Adventist University of the Philippines
On Friday Dr. Flores' son drove me about an hour south of Manila to the Adventist University of the Philippines. He dropped me off there and picked up his sister to take her home for the weekend. On Monday they will bring her back to AUP, and take me back to Manila. It works out very nicely.
The Adventist University of the Philippines is a beautiful, mountainous campus on a large chunk of land. It has about 4,000 students and includes a dental and medical school.
The girls dorms are named after flowers and the guys dorms are named after trees. I stayed in the guest room of the Waling-Waling girls dorm.
The Philippine International Church at AUP
Part of my family while at AUP. We had good food and fellowship the entire weekend.
The Sabbath afternoon AY group.
Vespers at the Philippine International Church
They can fit 6 adults plus the driver on one of these motorcycle conveyance devices
The Adventist University of the Philippines main gate
People express their appreciation for the messages in various ways. This one I found in my guest bathroom at the girls dorm.
Diary entries:
Friday, May 19
Najla needed to get her hair cut so we all went with her to the mall and ate at a Persian restaurant. It was very good consisting of hummus, cucumber sauce, eggplant dip and warm pita bread along with potato samoas and rice.
Afterward I completed my 8,000 steps by walking the mall until Najla was done. The mall was huge with 5 or more stories and a large open atrium in the center—and that was just one wing of the mall, there were several others.
I slept fairly well last night but woke again at 2 a.m. I stayed awake until 3 and then woke up again at 4. After that I could not go back to sleep, but I took a nap at 11:30 and slept soundly until 1:30 p.m.
Breakfast was at 8 a.m. and consisted of oatmeal, apples, mangoes (really, really good mangoes), and papaya along with warm wheat bread with basil pesto. It was really quite delicious.
After breakfast I took a long walk around the neighborhood where the Flores family lives. When you walk in the Philippines you must pay close attention to what is happening around you or you may get run over by a vehicle of some kind. They are all over the place and swerving around the road to get around all the obstacles (people and other parked vehicles).
After eating lunch (rice and vegetables) with the Flores family, Ted, their youngest son took me to AUP. It took about one hour. I am staying in a guest room at Waling Waling hall. This is one of the girls dorms on campus. The girls dorms are named after flowers and the guys dorms are named after trees. The room is small but very nice and it has a powerful fan.
The campus is very large and well maintained. I am writing this inside a small gazebo at the rear of the dorm. It is threatening rain and the breeze is quite nice. At 5:30 they will come by and pick me up for supper at the cafeteria.
We picked up some food at the cafeteria and then wen to Maricelle’s house to eat. There was a group of about 10 of us. They are very friendly and we had some good conversation.
When we arrived at the Vespers venue at 7 p.m. it was dark and lifeless. My guide was wondering what was happening. But the people eventually came and we had a very good size group of students. I shared the “Drowning in the Will of the Almighty” presentation. Then we had a prayer of consecration. The Lord really blessed!
After vespers I went back to the guest room and went right to sleep. I slept very well until about 2 a.m. and then was up for a couple of hours. I had some great prayer time and felt quite rested in the morning.
Sabbath, May 20
At 6:30 I decided that since I had an hour before being picked up for breakfast that I would try to record the AUP vlog. So I setup in the gazebo behind the dorm. It took about 30 minutes of taping to get everything I needed. I am very glad that I did this early because it is pouring down raining now.
Breakfast was quite good, including rice, vegetables, and a very good noodle dish. One of the vegetable dishes had some pepper in it but it wasn’t too much and really helped with the rice. Everything was fine until I ate what I thought was a green been, but turned out to be a pepper. I almost choked on my food. The fire died down fairly quickly but it took several minutes before I could eat anything without restarting the blaze in my mouth.
The church service went very well. Everything worked smoothly and God gave me freedom in speaking. I spoke on “How can I enjoy God?” People here seem to be very appreciative of the message.
After church and potluck I returned to my room for a couple of hours of rest (I am slowly getting over jet lag). Then it was off to the AY program. We held the program outside in an ampitheater. There was, of course, no projector, but I still used my laptop to help me with my notes. I shared my story with them including the parable of Rich, the Poor Man. Perhaps it was the setting, but I really enjoyed the experience. We were able to share at a more relaxed, enjoyable level than was possible during church. The number of people at AY was relatively much smaller, but the fellowship seemed much greater. It’s hard to express.
