Philippine
Mission Trip
7 DAYS
REMAINING!
Don, Jamie
Walker and Chris Gerber
April 25-May
14, 2013
Urdaneta,
Pangasinan, Philippines
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
Today begins
our day in Binalonan. We have a VBS
scheduled and then Jamie will teach a ladies’
Bible class at 4 and I am slated to make some visits and teach a Bible study. Today was the 5th day since we have been here that the heat index has been over 50C (122F). We have done a great deal toward the sale of bottled water in the Philippines!
8:30 AM
Brother Benny Gallardo picked us with Micah, an 18 year old young lady, who has
been given the assignment to ‘care for sister Jamie this week’. She is a sweet child and already starting her
third year in college. She is extremely kind
and caring to help Jamie in and out of the car and to her various teaching
locations.
9:00 AM We
arrived at the Binalonan church building and were greeted by Eugene and Rica,
the preacher and his wife there. He is
fairly new in the work there but his wife had been a school teacher for several
years and worshipping there while he worked in the southern part of the
island. They are a wonderful family and she
is fantastic! She had the VBS organized
on Power Point and everything laid out that Jamie needed.
The congregation
had done a wonderful job of preparing.
With less than 20 adult members that had been present on Sunday, they
had over 200 children at VBS! The
majority of them were school children from the school where Rica teaches. Jamie and Rica had over 130 children in a
building about the half size of our fellowship hall at Trenton with no air-conditioning! They were very well behaved and sang
beautifully.
10:30 AM
Time for merienda and we had prepared and purchased for 60 or so and had over
200 so a shopping trip is probably in Jamie and Celine’s futureJ.
After the snacks, the children began to load on the church jeepeny (bus) and
head home. Again Rica and Eugene had
this very organized. It was very similar
to watching school children in the US board buses after school. They had to make three runs on the jeepney
and the children came back in and sat around (and on) me as we sang and played
while they waited. One of my favorite
parts is to have the children hugging on my neck and kissing me and offering me
a drink of their juice or a bite of their snack with dirty hands. I truly feel as loved with those gestures of pure
love as I do with any gift I have ever received. A little boy, C.J. about 4 years old, who had
been handing around my neck while we waited on the jeepney to return really
stole my heart.(along with about 50 others thereJ) He would take my ears and very gently use them to
steer me to keep time with the songs. After about 15 minutes, he leaned down
and looked at me deeply in the eyes, and without saying a word kissed me on the
cheek. After that it was every one left
felt the need to do that! Most of them
were from 2 to 7 years of age and I really left with a feeling of being loved. Yes,
they had dirty faces and many held my face with nasty fingers but it will
always remain one of those moments you never forget from trips like this!
Unless you have been through a moment like that with children of great poverty,
you cannot fully appreciate the joy, but I can understand even more why Jesus
said let the little children come, for such is the kingdom of God!
Bible class at 4 and I am slated to make some visits and teach a Bible study. Today was the 5th day since we have been here that the heat index has been over 50C (122F). We have done a great deal toward the sale of bottled water in the Philippines!
8:30 AM
Brother Benny Gallardo picked us with Micah, an 18 year old young lady, who has
been given the assignment to ‘care for sister Jamie this week’. She is a sweet child and already starting her
third year in college. She is extremely kind
and caring to help Jamie in and out of the car and to her various teaching
locations.
9:00 AM We
arrived at the Binalonan church building and were greeted by Eugene and Rica,
the preacher and his wife there. He is
fairly new in the work there but his wife had been a school teacher for several
years and worshipping there while he worked in the southern part of the
island. They are a wonderful family and she
is fantastic! She had the VBS organized
on Power Point and everything laid out that Jamie needed. 
The congregation
had done a wonderful job of preparing.
With less than 20 adult members that had been present on Sunday, they
had over 200 children at VBS! The
majority of them were school children from the school where Rica teaches. Jamie and Rica had over 130 children in a
building about the half size of our fellowship hall at Trenton with no air-conditioning! They were very well behaved and sang
beautifully.
