Our group of nineteen travelers started boarding our plane around 11:15pm
Sunday night headed for the country of the Philippines. For the past several
years, our church has hosted an annual Missions Trip to this needy land.
Thirteen hours later, we landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in
Manila. [...read more]

We are off today to Guimaras Island to do a little bit of sightseeing. Our host, Ulysses (or Uly for short), was at the hotel before 8 A.M. to accompany us. Uly has been a member of Iloilo Baptist Church for over 25 years. You will never see him without a smile on his face, and we always have a great time whenever he is our host.
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We were picked up promptly at 7:30am to go to the second day of the Pastors Conference. According to Bro. Martin told us that there were close to 1,100 pastors present for this conference.
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We arrived at Iloilo Baptist Church at 8:30am. Since the alumni sessions started at 9am, our group had some time to walk around the campus. The ladies gave out many homemade bracelets to the children in the campus.
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Today half of the group left for a life-changing overnight stay on Negros Island. The day began at 9:00 a.m. when we left the hotel. We were treated to an air conditioned boat ride to Negros Island. The trip lasted about 1 hour and that was the end of luxury. After the boat ride we all loaded into a jeepnie and headed to the bus station. We were greeted by many merchants trying to sell us everything from water to sunglasses to balut (a Filipino delicacy of partly developed duck egg).
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We were picked up at 9:00 a.m. and boarded our transportation to a flood relocation center. This housing complex was built to house the displaced residents of Iloilo due to Typhoon Frank, which devastated much of the city. On the way to the relocation center, our guide Uly told us that many of the homes we were passing were at one time buried in water.
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It took awhile to get used to sleeping on the bamboo beds we were staying in, but most of us were able to sleep for a few hours at least. All of us were up by 5:00 a.m. Some of us took that same walk as last night, but this time in the early light of dawn. It was a beautiful site and not one we will soon forget.
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By 7:45 a.m. we were headed to Tamocol Baptist Church in the city of Tamocol pastored by Pastor Daryl Mansures. North Valley Baptist Church recently purchased the building materials for this new church. Pastor Mansures has pastored this church about 9 months and is doing a great job. An average of 50 people attend his church on Sundays.
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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.
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We checked out of the hotel this morning at 9:00 a.m. and headed to the airport. Bro. Martin was at the hotel to see us off. Bro. Martin made our group feel at home the entire time we were here.
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