Mission Trip to the Philippines -- Part 1
Day 1: Got up at 5am. Hung out with the family for a bit before heading to the airport. Ended up leaving around 10:10am. It was raining REALLY hard. Got there a little after 11am. You have to be at the airport 3 hours in advance for International flights. Going through security, they confiscated my fruit cups and applesauce because it had liquid in it. I was surprised at how long it took us to get through security. I think they were training people today or something. Saw Eric working at the gate I went through. I know him because he also does security at the Rockets games. Our flight to Denver was delayed by about 90 minutes, so I spent that time bonding with the team. Finally got on the plane to Denver, and I really started diggin’ in this new Study Bible I just bought. I spent 3 and a half hours reading this Bible. IT WAS GREAT! When we got to Denver, we had just enough time to use the restroom and get on our next plane to Los Angeles. The seats on United are bigger than the ones on Southwest. I’ve had some pretty good leg room today. The flight to LA was okay. I pretty much read the entire time of that flight as well. I was able to really dig into all of Luke 9, Daniel 9, Daniel 10, Psalm 106 & Psalm 139. Arrived in LA. Had to transfer to the International terminal. We ended up walking about a mile or so because we got off the super crowded airport connection transfer bus too early. When we finally got to the right place, it appeared that my luggage was not routed correctly, so the guy that was helping me out got it squared away. Went and got some food with a couple of my teammates. From there, we then went through security again, this time for the flight to Taipei.
Day 2: After about a 5-hour layover in Los Angeles, we boarded the 747. During the layover, our team got together to chat for a bit. One guy who was brought up as a Muslim shared how he became a Christian. Others lead us in some songs. It was funny . . . there was this big team of about 50 folks singing about Jesus in the International terminal at LAX, and folks were looking at us like “What!?” I was loving it! Some of the other team members that didn’t fly out of Houston with the rest of us finally arrived in LA. Regarding that 747 airplane, I had never seen a plane that large before in my life! This thing was huge, but the seats definitely weren’t made for tall people like me. I had a great amount of leg room, but the seat was tiny! And I couldn’t lift the seat side handles up to get a little more room! After about 5 hours of trying to gain some comfort in that too small seat, the whole left side of my body went numb, so I had to start walking around and stretching. When I sat back down, I put a little pillow between me and the side handle. That gave me a little bit of relief. One of my teammates who was sitting next to me had to find another sleeping arrangement because he has to sleep with his feet off the ground. I had never heard of such a thing before, but to each his own. By the time we had been on the plane for 12 hours, I had got caught up on some reading I needed to do. I also slept for probably 8 of those 12 hours. I kept looking at the clock to see what time it was back in Houston.
Day 3: Today, we crossed the International Date Line, so even though it’s technically Saturday, it doesn’t feel like it. My body still feels like it’s Friday, which in a sense it is. It was weird watching the sun come up (as we crossed the Pacific Ocean), then seeing it get pitch black again (as we crossed the International Date Line), then seeing the sun come up again as we hit Taipei (which is home to the world’s tallest building). I could tell that I was getting dehydrated and needed to drink some water because my head was hurting. When we got to Taipei, it was about 6am Saturday morning. The crazy thing is it was only 5pm Friday afternoon back home in Houston. We are 13 hours ahead of Texas. We spent the morning at the terminal in Taipei just relaxing. We had a 2-hour layover there. When we first got in the Taipei airport, it looked like the perfume counter at Macy’s or Nordstram’s. They had all of the big names: Chanel, Estee Lauder, Louis Vuitton, Coach, etc. From Taipei, we caught a flight to Manila (about a 2-hour flight). That felt like nothing after that 12-hour flight from Los Angeles to Taipei. The breakfast they served was rather interesting. They had chicken and rice, which was cool. But they also had this