work on the beginning lesson, I was so tired that I gave up and went to sleep. I awoke at 4am this morning and worked until time to shower and get to breakfast. After eating, we left the hotel about 6:45am.Our commute from Bacolod to Ilo-Ilo took about 90 minutes on the Fastcraft. I worked on the new lesson for the entire trip while Jonathan Carino and Lordy Salunga became more acquainted with Chip Foster. The sea was not overly rough this time, so the trip was rather pleasant.
Upon arrival in Ilo-Ilo, we were taken by a taxi to the venue for the lectures. The function room was very good with a clear sound system and well laid out space for teaching purposes. Jack Jaco and Roy Matta had come over on an earlier Fastcraft to set up the venue and they did an excellent job. Shortly after our arrival at about 9am, we started with some singing led by Jack Jaco. I then gave a starting lesson on “Salvation & God’s Word, the Seed” followed by a lesson on “The Inspiration of Scripture.” Chip Forster followed with an excellent lesson on “Who Will Be Saved.” Jonathan Carino took the remaining time before lunch to do a fundamental lesson on “What Is the Church?”
After the lunch break, I began with a condensed and compiled lesson on “How to Establish Divine Authority.” Chip Foster then followed with a lesson on “Worldliness Versus Godly Living.” I followed with an abbreviated version of “Grace, Faith and Obedience” before we had a question and answer session to close the day’s lectures. We had questions on the church, the thief on the cross, suicide, the relationship of baptism and circumcision, and one dealing with whether people are created by God as righteous or sinners. The interest of the audience was excellent throughout the lectures and the question/answer period.
There were 79 people who attended today’s lectures. Not only were they were very attentive to the lessons, but they were reading the passages cited and taking notes. We were very pleased with the reaction. Several seem to be seriously considering the need to obey the gospel. We look forward to continuing our studies with them in the morning, the Lord willing.
We again boarded the Fastcraft at 5pm for the hour and a half trip back to Bacolod. This commute was also fairly smooth and uneventful. Once back in Bacolod, we went to Max’s - a chicken restaurant chain in the Philippines. (The background music was from a Filipino group singing “Rhinestone Cowboy,” “Hotel California,” and other familiar songs with a little different accent.) Our suppers are spent discussing what we think needs to be addressed in the next day’s work and planning on the order of those lessons that would allow for maximum effect in reaching the audience with the truth. We got back to the hotel where Chip and I discussed with Jack some details about work to be done on Saturday and Sunday. At about 9pm, I was able to start working on the lessons to be given tomorrow.
As a closing note, I had something happen yesterday that has never happened to me in our travels over here. I took Chip’s big bag along with my big bag to ship as air freight in order to avoid the high cost of excess baggage weight on our flight to Bacolod. As typical, everything took longer than seemed possible as the system is not known for great efficiency. However, when I took the bags to the X-ray check, that is when I met with the new experience. The girl that took my forms to sign for clearance of the bags came out with a serious look on her face. She cleared the belt of other items to be scanned and brought Chip’s bag back out. It was then put back into the X-ray machine and several security officers and management personnel went into the booth to see the X-ray pictures. The girl came back out with one of the officers and asked me to unlock the bag so they could look inside. It seems the bag had a padlock on it and Chip did not give me the key. I asked if there was a problem and they informed me that the X-ray showed an image of what appeared to be a gun! The eyes of everyone were now on this American with a suspicious bag as they proceeded to do 4 or 5 more X-rays from different angles before finally clearing it! Upon seeing Chip, I told him that he was taking his own bag for shipping next time. My new name for Chip is now “Pistol Pete.”
Thank you so much for showing your interest in the work being done and praying for our efforts here. Please continue to pray that God’s word might have free course into the hearts of those who seek it.
Brotherly, Harry O.
