The Philippines: Day 4

Sunday, March 2.

This was our first Sunday in Manila and we went to two churches. 

The first church was about 2-3 miles from the Weisser's house, so Seth had us walk to it. This church was a church for the blind. The pastor there works with Resources for the blind. His name is Pastor Ranold and he is such a humble man; he's also blind.

(photo taken by Darcy)

He opened his garage so that the church could have somewhere to meet. They are rapidly out growing the garage but they're content in staying there. The people there have such giving hearts! During debrief someone mentioned that even though the people have really no money it seemed that everyone put something into the offering plate. 

Before we left on our trip this church had asked for us to prepare a song and for two of our teammates to share their testimonies. I was apart of the music group. I sang along with Luke and Charlie. Elizabeth played the keyboard, Vica played her ukulele and Jared played his mandolin. We had prepared the song 10,000 Reasons. 

(photo taken by Darcy)

So after corporate worship was done then we sang our song. I am so glad that I was apart of that song! Something that was amazing to see was when we had been singing for a few second I noticed people eyes were closing. They were already blind and they still had the wanting to worship the Lord even more so they closed their eyes. My uncle said that it could have been their way of bowing before the Lord. I just thought that it was amazing and I almost started crying so I don't think I looked up again. 

After we were done Jared shared his testimony then Vica shared hers. Pastor Ranold translated all of what they shared into Tagalog for us. Once they were finished with their testimonies Pastor Ranold went right into his sermon. He spoke in Tagalog the entire time so I had no idea what he was saying. But I understood that he was thanking the Lord for something because he was continually saying salamat po which means thank you. 

We stayed a little bit after the sermon to interact with the people a little bit, then walked back to the house. 

We changed and drove over to the mall we had been at the day before to eat in the food court and exchange more money. It was quite the experience. I had to choose food and then order it. I think choosing was the most difficult thing. They had so many options and not everything looked the best. I ended going for some pork BBQ with a side of rice. It turned out to be really spicy. But it was good! For desert I had a waffle stick that had Belgium cream in it. It was so good!! It got rid of the spiciness of the pork. 

We left there and went straight to the second church. 

 (photo taken by Luke)

This is Christ's Commission Fellowship. That building that you see is all theirs. Everything is paid and and they don't owe a thing on it. That building can hold 10,000 people. That's pretty crazy!! It's a more Americanized church but it was again awesome to see people worship the Lord. Almost everything was in English, so we are able to understand everything. The sermon was really good. The Pastor was teaching on the Flood. He was telling us how, in almost all the cultures they have a flood like story that has been passed down from generations. He said other things that I have learned here at school and from church. Then he brought up the Chinese symbol for flood and boat. To make up the character for flood the characters water, total, together, earth, eight are used. Then to make up boat the characters vessel, eight and people are used. I just thought that was so amazing!! I had never heard that before! It really enjoyed that. 

After church we got into the car, drove couple of blocks to a market. The way that we entered the market you entered this giant dog market. There were puppies everywhere and grooming places everywhere!! I think that was the most puppies I have ever seen in one area before. And of course me being the dog lover that my mother taught me to be, I wanted to take each one of them home. 

After all of the puppies you walk right into a food court. No health department here! It was here that Seth told us to be back there at a certain time so we could eat and watch a performance. We were shown where the market was and went off in groups! 

This was where I did my first haggling ever and I learned that I stink at it. You want 150 pesos for that? Okay! I was no good. 

Our time was up in the market so we went back to the food court. Seth had ordered food for us and we sat down at a table. The performance that we watched was a culture dance. They went through all the different styles of dance that the Filipinos have had. It was really interesting! 

The food was just as interesting. Seth got us a mixer of stuff. Pork, fish, baby fish that looked like deep fried sardines. Calamari, some sort of salty soup, and of course rice. I actually tried everything and really only liked the rice. 

 (photo taken by Elizabeth)

That was day 4 for us!