* Trip to Albuera, Leyte, August 2018: The PRFA Members

The sign advertising the worship services

Geliza, BJ, and Gia, in order of age

Take picture and videos of them on your phone, show them,

and you make friends fast.  :-)

Bro Joel, Sis Malin and their three children.  They live next door to the church building and came over in the evenings to visit.

These teenage members of the church came by a couple of times to visit as well.

And Sunday evening Rica and BJ came for a while to visit and to practice their English.

Sitting and relaxing on Saturday, by the house

Getting organized

Sunday was the highlight of the trip.  

Meeting and worshipping with God's people is a precious blessing.

Getting ready for worship

Singing the Psalter in Tagalog

After the first service there was time for a picture

 and for some getting-to-know-you time.

Going home again after the services

Monday morning these two cuties came again

-- to say good-bye on their way to school.  

Tacloban, Leyte is where General Douglas MacArthur fulfilled

his promise to return to the Philippines during World War II.  

There is a memorial there in honor of the occasion, which we

had some time to check out on the way home.

It was a blessing to experience the fellowship with our fellow believers in Albuera and the truth of the Apostles' Creed when it states, "I believe one, holy catholic [universal] church."

 
 

* Trip to Albuera, Leyte, August 2018: Flowers and Food Sources

First a few pictures of some gorgeous flowers.

Anthurium??

Orchid

The house we stayed in is set right up against the rice fields.

Looking over the fence near the house.

The water supply.

Getting fattened up for slaughter.

Lots of banana trees surrounding the houses.

A rambutan tree - the fruit turns red when it's ripe.

A small veggie market

Brother Felix shredding the meat of a coconut. 

Saturday morning we took a walk.  We went back down our path/gravel road to the main highway.  We crossed the highway and took this concrete road through the neighborhood to the beach.  Maybe a mile walk one way.  

Path to the beach

Sister Norma and some of the teenage girls from the fellowship came with us.

When we arrived at the beach, some fishing boats were just coming in with their night's catch.

A lot of men on one boat!

The catch ready to go to market.

* Trip to Albuera, Leyte, August 2018: Travel and Food

At the November 1, 2017 Classis of the PRCP, the Protestant Reformed Fellowship in Albuera, Leyte was declared a denominational mission work of the PRCP.  The PRC in Bulacan (who had been working there previously) was designated as the calling church and has been sending delegations there as regularly as possible (usually once a month).  They requested that Rev. Kleyn (who had been there 4 times previously) make a trip from August 10-13, 2018.  I also went along as a travel companion.  

Albuera is on the island of Leyte, which is south and east of Luzon (the island we live on).  To get there, we first had to drive to the airport (at 2 a.m. the trip only took a half hour), then catch our 4:30 flight to Tacloban, Leyte.  Upon landing in Tacloban, we walked outside the Tacloban airport and caught a tricycle.

Good thing we packed lightly!

The tricycle took us to the van terminal.

We had to wait about an hour until the van was full enough for the 2-3

hour trip across the mountains and along the coast to Ormoc City.

The vans seat 14 passengers.  There are 5 rows that hold 3 people each.  

A bit squishy for us large size Americans, holding luggage on our laps.

In Ormoc, we could walk kitty corner across the street to the jeepney terminal.

This time we had to wait only about 20 minutes for the jeepney to fill up.

The jeepney took us down to Albuera in about 20 minutes,

dropping off people along the way.

Rev. Kleyn recognized our drop off spot from previous trips --

a rice mill across the street from our road/path. 

This gravel road changed into a dirt path and led us to the compound set

among the banana and coconut trees that would be our home for a few days.

Brother Felix and Sister Norma were our gracious hosts for the weekend.  Even though we arrived at their place mid-afternoon, they still supplied us with a delicious lunch. 

The compound contains Bro Felix and Sis Norma Montalban's house, two other houses, the church, and a small store.  The building you see here is Montalban's house.

Below are some of the meals they cooked for us.  We had rice with every meal (breakfast, lunch and supper) as the Filipinos regularly do.

Fried fish, fried chicken, and chicken caldereta (like a tomato based stew).

Pork chops and pancit (noodles)

Breakfast of fish, eggs, and hotdogs

Two fish dishes (fried and cooked with tomatoes and onions), 

liver caldereta, and lumpia (spring rolls)

Story to be continued …….