After my presentation we had a question/answer time. It turns out that Filipinos are quite shy and I had a terrible time getting anyone to ask questions. We did finally get going with several really good questions. Afterward we had a group picture and then personal photos. It was a lot of fun.
After supper at Maricelle’s house (with a large group of people) I went with a young man to the gazebo behind the girls dorm to talk about a problem that he had. He had an opportunity to go to Quebec and work as a nurse. But he wanted to do ministry. He was asking me if I had any insight on what he should do. I, of course, could not tell him what to do, but I could let him know that it is much harder to do ministry in North America than it is in many other places in the world. Add to that that he did not know the culture or even speak the language (they speak French in Quebec) and the odds were stacked against him. All I could do was advise him to continually beseech God for guidance.
After the AY program a young woman came up to me and asked me about surrender and owning a small business. She wanted to know if the two were compatible. I warned her about the problem of time. Businesses can slurp up your time so quickly and leave you spent. She admitted that her parents working almost all the time from early in the morning until 6 or 7 at night. And that they were exhausted much of the time. I told her that I could not advise her directly but that I could encourage her to consider spending more time working for eternity.
There is something very interesting here in the Philippines. Whenever a younger person talks to a much older person they will often add the word “po” to their sentences. They will say something like, “Hi, po. I have a question, po, that I am hoping you can answer? What do you think God’s will is in this matter po?”
Knowing the will of God is one of the most difficult questions that people pose to me. I have no answer except to say, surrender, plead with God for His will, and trust. It is a true answer, but not a very satisfactory answer for most people. We want to be told what to do, but God often sees fit to guide us step by step.
It is now 7:20 and I am hungering and thirsting for bed. It has been a very tiring, and yet very fulfilling, day and I am ready for it to end.
Sunday, May 21
I found out this morning that the car that was supposed to be used to pick me up today is having problems and they need to take it in to get it fixed. When the group at breakfast found out, they immediately booked me for two more meetings today. The Lord works in wonderful ways.
Every meal here has rice as its center along with several types of vegetables and fruits. It takes a little getting used to, but it’s pretty healthy.
After breakfast I joined the students for worship. We had a veritable feast of singing, worship thought and united prayer. I found out after joining the worship service that it wasn't actually a worship service, it was a planning meeting for PYC. If only we spent the first hour of our meetings in worship! Meetings are not for the purpose of figuring out what to do, that has already been done for us. Meetings are for the purpose of seeking to know God’s plans and align ourselves to them.
This is the first time that I have experienced united prayer, and I really like it. People are not in a hurry and the praying is more…well…united. It is a great fellowship experience with God. The only downside is that I had a sore back for the rest of the day. I need to get more flexible or find a position that I can hold comfortably for extended periods of time.
After worship I left them to their meeting and went with my laptop to the Philippine International Church in search of WiFi. I was ultimately successful and able to get several things done that had deadlines coming up.
Then it was back to Marcella’s house for lunch. It turns out I was very early. It was 12:45 and we didn’t eat until around 2 p.m. The food was excellent and I had a good appetite. If we ate like that a lot I could gain some weight on this trip. The meal consisted of noodles, potato soup, vegetables, and an excellent pico de gallo sauce (which I used with the noodles to add a little more flavor). It was, I think, the first meal that I had outside of a restaurant that did not have rice as its center.
After lunch we went to the ampitheater for an afternoon meeting. I shared the “Self after Surrender” presentation and then we had some questions. The meeting lasted just over an hour. It was a great time of fellowship.
After supper, we met again in a worship hall for another presentation. I shared “Staying Dead”. Afterwards they gave me my gift, they formed a ring around me and prayed for me and God’s ministry through me. It was really wonderful.
When I found out early this morning that I would not be leaving until the next day, I immediately began to wonder what I would do all day? I prayed that the Lord would help me to have a productive and useful day and to use my time wisely. He answered that prayer beyond my belief. God is in charge.
