Preaching in Polanco

The final Sunday of my trip was spent at the church service of Pastor Ronilo Buyog, brother of Queen Bee. So, he is affectionately known as Pastor Bee, or Pastor-in-Law to me (and remember, in Visaya, the stress in on the second syllable in pastor).

The building you will see in the photos is soon to be demolished, if it has not been already. This church, and the parsonage attached, are on a rental property. The landowner has decided to divide the lot among his children, and he is planning to raze everything on the property, including the church as well as the house of the neighbor.

This was taken on our way to Mabas. We stopped here
to see Pastor's church and get some things for our trip. I
include this photo so you can see the name of the church.

Pastor Buyog was not originally a Shiloh missionary. You see from the photo, his church is called "Ambassador Baptist Mission." He attended Bible college in Manila, and he went to his home in Mansawan to start the church there. However, when the swarm of Buyog moved off the mountain, he started the new mission in Lingasad, Polanco. Lingasad is not far from Dipolog City. I think it's between Dipolog and Dapitan, but then, my directions were often confused. Whenever we went to Dapitan, or through Dapitan (such as the trip to Mabas), we passed by the church. Even though Pastor Buyog is not originally from the Shiloh family, Pastor Mario Montero, of Punta, Dipolog City, mentors and disciples Pastor Buyog now and does what he can to help support him.

We hear that the church has found a new rental property. We are not certain if they have been able to move into the new temporary place yet or not, but when we do learn, we will update. However, the church is praying for its own property. There is a lot near them for 140,000 pesos. That is a little more than $3,300 USD (right now, the price is $3,311.38, but that number changes). Let's pray with them for the amount they need.

Well, anyway, now that we have finished that part of the blog, let's return to my trip. It was a joy to spend time with the believers there in Lingasad. We arrived early, because Pastor Buyog came to get us in the morning. He drives around on his motorbike to pick up church members before the service, so he had to bring us up there very early so he could go and get his parishioners.

Pastor Buyog teaches about Satan
during the Sunday School hour.

First, we had the Sunday School time, when Pastor Buyog taught from the streamer Pastor Mario had made. If you have been following these blogs, you have seen these streamers throughout the series. They are made by Pastor Mario to help teach various doctrines. They are illustrated to help those who struggle to read (or understand the English of the KJV Bible) to follow the lessons or sermons. It helps greatly to have a visual aid.

This particular streamer deals with Satan, his history, his works, his future. You can't really see it on these photos, but there are many scripture verses on the streamer, all showing the scriptural basis for the various points.

Church members await the start of the service.

During the Sunday School hour, there was a very beautiful red rooster tied up right outside the front door. Whoever started the rumor that roosters crow only at daylight was seriously mistaken. He thought he needed to crow all through the Sunday School hour. However, we had the last laugh, because we ate him for lunch. So, the moral of the story, if you're going to be a rooster outside a church in the Philippines, don't interrupt the service. You may end up as manok adobo.

As is common practice, Pastor did ambush the guest one time to sing. So, accompanied by Queen Bee, we sang a hymn in Cebuano. My Cebuano is much worse than anyone else's English over there, so I do hope they had some grace for me. But it means a lot to them for us to try to learn their language.

Queen Bee and I singing a song in Cebuano. 

The message God put on my heart for that Sunday was from Psalm 103. Someone once said, "If you want to know your God, read the Psalms." It is true. The Psalms are a collection of praise songs to God, and they always tell of a particular aspect or virtue of God to be praised. Psalm 103 tells us how David overcame his own tendency to forget God and His attributes, so we talked about how we should do the same. I say "we" because, as you can see from the photo, I had an interpreter. Some parts of Mindanao understand English better than others, so sometimes I had a point-by-point translator. Sometimes, the pastor would summarize at the end.

I'm preaching, and Bro. Joel is translating.

At the end of the Psalm, David calls on all of God's creation to join with him in praise. When we were talking about those particular verses, the Pentecostal pig tied up just outside the window you see in the photo started hollering. It made a good illustration point, that even the baboy was wanting to praise God. Unfortunately, we did not give the baboy the same treatment as the manok. The baboy lived to squeal another day.

It was a joy to be able to encourage these believers. It is always a pleasure to be able to be with the believers in another part of the world. It is an amazing thing to see people who are so different from you in so many ways worship the same God you worship. Their sins are forgiven the same way ours are, if we are in Christ.

There are some other needs Pastor Buyog and his family have. Let us pray for them and for their church. Let us pray for God's blessing and protection, as well as His power in their lives. Let's pray we can be a blessing to them for Christ's sake as well.