You are worthy of it all,
You are worthy of it all
For from You are all things,
and to You are all things
You deserve the glory!
I woke up at around 2 or 3 in the morning feeling all cold. I switched off the air conditioning and spread the one sheet intended for guests to use as a blanket. Also, turned off the bathroom light.
Woke up at around, oh, 7 or so. Took some time to gather myself, and to take a drink of water. Updated Ann, and then I suited up to take a run. There’s an abandoned runway intended for small planes near our hotel, so I decided to pay that place a visit to see if they still allow people to jog.
Actually, the introvert in me thought to walk around the place to see my chances first. When I saw what seemed to be a father and daughter just chilling on the runway, I was confident enough to walk back to what would have been the actual terminal of the airport to ask the folks who looked like they were guarding the place, if I could also go inside. They quickly said yes, and I thought to myself, this runway was mine.
The reality was I was owned by the runway. One way down and one way back the runway was a total distance of 3 kilometers, and a totally jog-satiated me. I was averaging 8 minutes a kilometer on that road, but the total time was dragged down by my walking so much in the first and last kilometers between the hotel and the runway.
Soon as I got back I saw Rey N in the reception area – it looked like he came from the market because he had a couple of bags with him. He offered to treat me for coffee, and we went to the nearby Jolibee, as we both wanted brewed versus instant coffee (that is, it’s more like instant milk and sugar with a touch of coffee). I didn’t realize till we got there that he didn’t just want coffee, but also treated me to a cheesy bacon and egg sandwich too. There goes the diet, I thought – but hey, the sandwich turned out to taste a lot better than I expected.
Or was I just hungry? More on that later.
Anyway I took some time after our breakfast meeting to come back to the room, freshen up and write Down South, Day 1 before heading out to the hotel event area, where most, if not all of the other folks we set off from Baguio to meet were gathered.
Today’s program format consisted of each member of the team speaking to these fine folk, and it was our teammate, Rey C, who was speaking to them when I walked into the room. I quickly gathered that he was talking about positive thinking, but not leaving out that it’s much more than this concept to those of us who were in Christ; He topped all of his funny stories off by ultimately saying, that you live what you believe – or, as Joseph Prince would say so much, right believing leads to right living.
Next up to bat was Rey N, who said that it was time for us to seek the Lord. He took this quite seriously, going as far as giving someone in the audience his watch – and not just for show, he actually gave his watch to this lady. How do we seek the Lord in these seemingly final and turbulent hours? Well, in his typical high-energy style he gave three items for our consideration: First, he said we seek the Lord as in understanding His way – and quoting Isaiah’s words, he emphasized that His way is greater than our ways, so we ought to take some time to ponder on it that we would be in line with it. Second, we seek the Lord by way of reading His Word – and considering that most in attendance were actual pastors, he merely reminded them (and us) that it’s easier now than ever to access the Bible – There’s a lot of print media for sure, but there are even more online resources, and so much more ways to access and open said resources. Finally, he said that we seek the Lord by walking with His Spirit – I’m not directly quoting him on this but I suppose his point was leading more to pointing out that if we worship in Spirit and in Truth, so we also walk (or live) in Spirit and in Truth.
Ronnie was up next, and his was a simple piece emphasizing how all of us in the body of Christ should operate in love. From the biggest transactions to the smallest of matters, we move out of the love that we have for God, and we also move through the love He gives to us. He kept joking about how his time slot was just before lunch time, and he kept pleading for those in attendance to love him and to love one another by being patient and keeping their stomachs in check.
But really, who could blame them? Lunch consisted of occasional fare, such as pancit and Filipino style chopsuey, but it was made much more rustic with goat. Pinapaitan (goat-innard soup – don’t bash it till you try it) and kaldereta (goat stew) took center stage, and, well, most of it was demolished in the first 10 minutes of feasting. Fortunately there was enough suman (rice confections wrapped in banana leaves) to satisfy everyone.
Then it was my turn to speak. I told everyone to relax, and said that it was okay for them to doze off to the sound of my voice – after all I spoke to them after a heavy meal. I simply took the main points of everyone who spoke before me and pointed all of it to Christ.
Right believing leads to right living, but because of Christ and His finished work, so we have the Spirit to tutor us, and so we have the mind of Christ.
