agusan

We recently had an invite to attend a church on the outskirts of the Agusan marsh. Apparently being a foreigner leads to the assumption that you are a good preacher. (so far I have been introduced as Pastor Skip 3 times) We left Saturday the 3rd for Agusan. Public transportation is the way to go here in the Philippines, so we boarded our air-con bus and set out. The 5 hour bus ride to San Fransisco was pretty unremarkable, other than the fact that a trip of probably less than 100 miles took 5 hours. The bus terminal CRs(bathrooms) were very remarkable, but I won't get into that here.
We were met at the San Fransisco bus terminal by Pastor Don-Don and his wife Jeanette. They took us to lunch then to our hotel. We had come packed with hammocks and mosquito nets prepared to sleep at his house, only to be surprised and escorted to the nicest hotel in SF. The tribal pastors that Ptr Don-Don oversees had God speak and tell them to sow seeds in good soil. They were told we were good soil, so they all chipped in and paid for 2 nights in the hotel for us. I would've been content at Pastor Don-Don's house, but my first hot shower in 2 months felt pretty good.
The next day we took the bus 15 min to 4 square church. Whites always create a spectacle in these situations. The congregations are so welcoming it's humbling. After the Philippine praise and worship, which really has to be experienced, not described, I spoke on love, specifically the love of Christ, as being our motivation for everything we do. I used 2 Peter 1:3-11 as my main passage, and talked about how we can grow to love people more, with the love of Christ, and when this happens we will be more productive and useful. Now I am far from a great speaker and was relying on God to give me the subject matter that would impact the people. I was told afterward that the sermon fit in with what they had talked about the week before, and also went right along with the prophecy spoken during praise and worship. I thank God for using me!
After the agape meal after church Kerry spoke to the women of the church while I sat in on the pastors meeting. This was with 10 tribal pastors and several leaders. I kept myself awake (unsuccesfully) by watching the pastor's evil pet monkey. He would seem friendlly until someone would approach him. When they were just out of reach he would lunge from his bamboo perch, arms extended, shreiking a blood curdling scream. Just as you thought he would claw out your eyeballs, the chain would catch him and he would do a complete flip around the bamboo and sit back with a smug expression. It was fun watching people have the same reaction I did when it happened to me.(yelling and ducking so fast you almost hit the ground)
For the evening we had another agape meal, this time a Philippines specialty, Lechon Baboy.(roast Pig) This was delivered off the back of a motorcycle along with pop, fruit salad, and rice. The evening ended with 2 of the pastors returning with us to the hotel for prayer.
This was a new place for us to visit, and we were invited back to visit the interior of the marsh and visit the tribal churches. These are accessed by a 3-6 hour boat ride, depending on the water levels. From my understanding the marsh encompasses about 1,000,000 acres and is home to many species of wildlife, including crocodiles. I can't wait to go!
The Indigenous people of the Philippines continue to amaze me with their generosity, hospitality, and most of all their faith. They live under some of the most difficult conditions I have seen, and depend on God literally for their daily bread. We in the West seem to make it our goal to not need God in our lives. We plan for retirement, we have health insurance, life insurance, house/car insurance, excesses of food, clothes. What do we need God for? I think without a dependence on God for physical needs, we have a harder time with dependence for our spiritual needs also. America says that money is the key to happiness. Our wealth blinds us to the poverty of our souls. The American Way says we can always do it ourselves. We CAN'T! God's grace for our sins is the only solution.