The Lord’s day here began with me going with John Carino, Jhun Carpentero (son of my late good friend, Cip), Carlito Abella and Ben Canada to the congregation where Ben preaches. When asked how long of a taxi ride it was, I was told about 20 minutes. About 45 minutes later, we arrived at the place where the road ended. The village is right on the sea with Samal Island visible in the distance. For several miles, we had gone into the village with open sewer lines running beside the road. They empty into the sea at an inlet in view of Ben’s place. Though the ride was very rough in the taxi, it was much to be preferred to the manually powered tricycle we had to ride on the way out.
The building where the church meets is about 12 feet wide by 20 feet long. I asked Ben where he lived and he showed me a little thatch room in the back no more than 4 feet wide by 6 feet long. Our master closet at home is larger than his living space! In that space, he lives with his wife and 4 children, from 15 to 4. Ben gave up a very lucrative salary as a city chaplain when he obeyed the gospel and now lives a very sparse existence without complaint, but with great zeal as he seeks to spread the gospel. I am humbled and, frankly, ashamed when I see the examples of selfless dedication so abundantly evident in many brethren here in the Philippines.
The worship of the church was very uplifting. About 30-35 were present with all except the young children and 2 first-time visitors being baptized members. I was asked to preach on “Bible Teaching on the Family.” Since they requested that I give as much detail as possible in the time we had, I preached for about an hour and a half. John followed that with a short lesson on “The Church.” With the metal roof and the lack of breeze, the heat became stifling by the time we ended a little after noon. I brought my digital thermometer and it read 95 to start and went up to 98 before we were through. Still, all of the people expressed their wish that we could stay all day and teach more. None were baptized at this place, but the brethren are clearly learning, living and teaching to the best of their ability and with great zeal.
We then traveled back into the central business area of Davao to meet with another group for their services and lectures afterwards. The situation with this group is interesting and presents both challenges and opportunities. The preacher and his wife have been baptized within the past few weeks as a result of Jonathan Carino’s teaching to them. However, the group with whom they have been meeting is clearly denominational in its beliefs. They do not use instrumental music because they have no building. They meet from place to place as they make arrangements. Today, we rented a venue that normally functions as an “all you can eat seafood” place of the Filipino variety, so that it could accommodate the group and visitors that they invited. Let me just say that the aroma was potent.
We began about 2pm and went until a little after 9pm. I presented lessons on “Inspiration,” “Salvation & Saul” and “Identifying the NT Church.” John gave a lesson on “Faith & Works.” To end the lectures, we had a question and answer period with a variety of topics covered. I urged those who saw the need to be baptized properly, for the remission of sins, to do so at that time. The preacher met quickly with those attending and said 9 of them wanted to obey the gospel. One man who is a cousin of Ben Canada came to me and told me he also wanted to be baptized. So, following the close of the session, 10 headed out to be baptized tonight. We were thankful to God for the power of His word.
When we were on our way back to the hotel, we heard from Ron Halbrook and his companions that 9 had obeyed the gospel where they had gone to preach. With 19 souls baptized into Christ here, it has been a great day in Davao!
[The picture to the left is Ben Canada and his family.]
