Philippine
Mission Trip
ANOTHER
WEEKEND!
Don, Jamie
Walker and Chris Gerber
April 25-May
14, 2013
Urdaneta,
Pangasinan, Philippines
FRIDAY, MAY 3, 2013
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| Teaching in San Vincente |
9:00 AM
After breakfast Jamie and I headed out
with Celine to our last day of VBS at sister Reggie’s house in San Vincente
while Chris left with Arnold. They were
going to do a Bible study and then look at some other land options. I already believe that the Lord will help us
work something out as I am already dreaming of how the building will look and
dreaming of building a missionaries’ room on the property.
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| Jamie teaching in San Vincente |
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| Cookie Cruz-One of my heroes |
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| The Walkers, sister Reggie and Shervin |
When Jamie and I arrived at sister
Reggie’s I did something I have not done in any of my previous 11 trips here…I
drove a vehicle! OK, I just backed up
Celine’s truck into an alley from about 5 meters away…but that’s progressJ. We began my class with Shervin Cruz translating for
me. He is a very talented young man with
some physical challenges but they never slow him or his sister, Cookie, from
their love and work for the Lord. They
are two of my heroes! He leads a wonderful
prayer and we started our discussion of Cornelius and the Philippian
jailer. All 7 ladies brought back the
Bibles we had given them and were working hard at keeping up with the
scriptures. At the end of the study 5 of the 7 wanted to
be baptized. As we were preparing to go,
there were some non-Bible related problems that put the baptisms off until
Sunday. I will see all the ladies again
on Saturday at the Urdaneta chapel (church building) for VBS graduation and I
will encourage them again to do it now! This has been a most enjoyable study
with these ladies!
We attended the birthday party of Cookie
Cruz who turned 42 at her home. This might
not be such a big deal, except when she was born her mother was told by the
heart doctors she would not live to age 30!
She has lived 12 years beyond the most optimistic prediction and is a very
active Bible teacher. When we sang Happy
Birthday to her before the birthday supper, she just sobbed. She said, “Happy tears”. Her mother spoke
very emotionally about her daughter living long enough to accept and serve
Jesus Christ. A very touching time. Jamie had found some earrings for her and
she was so proud and said she would wear them on SundaysJ I had to leave about 7 PM to return to Lisland for
another appointment.
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| Teaching in Pinmalupod |
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| Estelle teaching with jamie |
 |
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| Celine and Cookie relaxing in the kitchen |
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| Don with his new 4 mt old friend. Christian |
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| JM, Susan and Jamie at the Cruz's |
Jamie taught 38 and then had the entire
group of over 95 for singing at the end of the session. There were 3 classes and it was extremely
well organized and executed. Jamie was
assisted by a sister who was an official with the public school system and
Jamie said she was an excellent teacher.
12:00 noon
We went to Magic Mall in Urdaneta and
ate lunch at the food court upstairs with Celine, Chris, Dana and Arnold. Much of the day Arnold and Chris had been
working on finding property to consider for buying. We discussed this and made plans for the
afternoon as we received our second rain in two days. It was a good shower and cooled things down
for a bit.
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| Jamie, Arnold and Dana |
3:00 PM
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| Basketball in flip flops! |
We met with another 4P group. This was the 4th group Chris or I
have spoken to about life improvement.
These are some of the poorest of the poor in Urdaneta. The city of Urandeta has a poverty level of
70% and many of these we were speaking to subsist on less than P6000 per
month for the family. This is less than US$150! The government assistance they receive is
only about $38/month. Arnold serves as a
mentor to over 200 families within about 1.5 km of the Urdaneta chapel so this
is a tremendous opportunity to reach out to families and serve their physical
as well as spiritual needs. To see a
difference in governmental philosophies, in the Philippines, these families
must attend a one hour per week group counseling session and religious and
moral values must be part of the mentor’s agenda with no restrictions. I spoke
on setting priorities for your life based on Matthew 6:33 and then invited them
to services on Sunday when I will be speaking.
Chris then spoke about the Biggest Problem in the Philippines (and the world)-Sin.
There were 29 adults present with 4 of us teaching.
Jamie, Dana, Celine and Jake had a group
of 31 children that they had Bible class with and sang then played games
with.
6:00 PM
We attended the birthday party of Cookie
Cruz who turned 42 at her home. This might
not be such a big deal, except when she was born her mother was told by the
heart doctors she would not live to age 30!
She has lived 12 years beyond the most optimistic prediction and is a very
active Bible teacher. When we sang Happy
Birthday to her before the birthday supper, she just sobbed. She said, “Happy tears”. Her mother spoke
very emotionally about her daughter living long enough to accept and serve
Jesus Christ. A very touching time. Jamie had found some earrings for her and
she was so proud and said she would wear them on SundaysJ I had to leave about 7 PM to return to Lisland for
another appointment.
7:00 PM
Chris and I had a chance to meet with a
Filipino preacher and his family to discuss some future plans for the Lord’s
work in Pangasinan. These preacher’s and
their families are very dedicated and really recharge me and encourage me on
each trip.
10:00 PM
Left the restaurant and went to bed
after a very satisfying first week!
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