boiled egg that smelled like cinnamon. It was grey too . . . needless to say, that did not enter my digestive tract. We arrived in Manila (click here to see a view of the city from the airplane), and one of the first things I noticed was that the natives were very friendly. We got through customs without a hitch. Praise God, everybody’s luggage showed up too. With as many plane changes as we’ve had, lost luggage was a real possibility. This one American guy almost took my bag, but the people in Manila actually check the baggage claim checks (I haven’t been to an airport in America in the last 2 years where they actually do that anymore). Our guide and his wife met us at the airport. They were very nice and very hospitable. In the research I did prior to the trip, being hospitable seems to be the norm for Filipinos. The guide got us cabs to another terminal so we could get our stuff straight for our final flight to Iloilo. He was trying to get us a group check in, so we spent a good 2-hours trying to get that done. Nothing came from it though. We ended up all having to check in individually. While we were waiting, I was making some observations about the Filipino people. It’s very easy to see the Western influence here. From the fashion they wear (Von Dutch, Nike, Polo, Ambercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, Adidas, Puma, etc.) to the lattes for sale at the airport to everybody having an Ipod or a Gameboy, it looks just like America. You can see the strong influence of their Spanish heritage on their culture too. Right now, $1 is about 45 pesos. Food here is pretty inexpensive compared to American prices. I’m noticing that a lot of the older men dye their hair this bright red color. It looks kinda funny. From what I’ve been told, some of the older men don’t want to have grey hair so they dye it. It appears that a lot of people smoke cigarettes too. And something else I’ve noticed is that a lot of the guys wear gold or silver rings on their middle finger. I thought it was funny on the flight from Los Angeles to Taipei and then again on the flight from Taipei to Manila, they were selling cigarettes, perfume and all other kinds of things, but the lure is you can buy it tax-free. I’ve had several people ask me if I play professional sports. We got some food at this one place at the airport that was pretty good. We burned a couple more hours at the airport while waiting for our plane to take us to Iloilo. I thought about getting a phone card to call my wife since I had a little time, but I realized that it was 1am back in Houston. I ate some mango ice cream (it was good, but left this funny aftertaste) and something that looked like a big, purple twinkie. I can’t think of the name of it, but it was put in a microwave to be made warm, and it had this filling that came from a plant that is similar to a sweet potato. After taking a nap in the airport, we finally got on the plane to Iloilo. I slept the whole way there. It was about an hour flight. I added up all of the flight and layover time, and it’s right about at 37 hours. That’s crazy! Got to the Iloilo Airport, and we were greeted with a banner made by our hosts from Central Philippines University. They were all very welcoming. We got loaded up and took a drive through the city. Then we went by the campus. That campus is huge! A lot of it is rundown (by American standards), but it’s serving its purpose here. In driving around, Iloilo reminded me a lot of Belize (the shotgun shacks, the vendors on the street, etc.) You can see the rampant poverty, too. But that doesn’t seem to stop them from looking like and acting like Americans. After that, we finally got to our hotel. After getting all of the luggage unpacked, I went to the room. I hopped on the Internet (they charge 100 pesos for an hour which is about $2 in American money) to clear out my email. From there, I called my wife and chatted with her for about 15 minutes. It was about 7:30am Saturday morning Texas time when I called. It’s 8:30pm Saturday night here. My wife told me that my daugher is cutting her molars, and it hasn’t been pleasant for her. She also said she keeps screaming my name. My roommate came in later and gave me the low down about tomorrow. I’m going to give my testimony at one of the churches during the morning, then bring the message at another church tomorrow night. We prayed about all the logistics of our week, and I nodded out. This was at about 9:30pm Philippines time.