I had a
ladies’ class with 9 of the mothers of children that were attending the VBS. None were members of the church but all were
very interested. My class ran for 1 ½ hours
and we discussed God, creation and the faith of Adam and Eve without
obedience. They were very responsive and
brother Tony Chung, a Chinese/Filipino did the translating for me and does a
marvelous job.
10:30 AM
Time for merienda and we had prepared and purchased for 60 or so and had over
200 so a shopping trip is probably in Jamie and Celine’s futureJ.
After the snacks, the children began to load on the church jeepeny (bus) and
head home. Again Rica and Eugene had
this very organized. It was very similar
to watching school children in the US board buses after school. They had to make three runs on the jeepney
and the children came back in and sat around (and on) me as we sang and played
while they waited. One of my favorite
parts is to have the children hugging on my neck and kissing me and offering me
a drink of their juice or a bite of their snack with dirty hands. I truly feel as loved with those gestures of pure
love as I do with any gift I have ever received. A little boy, C.J. about 4 years old, who had
been handing around my neck while we waited on the jeepney to return really
stole my heart.(along with about 50 others thereJ) He would take my ears and very gently use them to
steer me to keep time with the songs. After about 15 minutes, he leaned down
and looked at me deeply in the eyes, and without saying a word kissed me on the
cheek. After that it was every one left
felt the need to do that! Most of them
were from 2 to 7 years of age and I really left with a feeling of being loved. Yes,
they had dirty faces and many held my face with nasty fingers but it will
always remain one of those moments you never forget from trips like this!
Unless you have been through a moment like that with children of great poverty,
you cannot fully appreciate the joy, but I can understand even more why Jesus
said let the little children come, for such is the kingdom of God!
1:00 PM
Benny brought us back to the Lisland for lunch and a short rest. It gave us a time to check the internet and
regroup for the afternoon.
3:30 PM Benny
and Micah were back and we headed out to Binalonan (about a 15 minute ride) and
our afternoon of studies and visits.
4:00 PM
Jamie began her class at the church building (chapel) with sister Rica
translating while Jamie taught 12 ladies. She taught a lesson on Eve.
I went with
Benny and Tony out in the community. We
made our first visit to a young woman whose husband is in the US working. 2 years ago I had a Bible study in her home
with her parents and other family members and several obeyed the gospel. She did not at that time but was very cordial
and after a nice visit she said she would attend my class on Tuesday and Jamie’s
ladies’ class as well. She attends
services here from time to time and I look forward to adding her to our study
group tomorrow.
After the visit
with her, we stopped at a small road side store that a family runs out of their
house (and there are literally dozens of these in every neighborhood) and
visited with a lady and her two young adult daughters. They were busy preparing garlic cloves for
sale in their store by breaking the cloves in half and repacking them for
individual sale.
She offered
to study while she worked so we were delighted to! When I asked if they all
believed in God and Jesus Christ, they said yes but when I asked about the
inspiration of the Bible, the mother, who looked to be in her mid 40’s, said
she had serious doubts because she thought it was just written by men. So our
study began there and she eventually after hearing about fulfilled prophecies and
the survival of the Bible and its inherent goodness, she acknowledged that
perhaps she had been wrong and would consider the words of the Bible to be from
God. We spent about 15 more minutes
discussing God and His love for mankind and the expectation He has of faithful
obedience. We left at about 5:30 PM with
an appointment to return on Tuesday at 4:00 PM to continue the study.
5:30 PM
Benny took us to meet with a man and his family. He is running for mayor of
Binalonan and is severely handicapped.
He is about feet high as he has virtually no use of his legs. He has however fathered 4 children and is a prominent
business man in Binalonan. We visited
with him and his wife and three of his children for about 15 minutes and set a Bible
study for Tuesday afternoon.
