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. Here our group grew to twenty travelers as NVBC church member, Rene
Baltazar joined us. He just concluded a business trip in China and is now
in the Philippines to help host our trip. Also, in the airport we met Ricky
Martin and Dr. Russell Anderson. Ricky was accompanying Bro. Anderson to
Iloilo.
At 8:55am, Manila time, we boarded another plane which would take us to
Iloilo City. An hour and a half later we arrived in Iloilo. Bro. Graham met
us at the airport. Bro. Graham is a missionary who will be starting a church
in Antipolo in 2009. He currently works with Bro. Rick Martin in Iloilo. Our
luggage was quickly loaded into one of the vehicles waiting for us, and we
boarded two other vehicles which took us to our hotel. This was the first
time for some in our group to be in a foreign country, and you could see
they were visibly moved by what they saw while driving. We checked into our
hotel rooms around noon, and we had time for some needed rest before we left
for dinner.
Dinner was at a nice Oceanside restaurant. Before dinner, many in the group
took a walk down the beach where many children were playing by their houses.
The children were so friendly and enjoyed getting their pictures taken (as
you can see by the many pictures). Our group had a great time learning the
names of the children and trying to communicate with them with a language
barrier. After many pictures were taken and our hearts were touched by these
kids, we went inside for some great food. Everyone seemed to enjoy their
meal. Some in our group have never had fresh coconut juice straight from the
coconut. Others have never seen shrimp so big, but everyone was game for
whatever was served at the table. By the time dinner was done, you could see
the effects of this long day of traveling. Many of the eyes were now at
half-mast.
After dinner, we head back to the hotel to get ready for the day tomorrow.
We thank God for a safe trip thus far. Please do pray for us that we would
be a blessing to the church here in Iloilo. Please also pray that God will
use this trip in our lives to help us become better servants of Christ. We
are excited about what God is going to do while we are here.
Tune in tomorrow…
