Balikbayan (Part 4)

After being with the family, I met back up with Fred and Bong at another house where Fred's relatives lived. Pastor Felix and Jeremy went back to Greenhills Christian Fellowship because the elders had asked Pastor if he could do a study for them. Our rendezvous point was the Mall of Asia. Fred found a weird food stand that sold "Pizza in a Cone." It was basically pizza wrapped as a cone (nothing too special). I guess there is something special about the geometric shape of a cone that changes the taste of pizza. Interesting..

Once we were finished at the mall, we were headed to Caloocan.


CALOOCAN

Correct me if I'm wrong, I believe Caloocan is in Manila. I'll have to look that up, so forgive me if that is incorrect. But this place is another poor part of the P.I. This was a sharp contrast from where we were in Ortigas. I mean, GCF was right next to a mall and was in an area that was thriving, but we were in a place that did not have any of that.


This was such a humbling experience. We went to Pastor Virly's church (Mt. Zion Evangelical Church) and he was extremely kind to us. His entire family and congregation were very hospitable. Pastor Virly attended the Purpose and Passion Conference so we had already met him prior to our arrival. But in those couple days, we were able to get to know him a lot better.

That Saturday we were able to spend time with their youth. There was a good size of them there, and it really reminded us of our fellowship at MCC. We were able to share songs, take part in their icebreaker games, and preach the Word. Playing praise songs was interesting because they were using an overhead projector to project their praise lyrics. After doing Powerpoints for so long, it was difficult to go back to transparencies. But we were able to write the lyrics to all three praise songs on three different transparencies (It was a flash back to middle school for me).

Highlight alert! I was given the opportunity to preach to these people after we sang and did the icebreakers. And O what a humbling experience that was. Preaching is hard enough for me. I had to preach in a language I had little experience in and with teenage kids too. My comfort was in the fact that I had always taught high school kids at my church and that is what I assured them with. I let them know that I taught teenagers exactly like them in the States. Yet, getting the message from my heart to theirs was still a difficult task. There was a girl sitting near me who I constantly referred to for translating key words. If I ran out of Tagalog, I would go to my left and say "Ano [RANDOM ENGLISH WORD] sa Tagalog?" and then I would relay take that word and run with it. She could have gave me blasphemous things to say, but I don't think she did because no chairs or tomatoes were thrown at me. You know, when you are in a position like that, you kind of wish that you were a charismatic that spoke in tongues. LOL... I mean seriously, you just want to get yourself out of the way and give them the pure, unadulterated Word of God. Because really, I had nothing else to give them. These people who have so much less than me would have appreciated money but I knew that the money I gave them couldn't give them eternal security. What did I have to I offer them but the Word? What did I have to offer but the true Gospel that leads to eternal life? At that moment, I could only just preach my heart which stem from the truth of Jesus Christ and I just wanted them to be saved. I knew of no other no other message to give them except Christ Jesus and Him crucified.

I poured my heart out to those kids in Caloocan and I hope that they understood that I loved and cared for their souls. I believe it was Edwards who said that preaching isn't about how much information people retain but about the impression that you leave on them in the moment of it. It was such an experience for me to worship with them in their context and at their home. We were able to show compassion and encouragement to our brothers and sisters who desperately needed.

Loved ones, I live for ministry. This is what keeps me going. Nothing gives me more joy than to proclaim the way of salvation to the lost and to encourage the spirits of my brethren in times of difficulty. I am at my highest point of worship when I am proclaiming the whole counsel of God to the ears of those who ear. My happiness is founded in training bringing up men who are willing to sacrifice it all for the sake of being a disciple of Christ. Yes it sounds strange to many of you. But I don't want to do anything else. I don't want to coast into heaven. Time is short, the days are evil, and every minute of my life will be held accountable to God. I want to make this vapor of a life count for all of eternity.

Lord, you know how much my heart longs to be with you. As long as I have breath, I will do what I can to bring that Gospel to the friends, to the families, to the neighbors, to the cities, to the nations, and to the very ends of the earth. Nothing else will ever satisfy me except this mission. Lord, help me. It is going to be so hard. I know. But this is the only thing I want to do.