Typhoon in Tagaytay

So after two months of hectic ministry stuff, we decided to take an overnight vacation to Tagaytay. I guess Christine thought we’d get some rain, but she had no idea it would turn into a major tropical storm. Well, the family experienced our first typhoon together; looking out the window at trees bending and caving to the power of the driving rain and whistling, howling winds.


Jojo looks out at the bending trees and driving rain

So the overnight stay turned into a two-night stay because we were stranded at the hotel. I wasn’t about to risk driving us home in near-zero visibility and flying debris all around. The place we were staying at actually had part of it’s roof fly off! Our room stayed dry, though. The power went out for half the day, but the typhoon kept us cool.


A hotel window is ripped open by howling winds of typhoon Caloy

Too bad the restaurant and part of the lobby got ripped up by the storm. This was a good, clean, economical place to stay. You can see a picture of that here. Christine said that since it was so hot for so long, she’d been praying for rain. I told her she might have prayed a little too hard! :-)

Last Two Months

Hey friends. I'm sorry the blog's been neglected for over two months. A lot's happened and I've been super-swamped with work. Much of this was good, though. Let me give you a brief run-down of some things that will show up in our next newsletter (by the end of the week), and some that won't (a blog exculsive!):

March 10 -14: Cebu
The family headed out to Cebu city (about an hour away by plane) to meet with our missionary collegues. In between meetings, the families got to know each other over some sports and swimming at a beautiful place on the island of Mactan. Very nice. Jojo absolutely loved it and he's now swimming "on his own" with the use of "water wings" or floaters. I came back with a huge assignment which required meetings with denominational leaders to flesh out theological and cultural views on church discipline and restoration in the local context. Not "fun" per se, but very eye opening. This information will benefit the BGC. Maybe I'll publish some kind of resource to help the churches after I expand the study some more.


Jojo spots some little fish on a Mactan island beach

March 18: Jojo's Birthday Party!
His birthday's actually on the 19th, but we did it on a Saturday to get his cousins involved. Again, it was mostly swimming--this kid really loves water. Can you blame him? It's often 98-100 degrees out here plus the humidity!


Jojo's two years old! Doesn't he look like a big boy?

March 20: CHED visits Messiah College
I was grilled for about an hour regarding our Intercultural Studies program. "What is this class?" "How many journals does your library hold?" "Why do you have a concentration in missions?" etc.. etc.. At the end of the day, God allowed all five undergraduate programs to pass the inspection. We should have received the physical permits to open the school that week. But it took almost two months. In fact, we only got those permits TODAY (and only because God allowed an order to come from the capital building). But praise the Lord; we have our permits! Messiah will begin undergraduate programs next month!

April 16: I Preached the Easter Message at 5:30AM!
I was asked to do this at the church sunrise service. About 150 plus people were there. It really went well and some even remembered what I talked about (they said so and some even recited my main points after the service). Basically, it was on the historicity of the Resurrection and it's relevance to both Christians and non-Christians today. We even had a couple families come in as first-time visitors.

April 20: Teaching Begins
I started teaching my first class at Messiah School of Professional Studies. It's called "Worldviews in Conflict," after the book by Ronald Nash. 2o people showed up for the first session and the class is going strong. We're going for ten weeks, contrasting the Christian worldview with other views like atheism, polytheism, pantheism, etc.. etc.. to help Christian teachers and pastors analyze their own views and lead others in to the truth. I even spent time training professionals heading to Japan, Thailand and China to teach English and share the gospel. Exciting times!


Me teaching Intelligent Design in the science lab

May 7: Back to Cebu and onto Bohol
This time, I flew to Cebu alone and presented my findings for the project on discipline and restoration. This might be an area God's leading me into: Helping hurting churches restore leaders to fellowship and perhaps even to service. We'll see. After that, I took a boat to another island called Bohol to meet with Filipino church leaders at a conference. I really missed Christine and Jojo on this trip. :-(

May 12-14: Family Vacation in Tagaytay
After two months of intense work, we decided to take an overnight family trip to Tagaytay again. Only this time, Christine and Jojo experienced their very first typhoon... this deserves it's own post: "Typhoon in Tagaytay."