Philippines 04

So after a few days of not too much we really had a full Lord's Day day here in Manila. Jose kindly brought me some breakfast around 8. I'd been up much earlier but had snoozed until then. At 9 am Sunday School started with adult Sunday School in the church led by Pastor Mon Macapagal, looking at the words compassion and kindness from Colossians 3. That ties in well with CCM, which he did mention at the very end. Throughout the day things were quite bilingual so I missed quite a bit but enjoyed singing in Tagalog as best I could and listening to the language and trying to figure things out. By 10 am the church was full and not long after Brian Ellis led the service. I preached on 1 John 1:1, 2. I had 5 points (Mon noted my Calvinistic bent later!) and so Brian summarised each point which seemed to work well, despite being slightly flustered that he was the one expected to lead plus a pastoral problem that cropped up at that moment. Anyway we got the message about not sinning and about looking to Jesus and the need of the whole world hearing over. It was nice to see many familiar and unfamiliar faces there. One characteristic thing here is that most of the children greet you by taking your hand and touching it to their forehead. The front two rows are filled with children from their homes and their housemothers, etc. Because of this the balance is quite young and feminine but there is a good range of ages present. Most are local but some travel quite a way. After the service I was able to join people eating lunch under the roof erected last year at the side of the buildings. I had lovely conversations with various ones. It was raining through much of the day, which was refreshing but perhaps kept some away in the afternoon. The afternoon meeting started at 4 pm and this time was led by Pastor Mon Macapagal. This time I preached from Ezekiel 37 on the dry bones, which went okay although we struggled with some words. Part of the problem is that many English words are often used in place of Tagalog ones and so translation is not easy. Anyway I think that in both services people got the message. I tried to be animated. Mainly members then trooped down from the main auditorium to a smaller room where we observed the Lord's Supper. Brian Ellis led and I spoke briefly (without translation) on Isaiah 1:18. Several people are away and there are one or two concerns. It was lovely to see Brian leading the people in prayer and to see a happy fellowship in action. The thirtieth anniversary is coming up soon and they are thinking of organising a hog roast! After this I was kindly invited back to the Ellises house for a meal and conversation. It was nice to get something of Brian's background who was once a Methodist and an OMF missionary but came to Reformed convictions reading Owen's Death of Death an Ephesians 1 and then joined Wattisham Baptist Chapel before beginning work afresh in Manila, eventually planting the church, which began meeting in his front room. They have a literature ministry as well as everything else, but that is sometimes forgotten. There are issues, of course. Sometimes people leave and we spoke of other estrangements in the Christian world too. There' plenty to encourage though. It's nice to be among so many who are self consciously Reformed in theology - in a good way! While there I was invited to phone home and was glad to break into Sunday dinner back in Childs Hill, where all seems to be well. That was good. What a wonderful privilege to see this great work at such close quarters.