CCM Focus Day London

An excellent day at St John's Wood Road today for the focus on Christian Compassion Ministries and their work in Manila among deprived children. Paul Relf, chairman of the UK committee, chaired and John T and Virgie Sparrow led with Catherine Gacutan, currently visiting. A lot of thought had been put into the day and all sorts of things were utilised in order to make it a truly multi media, multi sensory experience. There was a mock up slum dwelling (which was even "on fire" at one stage), a scale model of the girls' home, Skype calls with Brian Ellis and others, lots of video footage and pictures, plenty of news, some prayer and worship, even a Filipino merienda or snack at one point. I do believe I even heard Susan Boyle singing. About 60 or 70 gathered. Pity there weren't more. Several of us have been to Manila but whether you had been or not, it was a real opportunity to get the experience. Hopefully this will stir people to pray and to give to the most worthy work.

Lord's Day September 09 2012

I've been a bit slow getting back to the weekly reports I started doing before the holidays. I missed saying something about my first Sunday back last week when I preached on John 3:1, 2a and Romans 12:1. This last Sunday it was John 3:2bc, 3 and Galatians 6:9, 10. Both in the evening service and at an after meeting Virgie Biala from Manila spoke to us about herself and her work for CCM among needy children. It was nice to have so many there for the meetings. The picture shows Virgie and her chauffeur John T Sparrow and a few of us from Childs Hill. For more on CCM see here.

Philippines 11

So my final full day in the Philippines is nearly over. It started quite early around 8 am when Dennis, one of the members at Moonwalk Community Bible Church, picked me up and drove me over to the church. (En route to church we passed a RC church that runs a market just outside every Sunday!). Moonwalk is in Parañaque and is in one of these subdivisions as they call them, where gates with security guards keep out undesirables. We have them in England (gated communities) but these are at a much lower economic level I guess. Anyway Moonwalk (a slightly better heeled congregation for the most part I guess) was originally begun by Cubao and then planted as a church by Steve Hofmaier, (here too) a graduate of Al Martin's old Montville, New Jersey seminary, in 1987. Moonwalk also has a small seminary, which is a pity in some ways but that's Reformed Baptists for you.
They kicked off with Sunday School at 9 am mostly in Tagalog but with plenty of English. Steve is teaching on missions and if you are in the know the Al Martin style hallmarks were all there. I was slightly bothered by that but got through it and preached quite well on Ezekiel 37 again (good not to have to be translated) and then joined them for lunch too, chatting mostly to Steve who spent six months in Nairobi with Keith Underhill years back and had been to Aberystwyth. By the time I left anyway I was much more centred on the 99% of things that we do agree on and was very glad for the opportunity to have been there and to have enjoyed such sterling fellowship. Dennis, accompanied by his wife, kindly drove me back to Cubao, where there were quite a few still around enjoying coffee, chat and singing. They knew people and so took opportunity to chat too before returning. Ray Seveses here is brother to Rolly, one of the elders at Moonwalk. They have just appointed a third elder and so Steve, who sees himself as very much a missionary (unlike Brian) is keen to move on but the congregation are rather dismayed at the prospect.
Back here there was time to talk to Joseph and Theresa (no English) with their toddler Jores (JOseph/theRESa - typical Filipino) and try and remember the CCM girls' names. At 4 pm it was time for the afternoon service. Joel Pascual, one of the deacons preached. They provided simultaneous translation for us monoglots. Joel is coming to England in October to be best man to Redy who is marrying Naomi Clark, a member at Waterford House Evangelical, Strood. Perhaps we can link up. He told me that his father is a bishop in a Filipino cult (see something on Filipino cults here, although I think this is an RC site).
After church a few stayed to sing and to say a formal hanks and goodbye. That was very nice. I really have enjoyed this time and received so many blessings.
Brian and Necy kindly invited me back home again for a bite to eat (very tasty spaghetti dish) with them and their (as yet) unconverted housegirls. I also had another interesting chat with Brian clarifying the set up, asking where he sees things going and chatting about various things. Clearly there are constant headaches but it's great to be with someone who God is using quietly but quite extensively in many ways. The Ellises I should have mentioned live opposite Faith House, where the older CCM girls live. He told me they have another property somewhere currently not in use.
Anyway I walked back to the church, did a little packing, did a little dip into the coconut jam I bought last night and then read a little before bed. The rain has just started to teem down once again.

