HIJCC - Bulihan

Brian and I spent Sunday through Wednesday with Pastor Dong Apuyo at Holiness In Jesus Christian Church (HIJCC) in Bulihan. On Sunday, the church celebrated its 11th anniversary. Mr. Scott spoke with the theme being "Overcoming evil with good through Christ." This is also the church that our group went to last year to sand the walls and paint. The sanctuary is almost completely finished now (all that is left to do is put up a ceiling above the balcony). It looks really nice now.

On Monday, we went with Pastor Dong to visit some of the church members in the morning and got a little while to rest in the afternoon. Pastor Dong's youngest brother, Rohelio, and two of his friends, Marlon and Daril, accompanied us around in the morning and afternoon. They were really great to be around and they made us feel very welcome while we were there. We played some chess with them and they tried to teach us how to play the guitar. Monday night we had our first youth fellowship. There were about 20 youth there from the church with about half being believers. I shared the gospel with them and Brian talked about discipleship and we played a game in between. Pastor Dong translated for us and it seemed like the messages were well accepted.

On Tuesday morning we hung out with Rohelio, Marlon and Daril for a little while before we started making visits with Pastor Dong. Another of Pastor Dong's brothers, Tutoy, and the other three guys went with us to visit church members again. In the afternoon, we hung out with Ro, Marlon and Daril again before heading to a women's fellowship at about 5. The women shared some of what was going on in their lives and Brian and I shared a little about our background and why we were in the Philippines. We then ate what we thought was dinner with the women only to find out afterwards that it was a merienda (snack). After the fellowship, we went back to the church and had a second youth rally. This time Brian shared the gospel and I spoke about leadership. Once again the messages seemed to be well accepted. We then talked with the youth some as they thanked us for coming and we thanked them for there hospitality and tried to encourage them before we left. We then finally had dinner at about 10:30 and we got to spend a long time talking with Pastor Dong.

Wednesday morning we went out with Pastor Dong and the guys again to visit members. We then had lunch and headed back to Alabang.

It was great to spend a lot of time with Pastor Dong. I think he was encouraged by the time we had. He is 33 and he and his wife, Vivian, have 5 kids. He is still attending seminary and hopefully will be ordained soon. He also has a water distribution business that he runs with Tutoy, as the church cannot completely provide for his needs. Please pray for him and HIJCC - Bulihan. Most of the church members there are poor, but they give a lot to the church. Please pray for Daril as he started college on Wednesday to get a computer programming degree. Rohelio and Marlon are both looking to attend seminary soon.

Please pray for me that I would get the opportunity to go back and visit them at least once before I leave. Also, pray for Brian and I as we head out to another church on Friday. And pray for safety for the CMPC time as the leave for home Friday morning.

In Christ,

David