meet us at the airport. What a wonderful reunion it was. Weather here is HOT and Humid, but that's what we expected. And, considering the refrigerator like conditions of Huntington when we left, it is a very pleasant place to be.

Made a quick trip to Lee Plaza store to purchase a few necessities then had dinner at Shakey's across the street from the Bethel Guest House, where we are staying. Bethel's wireless internet service was down when I tried to get on line last night, so I just went on to bed. Thamer was already asleep when I got back to the room. (did I mention that the trip was tiring?)

We ran into Rowina Gantalo at Lee Plaza. She had just finished work at the Asian College of Science and Technology and had stopped at Lee's to do some shopping. She joined us (along with Doming, Villa, and Joseph and Juvy Zerna for a nice dinner together at Shakeys.

Other than a couple of glitches, the trip was uneventful and our luggage arrived when we did. That in itself is a blessing.

We had three interesting delays on the trip. We were over an hour late leaving LA because of a "starter problem on one of the engines". I'm not kidding. That was what they told us. Finally the plane was towed somewhere on the tarmac and a new starter installed. That is what they told us. My main concern was , on a 14 hour flight over the Pacific, once it was started, would the engine REMAIN started? Fortunately the answer was yes. It was a good flight and Cathay Pacific Airline is really a first class carrier (even to the masses of us riding in economy!).

The other two delays came at Hong Kong and Manila, when in both cases, the planes were boarded and ready to go, but a ticketed passenger did not get on the plane. Therefore, "for safety precautions, the flight was delayed so their baggage could be identified and removed from the plane". I said AMEN to that. Remember it was in Manila, several years ago that Ramsee Yousef's plot to blow up eight outbound jetliners was foiled.

Fortunately none of the delays caused us to miss any connecting flights. We had opportunity to witness to several people on the trip. I sat next to an elderly couple from Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam (formerly Saigon) on the trans Pacific flight. They were a very nice couple who practiced the Buddhist faith. We made small talk for awhile after introductions and eventually I shared the Gospel with them as they asked about the purpose of my trip. Although polite, they did not respond to the invitation, but I know that the seed has been planted and I left them each with an Eternal Life tract and a prayer for their safe journey - and that they might come to know Christ.

This is the purpose of our trip. Plans today call for a devotional and time of sharing at 9:00 AM with our Filipino hosts. They will share with us the evangelism strategy for the next 9 days and we will begin the adventure with prayer for God's guidance and direction. At 2:00 this afternoon (1:00 am back home) we will have a baptismal service at Silliman Beach. Randall will bring the message on baptism, Darrell will sing, and I will have the privilege of helping Bro. Joseph Zerna baptize 10 new believers from Mayaposi Church. Thamer will do what Thamer does - an ambassador of goodwill! They really love that guy over here. Why not? As Mrs. Valdez says, "On the inside he is very tender and kind but on the outside he is like a grumpy man!"

That's the plan for now. We'll see how God brings it all together.,

Tomorrow is the 8th anniversary service at The New Life Church. We look for a wonderful day in the Lord.

Love to all. I'll post again at the next opportunity. Please continue to check out the blog site for updates.