We understand the Way of our Father, but if we’re having trouble pondering His way, or if we’re having trouble figuring out our way, or next steps, well, we are blessed to have Christ, who is not only our Way, but our Truth, and our Life. We consult the Way for our way.
We take on the Word, but let’s not forget that we have Christ Himself, who is our Living Word. Pointing out John 1, Christ was the Word at the beginning, and He was also the Word made flesh. He is the Word who dwelt among us, and upon His death and resurrection, as He has been reconciled with us, so He is the Word who dwells in us. With that said, when we do not have physical access to the Bible, we can still praise God because we have the Living Word, alive in us.
Finally, we are always walking in the Spirit, because of Christ’s finished work. Christ ascended into heaven, and in the events of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon the believers. We have the mind of Christ as new creations, but we also have the Holy Spirit, and we walk in this same Spirit, because of Christ’s ascending into heaven. Side note, we are seated in heavenly places – Therefore, God enjoys our presence with Him just as much as we say we enjoy His presence with us, all because of Christ.
We are able to live, move, and have our being in love, and not just any love, but the everlasting love of God – why? All this has been made possible, again, by no less than Christ Himself. God loved us so much that He gave us Christ, and now that we believe in Him, we shall not perish, but we shall enjoy His love for us, as we enjoy everlasting life.
After all this I topped it off with this verse:
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
Romans 11:36
Alvin went ahead and topped things off ever further, if that was possible – well, it was. I think he quoted Acts 20:24 before praying and ending the entire meeting at around 2pm. It appears that we took time to rest – I intentionally talked to a few of the ministers to catch with them personally, and to arrange for what we needed to do in the following days.
When all of that was squared away I went out to look for appropriate clothes to wear for Saturday’s mass wedding event, and for Sunday’s church service at one of the more remote churches – and here’s where I found out just how much weight I gained through all this time. If I haven’t mentioned it previously, I have been pretty lax with my nutrition, and just as it takes constant work to lose weight, it takes constant deviation to gain weight as well. The jeans I wore on the way down had a 30 waist, but it was feeling pretty tight. I was already being considerate towards my weight gain so I looked for size 31, 32, then 34 waist jeans that would fit – did any of them actually fit? Nope. I had to resort to size 36(!) jeans – and sure, maybe the numbers are higher when you use Chinese manufacturer measurements but still – it shocked me!
Anyway through all of that I was at least happy that I hit more than 10k steps through all my walking about and looking for decent pants that fit, and also settling for a generic black collared shirt. I must have dropped all that off at my hotel room before heading out again to meet with the team for dinner at the same barbecue stalls we went to the night before.
Folks, it’s the end of August, and I still haven’t posted this. With everything that’s been going on, I haven’t had the right time to sit down and type… But fortunately, I had the idea of at least outlining what’s been going on with every day we’ve been in Mindanao:
August 17, 2023
Left Wednesday 10pm. Stopover at Shell Rosario. Stopover at NLEX at Subway. Arrived at NAIA Terminal 2. Ptr Ronnie met us at the gate. Flew out at around 6. Arrived at GenSan. Took bus to Marbel / Koronadal. Took bus to Surallah (dropped off at church). Took trike to Emily’s. Checked in, went to Market – bought shirts, slippers, joggers, toiletries, water. Tbayong group arrived and checked in. BBQ Dinner. Red Wine w/ pastors. Slept
August 18, 2023
Woke up pretty early to run @ Surallah runway. Breakfast with Ptr Rey at Jolibee. Bath, typed for August 18. Frau and Caiah arrive. Caught up with the Mindanao Pastors Meeting around 10am. Ptr Rey C: You live what you believe. Ptr Rey N: The time has come to seek the Lord (Way, Word, Walk with the Spirit). Ptr Ronnie: Let love move you. Lunch: Kaldereta, Sisig, Pancit, Rice, Suman. !Was reminded by Mama Josie – we keep attending the aces because the message is fresh and always about Christ. Me: It all points to Christ. Ptr Alvin: Closing, Acts 20:24. Bought jeans and a collared shirt !Im growing fat. Barbecue dinner with the team. Red wine with the pastors. Slept.
You’ll note that I’ve had items in Bold and Italic, emphasizing them as valuable lessons learned or revealed. That was pretty much the motive behind me logging all this in the first place – that I wouldn’t forget those lessons.
I’ll post this for now but I’ll quickly follow this up with the rest of the trip.
Until the next post, God bless you.
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
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