Mission Trip to the Philippines -- Part 2
Day 7: Got up around 5am Philippines time. This is the first night I didn’t get up at 2 or 3am. Had some prayer time with my roommate. We talked about how our team needs more corporate prayer in our midst. Got my clothes ironed by the hotel staff (which was uncomfortable to me because I’m used to doing that myself) and had a little breakfast. Got on the van and told the team about the need for corporate prayer, and it was well received. Everyone (for the most part) got to pray as we headed over to campus, and we got the day started. Still, there were a couple of team members that attempted to dominate the prayer time, but we got beyond that. We headed to Rose Auditorium, and I prayer walked all the way around that place. I think when you have as much opportunity to worship as much as we’ve had, it has the potential of becoming stale. I was believing God for a freshness today. I gave my testimony during the high school service. One of the guys on our team that is a lawyer by profession spoke in the morning session and did a knockout job. It was really good. We received an email today that our Pastor back in Houston had just lost his grandfather. During the second session, I sat in the audience with a bunch of kids since I had no responsibilities. They were really cool. I made them agree that if I sat with them, they had to get involved when the worship started. They held up their end of the deal, and we had a great time in the Lord. From there, we took a leisurely stroll through campus and headed to the guesthouse to chill for a bit. Then, we fit 5 folks in a cab and went to the mall and had Sbarros for lunch. Finally! Some American food I could identify with! After that, I walked around the mall with one of our male team members. I was looking for gifts for my family, but I didn’t see anything I liked. I was going to get my wife some Nikes, but the Nikes here are about the same price here as they are in the states! I was really surprised to see that. Pretty much everything else I’ve seen here has been dirt cheap. I did buy some really nice sunglasses for myself because my other ones broke. They costed the equivalent of about $4.25. The mall was very much like any other mall in the states. Lots of clothing stores, music stores, food places, etc. They have this one restaurant here called Jollibee. It’s one of the leading fast food joints here. They have chicken, burgers, spaghetti, etc. It’s weird though because they put cheese on everything! I’ve never had cheese on my chicken, and I can’t say that sounds very exciting either. Another observation is how many people here seem to wear basketball jerseys. They look like official NBA jerseys but then the team name on the front is something written in foreign letters! I have seen a bunch of people here rockin’ DWade’s jersey though. After that, 4 of us headed to a high school where we did an anti-drug rally. Speaking at the anti-drug rallies was the open door for us to get in the schools to share Christ. Drug usage is a REALLY big problem over there, especially with the 12-18 demographic. This one kid from the school that hung out with us was cuttin’ up big time. You could tell he was a class clown. I loved his outgoing spirit though. We ended our time there with a Q&A, and they asked a lot of good questions. Then I did a couple of songs, and they lost it. Before I could leave, I was mobbed by all of the students asking for my autograph. It was crazy. In my head, I was thinking that this is what it must be like for Lecrae when he does shows sometimes. I had never had that happen before. They had to rush me through a crowd of people. I was kinda sad because I really would’ve enjoyed signing autographs and talking, but it would’ve made us late for our next speaking engagement. I did give away some CDs and Baller ID bracelets. After we cooled off in the principal’s office, we headed to another school (Iloilo National High School) to do the same thing. And it pretty much went the same way. The Q&A was much better this time though. The kids came right up and started asking questions. The first school we went to, we had to prod them somewhat. Another difference at this second school was they had a couple of student groups do some music as well. One group rapped in Filipino. To myself, I was crackin’ up because you could tell they’ve been watching rap videos on MTV or BET. They also had a crew of guys come up and do what I would guess was a R&B type ballad. I really couldn’t tell because the song was sung in Tagalog (the native Filipino language). Tagalog has traces of Spanish in it, so I could understand some of it. After I gave out some CDs and bracelets, we made our mad dash to avoid the huge crowds and went back to the hotel. I went and chilled and watched some of our team members on TV as they were ministering on the public access channel. I went back to McDonald’s again tonight to get some food I knew would agree with my stomach. The rest of the team headed to the mall, but I just really wanted to be a bum for a bit. I really gave it what I could at those schools today. Ran into my roommate in the hall and chatted with him for a bit. He seemed pretty pumped about how today went. He told me that we’re going to be hoopin’ with some of the natives tomorrow, so I’m amped about that. Went to the store downstairs from our hotel. Our hotel is actually on the 5th floor of this mall, so it’s weird because there are a bunch of little businesses in this building. I actually walked around the other floors of the mall to actually see what kind of stores are here, and there were some boutiques, some restaurants, some clothing stores, a couple of Internet Cafes, and some kiosks with cell phones, perfumes, etc. There is a grocery store on the bottom floor of the mall. A couple of observations: #1 – Black people are obviously not a common sight here in Iloilo. Everywhere I’ve been in this city, I feel eyes on me. I know that my height makes me stand out here because everyone (generally speaking) is so short. But when I went to the grocery store tonight, for some reason it was really more apparent. At one point in the store, everyone literally stopped and stared at me. #2 – They have this cultural thing where you see the people holding hands as they walk down the street. I’ve only seen it with females, but I’ve been told that guys do it too. It reminds me of what you probably see with middle school girls when they are traveling in packs. #3 – All of the natives say “Hello sir” in this sing-songy voice when they greet you. It’s kinda funny. Came back to the room and ate my grubb. Went to bed around 10pm Philippines time.
