Late Night in Bukidnon

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Pastor Antolin Zamar, Ray Pritchard, Pastor Rudy Escobar.

At the moment it is 10:55 PM in Valencia, Bukidnon Province, in the Philippines. I am sitting in the hotel lobby balancing my laptop on my knees so I can give this quick update.

We are dead tired pooped tonight. We left the hotel at 7 AM and spent the entire day and the evening at the Mindanao Ministers Conference. I knew going in that I would be preaching four times. When I got there, I saw a revised schedule that had me preaching six times! That was changed–along with just about everything else. Pastor Antolin Zamar, who will be 80 next year, is the patriarch of the conference, the seminary, and the Baptist churches in the association. At one point today he put his arm around me (he’s quite a bit shorter than me) and said, “You are flexible. I like that.” Then he said, “We all have to be portable.” That’s a happy thought even though I don’t exactly know what it means. 

After the first service Pastor Zamar told me that I wasn’t preaching long enough. No kidding. He said I should preach for at least an hour because that’s what the Philippine churches expect. First time I’ve ever been told I don’t preach long enough. But I did lengthen my second message out to 54 minutes. And I think Pastor Zamar is right. The people enjoy singing and listening to sermons. 

By the way, I’m preaching each day in a barong, the tradition Philippine shirt that you don’t tuck in. It’s very comfortable. 

At about 10:30 AM Pastor Zamar told Derek he wanted him to speak during the afternoon session. What should he speak about? “He can give his testimony, share about the Internet, whatever he wants." 

The Filipinos practice the siesta, a practice inherited from the Spanish. So the conference took a break from 12 noon until 2:30 PM. When I told Pastor Zamar that I thought we could use the siesta in the US, he laughed and said, “You would have fewer heart attacks if you took a siesta." 

So I preached at 2:30 or 3 PM, since we are running on Philippine time, which means we start when the people get there. It was hot but the people listened intently. Then Derek spoke for 45 minutes and did a bang-up job sharing his testimony, talking about the Internet, and then giving a challenge to have the “spirit of Caleb” from Numbers 14. “Now he is a web designer and a preacher,” said Pastor Zamar.

Tonight when I preached on Peter denying Christ, many hands were raised saying, “I have wandered from the Lord and I want to come home.” Very moving moment.

And we have video! And pictures!

But right now we’re going so fast (and learning to be “portable") that we don’t have time to upload them.

Tomorrow the conference ends with my message on Peter’s restoration from John 21, a message by Pastor Zamar, and then an “Ask Pastor Ray” session. Then we drive back to Davao City. 

That’s all I can think of because I’m sleepy plus I think they will turn off the Internet soon. 

Thanks for your prayers.