a.world.of.beauty.

July 10-17

Chocolate Hills

On Saturday, July 10 we flew to Bohol from Manila. It's an island on the east part of the Philippines, and it's known for its tourist attractions, from the beautiful beaches to the "chocolate" hills. But even though it is very beautiful, there is still a lot of poverty. Many are still struggling to survive and provide for their families. We saw all of this during our week of ministry there.

 

Upon arrival, we went immediately to our first ministry site, located in Calape. We worked with New Life Assembly of God until Tuesday. The pastor there is Pastor Rowen, a graduate from the Bible School in Bohol. He's in his twenties, like many of the pastors in the church plants in Bohol.

There at New Life, we did a lot of evangelism in the community. We would go from house to house, handing out tracts and praying with people. We also did a lot of children's ministry. We would split the team up into groups and go to different villages to play and minister to the children. On Sunday, we were in charge of the service, from the worship to the preaching to the children's service. It went really well, and I definitely enjoyed getting to know the people of the churches. Overall, it was a really great experience, and I really enjoyed our time in Calape.

Fish and the drop off

Beautiful fish and coral

After Calape, we had a two day break at Alona Beach. There, we met up again with Tom Bohnert, the missionary in charge of the internship. We talked about the time we had spent in PI already and talked about what was ahead of us. It was great being all-together again to talk about what God has been doing and what goals we still wanted to fulfill for our remaining time. We also took a little time to see some sights in those couple of days. We got to see some of the beautiful coral in the ocean and also got to see the Chocolate Hills. We also got to see the world's smallest primate, the tarsier, on the way to our next ministry point, Loboc. 

Alona Beach

Team at the Chocolate Hills

In Loboc, we did similar things as in Calape. We evangelized, prayed for people, held Bible studies in homes, and worked with children. We also worked with a recent church plant, only three months old, and their pastor, Ephraim. We also worked with Pastor Rowen more there and other ministry members, Nathan and Lala. It was really great getting to know them, and I really enjoyed the night we had a fellowship time with them and some other members of the church. We sang and had coffee together. It was a really great time. All of our time in Loboc was. We met some great people in the community and got to encourage many in their walks with the Lord. We did the service at the church on Sunday and had lunch with the people we were ministering with one last time before leaving.