Rod and I rode the bus from Manila Sunday night and we got to Tabuk, his town, Monday morning. This bus ride is probably the longest bus ride I've every taken in my life! It was supposed to be 10 hours (already pretty long), but the bus ended up going a longer route with more stops, so it turned out to be 12 hours!
Now, I can handle a 12 hour flight pretty easily, because on flights you have 2 full meals, snacks, and movies/entertainment included, pluspillow and blanket. But a bus ride here in the Philippines is a different story, no movies, no food or drinks, and a bumpy ride! (bad roads, lots of traffic, etc.) One other thing is that the air condition on these buses are super strong, so it's like being in a fridge for 12 hours. I don't know why they turn up the AC so high, but it has been like that for all my past bus rides in the PH too. Pretty crazy. So I have to pretty much wear lots of layers and pants and jacket while in the bus, and still feel like an ice cube.
So we left Manila after 10 pm on Sunday, and finally arrived in Tabuk at 10 am the following day. The reason for the 2 hour extra was that there was another bus that broke down, going to different towns nearby Tabuk, so our bus picked up additional passengers from that other bus midway through our trip, and hence we had to drop them off before reaching Tabuk. Now, the crazy thing was that the bus driver annouced in Tagalog (PH language) that for those of us who needs to get to Tabuk quicker we can switch to another bus midway through our trip,but when the driver made that announcement in the middle of the trip, my friend Rod (and translator) was asleep (because it was already past midnight), so he didn't hear the announcement for us to transfer, and so when he woke up, we were stuck on this bus that was making additional stops in other towns. Anyways, we finally got to Tabuk, praise God, and we spend the whole day resting, and everything is ok.
Tonight is the start of meetings in Bantay, 45 minutes away by car,and I will be playing violin and speaking tomorrow (Wed) morning and afternoon, hopefully about the Father love of God, intimate worship, and spiritual breakthrough. You can keep me in your prayers for this time in Bantay. Thursday will be a rest/worship practice day, and Friday is the start of a 2 day Seminar which I'm leading here in Bulanao Church, Tabuk. Saturday night I will visit the local Christian orphanage to minister there, and Sunday morning I'll help with worship, and in the afternoonI have a youth leadership training meeting. So that's the rest of my ministry schedule here in Tabuk!
As I told them, I want to focus more on relationships than ministry. I think the one-on-one conversations I have with friends here, to listen to where they are at in the Lord, and to encourage them and pray for them, are actually more important than the large group meetings that we do. If the leaders in the local church can be encouraged and build up in theLord, then the rest of the people will be build up by them. Next Monday I will go with Rod on a bus to Baguio City, to visit my friends there. I am already having a good time, catching up with my friends here in Tabuk.
The weather here is beautiful and much better than I expected. It is very humid, but not as hot as last year. We have good cloud cover so it's much cooler, probably in the 70s right now with gentle breezes. Tabuk is in a wide valley in the countryside, surrounded by beautiful mountains on both side. It's a great place to live, except that it's so far away from Manila and the airport!Anyways, thanks for all your prayers, as they are really empowering me here! I am very excited and looking forward to the seminar meetings coming up. You can join in faith with me to believe that God will domighty things here. Whether through me or through others or just the Holy Spirit touching people without human intervention. God will be glorified here in the Philippines!
Lastly, we did go to the Heidi Baker meeting in Manila, but we actually didn't get to hear Heidi speak! The arena event was from 3-9 pm, andwe were only able to stay from 3-6 pm. They were saving Heidi to be the last speaker. But we were really encouraged to see the size ofthe crowd there for the whole thing. The worship was really powerful and God was really present and moving among the people. The earlierPH speakers were great and they really press in to pray for national revival in the Philippines. A local major church in Manila is already currently experiencing revival, as for the past 3 weeks they had such an explosion of healing, signs and wonders and miracles, as they have never seen before in the history of this local church. Now they are believing that this miracles explosion is only the beginning of what God wants to do in the whole nation, and in local churches throughout the land.
It was really good for me to go and hear about all these great and wonderful things that God is doing here, so I can be encouraged and built up in my faith as I minister to the people. Thanks again for all your prayers, and please continue to pray for me, for our team, and for the Philippines!
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