Classes on Hebrews Begin in Puerto Princesa

 

Our original plan was to begin the classes on Hebrews for preachers on Monday here on Palawan. However, Monday was election day here in the Philippines. Since there is no early or absentee voting here, and there is a very strong taboo against not voting in this culture, the brethren had to wait until after voting on Monday before they could travel here. As I understand it, some brethren traveled 6 to 8 hours from the far north and south ends of the island and did not arrival until late Monday night or early Tuesday morning.

 

We began our classes a little after 9am and continued the morning session without any break until about 12:20pm when we broke for lunch. About 1:30pm, we started the afternoon session and had only one short break of 10 minutes, until we finished about 5:20pm. In that time, we covered an introduction to the book of Hebrews and a study of the first four chapters. At about 4:30pm, we opened the floor for questions on the things covered with Rody Gumpad translating several questions, asked in the native dialect of Tagalog, letting me answer in English, and then Rody translated the answers back into their dialect. It was a good beginning to our study and all of the preachers expressed their thanks for this opportunity provided by their brethren in the U.S.

 

We started the day with two air conditioning units, but one broke down in the morning session. As the day wore on, I began to sweat more and more until I was soaked from head to toe. There is no way of conveying how this heat totally saps one not accustomed to it of all energy. I have no idea of how many bottles of water that I drank. I know I had 4 bottles of Gatorade and I had far more water than that. Brother Dario Belviz is trying to fix that air conditioner and I am praying for his success! The Filipino brethren are much tougher than I am, taking the heat without a problem and paying close attention to the lessons. I marvel at their ability to endure all kinds of hardships, and yet stay focused on the teaching.

 

Meantime, at my hotel room, the air conditioning has already ceased working 3 times. When I have called, they have assured me that they have “fixed” it. The latest “fixing” took place about 5 minutes ago while I was writing this report, but it is hot again. So, I called again and this time, they are transferring me to another room. If that room is too cold, I promise that I will not complain!

 

Please excuse this short report, but I have several hours of work to do in studying and making preparations for tomorrow’s classes. Thank you again for your help and support in fellowship with this work!

 

Brotherly, Harry