We left the hotel at 5:00 a.m. to go to two public schools in order to present the Gospel to public school students. Our trip to the first school took approximately 3 hours. The school is located up in the mountains through some very rough roads. School was already in session when we arrived.

Schools here in the Philippines start at 7:30 a.m. and end at 4:00 p.m. There were three classrooms with a different age group in each. Barbara Kiel spoke to the youngest children, Jonathan Escobar spoke to next youngest, and Tom Apusen spoke to the oldest group which were the 4th graders. The children were all well-behaved and listened intently as the Gospel was being presented. The people here are very open to the Gospel, and it was thrilling to see most, if not all, of the students receive Christ as their Savior. There were about 175 students in this school.

The village (Barangay, Ajuy Iloilo) where this school is located was at one time a haven for criminals. If one wanted someone put to death, he would go to this village to hire an assassin. That all changed when a Baptist preacher led the village chief to the Lord. Since then, the other two village chiefs who succeeded the former were also led to the Lord. There is a Baptist church now in this village. North Valley Baptist Church supports Pastor Artem Herida and his church, Hilltop Baptist Church. NVBC also has helped build the church building.

Our group was then invited to the church to have a mid-morning snack. The food was great, and our group enjoyed the fellowship. We feasted on fresh coconut, rice and chicken.

We then headed to another public school in the mountains. The trip was about an hour and a half long. The principal of the school dismissed the classes and gathered all the students under a covered meeting place. Our group was introduced to the students, and Bro. Apusen shared the Gospel with them. Once again the students were very attentive and, when the invitation was given, most of the students received Christ as their Savior. There were about 400 students in this school. There are so many public schools open to the preaching of God’s Word that a pastor can go from school to school and reap a large harvest of souls.

After the public school meetings, we dropped by another church that NVBC supports in the village of Sara. It is a new work, and the church runs about 35 in attendance on Sundays. From there, we headed to the seaport where we boarded a pump boat to tour some of the islands. The group of islands where we went has 12 independent Baptist churches, and NVBC has supported or is supporting 6 of them. The boat ride was relaxing, and the scenery was great.

It was a very long day, and we arrived back at IBC around 7:00 p.m. Some of the men played basketball with the men at IBC (Ricky Martin wanted revenge from the loss they suffered last year). The ladies stayed and played volleyball with the ladies of IBC. The NVBC men managed to be victorious for the second straight year. Who knows, this might become a yearly rivalry as well.

Bro. Martin and his staff along with the members of his church have been very gracious hosts. They have cared for us very, very well. We have been treated like special guests. We leave for the States tomorrow and I trust that we will return better people as a result of this trip. We miss you all.

Until tomorrow...