After several days spent in
travel, our work in preaching the gospel started today. This has been one of
those trips where travel has been delayed more than what I would wish. The
flight out of Oklahoma City was delayed in landing at Atlanta due to heavy air
traffic. Leaving Atlanta, we were delayed due to several mechanical problems
with the airplane. Even though this took about an hour as we waited on board at
the gate, I was glad that they took the time necessary to fix them before we
left. When one spends hours flying over open ocean, a fully functional airplane
is greatly preferred.
The delayed departure plus
another delay in a holding pattern at Tokyp due to weather and heavy traffic put
us very late into Tokyo. When I got off of the plane, it was about 30 minutes
until departure time for the Manila flight. A very young, thin and nimble
Japanese man led several of us American of a far lesser state of fitness on a
run through back areas of Tokyo Narita to a lesser used security clearance.
Though quite tired, sore and breathing heavily, I made it to the gate as they
were pre-boarding the elderly and families with young children. At that point,
there was another long delay before others were loaded as well as another long
delay when we got on board – both for unexplained reasons. The result was a
very delayed arrival into Manila after midnight.
The late arrival in Manila led
to another big problem. I got the last room in the hotel – a room with a major
mildew problem. By Wednesday morning, I had a sinus problem that grew worse as
my travel continued to Bacolod yesterday. Today, it had developed into a
general cold with sore throat, a cough and the other usual symptoms. I had
problems with my voice in the preaching, but we were able to go the full day.
The day began with a 2 hour
trip over Philippine roads guaranteed to jar the teeth of anyone who still has
them. Once at Escalante City, the venue was an open building with a large metal
roof and a simple concrete floor – no walls. It rained on and off all day and
it was still hot. I took the full time for the morning session by preaching over
2 hours on an introductory message about the word of God as the seed and then
moved to a lesson on “Identifying the New Testament Church.”
After lunch, I used the same
basic point of the gospel being the seed that produces salvation and contrasted
that with the “seed” of denominational groups found in their teaching of error.
The point was that you cannot plant the wrong seed and end up with the right
fruit spiritually any more than you can physically. With my voice gone for a
while, Jonathan Carino then preached “Saved by the Blood, Saved by Baptism,” a
lesson pointing out that the Bible shows several factors to be involved in our
salvation, none of which would save us without the presence of the other
factors involved. I followed that with the final lesson on “Let Us Not Grow
Weary.”
Jack Jaco made a summary in
the local dialect (Ilongo) and extended the invitation. Three people, one man
and two women, responded to be baptized into Christ. It was a very good start
to the teaching efforts!
The journey back was longer
with more traffic and in the midst of more rain. Any holes, bumps and rough
spots we missed on the way there, we hit on the return trip along with a repeat
of the ones experienced earlier in the day. Driving on Philippine roads is
enough to make me very thankful for the blessing of our roads at home!
The Lord willing, we preach at
two congregations meeting at Manapla tomorrow. Please keep us in your prayers.
