* PCC Outing At Our Home

This past Thursday, August 21, was a holiday in the Philippines (Aquino Day).  We took advantage of the non-working holiday and had a day of fellowship with the members of Provident Christian Church at our house.  We had a good day of food, relaxation and enjoying each other's company.

Group Shot!

Enjoying the fresh outdoor air.

Devotions and Psalter singing before lunch.

More....

And more.

THE FOOD!  From the dish that is closest:

Chicken with potatoes and peppers; cut up cucumber and tomato; rice; dried seaweed with almonds (in the package by the rice); pancit (noodle dish); more rice; Bicol Express (made with pork, coconut milk and hot peppers); Laing (made from the greens of a root vegetable and hot peppers); Mexican Pineapple Chicken (in the black pot); pandesal (bread from a nearby bakery); canned fruit (in the bowls); bananas.  All delish!

Lunch time!  Kids go first.

The girls playing outside.  They and the boys played with squirt guns for a while and had fun helping each other stay cool. 

The kids had fun playing indoor games together too.

Getting some exercise....

.....walking to Second Floor, the hill overlooking Manila.

Rev. Kleyn playing a few tunes on the saw.

The girls.

Shopping the bookstore was one of the main activities.  We sold 28 books to the various families, plus many more to the church for an upcoming conference.

I love thy saints, who fear thy name and walk as in thy sight;

They are the excellent of earth, In them is my delight.

Psalter 27:2

 

* Singapore CERC Youth Visit: July 30 - August 4

Another group of 7 youth from the Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church in Singapore came to visit us and the churches here.  They had many opportunities for fellowship.

Thursday, July 31 - Provident Christian Church Essentials Class

Much to their regret ;-), they also had many opportunities to ride in our Toyota Revo.

11 of us squeezed in on our way to Bulacan on Saturday!

Saturday morning, August 2 - Fellowship with the young people in First PRC in Bulacan.

Talking, eating and games were on the agenda for the day.

Game 1:

They started with a Bible reference for a certain word.  The word had to be found by the first one in line and whispered to the next person, passing it down the line.  The last person had to run forward and say the word.  An extra challenge (at least for the Singaporeans) was that they used the Tagalog Bible!

 

Game 2:

Person in the middle has a roll of paper and needs to wack the person whose name is said, before their partner says someone else's name.  If he succeeds, he gets to trade places.

Game 3:

Each team started with a stack of chairs.  They had to reach the other side of the room, without touching the floor, without leaving an empty chair, and with all the team members on the chairs!  Then they had to get back to the starting line and get off the chairs again in the same order they got on and restack the chairs at the starting line.

Group shot!

 

And the loooong ride home again.  Because of terrible traffic, a trip that should have taken an hour, took us 3 hours! 

Saturday evening, August 2 - Supper at Bongat's home.

 

We thought you might be interested in some of the dishes they got to enjoy while they were here.  The above is chopsuey with quail eggs.

Some street food - isaw (chicken intestines) and bbq pork on a stick

More street food - deep fried chicken skin

Starting on the left and going clockwise -- Pancit (a noodle dish), Stuffed Bangus (they take all the meat out of the fish, carefully preserving the skin, mix it with raisins and some vegetables, etc, and stuff it all back into the skin), chicken adobo, and Filipino style meat loaf (made with ham mixed with other ingredients, then flattened and rolled up).  It was all delicious.

Group shot!

Sunday, August 3 - In the morning we were able to attend First PRC in Bulacan's first service. After a short time of fellowship we left so we could make it in time for the Berean PRC's second service.

  After the service all the youth had some time to spend together singing and visiting. 

Another group shot!

 

We ended the Lord's Day with supper at the Smits.

Monday morning it was time to head to the airport.  But that presented some challenges.  We were only a short ways from home when we ran into this!

It took us 45 minutes just to get through the intersection. 

Monday is our no-drive day in the city, which means we are not allowed in Manila after 7am.  After the traffic hold up, there was no way we would have been able to make it out of the city on time.  So we dropped the youth at a taxi van, instead.

A little squishy, but one taxi is cheaper than two!

"I love Thy saints, who fear Thy Name

And walk as in Thy sight;

They are the excellent of earth,

In them is my delight."

[Psalm 16, Psalter #27]