This has been a difficult day in many ways, but I am
thankful for the opportunity presented for souls to hear the gospel. The drive
to the meeting place of the Lanton church here in GenSan started out on paved
roads, but once it was left for dirt roads, we had about 30 minutes of driving
over very rough roads where we bottomed out several times. (The ride back to
the hotel was in heavy traffic and terrifying!) When we arrived, we found the
building in the midst of a power outage that lasted to the lunch break. The
heat was oppressive and continued to sap strength throughout the day.
The morning session started late as we waited for many to
make their way to the building, many by foot and others by transportation that
has no certain schedule. I began with a lesson on “The Seed That Grows
Salvation” as an introductory study. If you wonder why I use PowerPoint for
visual aids in my sermon, you can look at the blog and have your answer as the
chalkboard was only thing I could use with the brown-out. Jonathan Carino
followed the lesson with a detailed summary of the lesson into Cebuano. After
the lesson, we had a question on John 12:48 (which was used in the lesson) as
to the word that will judge us is the gospel or the law of Moses as Seventh-Day
Adventists claim. I then gave an extended answer showing from John when Jesus
referred to “My word,” it was clearly the gospel, not the law of Moses. I also noted
the contrast between the new law for the new kingdom (the kingdom of heaven)
and the old law for the old kingdom (physical Israel). Jonathan then translated
the points made into the dialect.
With the power coming back on during the lunch break, we
started again quickly to take advantage of it for our PowerPoint charts which
are of great help for the understanding of the audiences over hear. We began
with me preaching on “Confusing the Simple Truth” showing the clarity of the
Bible’s teaching on various points versus the confusion of man’s doctrines and
practices. James Armada then gave a detailed summary of the lesson into
Cebuano. After that, Jonathan preached a sermon in the dialect on “The
Establishment of the Kingdom.” During the afternoon session, we had
intermittent rain (many times with bright sunshine at the same time) that made
it feel like a steam bath to me. It was interested to watch the metal roof next
to the building during the rain. Despite the rain, no water was dripping off of
the roof because it turned to steam immediately because of the heat of the
metal roof. That is the first time I had seen that sight!
Teaching in these rural areas of Mindanao requires more
simplification and more explanation for several reasons. First, the language
barrier is far more pronounced as very few understand any English requiring
more detailed translation which takes much time. Second, the general level of
education possible in more developed areas is not present here.
During Jonathan’s afternoon lesson on the kingdom, two
things were very disturbing. First, I found out the results of our elections as
a young man approached me when I walked outside for a moment. Second, there was
a large disturbance coming from next door. (The people were not Christians.) I
kept hearing a sound of some animal that I could not place, but finally saw
through the bamboo fence what it was. Four or five boys had a monkey swinging
from a rope tied to a tree while they tormented it. Though I was disturbed by
the commotion, I noticed that none of the audience even noticed anything, but
were carefully listening to the lesson. An American attending services over
hear is often distracted when animals (dogs, cats, chickens, a pig, mice, geckos
and insects beyond number) wonder in and out, but it is such a normal scene to
Filipinos that they pay it no attention.
