Character Enhancement/Subic Bay Mission Church/San Martin Baptist Church, Olongapo (Wednesday)
We started the morning with a devotional service with all of the children’s home children, staff, as well as our group. Logan gave the devotional for this service. We all wore our uniforms today, and from 9 a.m. til noon, we were able to participate in a Character Enhancement program with Dr. Cirone giving two lectures on leadership integrity and biblical principles on policing along with sharing his “values journey” which included the plan of Salvation. Those attending included a number of police officers, Filipino Army and Special forces members, and BPAT officials–Praise God as two individuals trusted Christ as their Savior. The program included lunch, and it was such an honor to become acquainted with some of Philippines finest community defenders and servants!
During the afternoon, we visited two mission churches. The first church (Subic Bay Mission Church) was in a rural farming community and pastored by Pastor Dominic–thankfully no interpreters were needed. We were able to give our introductions in Tagalog and sing, and Samuel preached. Just as we began, it poured raining making it very difficult to hear as the rain was hitting the tin roof. At the second mission church (San Martin Baptist Church) which is pastored by Pastor Zarel, we needed to use an interpreter. A large number of children came, and everyone could not fit in the mission church building. We had the children come outside as Adi gave the lesson and Dr. Cirone and Mr. Fulfer blew up animal balloons for all the children while the team made different balloon hats, etc. (there were A LOT of children and unfortunately no one on the team brought their balloon pump). For the adults, Jaken preached, the team gave our Tagalog introductions, and we only sang our group song that included Tagalog, and Samuel and Kaitlynn each sang in the Tagalog language. At each of the mission churches, we were able to hand out a package of food to the attendees on behalf of Project Dorcas at Subic Bay Baptist Church.
On the way back, just before dark, we were able to stop at a viewing area for Subic Bay. Jollibee was the Filipino restaurant we ate at for supper (approximately USD $3 per person)–I guess you could say that this was quite the “steal!” Again, our team had several great opportunities to minister.
Team Philippines
