TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY

TUESDAY, April 12, 2011
Summertime is truly here in the Philippines. Today was close to 90 F with high humidity and no breeze! It was hot! We started the day with car trouble twice! The two vehicles to come get us both had engine trouble--one an alternator and the other a gas leak. So we got started late and Chris and I had Bible studies in Binalonan. Chris went back to the widow I had studied with previously and she was baptized! I had a study with a group of 5 young people.
After a good study and the baptism we went to Haut Chan, a delicious Chinese restaurant to meet with area church leaders to discuss the future and how to best use our next week here. After a huge lunch of fried rice with lemon squid, fresh lapa-lapa (grilled fish) crabs and shrimp in brocholi sauce, we ended the meal with self serve halo-halo. The fish and the crabs were swimming in the tank when we ordered them...it did not slow me down from eating them :).
After lunch Chris was having trouble with asthma and returned to the resort to rest. I went back to Binalonan and had a Bible study with 10 young people from age 14-30 in a barangy about 1 km. from the Binalonan building. The study was very good and after it ended we had an extensive visit with a 28 year old mother, Jocelyn, who was very interested. We are to follow up with her on Wednesday.
We returned to the hotel and found that Chris had been taken by Susan and Butch to the doctor at teh hospital to have his asthma checked out. The report was good and he was ready to preach at 7:30.
We were taken back to Binalonan and the gospel meeting began at about 8 PM. Chris spoke first on the topic, Our Almighty God. After he spoke for nearly 45 minutes, I spoke on God's Great Book, The Bible for about 35 minutes. After my lesson, Arnold, one of hosts and the preacher at Urdaneta, spoke for 40 minutes, summarizing what Chris and I had said, in Ilocano. At 10:30 PM there were three that came forward for baptism. All were friends of young adults at the congregation. Before we could get loaded in the vehicles and head to the Resort for the baptisms. one more young lady expressed her desire as well and so 4 were baptized just after 11:00 PM. Now that is a wonderful way to end a Tuesday!
WEDNESDAY, April 13, 2011
We got up and ate breakfast on Wednesday expecting a full day, but recieved a text that our morning studies had been postponed and our Filopino hosts thought that we should rest. Chris and I decided to walk to down town and do some checking on some ideas and needs for future projects on upcoming trips. It was about 1/2 mile to the Magic Mall and we stopped on the way at the pharmacy and the computer store and had a very nice walk. When we got to the mall, we went and walked through the cool areas for a while and did a little computer shopping and some personal shopping.
We then met with Arnold, who operates two beauty salons and two optical shops in the local malls, besides preaching. He has some great plans and Chris and I spent over two hours with him continuing to plan and pray with him about ideas they have for increasing thier evangistic impact in this area. After lunch in the food court, we returned to our resort and prepared to head to the studies in Binalonan. Before we went to our studies, sister Celine picked us up with Richard, and took us to the Bible bookstore where we picked up 20 Bibles and ordered a communion set to be picked up before Sunday for the Pao congregation. It is such an exciting thing to have been involved in a church planting!
We got to Binalonan and went to Celine's sister's home, Vicki, for a Bible study. There were a number of young people and members from Binalonan and 4 prospects. I led the first part of the study in a beautiful garden playground area that sister Vickie has built behind her house for the church to use for fellowships and for children. There were about 40 present.
After an hour and 1/2 of study, we broke down to smaller groups and Chris began studying with a young mother who was a member of the Pentecostal church with Richard translating and I began studying and answering questions for a mother of two whose husband is a wayward member in Binalonan. Chris did an excellent job with the woman but the issues with her are very complicated doctrinally and I hope he can have a followup study with her. After about 15 minutes with the young mother with brother Benny translating, she accepted the Lord and we made plans to take her to a resort to be baptized. At the first swimming pool, there were a number of men who had been drinking heavily, so we moved to the second resort and she was baptized by Richard at about 6 PM. We left and went to Binalonan chapel for the gospel meeting and at about 8 PM I spoke on Why I Believe Jesus is the Christ. Chris then closed the series with a lesson on The Plan of Salvation. After Arnold did the recap we had merienda of pastries and crackers with coffee and drinks and fellowship!
After an hour of fellowship and picture taking with the young people we went back to the hotel and at about 11 PM had our dinner, fried chicken and rice from Chow King! In just over a week there have been 29 baptisms and a new church planted in Peo! God is truly good and blessed us with an opportunity to be involved in this wonderful work! Tomorrow should be interesting, a Bible study with 4 school teachers at Lisland Resort, a picnic and teaching sessions at Pao and the city scheduled to have the power off from 6 AM to 6 PM. Fortunately, most of the places we go do not have electricity :) Have a great night!