* Sunday in the First Reformed Church of Bulacan

We were up before 6 and left home just before 7. The trip went fine, though we had a delay. We were held up for a little while in Prenza, where there was a market (palengke) along the main road that runs through town. There was a jeepney in front of us loaded with people. After staying in one place for a while, the people riding the jeepney must have realized they could walk faster. Pretty soon all the passengers were climbing off, and sure enough, they were soon lost up ahead in the crowd. All of this wasn't so bad. It was just that we weren't familiar with the route yet and didn’t know how much further we had to go. As a result we were a little worried we would be late. We also missed a turn off. Daniel was just starting to wonder if we were right, when a motor cyclist pulled up next to us and knocked on our window. It was one of the deacon’s from the Bulacan church. He had been watching out for us and chased us down when he saw us go past. Daniel was very glad to see him and we made it to the church in plenty of time. We took pictures of all the corners on the way, so that we can recognize them for next time.

The Motorbike We Followed - Bro. Reden

Pastor Flores taught a catechism class first for the children in Tagalog. All ages of children were there and the adults sat in as well.  The pastor has translated the PR Essentials in Reformed Doctrine catechism book into Tagalog and was using that.  He taught Lesson 3 on God's Essence and Names.

Pastor Flores Teaching Essentials Class

Most of the church service was conducted in Tagalog.  They have a small booklet of some of our Psalter numbers which have been translated, so we sang out of that.  (I notcied that several of the creeds were translated in the back of the booklet, too - Chalcedon, Nicene and Apostle's.)  It was a thrill to sing the familiar Psalter numbers with these saints in their language.  Daniel preached on the letter to the church at Ephesus at Pastor Flores' request.  The people had a printout of the sermon outline in Tagalog as well as English.  They do understand English well.

At The Front Door Of Their Church Building

After a few minutes break Daniel gave a speech on what consitutes a Reformed church.  In the future, instead of a class he's going to preach another sermon.  Normally they have services at 9 and 5 with a class beforehand each time. But they are going to do the two services consecutively on the Sundays that we come (the first Sunday of the month). They were open to the idea of Daniel preaching on the Heidelberg Catechism, so he will do that once each time.

They served us lunch. We had rice, longenesia (a type of sweet sausage which is very good) and tomatoes, a chicken dish with pineapple and potato in it, a bean dish and bananas. It was masarap (delicious).

Getting The Table Set For Lunch

I visited with Pastor Flores's wife Roseanne quite a bit and the deacon's wives also and some of the other ladies, and Daniel had quite a bit of time to talk things over with Pastor Flores.

Chatting With Roseanne Flores

Chatting With Pastor John Flores

All in all we really enjoyed the day.  We were thrilled with the Tagalog Psalms and catechism book.  And also their obvious enthusiasm and hunger (children too) for the Reformed truth.

Some Of The Children

Traffic was agreeable on the way home so we could make it in time to go to the Berean PRC's second service at 3:30. We didn't get home until after 6. Our Sunday's sure are going to be different from now on!