SOT Mission to Manila - #3B

continued..
Back on the van, Pst Nilo drove us to a Taekwondo club where his two daughters were. That was also our first time meeting his two precious daughters. We spent a while there before Pst drove them home then picked up the wife (Pastora Ella) and sent her to school.

Pst Nilo is not just a great Talay (Father) to his church members, he is also an awesome father and husband - he serves a lot a lot in ministry BUT he never neglect his family. He loves them a lot. Every EARLY morning, 4am+ plus, he will drive his elder daughter to her school which is a distance away.

Up next - Pastora Venie’s house


We were informed beforehand we will have a bible study session with the people Pastora Venie who will conduct biblestudy with every week. So we prepared accordingly but when we reached there, seriously speaking… we were shocked by the people and the crowd.


So on the spot, really ON THE SPOT, we changed the songs for praise and worship led by me and the Word by Teammate ML. We were very honored to have Pst Nilo to help us translate our English to Tagalog during Word and ministry time.

At the end, we opened up a time of prayers specially for the people who are sick. At first, probably due to language barrier, Pst Nilo helped us to encourage the people to take the step of faith to response.

It was so incredible - there were moments when the 5 of us gathered to pray for the individuals.
3 translations took place! Eg. Teammate SM prayed in Chinese, I translated to English and Pst Nilo translated to Tagalog!

After which we were rewarded with delicious authentic HOME-COOKED food. It was so amazing - the day before we were just talking among ourselves that we wish to have some authentic food before we head back Manila.

It was a great time of fellowship with Pst Nilo and Pastora Venie.
Cant imagine I had one of my “breakthroughs” there - I took a bite of BANANA!!!!!!! For Pst Nilo’s sake! Haha!


Just when we were already SUPER-DUPER full, all with bloated stomach… we were treated with freshly-picked coconut! And mind you, it was not those small coconut you see in Singapore… it was heavy and HUGE, I mean really heavy and HUGE!


We said a big THANK YOU THANK YOU to Pastora Venie and family before we left.

Just within 10minutes, what you can on board the van. Haha!

For this, I need to give myself a pat on the shoulder actually. Haha! Cause for all the rides (long or short) that we had, I have never once fall asleep. Not tired? Of course not I am! Actually throughout I didn't really talked to Pst Nilo much while he drove but just felt at least one of us should keep awake to “accompany” him.


For this - we really salute Pst Nilo!!!!! Definitely more tired than us, he drove us right from the beginning of the day! Throughout all the rides, he had never once rub his eyes or even yawn!


Actually at the beginning of our arrival, Pst Nilo kept telling us “Why you all only stay so little days? Should stay longer then we can bring you all around.”

On one hand, he was afraid that we be tired and on the other hand, he felt so bad that we only “work” during our stay @ Batangas that he almost wanted to cut short or take away 1-2 sessions we supposed to have with his people. We got to assure him many times that we are ok and asked him to go ahead and slot more sessions for us.

But still that on that day, he still managed to slot in a time and brought us to Taal Volcano - an active volcano, one of the tourists’ attractions.

Then it was another long drive back home!

Of course.. 5mins after we boarded the van, all “fainted” but this time I was not alone to accompany Pst Nilo. Teammate JL was awake too!

Pst Nilo drove us back to our apartment for a rest which we felt he needed more than us.

All of us took a nap! Trust me… we were all TIRED, very TIRED!
Jumped up from the nap by a sms from Pst Nilo… can you imagine, the most-tired man was awake before all of us. Haha! He asked us what time we wanted our dinner etc.

A while later, he came with his elder daughter (who wanted to join as she wanted to fellowship with us) to fetch us for dinner @ Jollibee. We thought - that night was our “last dinner” with Pst Nilo so we wanted to bless him but in the end, he blessed us again!

It was a long but very QUALITY fellowship where Pst Nilo really shared his heart out. His heart is really for his people.

Halfway through the sharing, Teammate SM felt prompted to bless Pst Nilo with his watch. Pst Nilo rejected several times, he shared that the reason he shared with us about him still wearing the broken watch (for “image”) was not cause he wanted us to bless him.

The most amazing part - Teammate SM then shared with him that while he was packing his luggage, he felt God telling him to bring two watches. Then he thought to himself “Why? Why bring two watches when Im going for mission, not holiday trip?”. But Teammate SM still obeyed God and came with his two watches. That night Teammate SM knew why.

After much persuading from Teammate SM and us, Pst Nilo finally accepted the watch with great joy and excitement. Best - it was actually the design he wanted when he went to the watch shop. God answered his prayer! He was soooooooooooooooo happy!

Back at our apartment, we prepared for the next day’s main church service. Teammate ML and I did our preparation with Teammate YG and Teammate SM as we will be their translators.

Day ended.

I really thank God for His strength. Actually after the nap, I was down with terrible headache so thought will “struggle” during fellowship especially need to focus to listen to what Pst Nilo said - thank God I pulled through.
Back at the room, I took a short short rest and popped in Taiwan panadol and back to preparation - thank God I still managed to have clarity of mind and pulled through the night.