Day 8: Got up at 4:15am Philippines time. Spent some time in my Word. My day had somewhat of a rough start once I left the hotel. I was late to the TV recording I was supposed to do this morning. They asked me to do a devotional with the campus TV station. Apparently, this thing is live. I spoke on John 14:6, but I don’t feel as if I did a really good job of explaining the text. I’ve even started to wonder if it had anything to do with me and my roommate not praying last night or this morning like we had previously been. Blah! I hate when I feel like this after a lesson! As I was leaving the TV station, I kept stumbling on the stairs (they’re rather steep). On the way out the door, which is really narrow, the sleeve of my shirt got caught on something and it ripped my shirt. After the TV recording, I went to the library to listen to some worship music and work on my message for the college convocation they have at 10am. I really had to press into God this morning because I felt like I didn’t represent the Lord well this morning on that TV program. But I can not be overcome by my “feelings”. Truth isn’t based on emotion. While in the library, I got my Hillsong on, and it was so right on time. One of the things the Lord reminded me as I was worshipping Him through song is that the Holy Spirit will show up right when He needs to, but there is no substitute for preparation. Went over to the high school convocation to chill with the team. I also had to change clothes because my roommate asked me to do “V Club” as a lead in to his message on sexual purity. We had an amazing time in the Lord with his session. It was really moving to see how God was convicting these young people. In the next session, I spoke. One of the college students that went with us gave her testimony. I did “Hands Up” , “Call on You” and a couple of other songs. They were really into it. Then I spoke from I John 2:15 about how God, through the Apostle John, is telling Christians to stop loving the world. My prayer through that message was that they’d be moved to repentance. By the time we were done, I believe many were. It was a great morning. From there, some of us headed to the guesthouse to drop off our bags. Then we went back over to the student center and had lunch with some of the students. It was cool just hangin’ out over there and talking with them. I was supposed to give my testimony at some function off campus but because I didn’t get the info in time, the lady that requested me ended up asking for some of our other team members. So I went back to catch up with the people I was having lunch with and they were out there just winning souls and sharing with the students. I had a conversation with one of the faculty teachers, Bernardo. He had me crackin’ up! He teaches English at the university. One of the things I’ve learned about this place is that they encourage the Filipinos to speak English because as they say “It’s a step toward success”. The idea is that if they speak English, they’ll have a better opportunity to make themselves more attractive to potential employers. That will also help them if they should leave the Philippines and go abroad, as many of the natives do. Education is highly valued here, and there are schools everywhere here. Many of them are Catholic. Something else I learned is that if you’re over age 30, it’s almost impossible to start a new job because the employers look primarily for people under 30 with no children . After that, I went back to the guesthouse to catch a cab to go back to the hotel. These cab drivers here drive HORRIBLY! It’s a wonder there aren’t more car wrecks and fatalities. People, cars, motorcycles, jeepneys, buggies and bikes all share the street simultaneously! Got back to the hotel to chill for the while. While channel surfing, I saw Beth Moore on TV. It was kinda cool because in my mind I was like “Hey, I know her! And she’s on TV way over here in the Philippines!” I also saw a couple of our team members on TV also as they were sharing the gospel. After a couple of hours of that, I got my stuff together and caught a cab back to campus. It was raining really hard too. Got back to the campus and went over to the auditorium to meet up with the team. Many of the folks were tired and wanted to head back to the hotel, and I can’t say I blame them. If I didn’t have to go back to campus, I wouldn’t have. But because some of our guests set up this basketball game, I knew I needed to show up. We ended up playing basketball against this national traveling team, and man, they put it on us! It didn’t help that the court we were playing on was some really slick cement, so we couldn’t get any traction. It was fun though. Apparently, because the guys here are relatively short, their approach to basketball is shoot 3’s and fast break. It worked. They beat us by about 25 points. After that, we all came back to the hotel and relaxed. I showered and went to bed around 10pm.