Day 4: Woke up around 12:30pm Houston time (1:30am Philippines time). Since I didn’t have to get back up till 5am, I went back to sleep for a bit. Got up to pray with my roommate. Got some good worship & fellowship in with him. Went to have breakfast, but wasn’t really hungry, so I just had some orange juice. Met up with the team that I was serving with this morning. We met up with the Pastor of Baptist Center Church. He was a really nice gentleman. Like most of the other people we’ve met here, he’s very hospitable. We got to the church, and you could see the strong Baptist influence. I thought it was eerily similar to the American church in that there were more women than men in the church. The church itself was immaculate (click here). Very high ceilings. Fantastic architecture. Old school pews. Fans everywhere. Open windows (like in Belize). There were mosquitoes in the church that were taggin’ my hands! And I forgot to bring the “Off” with me. It’s rather warm right now, but it really isn’t so bad. It reminds me of Houston in the summer time: very hot and humid. I gave my testimony in a very brief fashion. 3 of the team members did a barbershop quartet type song, and it was GREAT! It gave me goosebumps. No one sings like that anymore. Afterwards, we hung out with Pastor Ronal (the Pastor of Baptist Center Church). They treated us to some Filipino rice cakes (they were soft in texture & mildly sweet) and some coffee. I passed on the coffee, but only because I don’t drink coffee. Then we met up with a couple of native Filipinos that happened to live in Jacksonville, Florida. They go back and forth between the States and the Philippines. They have lived in Las Vegas, down in the valley near Brownsville (TX), and a couple of other places in the US. My roommate preached during their 2nd service, and he was sweating like Jesus was sitting in the front row! He came from 1st Corinthians 15. I gave my testimony again during the second service. I figure people here must love the Chicago Bulls (which I don’t quite understand because they haven’t done anything in about 10 years), but everyone here thinks I’m famous and keeps asking me if I play basketball for the Bulls. After church, we came back to the hotel and relaxed a bit. We watched a little TV, and it was interesting to see a Filipino version of TBN. I ended up sleeping for 4 hours. My roommate woke me up right at about 5 minutes before we had to meet the team, so we were scrambling to get dressed. Got with the team and headed over to Central Philippines University (click here to see an aerial view). On the drive over there, I noticed how you have to be very aggressive on the streets. Otherwise, you’ll get run off the road. They also drive these things called Jeepneys (pic 1; pic 2; pic 3). They’re part jeep, part minibuses and in some cases, part el camino. They also have several Internet Cafes all throughout the city. One of the pastors here told me that hardly anyone has enough money to buy a computer. And those that do own computers can not afford the Internet. So that’s why Internet Cafes are on every corner here, just like churches and liquor stores are on every corner in the hood back in America. I also noticed that pretty much everyone here carries handkerchiefs to avoid inhaling the air pollution (click here). In the US, you usually only see older adults with handkerchiefs. We made it to the college and went to the church on campus (click here). The praise & worship was off the hook! They sang many of the same songs we do back home. I was really encouraged when they started singing Hillsong & Israel Houghton songs. They don’t have sheet music because they can’t afford it, so they play by ear. You really couldn’t tell from listening though. This evening service called “Vespers” was very contemporary. It was funny because I noticed all of the little girls in the back of the church texting on their cell phones (just like in the states). Apparently, sending text messages is REALLY big business here. I found out that most people here have refurbished cell phones and that is their primary mode of communication because it’s too expensive to pay for minutes on a cell phone. Someone here told me that the Philippines is called the “Texting” capital of the world. After all that I’ve seen, I can believe that. Everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE here has a celly. After the praise and worship, we watched a short film from one of the mission teams Central Philippine University (CPU) sent out this spring. They were able to win 1300 people to the Lord in those couple of weeks! Then I went up and spoke on the crucifixion of Christ. No one individual expressed a desire to receive salvation, but that made sense because in the Filipino culture, they do stuff in groups. Doing things alone (like coming forward to make a profession of faith) are not the norm here. After we met the people from the church, I made some more observations: the people are big on pleasing their guests. They rarely make eye contact (especially the ladies). They also say “Hey Joe!” to Americans. Apparently that’s a saying that’s used to reference the Filipinos fighting alongside the Americans in WWII. Joe is short for GI Joe or “American”. Something else . . . they call the restroom the CR (“Comfort Room”). After the message, the granddaughter of the guy that organized