June 15 was another prayer meeting at the church we attend. One of the men (Verolo) that attends this prayer meeting is actually working with another small church up in the mountains. That church has a family living in their community that is living there without any support. The father (Max) had a business that went under and they are living in a house that another man is allowing them to live in rent free. They have several children and the man is trying to plant papaya. This is all well and good but it takes a few months for the plants to bear fruit so in the meantime they have next to nothing.
Back to Verolo, he works at the church in the mountains as a volunteer pastor. The nearest church gives him $32.00 per month to help with transportation. At prayer meeting Verolo asked us to pray for Max and his family, especially that they would have food on their table. In passing Verolo mentioned that he had given half of his honorarium to Max last month.
My tithe seems very small.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Another Year
June 13th found me standing in front of 32 (it has since grown to 34) eager faces. They are taking a class called Understanding and Communicating Scripture which means that I get to help them jump into understanding the Bible and then learning to communicate the same. A tall order for anyone, whether student or teacher. We have an additional challenge, they are listening to me in English and Cebuano. They understand some English, some Cebuano and three other languages. Welcome to the post Tower of Babel world!
One of the greatest joys is looking at the list of places they come from. Four of them come from a small church in the community of Kadjukan. The church's name is Mountain Top Evangelical Free Church. These students come from one of the most remote parts of the island where I live. They have come from their small village to a metropolis of one million where there is water that comes out of faucets (most of the time) and electricity that is in the walls (most of the ...). They do have one advantage, they speak Cebuano as their first language.
There are two young people who come from the first church that Carol and I attended 22 years ago in Butuan City. One is a young man who is the son of a fisherman that we got to know at that time. What a priviledge of have their child in my class. The student wasn't even born at that time!
There are a further three that come from a small group of islands that speak a different language (we have over a 100 languages in the country). This language group has a New Testament translated by their uncle, a Wycliffe missionary.
Not your average group of students but I wish you could be there with me every Tuesday morning.
One of the greatest joys is looking at the list of places they come from. Four of them come from a small church in the community of Kadjukan. The church's name is Mountain Top Evangelical Free Church. These students come from one of the most remote parts of the island where I live. They have come from their small village to a metropolis of one million where there is water that comes out of faucets (most of the time) and electricity that is in the walls (most of the ...). They do have one advantage, they speak Cebuano as their first language.
There are two young people who come from the first church that Carol and I attended 22 years ago in Butuan City. One is a young man who is the son of a fisherman that we got to know at that time. What a priviledge of have their child in my class. The student wasn't even born at that time!
There are a further three that come from a small group of islands that speak a different language (we have over a 100 languages in the country). This language group has a New Testament translated by their uncle, a Wycliffe missionary.
Not your average group of students but I wish you could be there with me every Tuesday morning.
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