Day 9: Got up around 7am. This is the latest I’ve slept since I’ve been here. My roommate and I decided to sleep in because neither of us had to be on campus early. Got to have some good quiet time with the Lord this morning. Went down and had breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel. Exchanged some US currency for Filipino currency. We got to campus and headed to Rose Auditorium. One of our team members gave his testimony (he’s a really gifted speaker by the way). Another team member gave the message. Afterwards, I chatted with many of the students, took some pictures and signed different things for them. One of the students gave me a handmade gift (a letter with these fancy decorations on it). It moved me to tears because this kind of hospitality is not what I’m used to. I’m going to get this framed when I get back home. After this morning’s message, several of us went to have lunch at the Student Center. Once again, we got to mingle with various students. As we walked around this campus, I’ was repeatedly reminded of how much these people LOVE basketball. All of the jeepneys have NBA team logos on them. They even have a basketball channel on TV. Something else I’ve been meaning to put in the journal but just have been forgetting . . . in the states, a subtle, non-verbal way of saying “Hello” is when a person nods upward with his/her head. Over here, they do something similar, except it’s not with the head. It’s with the eyes. It’s kinda funny because in the states that’s often seen as flirtatious. After lunch, I went to the library to prep for my message this afternoon. You know . . . one thing I’ve been reminded of by my roommate this week is that every opportunity to share the gospel must be taken advantage of. Whether that’s in a crowded room with a bunch of people around or if it’s one-on-one in a taxi cab. Thank you Lord for the reminder. It’s crazy when I look at my watch and it says midnight or 1am (time in Houston), but here in Iloilo it’s the middle of the afternoon. Whenever I travel abroad, I always leave my watch on Houston time. I spent a good 2 hours in the library listening to worship music and putting the finishing touches on message. Around 3pm Philippine time, I went to Rose Auditorium to get ready for the convocation. A really strong rain came through and dropped some serious rain on the city. I spoke from I John 1:8-9 about confessing our sin. I challenged them to: #1 – Repent and accept God’s free gift of Salvation (for those that had never accepted Christ as Lord) & #2 – Repent and confess their sins (for those that have already accepted Christ as Lord). The Lord brought a mighty harvest! The front of that auditorium was PACKED with students. For the next 30-45 minutes, we were praying with people, explaining salvation, etc. We also took lots of pictures and signed different items. This was our last speaking event on campus, and I believe the Spirit of the Lord ended things on a high note. Afterwards, we went to the mall to get some food. I had Sbarro’s again. Then we headed back to campus to do this live TV program called the Gospel Hour. It’s funny because the natives kept saying “Gos-Pell”. My roommate hosted the program. Some of us gave our testimony and others played music. I was asked to rap, but I declined. I did give a brief testimony though. We also surprised Our Filipino guide because today is his 70th birthday. We gave him a cake and some $$. When we were done at the TV station, we went back to our hotel. I called my family to check on them. They were in Dallas for a basketball tournament. My wife also said that the airline lost one of her bags, but eventually found it. Needless to say, we won’t be flying with them. I had a little energy, so I decided to go ahead and pack tonight. That way in the morning, I would have one less thing to do. My goal when I arrived here was to go to bed exhausted every night from having served with my everything. I told my roommate that if I didn’t do that, this much time away from my family would be wasted. I feel good about having accomplishing that goal.
