New Life mission trip to the Philippines, July-August 2006. Click on any picture for a full-screen view.
Day 5: in Barangay Balawing, Aroroy municipality, Masbate province
Our members in Balawing are poor, making a living by fishing or panning for gold. The congregation is named Christ's Fishers of Men Fellowship. The church is a bamboo building, built on land owned by the Manzano family fish farm (which doesn’t make any money, but was the reason for the church getting established in this location). In the afternoon, Janet Morrison ministered to the children, sharing Jesus through balloons. Gift packs of used clothing, toiletries, vitamins, and toys were distributed, and the people were very thankful. Children, teens and adults were grouped together for games and conversation. "I was able to share the gospel to five teens," said Abel, one of the American teens. The people gathered for an evening devotional service. We all stayed in tents; the Filipino staff stayed in the thatched-roof buildings. There was a brief period of hard rain, and we all got a little wet, but the weather is so warm it didn’t matter much.