My First Mission Trip – Day 3

As I mentioned in the earlier post that we were pleasantly surprised and informed that we had 4 places of ministry today, so the team was split into 4.  I stayed behind with Ps Lim at Ps Agusto Edwas’s church, no photographs as we didn’t have a camera.

At Banao, Jen and Leon's place of ministry. We were there last night for the crusade.

The temporary church in the day time, pastored by Ps Romeo Pacheco.

The natural beauty of Banao which we missed last night as it was pitched dark.

Linda and Aaron's (not in the picture) place of ministry at Magsaysay, pastored by Ps Cris Jacob.

Cherry, Adino and Wil's (not in the picture) place of ministry.

Group picture.

All gathered back at Ps Agusto’s after the respective ministries for lunch, shower and pack to leave for Kakidongan (in the mountainous region) .   The road was very rocky and dusty.

Boarding the jeepney that Ps Agusto chartered, and we were glad to have him accompanied us. We left about 2.30pm.

Inside the jeepney, rather spacious when not cramped with twenty over passengers and stuff!

Face mask to keep us from choking...extremely dusty as the road upwards weren't tared.

Ps Lim and Aaron with a local passenger...Like Ps Lim's cap/hat/shower cap? or rather guess what he used as a cap!

That was how they packed their jeepney...roof top and open air too!

The backview of the jeepney!...the inside were packed with goods and stuff and the human outside and top, and at the back! We were told that was a norm.

A view on the way up.  We stopped several times thus the opportunity to snap some photos and stretched our legs.  The stops were due to breakdowns and towards the end of the journey only were we enlightened that brakes of the jeep gave way!  Thank God for His protection.  The condition of the road is very bad for vehicles, even for the jeepnies.  We were literally ‘jumping’ on our bums on the seats, swaying side to side and our heads were always ‘nodding’ in agreement…to anything that was said.  I actually enjoyed the ride…it was fun! Imagine 4-5 hours of that fun

When night fell we were able to remove the face masks (see...all so happy not to be breathing through some kind of material). It was raining towards the top so the 'road' was damped and muddy.

Almost reaching the church. Collecting our bags. We had to walk the rest of the way as there were two huge, wet pot holes and the jeepney can't cross over with 'us' the load

Getting ready with torches as we took a short walk to the church/accommodation.

Off we go...about 15 minutes walk in pitched darkness except for the moonlight (it would have been romantic under different circumstances...ahem) and torches we brought along.

The journey from Bambang to Kakidongan took almost 6 hours, we were welcomed by Ps Rolly and his wife, Julie served us sweet potatoes before we started service (which was almost immediately). Here we were ready for ministry! It was ccccccold.

How the church looked like.

No proper flooring yet for the church. The pulpit to the right, elevated but also in mud.

Altar call and prayer.

Praying together and interceding.

After ministering we went over to Ps Rolly's house, adjacent to the church for dinner at 10.30pm. Oh boy! did we enjoy the dinner!

We didn’t shower that night (hee hee )as it was really cold and ‘inconvenient’ but we did cleaned and relieved ourselves before sleeping.  It was an extraodinary, overwhelming experience…one that would be embedded to last us a lifetime – the open air make shift conveniences!

We had to pair up to use the facility as it was pitched dark and about 50-80 meters walk away from the house.  Well, I paired up with Cherry and decided that she ‘try’ the ‘toilet’ first.  I had to shine the spot for her to take her ‘position’ and then turned away while she did her business.  After a few seconds, I started giggling and the torch shook so hard that it went out of  ‘focus’…hahaha.  Did Cherry make a fuss!!!…”hey, stop shaking already, I can’t see what I am doing” , then she started laughing too!    I can’t remember now what triggered the giggling and laughter

Then to bed but most of us hardly slept as it was raining though not heavy but was extremely cold and we could feel the cold seeping through the cracks on the plank flooring on our backs. Then…the cock had to crow so many times like every half hour and we could hear it flapping his (err…cockerels are male right? ) wings against the aluminium walls (which separated us and him) before each crow.  So we had a cold, noisy and sleepness night…hee hee yet another out of this present world experience for me!

Day 4…next post!