Friday, January 24, 2014

No Wi-fii all day.  

Men were up and off to construction before 8 AM.   The following pictures were taken by Stan..I believe of the 2nd family's home that was basically finished up.....

 

 

 

 

Liz, Donna and I went for bakery rolls and a fried egg at Jollibee's for breakfast.   We'd planned to do some shopping at the market for a food basket for the above pictured family whose house got built--but Pastor Revie and Brent came and were were off to Maya again with Alma and Jamalyn. 

Our first stop was the community where we met on a covered platform (which may eventually get concrete block partial walls, plywood upper walls and a better roof).  

  Just had to brush off chicken and goat droppings for a place to sit down.     Sarah shared on assurance, Marj shared on prayer and Bible reading, while I shared on obedience and baptism.  Donna shared on  Christ's example of baptism.    Liz and the sisters taught the children songs and taught from a children's Bible the story of Jesus' baptism.






 

Further on the way up to Maya, we stopped at the church where Pastor Revie's father pastors.   Several men were working on new parsonages.

  

Then on to the largest home(that we'd visited)  in the Maya Community that had specifically asked us back.   Lunch was fixed by the women:  pork, pancita, rice, fish and carrots in ginger sauce.     Sharing was as we had earlier in the day.  Liz took the kids next door and shared with them.   There was lots of discussion at this home.  Three sisters and a sister-in-law, I believe have husbands who are seamen working on ships or else on oil rigs.   There will be a baptism for those interested in this community that we shared with in the future.     We were given a bread snack and 7 -up before we took off.   We stopped at a beach enroute south back to Bogo--the sisters missing Florida's beaches!!!

  

 The area we stopped evidenced damaged boats mostly due to coconut trees coming down on them.

Upon return to Bogo City, Liz and Donna went to the market to get food for the family whose home the men built.  Since God blessed our team, we determined what was left after all current and expected expenses for our trip and then distributed the money between envelopes for fulltime staff and gifts for 5 projected church plants.  We met at the Grace Driven Church about 7 PM for a delicious meal prepared by Pastor Revie's mother.   We viewed a slide show of some of the pictures taken from our 2 weeks there.  We were all given small gifts and then we gave our gifts.   
  

Our two weeks there included two evangelistic film showings, 2 houses being built, 15 cluster CPE meetings which will be ongoing Bible studies once a week after we leave, not a current number of decisions made available yet.           Deeply impacted by the compassion and passion that Brent and the pastors have for the people who are helpless and lost and hopeless.  They have worked tirelessly since the typhoon and continue to work hard.   They will never abandon the people!! 

Thursday, January 23, 2014

So Stan, Dan, and Thom took off to work on the house building.

All the rest of us headed to the home of Pastor Henry and his parents.   Our job for the day was total destruction of the damaged home.        Pastor Henry has done some micro-financing, and was able to begin

 to  set aside some materials for rebuilding.  His desire is to have a structure which will allow for small meetings in the home, as well as for the family to live in.      So:  dust, dirt, being careful of a 'hot' wire, amazed at agility of a neighbor up to taking off the GI sheets (aluminum roofing--which will be reused), amazed at agility of Pastor Revie up a tree with a chain saw cutting branches off,  thankful to God for safety for all. 

Disturbed a gekko--or at least a relation of a gekko.     Gave the neighbors all something to watch.      The small store (microfinanced) was left standing as well as a small maybe 5' square structure--so they had somewhere to sleep until they could get the new house up.

Pastor Herny's mother fixed lunch for us:  rice, soda pop, sardines, chicken, dried fish (SALTY), and a been/vegetable dish. 

   Plumbing was a pipe sticking up out of the ground to wash hands and face with.  We carry hand sanitizer, though, for a follow up wash.  Cooking was done on a propane powered burner and a rice cooker.

At the end of our destruction day, Brent took Brian and the sisters out to the construction site to pick up the guys AND celebrate a little girl's 12th birthday.   Brian felt especially led to do something for her, since he had befriended her in the construction and visited a lot with her.  

 

 

    
So again, a late supper and stop over at place next to 7-11 for halo-halo and a tuscan roll ;

halo-halo on left; tuscan roll on right

then team prayer and discussion about the Friday evening celebration with Filippino staff.

Wednesday January 22, 2014

Chris was up and off early to head back to Mindaue City  (and then Brent will come up).   It was SOO good to have her with us and participating in the ministry with us.

Marj, Sarah and I had the morning "free" since Pastor Revie busy getting men and supplies to construction site.   Donna and Liz off with Pastor Henry for followup visits.       This after noon Marj, Sarah, I and Pastor Revie will return to areas we were in on Monday (including Calubihan where the truck got stuck!).  Sarah will share on assurance, Marj on prayer, Bible and fellowship and I will share on obedience.

Marh, Sarah and I ate at a sushi place.   I had teriyaki chicken rolls--okay, but I am not much on the seaweed wrap.    I did enjoy the mango crepe!    I was thankful that I could eat light--there has been too much food and too much sitting.  My body is missing the gym!!     Today was sunny and warm (humid).

After a long, but good afternoon, we all ate a late supper and finished up with our team meeting and prayer after 10 PM.