Today’s venue was about an hour and a half south of Ormoc at Baybay in a building owned by the provincial government. It is built as a lecture hall with the audience seated in stepped up level about the speaker. It had air conditioning that tried to overcome the heat from outside and the fact that doors were rarely closed after being opened. Over 70 were present for the studies of the day – about 20 more than anticipated. They were very attentive, but were limited in understanding of English, so we had to summarize each of the lessons into the dialect.
I again started with the study on “The Word of the Gospel, the Seed & Salvation” from 1 Peter 1:22-25. We emphasized the need for turning to the right seed (the gospel) if we want to produce the right product (salvation in Christ). Without break, I then went into the lesson “How Did God Used the Prophets to Speak His Will?” Jonathan Carino then summarized the lesson into the dialect before we broke for lunch.
The first lesson of the afternoon session was “Salvation & Saul.” This study was chosen because it deals in detail with the issues relating to the plan of salvation and it is the most familiar lesson on that subject to the Filipino brethren traveling with me. Jonathan Carino has interpreted that lesson for me numerous times. Since I crowd was largely limited in understanding English, John needed to give a detailed summary of the lesson. It is always interesting for me to notice the faces of the crowd because it is soon apparent whether they understand what I am saying. More than half of this audience seemed not to understand the majority of what I said. However, when John taught the material in the dialect, their faces lighted up with understanding and they responded when he asked questions and called on them to give a conclusion.
The next lecture was on “Identifying the Church in the New Testament” based on 1 Cor. 1:1-2. We studied the meaning and use of the term “church” in the NT. We then showed identifying characteristics by which one may recognize a local congregation with whom they may rightly work in service to Christ with fellow Christians. John again summarized the lesson in detail for the audience.
The last lesson was on “Counting the Cost” from Luke 14. John also summarized that lecture into the dialect and then extended the invitation for those who were ready to obey the gospel. There were no visible responses to the gospel from these lectures. I believe this is the second or third time I have preached in Baybay and there have been no visible responses in any of those efforts. This place and Tacloban have both been particularly hard to penetrate with the gospel, but we keep trying!
The internet connection at our hotel continues to be a problem. While here in Leyte, we are trying to go to a place that has an internet connection on our way back to the hotel so I can file my report while the other guys eat supper. That means my reports are more hurried than normal, so please excuse my typos and other mistakes. Thanks again for your help in every way and please keep us in your prayers.
Brotherly, Harry O.
