My Sunday was not nearly as busy as I anticipated. Instead of preaching at two congregations, I only preached at one. My voice is still not back to full strength, so it is probably best that arrangements could not be made at multiple places. Most congregations in the area meet at 7am or 8am. It is hard to get to those very distant ones at an early hour. The congregations closest to here are the congregation at the prison where Willey Pastor is and the congregation very near that where Elijah Sikat and Atoy Franco labor. Since permission could not be obtained on short notice to preach at the prison, I worship with the other congregation.
The Southville 3 church meets in the home of Lucio Centeno and his family in Muntinlupe City. The home is in the middle of a densely populated section that seems very migratory. Just feet from their meeting place are open air markets for meats, fish, fruits and other things. The streets are very narrow with each dwelling sharing a wall with those on either side as well as being very close to the ones behind. While preaching, a number of people outside stopped to hear because of it being a foreigner. I preached in the same place several years ago and noticed the same thing. The home is a simple concrete block structure measuring no more than 10 feet by 12 feet. We had 14 meeting there today. Three were visitors who have not obeyed the gospel, but had been invited by Lucio to come for the service. I preached on “Who Can Call God ‘Father’?” from 1 Peter 1:17-25. It was an extended first principles lesson because Elijah had to translate sentence-for-sentence into Tagalog since the audience did not speak English. The brethren said they believe the visitors understood the lesson and a door was opened to further teach. They asked if I could come back for a meeting of two or three days to help evangelize that community by preaching at the public government area.
For lunch, I took Elijah and Atoy out to a KFC at a mall on the way back. We talked some about the work that had been done in the area since I had last been there and of their plans for future work. Atoy reminded me of the funds provided for song books when I last came there. I had forgotten about it, but the song books they had printed were very good. Both Elijah and Atoy are very diligent and zealous in the Lord’s work. It is a joy to work with them. After returning to the hotel, I worked on future sermons to put in PowerPoint that I have used over here when I only had a blackboard with which to illustrate.
I was able to go online to Delta and check-in for the flight tomorrow. That was encouraging as it shows their plans are still for the flight to go as scheduled. Please pray that the flight will be allowed to go as planned. The unexpected extension has been both expensive and exasperating. I am very ready to be home! Thanks again for all who have helped make this effort possible.
Brotherly, Harry O.
