Balot, chicken feet, sushi and raw oysters and 10 baptisms!

THURSDAY, April 14, 2011
It has truly been a memorable and wonderful day! This morning at 9 AM Beverly brought one of her school teacher friends and we had a very good Bible study. He has been teaching HS English for 15 years and was a very pleasant man to visit with. He left with a lot of good questions and careful notes to study with.
We then went to Asingan to meet Arnold and his family. He has really become a good friend and a brother on this trip. His daughter, Dinah, and her best friend Irish have become fast friends with me and have been my official photographers on this trip. Irish was the first person baptized on this campaign last Wednesday night and she and Dinah have been our constant companions--it has brought back memories of having our three girls around during good times in lots of church work.
We met them about 12:30 and headed out to Pao for a picnic lunch and Bible study. After a very good lunch where the Urdaneta and Binalonan congregation fed over 70 again, we sent the kids with Richard, Beverly, Irish and Dinah (they had 21) and we took the 48 adults down under the mango trees by the stream for more Bible study. After Chris and Arnold spoke and 10 came to be baptized. They asked me to do the baptisms and now there are 32 Christians in a rural farm barnagy with just 12 houses and probably less than 60 adults!It was truly a wonderful day!
When we returned to the resort, the power was still off but I took a shower and came to dinner. The resort has a backup generator system, so it wasn't inconvenient for us at all.  They have live entertainment tonight and it's not bad. The waiters have been very friendly and we have gotten to know them so tonight they have Pika-Pika which means buffet and my waiters brought me balot, fried chicken feet, and raw oysters along with tuna, shrimp and some other native fish sushi. I really could not disappoint them so they got my camera and had pictures going to record the event. I'll try and post pictures here or on Facebook.
It has cooled off now and we are getting ready to have a little social time! Hope you have a great day! It has been a great day to be here in the Philippines and sure has been a great blessing to me!