6:00 PM
After returning to the chapel at Binalonan, Jamie and I were taken by Benny and
Micah, Jamie’s helper, to Arnold and Dana’s house for a 78th birthday
party for Arnold’s mother. There were 21
family members of his and church members there along with Chris and us. It was a feast that Niets, Dana’s sister in
law who works in their hair salon, had taken all day to prepare. It included fried chicken, pork lechon,
chicken lechon, spaghetti carbonaro, noodles, rice, mango, potato salad (which was
mashed potatoes with a ring of salad around it) chicken soup and birthday cake! It was a wonderful feast and a blessing to be
included with this wonderful family.
About 9:30
PM Benny brought us back to Lisland with another blessed day and memories as we
have now one week to go!
TUESDAY, MAY 7, 2013
5:00 AM No, it‘s not jet lag,
it’s excitement and needing to prepare for another day. Today I will have a class of the mothers from
Binalonan who have brought their children to VBS. In the afternoon we have Bible studies set in
Binalonan with the lady and her daughters we studied with yesterday and a
candidate for Mayor of Binalonan.
8:00 AM After breakfast, phone calls and internet, we headed to Binalonan
with Celine picking us up. She has a
number of health concerns and was in the hospital all day yesterday for a
series of checkups. She is an important
part of our team and certainly needs our prayers.
8:30 AM We all three had classes at VBS. Jamie has the children and had over 100 in
the auditorium of the Binalonan chapel. Sister
Rica did team teaching and translating duties for her. Chris had 42 teenagers
from 13-18 years old and Lester a young man from a Bible college assisted him
and translated. I had 11 ladies and
Benny helped me and translated my lesson into Ilocano.
10:30 AM After classes and merienda, we went to the 168 Mall to pick up
supplies and food for VBS tomorrow as the groups had been so large that they
had eaten and drank all the food planned
for a week a two days! But that is a
good problem to have so we purchased 120 more packs of crackers and drinks.
12:00 We all had a break at the hotel for lunch and a short nap to
escape the inescapable heat. This was the 7th day on the trip with
heat index topping 122F (50C) That is even really hot for the Philippines!
3:00 PM Celine picked up Jamie and me for an afternoon of classes and
Bible study in Binalonan while Chris was going to Urdaneta with Arnold. Jamie taught a ladies’ class of prospects on
Eve at the chapel. I had my Bible study
in the back of the store again with the two families we met with
yesterday. Today my translator was Rhod,
the former preacher at Binalonan. I have known Rhod in the past but am much
better acquainted with his younger brother, Arnell. We were accompanied by 5 of
the young people from the congregation and brother Tony Chung and Benny. The
young people were along for training and to observe and learn.
The study went very well. The lady
who we had spent all of yesterday’s study proving the inspiration of the Bible,
was very interested today and acknowledged that the Bible did make sense as God’s
Words. We covered Faith and Obedience,
focusing on the lives of Noah, Joshua and Achan to show examples of both faith
with obedience and faith without obedience.
A question was asked by her daughter at the end of the class about the
Godhead and the Trinity. After I answered it through Rhod, Benny and Tony
directed and covered her follow up questions in Ilocano. The mayor was very
interested also. I asked if they owned
Bibles and neither did. Both declined at
first because they said their eyes were too weak to read the small print. I offered to purchase them a large Print in
Tagalog, which they preferred to read, so Wednesday I have a new projectJ.
If the print is still too small, I have already spoken to Arnold, Dana and
Blaise about donating reading glasses to them to allow them to read the BibleJ.
We finished about 6 and returned to the chapel to recap and plan for
tomorrow. We will start VBS an hour earlier because of the heat. It was decided that the neighborhoods
(barangy) where the studies were set for tonight were too dangerous for
Americans to go after dark, so we returned to our hotel about 6:30 PM.
6:30 PM We met and visited with Blaise, Celine, Arnold and Dana for
about ½ hour and did some planning for the final week. These folks are a joy to work with! It is wonderful to see their love for the Lord
and feel their concern for us! After a
light dinner with Chris, we returned to our cabana and headed to a shower, a
bed and air-con!