Day 10: Got up around 4:30am. We were initially told that there would be breakfast for us at the hotel, but they went back on their word at the last minute. We ended up eating at Chow King, so we could at least have had something in our stomachs. That was the only place open at 6am. So that I didn’t get sick again, I just had rice and chicken. Filipinos seem to eat a lot of chicken. Packed up the vans and headed to Boracay. This is a world-famous (from what I’ve been told) island resort. I rode in one of the vans with the luggage, so I could have a little more leg room. We drove for a couple of hours and got to see much of the country’s scenery. It was very beautiful. Lots of green trees and mountains in the background. After a couple of hours, we stopped for a restroom (CR) break at the home of a family friend of one of our guides. Got back on the road and got to Caticlan, which is the port city prior to Boracay. They took all of our luggage and we got on the boat for what was about a 20-minute ride. Then we headed to our hotel on the beach. We met up with the others from our team that were serving at Philamar Christian College (which was north of where we were serving). Got our room keys, got the luggage moved into the rooms, then we went to eat! We had fish (they serve fish here with the head and the tail still attached!) This fish I had today was just the meat though. No fishheads or tails for me. I had some pineapple, some carrots, and some sesame seed chicken. From there, I went back to the room to rest. I watched a little TV, then took a nap. I had intended on sleeping for a few hours until the sun went down. I ended up sleeping from about 3pm to midnight! Guess I was tired!
Day 11: Woke up around midnight and spent time re-capping all of my sights and thoughts from this trip. Went out to the beach around 1am to see what the beach looked like at night. It was pretty, but not nearly as pretty as it is during the day. It was kinda hard to see because there was really no light out there. I was surprised that the beach still had a lot of people out there at this hour. Spent the next few hours in the Word working on a devotional. Usually, when I’m writing devotionals, I have to write a little at a time because I don’t have whole blocks of hours to devote to my studying. But this was a great refreshment to my soul. Around 2:30am, we had a power failure. I was reminded of the rolling blackouts. After a few minutes, the lights came back on though. Spent the next couple of hours worshipping to Hillsong. It was great! God even gave me some ideas for my next album too. Around 5:30am, I went out to the beach to see the water as the sun was coming up. It was really serene out there. Around 6am, I came back in the room and listened to some holy hip-hop to get my blood pumpin’ for the day. After a couple of hours of that, I started getting ready for the day. We had a church service at the hotel gazebo. It was nice and quaint, & the worship was great. One of our team members spoke about us being obedient to the call of sharing the gospel. From there, I went to get some breakfast. Actually, it was lunch by this time. I had some chicken and vegetables. I then linked up with some of the other team members. We got on this banana boat, and it was fun! You pay in 15-minute increments, but some of us liked it so much, we went again. That 2nd time was a doozy though. I got thrown off! So did one of the ladies. The water was so clear and blue, you could see the fish swimming in it. After having enough of that, I went parasailing. It was spectacular to see God’s creation from that vantage point. It was pretty amazing to be able to see nothing but water and mountains for miles. After that, I went to find some goodies for my family. I got my daughter a shirt. I got my wife a necklace and a matching bracelet. I also got her this thing called a sarang. It’s like a wrap skirt. It matched the jewelry. After that, I headed back to the room because I think I might’ve gotten a bit sunburned on my face. Guess I’ll be able to tell tomorrow morning. We had a final team dinner where we recapped our week. I didn’t eat. I was feeling really tired because being out in that sun so long drained me. After I drank some water, I was good, but I still didn’t feel like eating. People went around and shared how God impacted them on the trip. Today was a fun day. I’m really glad I came on this trip, but I’m anxious to get home and see my family. Tomorrow we start the journey back home!
