We delayed the start of Saturday morning’s appointment a little and got started a little after 9am. Mark Daquioag, a son-in-law of Rody and Tessie, joined us as our driver for the day. (Mark had been sick on Friday.) The first visit was to the Cadaanan congegation where Efren Respecio and his father share the preaching. Efren is another excellent and faithful preacher who lost his support to preach fulltime and had to return to his work as a civil engineer to support his family, but he still works extremely hard in the cause of Christ. Efren was another of the excellent students in the preacher training program at Tuguegarao (I think in 2007). His father has declined a great deal in his physical health since I last
saw him, but also continues to give his all in the cause of our Lord. I preached on “Defeating the Devil” from 1 Peter 5:8-9. Rody followed the sermon with another full and very effective summary of the study in the dialect. Three young people responded to the invitation to be baptized for the remission of sins.
We decided to go directly to the second congregation and give a short lesson in order to finish our work before the hottest part of the day. So, we proceeded to the Bangag congregation where Robert Pader preacher and began the service a little after 1pm. I preached a lesson from the account of the Philippian jailor’s conversion from Acts 16:20-34 called “From Interest to Obedience.” It was the shortest lesson I have ever preached in the Philippines, but I was running on fumes by the time I finished. Rody gave a summary which was probably a little
longer than my lesson in which he did an excellent job of covering the material in the Ilocano dialect. At the invitation, two men who are brothers responded. They had been baptized many years ago, but had been unfaithful for 20 years. They made acknowledgements and asked for prayers on their behalf. It was an emotional and very moving scene! Their father who gave to land for the church building and had preached for years is now an aged man and is presently in the hospital. I know that he will be thrilled to hear of his sons’ decision to return to the Lord!
