I’m always happy when I arrive in Wenceslao – it means that the long trip over the mountains is nearly over and we’re almost home.  Our pastors and some of our student volunteers went to Wenceslao on Monday to hand out children’s clothes and share the message of Jesus.  We stopped first at the municipal office to let the barangay captain know who we were and what we were doing, then we drove to a cluster of small houses along the highway.  Our students kept the small children entertained by blowing up and handing out balloon animals, hats and swords.  The rest of us divided into four teams and went door-to-door to provide children’s clothes to the families.   We were warmly welcomed and had the opportunity to explain God’s plan of salvation in each home.  Around fifty people came to the understanding that they can’t work their way to heaven, that their own ‘goodness’ is insufficient.  They’ve opted to rely, instead, on Jesus as payment for their sins.  I’m always excited when I see people humble themselves and ask for God’s forgiveness, and Monday was truly an exciting day!

The DeLuna family had no source of water on their property and we installed a well and pump for them.   In this video you will briefly meet his  family and see the finished pump, but most of this video shows the trip through Baler back to Barangay Ramada (stopping at Ruben’s house) with the sponsored college students.  This video is several months old – just got around to editing as the weather is too nasty to be outside.  The tilapia portion at the end was an invitation to our student to come to our house for a meal.  They caught the fish and helped cook the food and we enjoyed the evening together.

Local pastors selected youth who are showing promise as future leaders.  Each received a personalized invitation to the ‘Servant Workshop’ held at Lorentess Resort during Tropical Storm Ketsana/Ondoy.  From the scavenger hunt to projects in pairs, the event was filled with activities.  Each attendee wore a name tag of someone they respected as a leader (on of the girls wore a “Lilia Phillips” name tag.)  They had to explain why they look up to that person.  Some were political figures, others biblical characters, and we also had a couple of actors/actresses.

Cesar Misa is left his home in Cebu in the mid 1960’s to come to the Aurora Province.  He never married and has no children, but we wanted to make sure he knows that he’s not alone.  We challenged the sponsored college students to build him a new house as his old one was falling apart, and this video shows the construction effort.  Note the lack of safety equipment (barefooted workers) and improvised tools (rocks and blocks of wood as hammers and a coconut shell to scoop wet cement.  Cesar is most grateful for his new home and he moved his bed there immediately.

Forty people were baptized in the Dikildit River today.  We had a praise team singing and clapping next to the water, but I edited out the ‘live’ singing because the video got chopped up so much to make it brief.  I inserted “Lord You’re Holy” by Sounds of Liberty as background music but forgot to give them proper credit (I added no credits at the end – sorry.)

We have been approved by Agape Philippine-American Ministries, Inc to be the recipients of a pastor’s library.  We’ve created enough shelf space to display about 4000 books and have the chairs, tables, lighting and fans in place.  A 20 foot container has been shipped and will likely be delivered to Aurora next month.  We have volunteer librarians and will visit all the surrounding churches to let them know what is available and provide them with a brochure that explains our policies and operating hours.  This is such a blessing to the church leaders here in Aurora!

I’m still impacted by the daily hardship faced by so many people here.  Until today, many families living in Barangay Baubo have been forced to walk over a mile (round trip) to carry clean drinking water to their homes.  The wells in their area stink  – a heavy ‘fishy’ smell that makes the water undrinkable.  We received a request from Barangay officials to help provide water from a clean water tank to families living  about a half mile from the closest clean water source.   We purchased the materials and recorded what took place as the men from the community stretched out plastic hoses and installed faucets.  This video doesn’t capture the joy from the families.  They served us snacks and lunch and sent us home with fresh bamboo shoots to eat.   Our cost: under $100.  The impact: eternal

The college students from Malupa Baptist Church are visiting each of the outreach locations to cook food, play games, pray with the people, and share Jesus.  Here are some photos from the past two days – some in Detailen, others here in Ramada.

We attended the anniversary celebration in Detailen last Sunday.  Some of the men posed with me for this photo:

Pastor Galam and I with men from Detailen

I wasn’t invited, so I can only provide some photos.  The MBC women met for the day, most of the time spent at Malupa River.  Here are some of the photos that came back: