Philippines Missions

Nilson

Friday, October 9, 2009

This is Nilson. He was a good friend to me when I was in Valencia. He is an English major in college and has just finished his final exams. He helped translate to me what people were saying and he knew English word origins. I told him he should teach me English! We discussed regional english and regional expressions. I tried to explain to him about the south and our drawwwwwlll. I don't know if I got "ya all" over to him.

We had a lot of fun talking about such phrases.

Nilson has studied leading in worship and the whole team in Valencia is held together by him.

His life consists of school and church. He goes to the church every Saturday and practices with the band. Then all day in Sunday worship. Whenever I asked about where Nilson lives I was always told, "it is very far." ?? So considering how the Philippino must travel I know it is a great sacrifice for him to get to the church both Saturday and Sunday.

Most memorable thing about him was the Sunday that I preached "Jesus Christ" as the salvation name. Nilson got up and was leading in worship as I was praying for the people and he started singing, "I belong to Jesus Christ...Jesus Christ is my God...Jesus Christ is my Saviour." He received a seed of the word of the gospel of "Jesus Christ" and that was worth all to make my journey to Valencia.

Pray for Nilson as he seeks God's will for his life.

David Adrales and Heidi

This is David and Heidi. They live in Valencia. She leads in praise and worship at the Jesus for all Missions Church, she is a front singer and has great stage presence.
When we did the open air meeting in a province about our hour motorcycle ride outside of Valencia David and Heidi drove a motorela and took many of our team to the site. David plays the guitar and sings, he has a very good voice. David has a great heart and passion for God. He is always smiling and has leadership potential. He is praying for direction for his life and wants to always serve the Lord. He and Heidi plan on being married at some date in the future.

When I took this picture David was moving and the digital camera I had required a few seconds of no movement or the picture would be blurry. I told David they were all bad pictures and if he wanted me to get a good one he would have to sit still and pose. When the Philippino put their hand under their chin like David is doing it is saying, "I am handsome!"

This is Jimuel and his little brother Jimboy.
Their father died when Jimuel was five, and Jimboy 3. They do not remember him and have never seen a photograph of him. Their mother remarried and their step father could not afford to raise these two boys, if I remember correctly they told me their was then 7 children. So he left them with their grandmother. This is a common story in the Philippines. She lives in Iligan City and is very poor and she thought that the boys would be better cared for in the orphanage. They have lived there for the last 3 years. The first Sunday I was in Valencia I opened my Bible (gold page, leather bound, etc). Jimuel commented and said, "beautiful Bible." I noticed that Jimuel was reading from a Gideon Bible. I asked him if it was his Bible and he said, "No sir, I have no Bible." It hurt my feelings to think that he did not have his own personal bible, so I gave him the pesos to buy a bible. He asked me to sign it for him and I took his picture. From that momemnt on we were friends...he brought me hot coffee every morning, washed my clothes, and climbed the volcano with me. If there was any way possible, I would bring him and his little brother to America to live.

Jimboy plays the guitar. It is a cheap china made guitar but he makes it sound like a "martin." He is a pretty good singer and will sing harmony with his brother. They love to sing worship music by Hillsong and Don Moen.

This is JohnJohn. He is an orphan child and lives in the Ramada orphanage in Valencia. He was one of the saddest cases of children I saw. When I got there they told me that he was mentally retarded and that he had a skin disease. I looked at his skin and he had 3 ringworms, one on his arm and the others on his legs. He was not being treated and the ringworm was as big as a silver dollar. That night I went to the Pharmacy and bought the anti-fungal cream and asked that it be put on the boy twice a day. He was a lot better 1 week later when I left but was still not cured. I think that if he were in America we would say he was "autistic." And that he had behaviour problems...maybe ADD. We would get him some special education classes and send him to school. But that is not an option in the Philippines, unless you pay, it is very expensive for them. So Johnjohn...is just existing; not being educated or properly cared for. He will forever be at the mercy of those around him.
He has only a mother, who lives many hours away, his father is dead. His mother is remarried and cannot care for Johnjohn. She abandoned him at the orphanage. The night I arrived he tried to tell me his story and sat on the dirty concrete floor and cried for an hour. I could not understand him...except for the word, "momma."

The day before I left the Philippines I want to Cagayan De Oro, my flight left at
9AM and Cagayan is at least a two hours bus ride from Iligan, so we had to get a hotel.
I saw the traditional dress of the Philippine men, it is called a Baroung. The traditional one is white and is wore with a white T-shirt underneath. Then they have this style that is pictured. I bought Pastor Winston and his Assistant Pastor Ernesto a Baroung.

Bro Ernesto and his wife Edith

Here is a beautiful family that attends the Church of Jesus Chirst Iligan. The childern call me Unle Bill. Sis Lois married a wonderful man and when they had children he wanted to provide them with the best life possible. So he did what many many Filipino men do, he took a job overseas. That means he cannot visit his home but one time a year. His children have only seen him a handful of times. But he is a good provider for them and his wife. He lives in Malaysia, I spoke to him on the phone...but his English was not good enough for me to understand. But he was trying to thank me because his wife had received a miracle when I prayed for her. Two weeks later I saw and heard her crying and thanking God for giving her this healing.

Just before I left the Philippines I wanted to give this beautiful family a gift. Because their father makes such a huge sacrifice for his family they are able to afford a few things that other Filipinos will never be able to buy, they have a telephone and have Internet in their home. So I gave them enough US $ to buy an MP3 player. Lovelychristin was my interpreter for many trips and helped me in many ways, she helped me carry some of my equipment and watched it for me during meetings and while we traveled. She, Johnbronson and their mother were a great blessing to me.

This is Sis Lois leading the worship at the church.

This is the oldest child, Lovelychristine.
She was the first to teach me of the Philippine custom of taking an elders hand and placing it on the forehead of the children. This is their way of showing respect to the elders. As soon as she saw me she grabbed my hand and placed it on her forehead and said that this was their custom and "welcome elder Bill."

This is Johnbronson. I took the photo of him playing the bass and his sister took the other two and emailed them to me.

Mayor "Jose" Catarata

This is the mayor of the City of Valencia. He invited us to come and meet with him. We discussed how that the church of Jesus Christ could partner with the government to advance the lives of the people. In the video he stated that he believes that people need to put God first in thier lives and he said that we need to reinforce that thru the church and government. He is a very wise man, well educated and speaks english very well. He invited me to return for a city wide crusade and said the schools would be open for us to speak in, teaching the childeren the dangers of drugs and crime. After we made this short video we prayed together and asked God for his guidance. The mayor requested prayer for wisdom to lead the city. He views himself as a "father" to the people and is very concerned about thier quality of life. He wants to bring the city forward with new laws that will better the lives of the people.

The mayor presenting me with a gift from the city of Valencia, he said I want you to know you are very welcome and that you have been in a "city of friendship"!

The mayor and myself.

The mayor, myself and his sister.