Philippines 05

Yesterday (Monday) was another full day. Around 11 am Scott Dehoran called for me. Scott and Emmeline have been houseparents at the CCM boys house (Damascus) from its inception two years ago. Scott is from Connecticut and Emmeline is a Filipina. They met in the US and got to know of the work and when a boys home was mooted felt they could take it on in the Lord. Since then, despite the odds, little Daniel has been born which has changed equations slightly but the work continues. He took me to a couple of malls (Manila has many) for a nice lasagne and a little shopping. We shared testimonies. It was good to hear his story of conversion from the world in his late twenties, a heap of troubles and then the more recent stuff. As he said he was born with a wrench in his hand, whereas I would have to think about which end to hold, but we got on well. It was nice to meet Emmeline and Daniel back home again and spend some time there. Later we went over to the girls home where boys and girls had already gathered for a party. We were celebrating the birthdays of Monica (13) and Dennis (10). The roof has been roofed over which provides a brilliant area for recreation. First we had devotions where we sang and I spoke (while Anneline translated) on the healing of Naaman. I chose that story because it's my favourite and because it features a young girl who has a significant role to play. The kids are all really lovely and it was a privilege to be there. They had food and cake and games including musical chairs Filipino style which included some bumps but no tears. The birthday kids also had to choose two or three friends to say something about them and that got a bit tearful. When Scott explained the background in one case I was nearly crying too. Anyway it was soon time to head back and Marilyn kindly gave me a lift. I hope that she and Georgie got back at a reasonable time.The traffic was horrendous.

Philippines 03

The main thing today was travelling over to the CCM homes in Antipolo. A birthday celebration for one of the church's founding members was going when I was picked up by one of the housemothers to be driven over.
There is info about CCM here but it is way out of date. (This is true for the church website as a whole but will give some idea. What they now have is a big house in a gated community 20 minutes away made up of three separate households of around 10 children each (Emmaus, Galilee and Hebron). It was nice to meet all the girls but how to remember all those mostly unfamiliar names (many beginning with J I notice and often double barrelled)? So I chatted mostly to the house mothers of mission work in the north and the UK, etc but also to the girls a little about Wales and Tagalog, etc.

I then had a lift back via Damascus, the boys' home. The young people were gathering for a meeting so I took a few photos and then headed off. I took a look inside the church being readied for tomorrow. About 7.30 pm Bernie the caretaker kindly brought some food over. His nephew Jose brought me something for breakfast this morning. People are very kind. It will be a privilege to preach tomorrow. Must keep it simple and clear.

Philippines 02

Got through the hot night despite cockerels crowing, etc. You see cockerels everywhere. Cock fighting is a big thing here. Lito, a GMA graduate called for me around 8 am and we headed for Brian's house (where the church originally used to meet). Lovely to meet Nece and Brian in their home and take a quick look at Brian's amazing shell collection. We then drove with others through sometimes heavy traffic (caused by work on the extension of the ELR) to Valenzuela City where there was a meeting of messengers from the newly formed Reformed Baptist Association. It was good to be there and get the flavour of a new and young movement. Part of the flavour is the bilingual situation (something I am fairly familiar with). The pastor in Valenzuela is Aries Liboro. It was good to meet him. His wife put on a lovely spread for around 20 of us present.
We went then to the CCM offices and Alex showed me around the squatter slums. I won't attempt to describe the utterly amazing poverty. Only if you are in it can you grasp it and even then only faintly. My only hope is that such places existed in London in Spurgeon's day and are no more. Several of the children we met are sponsored by CCM. What a work is being done. There are no easy solutions though. Eleri was watching slum dog millionaire before I left. What horrible things there are in this world.
And so back to what now looks like a luxury flat and some time to read. I'm enjoying Selderhuis on Calvin which I bought at EMA and started to read on the plane.

Philippines 01

So bright and early last Wednesday with almost everything (but not quite) done, I set off for Heathrow. Eleri gave me a lift after we dropped the youngest boys off at school. Things went smoothly getting on the Malaysia Airline Airbus but then we ended up sat there for four hours owing to concerns about the engines. Fuel could be seen spilling from the wings, which understandably concerned some passengers until it was explained that it was coming from the surge tanks and was no cause for alarm. Eventually we headed off. It wasn't a problem for me. It just meant four hours in Heathrow in the plane rather than Kuala Lumpur in the airport. My neighbour was a Malay medical student, studying in Galway - slightly concerned at Malaysia's reputation in all this! I've never talked at length to anyone in a hijab so that was good. Much of the long flight was spent trying to sleep, which I didn't find easy. Anyway from KL I flew straight on to Manila in a fairly empty plane. In both KL and Manila they seemed very concerned about the different influenza viruses. I came through baggage and customs very quickly and soon met up with CCM house mother Fay who drove me effortlessly through Metro Manila to the church compound. Caretaker Bernie showed me to my room, basic but with a fridge and an A/C unit - much appreciated. In the evening Brian Ellis called and he kindly took me out for a meal. We were in a Pancake House overlooking the very place where the thriller in Manila took place (boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier) all those years ago. The church is in the midst of a large commercial area, with lots of building going on. There is also a lot of poverty and some seediness, which Brian pointed out. Thursday nights is drop in night and so when we returned one of the men was speaking to a group of around 80 (less than normal). Matt Gamston is away at present, which is a shame. I did run into a young lady from Chelmsley Wood who is here for a month. So I've got myself settled in and hopefully can share more soon. The thing that strikes me at present is the important of context. I've seen much of this on video but it cannot be the same, of course.