PHILIPPINE OUTREACH

I have several photo shows for you in this posting:
Harvester Tondo and Bulacan-Tondo - First two days in Philippines
Youth Camp, Other Romblon, and Beach Outing on Tablas Island
Bethesda - Final two days of Philippine Outreach

HARVESTER TONDO

I visit and work with this church, planted in the slums of Tondo, Manila, every time I visit the Philippines. Usually they take me to prison and cemetery ministry, but I only had two days with them this time. In addition to Easter Sunday in their home church, we visited their church in Nueva Ecija and made a trip to Bulacan, explained below. Photos show their sign on the church, some of the people, and their Saturday Jogging Fellowship at Luneta Park at the seafront in downtown Manila.

NUEVA ECIJA OUTING

Last year, I helped commission a young couple to move to this central Luzon location to start a church in a small settlement of squatters. They have gathered a fairly good sized congregation as you can see, and they still meet under the mango tree. I love this kind of ministry. Lots of babies, along with unwed couples. We had a baby dedication, and the church will in the near future perform weddings for them. They don’t get married because of lack of education, but mostly because of lack of money. The custom in the Philippines is that weddings cost, so they didn’t even bother to ask.

On the way up, we had a tire blowout on the freeway, and an exciting ride for a few seconds before the driver got the vehicle under control. Very, very hot day!!!

BULACAN-TONDO

The city is clearing out the squatters in Tondo around the church. The Harvesters have clear title to the property, so their church will not be touched, but all the homes around them near the railroad tracks are being demolished and the people relocated to ‘townhouses’ north in Bulacan. For some, these new homes are nicer, for others, they are a major step downward. You can see in the photos of the cleared areas that there were some substantial concrete buildings. Other photos show the homes to be destroyed, and the relocation settlement, where we had Sunday afternoon service. Bulacan is about an hour drive north of Manila (depending on traffic), and the relocated people complain that there is no means of livelihood there.

As you can see from the photos, we had a lively worship service under the tarp spread between the row homes. It was super hot!!

ROMBLON - YOUTH CAMP, CHURCH WORKER CONFERENCE, MORE!

above: the boat that got us there

YOUTH CAMP

Our Camp Masters, a group of 7 young people from a ministry group in Manila joined us on the boat to Tablas Island, Romblon. We had 93 at the youth camp (started with nearly a hundred, but lost a few along the way), and we baptized six who made decisions for Christ during the camp. The short slide show cannot possibly do justice to the variety of activities and the excitement of the Youth Camp.