WEDNESDAY. MAY 8, 2013
5:00 AM Woke up early again and excited about the day in front of
us. After some time in prayer and study,
got dressed and headed to the restaurant for a quick coffee and a few minutes
on the internet before heading out
8:00 AM Benny picked us up and we headed to Binalonan and VBS. Jamie was teaching the young children and had
about 115 for she and Rica to teach. They covered Samuel and Hannah today and
Jamie was excited about it. They met in
the auditorium of the church building.
I taught my class on Jesus in the OT and how God used the OT to teach
basic principles about Jesus’ coming sacrifice and how the Old and New fit
together. Tony translated for me and we
had 9 ladies back today for the third day. My class was meeting back in the ‘cry
room’ which has a window to the auditorium.
As interesting as Jamie and Rica were, there was a constant stream of
little ones peeking under the curtains and checking out the white man in the
back roomJ
Chris was teaching the teenagers from 12 -18 and today used Gideon as
his getting started point. He had between 35-40 and Lester translated for him. He was out under a tin roof and had a crowd!
10:30 AM Benny took us to the Bible Book Store and the Print shop. I found two large print Bibles in Tagalog for
our two prospects in Binalonan. I also
found 5 New Testaments in Tagalog that I will use and give out to those in
Bible studies. They are only about US$1.50 each and I buy all I find in book
stores. To those who gave funds to be
used to purchase Bibles, they are! And these folks are really excited about
having them.
While we were in the Bible Book store, Benny walked across the street
and got copies made of a tract that Jamie wanted to use in her class
today. It was 50P or about US$1.15
for 50 copies, front and back!
11:30 AM We got back to the Lisland and after a quick trip to the room
we had decided to walk to the mall for lunch. (about 5 blocks) But after I walked
out and realized how hot it was already, I had Chris get the hotel to call a
trike for us. So Chris was on the back
and Jamie and I got in the sidecar and for about US$1.00 we rode to the mallJ. We found Blasie and Dana upstairs in the Salon
and they said Arnold was on his way so we headed to Greenwich Pizza to meet
Arnold. When Arnold arrived we ate
together and really enjoyed being with these fine Christian brothers and
sisters.
1:15 PM Arnold drove us back to the Lis for Benny to pick us up for the
afternoon studies. He was about 30
minutes late because of miscommunication.
We got to Binalonan at about 2:30 and jumped right in to our
classes. Jamie was in the auditorium and
had 45 ladies as she did a ladies’ class on Jesus-The Perfect Sacrifice. I saw her notes and heard a little through
the window, and it was a really good sermon!
Chris went with Tony and Arnold to a Bible study with a member in Binalonan
who had become discouraged. They spent
about 1 ½ hours with her and brought back some delicious treats! Dried banana and other fruit and vegetables
cut like chips! OUTSTANDING!
I was conducting a Bible study with Lester translating with three men
who were visiting and five teenagers from the congregation here. My topic was God and His Communication with
Man in the OT. It was fairly comfortable
with two fans going but about 5 minutes into class the power went off! At
almost at the same time, the breeze just stopped. It really got hot under the tin roof. But we had a good class and got some
discussion out of the men.
4:00 PM We had gotten finished with our classes and the storm began to
roll in! And boy did they! It almost got cool for a moment……until the
power went off, againJ
so we sat in the auditorium of the Binalonan chapel for about 1 ½ hours with no
fans or power until Chris, Benny and Tony returned from their visits and
studies.
5:30 PM We sat in on a meeting with the Binalonan leadership and they
decided that with the heavy rains continuing and no power, that they should not
attempt to make the visits and studies scheduled and that it would be best to
cancel the Gospel Meeting for tonight.
It seems a little strange to us to have to do that but most of their members
and all of their visitors walk to services and they would not get out on a
night like this, so we’ll try again tomorrow!
6:00 PM Back at the Lis and after supper and internet contact and phone
calls and reports, we turned in for the night after the 6th power
brownout of the day. Hopefully, there
will be none tonight so the air con will allow us to keep cool tonight!
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