Philippines arrival

On Wednesday August 1st, I arrived at 11pm safely in the Philippines. We landed in Manila, the capitol of the country having more than 20 million residents. Thank you for praying. I had good memories of my last visit thirteen years ago. At that time I stayed two months or so to help coordinate an upcoming crusade, called "The Festival of Life" with Mike MacIntosh.

Tonight I was hoping to get an extended visa. Though I was able to clear customs and immigration, I was only given 21 days. Pray, as I will need to travel to Angeles immigration offices to extend the time through November. Thankfully they say it should be not too much trouble. From customs I went outside into the hot humid night. There were thousands of faces, but none greeting me. I followed some signs through a tunnel to a designated passenger-meeting zone. It was nicely divided into alphabetical order. It was there I spotted Pat Virays familiar face. It feels good after traveling 24 hours and being in an unfamiliar country, to see a brother.

I have been adjusting over the last couple of days. Jet lag was little challenge. But the humidity was just as great if not greater than I recalled. Pray for adjustment. The needs of the people in PI and in particular Masantol are great. Masantol is in Pampanga about two hours drive north from Manila. This is a poor community with many squatters (people that settle and build wherever they can...including over water)

As I walked to the CEF school outreach on Friday I had many observations. The narrow dirt street was lined with tricycle cabs ready for service. These bikes have a seat for passengers attached over two rear wheels, covered by a canopy roof. As you might guess each had drivers eager for a few pesos. It will be interesting to see the fit and response for a man my size. Along the way we passed many small, loosely constructed snack shack stores, the Catholic Church and many, many friendly
curious people.

The street and ditches did not lack for discarded garbage and polluted water. It always amazes me that people can live and survive with such different standards of sanitation. A combination of odors from food service shacks and street litter filled the air. As I passed you could not help but love the poorly clothed children. Their eyes wondering as they stared.

At the school, classrooms surround a dilapidated courtyard, filled with polluted puddles from the most recent flood. The Virays envisions CC Masantol helping repair this area so it will not flood. Despite the conditions a small kick ball game proceeds. The classrooms had wood slatted windows and many attentive kids. They were very proper, calling out to us, "Good Morning Pastor Viray, Good morning Pastor Dennis". They listened to every word of the study. They repeated scripture. What a great open door for Jesus.
Den 8.03.07