Philippines Missions Trip 2009

Philippines Missions Trip - Day 7 (Public School Ministry)

Mike Moyer and his group conducted a flag ceremony service at the Doña Hortencia Salas Benedicto National High School in La Carlotta at 7:30am. There were about 5,000 students present at the meeting. Sofronio Estelloso, a teacher at the school, contacted us in June via nvbc.org and requested we preach to his school. He saw the Missions blog from last year and wanted us to preach at his school. Bro. Moyer preached about Lazarus and the rich man and gave the Gospel. To God be the Glory, approximately 1,200 students raised their hands indicating they trusted Christ as their Savior. Dan Christians, Dan Fittro, and Tim Gomez also gave testimonies. After the main assembly, the group went to classrooms and gave the Gospel to smaller groups. The students were very receptive and many were saved in the school classrooms. After that incredible experience, they got on a jeep to meet up with Bro. Apusen’s group.

Sunday began very early for the group of adventurers on the Mountains of Negros Occidental, Philippines. Despite roosters crowing at 2:00 a.m. we managed to sleep (at least lay down) till 5:00 a.m. By that time, the area was hopping with activity - Mrs. Muleta was cooking our delicious breakfast, kids were playing badminton, and workers were cleaning up the auditorium for the day's services. The morning was breathtaking. The sun was glowing pink and orange as it raised above the mountain peaks. The sunlight revealed an amazing site. Pastor Muleta, his family, and church manicured their property so meticulously. Bushes, flowers, rocks, and grass were all so beautifully taken care of. Someone in our group mentioned that this was like Disneyland of the Philippines. Pastor Muleta and his people are to be commended for the beautiful landscaping of their properties.

It’s 8:30am and we are off to Bethel Baptist Church in Anhawan, Janiway, Iloilo. This church is pastored by Jaireh Mamon. Pastor Mamon was attending a church service in a church pastored by his brother. After the musical play that was shown that night, a man attacked Bro. Jaireh and stabbed him 6 times. This incident was instrumental in getting Bro. Jaireh to surrender to full-time service.

Pastor Jaireh Mamon pastors two churches. North Valley Baptist Church is helping him with the construction of one of his church buildings.

Words cannot describe the sights, sounds, and smells our group of six (Lito Reyes, Mike Moyer, Dan Christians, Dan Fittro, and Tim Gomez, and IBC Host, Ulyssis) encountered while "roughing it." While the other group stayed in Iloilo, six of us took a road trip filled with excitement and adventure as we went "native" for a couple of days.

We left the hotel in Iloilo at 7:00 a.m. and took the Sea Jet (a passenger ferry) to Bacolod. We arrived at about 9:00. We then hopped on a couple of taxis to the bus station where we boarded an authentic, public, non-airconditioned bus for the 2 hour and 45 minute bus ride. Public transportation is a bit of a culture shock.

Our group went two different directions this morning. Bro. Moyer along with Lito Reyes, Dan Christians, Daniel Fittro and Tim Gomez left at 6am to catch a boat ride to the island of Negros. Bro. Apusen stayed in Panay Island with Sam Gomez, Rossana Gomez, Barbara Kiel, Jennifer Opherman, Lydia Leong, Esther Leong and Jennifer Powers.

Panay Island Group We left to go to the extension classes of IBC at 8:15 this morning. The extension classes are like neighborhood Bible clubs where children are invited to go to a home in their neighborhoods to be taught Bible stories and also the plan of salvation. On one of these neighborhoods, the rain came down so hard we had to stay in

We left to go to Iloilo Baptist Church around 8:30 this morning. Today was the quarterly alumni meeting for the graduates of Iloilo Baptist College. The male graduates attend meetings that deal primarily with church planting. Bro. Lay, Bro. Apusen and Bro. Capaci also spoke at these meetings.

At 11:30am, our group met the pastors that North Valley Baptist Church has supported in the past or is currently supporting. Bro. Martin spoke very highly of them and the work that they are doing.

Today is the second day of the Pastors and Workers conference at Iloilo Baptist Church. Our group arrived at the church around 9:45am. The men went to the auditorium to hear Pastor Eric Capaci preach. He preached from the Book of Acts on the subject of encouragement. If anyone knows anything about being an encouragement, it would be Bro. Capaci. He always has an encouraging word for everyone.

While the men were hearing preaching, the ladies in our group were invited to do a children’s program for the children that were in the conference. The ladies did a wonderful job telling Bible stories and teaching the children new songs.

Our day began with breakfast around 7:30 a.m. There’s nothing quite like hot dogs and rice to get your day started right. Hot dogs don’t sound appetizing for breakfast? How about pork tosino (sweet pork) and rice? Still not interested? You can order a Western omelet – with rice of course.

We headed for Guimaras around 8:30 a.m. Guimaras is known for its delicious mangoes. It’s the only place in the Philippines that can export mangoes to the United States.

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Philippines Missions Trip - Day 1 (Travel)

13 hours in an airplane is no ones idea of a fun time, but we gladly boarded the plane from San Francisco to Manila for the 13 hour flight. We praise God that it was a safe an uneventful flight. We arrived in Manila Tuesday morning at about 3:45 a.m. Upon arrival we settled in for a 4+ hour layover. Some from our group took the time to get some work done, while others took the opportunity to relax and catch a bit more sleep.

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