Metroview Baptist Church, Antipolo (Sunday)
Today’s post is brought to you by Sierra Graham, so, take it away Sierra!
On Sunday morning, the Hursts made us a delicious morning breakfast with bananas, eggs, tocino (pork that looks like beets and tastes sweet), pandesal (a breakfast bread), fried rice, and mango steen. After breakfast we headed to Metroview Baptist Church for our first Sunday services in the Philippines! I was able to teach the teen girls which was so much fun! They were a little shy at first but they opened up more as time passed on. Alexandr taught the adults, Cave taught the teen boys, and Callie taught ages 5-11. After Sunday School, they had a half hour snack time where they served soup. Sara, Samuel, and I played with the orchestra during the congregational singing and postlude. Dr. Cirone preached a message titled Protect the Gold. The Filipinos love their music and they love to sing and to play it loudly! It’s was so much fun to see such passionate people who just love to sing as unto the Lord!
The morning service began with the church members singing Not to Us which was quite moving as it brought back wonderful memories of our recent Campus Church Missions Conference. During the morning service, we gave our Tagalong introductions for the first time followed by us singing our team song, He Will See You Through. For the specials, Sara and Michael sang Behold our God with me on violin and Alex accompanying on piano. For the second special, I played Blessed Assurance on my violin with Sara accompanying on piano. After church, we went to a restaurant called Salo where we got to try Halo Halo for the first time–in English that means “mix mix.” This dessert had a variety of things “mixed” into it including Ube ice cream, creamer, milk, jello, sweet beans, ice, banana, and other odd things like that. It was AMAZING and had a nice sweet taste!
During the evening service, I once again got to play with their orchestra. Samuel sang a song in Tagalong called Still and the girls sang A World We Never Touch. Mr. Fulfer preached about the Three Lies that Satan Tells Everyone. After the evening service, we fellowshipped with the congregation and said our goodbyes. We once again were served an amazing meal by the Hursts and heard from Pastor Hurst how they came to the Philippines as missionaries. After some short fellowship, the guys and girls went their different ways to pack our luggage so that we could leave at 5am to head to Subic Bay Baptist Church. Metroview Baptist Church a great ministry to begin our missions trip and our hearts are full of thanks and appreciation for the Hursts/Behmans and their hospitality as they and Metroview Baptist Church continue to make an eternal difference in the hearts and lives of the people in Antipolo!
Lord bless,
Team Philippines