Day 10 - Sunday 11th

We had the opportunity of hearing not one but two english sermons on sunday. The first was at a plant of a chinese church which is about to be officially given independence and be named 'Calvary Reformed Evangelical Church'. Getting to this church was the first obstacle to overcome! For Sarah and Becci it was quite simple they went with the pastor of the church who lives not so far from the girls' home, for me it was not so simple. It had been previously arranged that i was to be getting a lift with one of the social workers (estella), however when i arrived home on saturday night from wacthing the footbal i was greeted by dal who is a bhurmese student at the miniserial academy. Dal's English is not too good and he was supposed to tell me that i would go with dal instead of estella but he instead asked me how i was getting there and left it at that. This led to confusion, however after some phone calls i was able to get a lift with estella and a couple of the other social workers. When I arrived i found sarah and becci there already but dal did not appear (it turns out that he went to a bhurmese fellowship instead)!
I had said that we had heard two english sermons, however that is not entirely correct as the morning service was scottish and the evening american! The pastor of the CREC is a Scottish fellow named Gilbert MCAdam. He spoke in the adult Sunday school about the observance of the Lords day, saying how we should look at the commands positives rather than thinking of the limitations of the Sabbath. The morning service was led by one of the elders however pastor McAdam preached. The subject was 'On what basis can you be right wih God' It contrasted self righteousness and humility and the text for the sermon was the parable of the tax collector and the pharisee praying at the temple, and he spoke very ably. We went to the mall for lunch, and then headed back to Cubao Reformed Babtist for the evening service which was at 4.
The preacher at CRBC was Rev. Tedd Tripp who is from Penssylvania, USA. He is in the Phillipines with his wife Margie giving a group of seminars on the family culminating in a conference on Sturday entitled 'Shepparding a Child's Heart' . I have been very impressed with what i have heard of these seminars so far as they are based firmly and purely from scripture and are extremely practical. He spoke from Romans 8 v31-end of chapter. The theme of the message was our position in Christ. This sermon was very encouraging as it spelt out the sure hope we have of salvation and the power of him that we are saved through.
After the evening service there was a church fellowship, where i was surprised to be asked to share my testimony and answer a few questions, such as a my first impressions of the phillipines. I beleive Sarah and Becci captured it on video so you'll have to ask them to see it. After me Heather spoke a bit of what she had done in the time she spent here and Pastor and Mrs Tripp spoke of the work they do in the USA, where rev Tripp pastors a church and Mrs Tripp is president of the school affiliated with the church. After the fellowship Becci and Sarah went back to the home and i stayed at the church had some dinner cooked by Tony and then went to bed.