* This and That (SK)

We had a good Bible Study last week. We listened to the lecture on predestination from the Calvin Conference in Grand Rapids. There was an interesting discussion afterwards. The members often bring up their experiences in the World Wide Church of God and that is always interesting. They said predestination was talked about there but only in limited ways. There was predestination in the sense of being pre-ordained for an office. And as far as predestination in salvation, they were taught that predestination would reach only as far as our calling, but go no further. In other words, God decides whom He will call, but then it is up to man to decide how he answers the call. And thus there is no preservation of the saints either, no predestination to heaven. You have to keep yourself in the faith.

Berean PRC Bible Study

We've started a Tagalog grammar class. We go with Rev. Smit every Wednesday afternoon to the guest house, where we have stayed before and where other of our ministers have stayed. The lady who runs the guest house is a teacher and is willing to take the time to teach us. So for three hours every Wednesday we have our brains tested. Last week we did a lot with the pronunciation and the word order in the sentences. We have a workbook that has exercises in it that we have to work on during the week. It is going to be a challenge. The verbs are the biggest challenge I think. We were told that there can be as many as 70 different forms of one verb!! Not only do the different tenses change the verb form, but there are 8 different focuses which change the form as well.

We are still learning about the creatures here. Here's one thing we learned. All the things I thought were lizard droppings (dry ones) are actually tiny worms in a cocoon that hatch into a moth. (Okay, so I'm ignorant.) Someone said they come from all the trees in this area. I couldn't figure out why some droppings were dry and some were runny. Now I know - the dry ones aren't droppings. The moral of the story is that we don't have as many house lizards as I thought we did, but we do have worms/moths.

We were in the mall the other day looking for a fly swatter. Couldn't find one, so Daniel asked one of the clerks. The clerk seemed a little puzzled as to what we actually wanted so Daniel thought he better demonstrate. He's wiggling his fingers in the air (the flies buzzing around) and then he gives a mighty swing with his arm (killing them with the swatter). I was standing in the background just giggling away, cause it looked so funny.

A few days ago we dropped off our car for a wheel alignment, so were walking in Antipolo while waiting for it to be done. A tricycle driver was trying to get our attention to give us a ride. Daniel shook his head and then patted his legs (as if to say, "These work fine"). The guy got a huge grin and gave him the thumbs up. You can have some good fun with the Filipinos. They are almost always pleasant and friendly and ready for a laugh.

Our Vehicle - a Toyota Revo

I have driven here twice now. About five miles each time. Before you laugh that I am reporting that as an accomplishment, let me say that I had to cross oncoming traffic (3 lanes) to pull into traffic going the other way. And I had to do a u-turn (kind of like those crazy Michigan left turns). All of this without traffic lights or stop signs, mind you, and with trucks and buses and jeepneys coming from all directions. I managed it without adding to the scratches and dents already on our vehicle. :-)

Just thought I would add here that we see quite a bit of the Smits. Tricia and I often visit or go shopping together. The men often meet for business they have to take care of. And we often carpool with various ones of the family to church, Bible study, grammar class, etc. We are very thankful that they are here and that we can work with them.

A final note.  We've cooked a couple recipes now out of the Philippine cookbook we bought. We have made Pork Adobo (Adobong Baboy) twice, which is a very popular dish here. I still have to perfect that recipe though, as ours wasn't as good as some of the ones we have had made by native Filipinos. I also made Beef Steak with Onions and Potatoes (Bistek), another type of stir fry with onion and potatoes and beef. Delicious!