The Wow of mission in Philippines 18 July 2009
Thursday, 30 July 2009
I woke up at 2.30am because of loud gun fire sounds. I remembered turning around to ask Derrick if he heard the loud series of gun fires.
He said yes despite the fact he was wearing ear plugs to sleep. I told him not to forget the Mumbai incident and went back to sleep. While trying to fall asleep I could not help but to ask myself what I would do if some terrorists really storm into the room like what happened in Mumbai hotel several months ago.
6.30am
I woke up again at 6am and went to the hotel café for breakfast. Ivan who used to work for Mediacorp as a dancer was early. He was coughing away and had lost his voice. In fact most of the GLCC team members had lost their voices. They had been going from classroom to classroom sharing the Gospel even before I arrived. I heard that Ivan is a very talented dancer. He shared that he used to dance for famous local and Hong Kong celebrities like Jackie Chan and Anita Mui before he became a Christian.
7.50am
Pastor Mike came to pick us up and we went to the Negro Oriental High School. Over 200 students were seated on a long stretch of stadium steps facing a basket ball court. The teacher was giving them a briefing. All of a sudden the students were asked to turned backward and face the steps behind them. I was very puzzled and wondered what they were doing. Then they started to sit down to answer their examination papers using the steps behind them as a writing table. That was simply amazing!
Students having outdoor exam
Students having outdoor exam
We thought we could share the gospel within 30 minutes and move on to another campus. But we could not do so because the students were having their examination. Pastor Mike appeared troubled and disappointed. He told some of us to stay behind to wait for the opportunity to preach the gospel while another team was asked to go on to the next location. The remaining team members followed him to go back to SMCI centre to pray.
I stayed behind with Justin, Ben, Danny, Derrick and a few other SMCI staff till 9.30am.
9.30am
The students finally finished their examination and we were given 30 minutes to talk to the students. Ben spent 30 minutes to preach the Gospel message to about 300 of the students. About 100 of the students raised their hands to indicate their decision to accept Jesus as their Saviour.
Ben Preaching the Gospel to the studentsBen Preaching the Gospel
Students listening attentively to the Gospel message
Students listening to the Gospel message
10.15am
We walked back to SMCI to join Pastor Mike and the team who were praying earnestly. Pastor Mike shared about how God had answered our prayers. We no longer need to leave for Bohol at midnight via a slow ocean liner tonight. That was an answered prayer. We could wait till 2pm to take the fast ferry the next day.
Corporate Prayer
Corporate Prayer
11am
We drove to Peralta’s house. Pastor Mike said the Peralta couple is a friend of SMCI. The wife is a doctor and the husband is a businessman. They live in a large compound guarded by a security guard. The cosy brown bungalow where they live is located in the middle of the large compound. They have a beautiful garden and a white puppy.
We were served the famous buko pie (coconut pie) and fresh and fried lumpia (popiah) for snacks. We had some good fellowship while munching our snacks in the garden.
Home of Peralta
Buko Pie (coconut pie)
12.20pm
We visited the campus of the College of Engineering and Architecture.
We waited for almost 2 hours before being given the chance to speak to a group of young men and women in green T-shirts and army pants. They were having their drill and inspection in the field. Their supervisors were all wearing army camouflage uniform. Two of them were seen going round to snip the hairs off some of the students. Another group of students were busy practicising their rifle drills.
Students having their drillThe team waiting patiently to share the Gospel to the students
The sky started to turn dark and it started to drizzle. We were all very concerned that the rain would start to pour before we could share the Gospel to these students. Pastor Mike gathered everyone together and we prayed for God to hold back the rain.
Miraculously, the sky turned blue and the drizzling stopped and by 2.15pm we were given the signal to go ahead to share the Gospel with the students.
The officers gave the commands and the students obediently gathered to sit in front of a concrete platform. It was really exciting to see how God touched the hearts of the supervisors and officers to allow us to spend 30 minutes with these few hundred students. Imagine that they were literally commanded to sit down quietly to listen to the Gospel.
Pastor Mike preached the Gospel and even carried a young man on his back to demonstrate the meaning of faith. The students started to laugh and looked amazed when he actually carried the boy who appeared heavier on him around on his back.
About 100 students raised their hands to confess their faith after the message and we quickly fanned out to distribute the Good News Gospel tracts to the students.
Pastor Mike sharing the GospelPastor Mike carrying a boyFew hundred students sitting on the grass to listen to the Gospel
Pastor Mike preaching
Officers joining the students to listen to the Gospel
The officers happily posed with Pastor Mike to take a group photo after the session.
2.50pm
We drove to the Café Antonio, the family restaurant, owned by the Peralta’s family for lunch. We had chicken chop and rice for lunch.
4.50pm
Benz, Martha and Jill wanted to go shopping at a Christian book shop next to Lee Plaza. Derrick and I decided to join them.
The books at the Christian book shop were really very cheap. I bought a DVD and several Christian books from the shop. A copy of the New Testament was only selling for 30 peso (S$1). We walked to the Lee Plaza to have a look but go bored after barely 10 minutes.
6pm
Pastor Mike was at the hotel lobby working on his laptop. I sat down to chat with him. He suddenly looked at me and asked if I could take the Sunday School the next day. Sunday School? I didn’t even see any children around in the SMCI centre. I decided to ask him the age group of the people who were attending the Sunday School. I was surprised when he told me that the Sunday School was meant for adults.
He told me the local church usually have a Sunday School lesson for 1 hour before the main message by the pastor. I asked him what he wanted me to talk about and he said I could pick any topic I want. I hesitated for a while before replying him in the affirmative 45 minutes later.
Dr Chong came to join us and he wanted me to show him how I could balance an empty coke can on the table. Yi Fei was siting a table away. He came over to join us and showed us how he used his teeth to open the top of the empty coke can. Wow! This guy is amazing. He literally used his teeth like a can opener. I recorded the entire stunt on video. This would make a very good Youtube video!
Human Can Opener
7pm
We walked to a restaurant nearby the hotel for dinner. We had grilled chicken. We had some good fellowship with the folks from GLCC. We were all busy sharing riddles with each other. Yi Fei asked me how to form 4 squares with 7 match sticks while Jeremy asked me how to cook 3 fishes with 2 frying pans in 3 minutes. Even pastor Michelle joined in by testing us a puzzle about a square with a dog inside it.
9.30pm
I got back to the hotel at 9.30pm. I had to spend about two hours to back up my video before I could think about my Sunday School message. I was also very distracted by the puzzle about the 3 fishes asked by Jeremy. I told him I would give him the answer the next day. Derrick told me to stop think about the riddle and start to concentrate on my message. He was right. Thanks God the answer to the riddle flashed through my mind while I was talking to him.
I still could not get any inspiration on what to speak on at 11pm and I was running out of time. I decided to talk about the brevity of life based on James 4:14 after some discussion with Derrick.
I stayed up till 1 am to prepare for the Sunday School message. It was really tough to work on a message within such a short notice. Thank God I could use Powerpoint to help me.
