6/3/12

Gingoog. What an amazing place!

I am watching the sun come up this morning. Roosters are crowing and birds are singing and there is an occasional snort from a pig thrown in just for fun.

We spent several hours yesterday getting here. The national highway is a very busy and very bumpy as well. It is under constant repair and still is very rough. All along the rout were small squatter homes and shops that are cobbled together on the public land that is 15 feet on each side of the highway. The result is a seldom broken line of shacks mostly made of rusty tin roofing, scrap lumber and bamboo. Whenever traffic would slow to a stop the locals were quick to come and bring drinks and snacks that they hoped to sell to the passing menagerie of buses, motorcycles, trucks and cars of all sorts. In each town you added bicycles to the mix for a drive that is really a dance as they weave in and out and pass in ways you would never attempt back home.

Then we finally arrived in Gingoog! We turned off the road and saw the church where we met the Bekah who is the daughter of our hosts, Mark and Patti Kenny, and the pastors son and several people who greeted us and helped us carry our bags into the little squatter village. This one seemed better cared for than the one we had seen in Cagayan Del Oro also known as CDO. As we walked in we were greeted with waves and hellos from almost everyone along the way.

We were lead into an amazingly cool house built mostly of  palm tree wood posts with bamboo strips for floors and mat wall panels from woven bamboo. I was shown my room. I am in love! It is up on top of the house and is open to the world with only a roof and a short waist high wall for privacy that is also a bench all around. Wow! I feel so blessed. I got to look out last night and see the fishing boats on the bay and watch the sun come up as I set up in bed.

After we moved in we were served a wonderful curry and rice meal made by a local chef and then it was off to town where we were a part of an evangelism event for the city. 

Steve and I gave our testimonies and Dan gave a short message and Dan and I sang a worship song. The local pastor and the band from the church here were doing a full worship event too. What a cool night. Well hot and rainy actually but wonderful!

Blessings to you all!!!