this mission trip came up to me and said she wanted to accept Christ. She’s a missions kid (her parents & grandparents are missionaries), she’s been in church all her life, but she said accepted Christ when she was 6 years old because she didn’t want to go to hell. Tonight, she said she came forward because she wants to have a relationship with the Father. I was so overjoyed. All I could think about was the article I read from Arthur Pink about how repentance (“a broken heart”) is a prerequisite for salvation. I could see repentance all over her, and it was a joy to explain to her in layman’s terms what the plan of salvation looks like. She received Christ tonight. One of the things I’ve noticed about the preacher’s kids here is that they are very proud of being “PK’s”. It’s cool because they’ve got their own little club where they wear their t-shirts (click here). I personally don’t know many PK’s in the states like that. After the church service, we had dinner with some of the faculty and staff of CPU. The food was pretty good. I ate some exotic fruit that tasted like a mix of an orange and a pomegranate. We also had some entertainment. Some of the students performed one of their traditional dances. Then they tried to get us to do the dances too. I was up there after they called “the basketball player” out. Seems like when everyone here finds out that I’m a chaplain for the Rockets, they all make mention of Olujawon. It’s making me wonder if they’ve been watching a bunch of ESPN Classic. I kept slipping while doing the dance though because the soles of my shoes were slick. It was fun. How’s this for a God moment? One of our team members ran into a guy he had last saw in 1979, and they get reacquainted on the other side of the world! The guy (notice what he has on) used to be on staff at a church in Houston, but he said he felt the Lord leading him back (he’s originally from the Philippines) to minister. So now, he’s the chaplain for the elementary school at Central Philippines University. It was a good night. From there, I fell asleep in the van while we waited for the rest of the team to come down from dinner. Then we headed back to the hotel. My roommate and I prayed, chatted some more, and then started going over our messages for tomorrow. I called my wife to check on her & my daughter. She said they were in Memphis having a good time with her family. I told my roommate that if I don’t go home exhausted from serving this week, my time here was wasted. If I don’t go home having given everything I’ve got, then I’m doing a disservice to my family and my church because I could’ve stayed in Houston if I was going to hold anything back. I’m planning on leaving it all here in Iloilo. It’s midnight here in the Philippines. Guess I need to call it a day because we have to get back on the grind tomorrow morning.
Day 5: My roommate and I both got up this morning around 3am. We chatted for a bit, and watched a little TV. While flipping the channels, we saw several Americans on TV: Ed Young, Creflo Dollar, Jesse Duplantis, Joel Osteen. Interesting . . . . Called my mother & my brother (who happened to be over at Mom’s) to check on them. I was just sharing with them how things were in the Philippines. They were trippin’ on the time difference. It was like 4:30pm Sunday afternoon. Had breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Befriended one of the restaurant workers named Ogra. I was inquiring about what fuels the economy here because there’s like 40-50% unemployment. From what I’ve been told, 1 out of every 10 Filipinos leaves to get a job abroad, so they can send the $$ back home. This is one of the major sources of funding to their economy too. Nursing is the big thing that most of the people get involved in because it’s the only thing that affords them the opportunity to work for decent wages. I was also told by some of the indigenous peoples that you have to have a college degree just to be a cashier at a grocery store! So you’ve got all these educated people (by American standards) that are making approximately $6 a day. Crazy . . . By 7am, we were on our way back over to Central Philippine University to get the day started. We got to campus and walked around a bit. Some of the team went and did a prayer walk in the prayer garden. I did a concert at the high school chapel this morning. I think it was well-received. As soon as I walked out and the beat came on, they LOST IT! I was told the kids here REALLY love hip-hop. Matter of fact, I had a young man last night ask me about KJ-52. He said he heard of him from surfing the Internet. The kids were very receptive to it. I was told that about 400 kids came forward to receive Christ. Wow!! My heart was grieved somewhat though because I’m more into disciples than converts. If God’s glory brought 400 people forward to receive eternal life today, hallelujah! But in my heart, I’m concerned that all of them didn’t come with repentance on their minds and their sins at the forefront of their thinking. Nevertheless, the presence of the Lord was there, and it was a great start to our week. There had to be a couple thousand people in that auditorium. I turned around and did the same set 45 minutes later for the college students. I’ve learned that high school students here would be what we call middle school students in the states (6th-8th grade), and