Dear Friends and Family,“And finding a ship…we set sail”Acts21:2
Fortunately my sailing experience here in the Philippines has not
been as eventful as the Apostle Paul's. But smooth sailing it has not been. In the past couple of weeks if you had looked in on me you’d probably find me either on a bus, in a boat or on the back of a motorcycle. For this is the way most of Filipinos travel about the
country.
Pastor Danden and I went first to the Island of Behol and then on to his home island of Balicasag to check on the Gospel Boat in storage there. Unseasonable rough weather & high tides pushed
the 60 foot outrigger to a parallel position on the beach and was now being damaged by the surf. Getting to the island in a much smaller palm boat
proved wet and cold. Now there’s two words I didn’t think I’d be
using together! We had swells up to 4-5’, the Filipino version of a
“log flume ride”. The weather cleared enough to get some work started on
the repairs. In a few week it will be sea worthy. Another trip was to
Surigao City on the north end of Mindanao. Here we ministered to
five churches in about 36hrs. Whew! The planned trip to Davao in
central Mindanao was postponed because of time constraints and the
start of the next block of Bible School classes.
A sad note; while travel we learned of the devasting mudslides of
southern Leyte that claimed the lives of over 1,000 Filipinos including
an entire school of appox. 250 students & teachers. It breaks my heart
knowing the kind of people this happen to. We actually came within
40 miles of the place about 12hrs after the event.
I am including a US military web site with a picture of the Leyte mudslide devastation. Note the small village in the foreground would be about 1/2 the size of the one covered in the background. There would have also been houses in the mountainous area as well, for this is how they live and make their livings.
http://www.pacom.mil/special/0602pimudslide/photos/
060219-N-5067K-109-h.jpg There are also additional Pics on this site if you are interested.
This past week I was busy teaching at the Bible School and traveling to some of the Mountain Churches. This time I decided to bring “Saul”,(a large puppet), which I use to tell the story of the Apostle Paul’s conversion and how God used little known Ananias (Acts9:1-19). I will usually do this in Children's ministry but felt the Lord would have me use it as part of an illustrated sermon. It worked quite well as I
preached on how we each need to experience God for ourselves.I am now over half way through my planned stay here, but sometimes it seems like I’m just getting started. There is still much do & places to go. As always I covet your prayers
and thank those of you who have contributed in a financial way.
Information on giving can be found at the bottom of this “Blog”.
God's Best & Blessings to You, Russ
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