* A Day Of Fellowship

The men from the area groups had a meeting Monday.  They set it for Monday because it was a national holiday.  Not everyone could make it, as some ended up not getting the holiday.  But the Bereans and some men from Batasan Hills came and they had a profitable meeting.  Daniel spoke on Reformed church government, and Rev. Smit led a question hour.

The Q&A Period

Conversation During Coffee Break

Since the men were meeting, Tricia and I decided we would try to have a ladies' fellowship as well.  We had about 22 ladies altogether at Smit's house so it was a nice crowd.  We had lunch together.  Tricia and I made chicken adobo, banana bread and poppy seed muffins.  Quite a few of the ladies brought quite a bit of food too, so we did not go hungry!  There was a fish dish (fish cooked in coconut milk), a noodle dish, soup, rice, mangoes and more.  We had a devotion time and did some visiting.  Someone mentioned a game called "A trip to Jerusalem" (we know it as musical chairs) so we had fun playing a round of that.

Lunch Time

"A Trip To Jerusalem"

The Musician for our Game

They all wanted to see the Kleyn's place so we also made a trip over here.  We have a tree out front with makopa fruit on it.  Since the fruit is strange to us, and since someone said that not many people eat it, and since someone else told us you have to watch out for the grubs in the fruit, we hadn't even tried it.  Well .... that supplied a second round of fun for the ladies.  They swarmed the tree, my ladder was outside in a matter of minutes and they were picking the fruit.  I gave them plastic bags to take it home in and then also vinegar and salt so they could eat some right away.  They enjoyed looking through the house too.  Some of the young people were climbing our mango tree to get some mangos.  But there were a lot of red ants on the tree, so they soon gave up on it.

Picking Makopa Fruit

I have notes with tagalog words taped up all around the house,which they had fun reading.  One of the girls that came taped up some of her own Tagalog phrases for us.  They were all about eating balot - the fertilized duck egg! :-)  I served them some pop and they sat and chatted for a half hour or so before we headed back to the Smit's place.

Group Picture - Some Had Left Already

All in all it was a fun day and it was a great time for the ladies from the two groups to get to know each other. We'll have to do it again sometime.

Leaving