college students would be what we call high school students (9th-12th). They way they say 7th grade here is 2nd year high school. The way they say 11th grade is 3rd year college. “University” here is what we call “College” in the states. I was drained when we were done. I’ve been praying against a spirit of division and envy because I’ve been discerning it. I told my roommate I’d bring it up at the next group meeting we have, but I think I’m just going to say it to the one person in particular that I’ve been picking that up from. After that, we went on campus and ate lunch at the student center. It was pretty good. I had some lasagna and rice. I also made the mistake of taking some ice in my drink and also drinking an ice slush (we were advised to not drink the water or any ice). I immediately took some Rolaids which seemed to help. From there, we went to the guesthouse, and I slept for a good 3 hours. Fans were blowing everywhere, but it was still really hot in there. Spike Lee’s “He Got Game” was on TV, and I watched part of it till I started napping. Once I got up, we walked back over to the auditorium to hear the son-in-law of our trip organizer, who has been a missionary here for 21 years. His message was very good. In parts, he spoke in Tagalog, which is the native language spoken here. When he gave an appeal, again we had a VERY large number of students respond. Afterwards, I took lots of pictures with some of the people there. All the little girls had camera phones. Just like America. We all went to eat dinner at a Chinese restaurant. I don’t really care for Chinese, but I needed to put something in my tummy. By this time, I think the reality of ministering through hip-hop at 2 different services caught up with me. I was pooped! When we got back to the room, my roommate and I prayed, and I crashed. In reflecting on today, one thing I can say that I really admire our trip organizer because among other reasons, he’s very gifted in diffusing what could be volatile situations.
Day 6: Woke up around 2am Philippine time. I was wrestling in a dream I was having. It had to do with me forgetting something I needed to share in my message today. Also, my tummy was bubblin’! It felt like there were some people in there having a fire dart competition. It could’ve been that ice I ate yesterday or even that Chinese food. Whatever it was, it had me hurting! One thing I forgot to write in yesterday’s entry was that I saw a Filipino guy walking around with a shirt on that had “Thug” on it. I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw that. I was trying to get a picture of him in the shirt, but the batteries in my camera were dead. Spent the morning getting ready for the Pastor’s Conference. Had time to get some major worship in this morning, too. Ah! What a relief it is to be in Jesus! Got prepared for my TV interview later today. Headed over to CPU for the Pastor’s Conference, where the aim was to equip the pastors and lay leaders. From what I understand, most of the pastors here have no formal training. One of the things our Filipino guide is doing is establishing Pastor’s Libraries all over the Philippines so the Pastors can have access to literature that will enhance their teaching. I spoke first and kicked it off with “Is the Bible Relevant for Society for Today?” I was surprised at how vocal and interactive they were. From there, I scooted over to the college convocation (chapel service) because I was incorrectly told that I was speaking. Actually, it was my roommate who was speaking. He gave a very powerful message where he shared his testimony. There were many decisions made too. From there, we went back to the Pastor’s Conference. We had lunch with the Pastors (there were well over 300 by this time). I only ate the rice in my lunch though because my stomach was still bubblin’. During lunch, a transformer blew up. We were told that rolling blackouts are fairly frequent here in the Philippines. The air conditioning and lights were out for a good 90 minutes, so you’d better believe that we were all in that place with the windows open and fanning ourselves. My roommate shared on how to properly prepare a sermon. After that, I headed over to the TV studio with the barbershop trio from our team. I did an interview, and they sang music. It was really fun. It took me back to my college days as a Radio/TV Major. From there, we went back to the main auditorium and another one of our team members was giving the message. His wife shared her testimony. Some of the kids were being rather rude, but he kept bringing the message. God convicted me about not praying for him while he was up there. After some decisions were made, we all headed back to the hotel. I’ve been avoiding the McDonald’s down from our hotel, but considering that I needed to eat something hot and something that wouldn’t turn my stomach, I picked up a couple of double cheese burgers and fries. And they tasted just like the ones back home! Praise God! I hung out with our CPU Guide and one of the couples from our team. I got some batteries for my camera, so in case I see somebody else wearing a shirt with “Thug” on it, I’ll be prepared. After that, we had our evening debriefing. From there, I went to the room, and prayed with my roommate. The jet lag from that 37-hour flight has finally worn off. I went to bed around 10pm Philippines time.