Day 12: Got up around 5:15am. The water in our room wasn’t working, so I was thanking God that I had taken my shower last night. Got packed up and took my luggage out to the meeting spot. Came back to the room to get in the Word. Went to have breakfast. Walked the beach while looking for a $$ exchange place. I didn’t want to bring any of the Filipino currency home because I can’t really use it back in the United States. Got the vans loaded up and headed to the dock to catch our plane. Got on the boat for a quick 20-minute ride. Then one of our team members and I got shoved into a motorized cart, as we tried to get to the airport in time. Our plane from Caticlan was about an hour late, so I used that time to read. Caught the plane and sat on the wing, so I had some good knee room. Told our trip organizer that I was privileged to be on one of his world famous mission trips (this guy has been a missionary for over 50 years). He told me that he’s anointing me to lead the next trip to the Philippines. I told him he’s going to have to disciple me so I know what to do. Arrived in Manila. Amid the confusion of trying to get all of us a cab, we all got situated and went to the Mall of Asia. We were told that it is the largest mall in Asia. It’s very extravagant. Certain parts of it look like the Galleria Mall in Houston. The people in the mall looked just like Americans (from their clothes, hairstyles, etc.) Got a little lunch at the food court. And it really was a “little” lunch. The chicken here doesn’t seem to have much meat on the bones. Got a fruit shake, hit up a couple of stores. Noticed that the Nikes here are just like the ones in Iloilo. They cost the same price as Nikes in the States. That would mean it would take the average person here a month’s worth of wages to buy those. That’s not cool at all. After I got some Jelly Belly Jellybeans, the team loaded up and headed back to the airport. I was trying to get bumped up to first class so I could have more leg room, but I’m short a few miles. I did get an emergency row seat though. Before we left, our trip organizer asked me to “look after” the team because he and his wife were staying there in Manila. One of our team members had to pay $100 for a plane ticket to Taipei because one of the airline counter agents in Los Angeles accidentally took it when we passed through LAX on the way out to the Philippines. They did all this research to find out exactly what happened (calling Taipei, calling Los Angeles, etc.) only to come back a couple of hours later and say she’d have to pay. Then I had to battle with the manager because they told our musicians that their instruments had to go under the plane. None of them wanted to put their violins, etc. under the plane because those luggage handlers aren’t the most gentle. After some back and forth, we got it resolved where they checked them in from Manila to Taipei, and then were able to carry them by hand after arriving in Taipei. Because I was dealing with all of that, I almost missed the flight! That re-issuing the ticket fiasco took a long time! When we got to the gate, the last batch of people were boarding. Got on the plane and sat next to these 2 big Asian guys. I’m talking Yao Ming big. Because I had the window seat, I wasn’t very comfortable. After I found a position that worked, I slept pretty much the whole flight (about 1hr. 45 min.) Got to Taipei and had about a 3.5 hour layover. Used that time to read. Got on the flight from Taipei to Los Angeles. The flight back was 11 hours and 30 minutes. I spent the first couple of hours talking with different team members. Then we all nodded. I slept for about 4 hours. Watched a movie called “Shooter” with Mark Wahlberg. It was pretty good. Also did a bunch of reading. The flight coming home seemed easier to handle than the flight leaving. Went through customs without a hitch. Got my luggage and was about to head to my connecting flight, but ended up having to wait on half of our team. Finally, we got to the gate (after dealing with issues related to boarding passes and passenger paranoia). This is the longest I’ve been away from my family in one pop: 12 days! Wow! Waited a couple more hours for the LA flight to Houston.
Day 13: On the plane from LA to Houston, I sat next to this guy who reeked of alcohol. Watched “Blades of Glory” on the plane. That movie was so stooopid. Slept for a few hours. Finally touched down in Houston around 6am. Called my wife and told her I wanted to go to the House of Pies for breakfast. It took a ridiculously long time for our luggage to finally come out (45 minutes). God’s timing is perfect though. Right as I got my luggage, wifey was pulling up at the curbside spot. Hugged her really tight, and expressed how much I missed them. I noticed that my daughter had grown a little bigger in those 12 days too! She was asleep though. Headed to the House of Pies for breakfast. After that, we came home. My wife surprised me by getting my truck washed. She’s NEVER done that before! That was a huge surprise. We talked for a little while, and then I fell asleep around 10:30am (which was about 11:30pm Philippines time). Took a 4-hour nap. Got up, started unpacking & washing. Spent the evening trying to get back to being in home mode.
Grand Finale: About a month after we returned to the United States, we were notified that over 4,000 (4,288 to be exact) people made decisions to live for Christ! We hope that you will join us in praying for our new brothers and sisters in Christ!