Taking the Jeepney to Church

It is a real blessing to see the fruit of YWAM efforts from years ago. Sunday we again traveled to Maligcong Christian Fellowship. The church was originally founded through YWAM efforts and is now functioning independently. Pastor Augustin has told me the story of how YWAMers introduced him to Christ many years ago in his home village. He later went to Bible college and became a pastor. He and his wife, Evelyn, have been serving in Maligcong since the mid-1990s.

We took the jeepney over the mountain to Maligcong. Since I was wearing dress clothes, I had not intended to ride "top-load". But the inside was really packed and a little old lady, hunched over and using a cane came up - so up I went. It is not like I mind, though. The ride was beautiful and the weather was perfect.

This is inside the jeepney before Lisa counted 29+ people inside.

The top probably had another 15-20 by the time we left Bontoc.

When we arrived, Pastora asked the girls to lead Sunday School for the children. So Adriana, Alexie, Alayna, and Annalise spent the morning outside with the children. (The church is working on building a room for the children, but need funds to purchase the next phase of materials.)

My sermon was based on Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego - worshiping God alone. Pastor Augustin translated into the local dialect.

Afterwards, we had lunch with the Pastor Augustin and his family. At one point, Pastor's mother pulled her sleeve up a little and revealed that her arms were tattooed. As we talked about it, we found that she had the tattoos done when she was a young lady about Adriana's age by a man who traveled from village to village doing tattoos. Her tattoos were done using thorns and it took about two days.

She said that her tattoos were just decorative and had no real meaning but that the men could only get a tattoo after taking an enemy's head. She said headhunting continued through World War 2 when the men would stalk the Japanese soldiers.

Adriana was not interested in matching Lola Carlos's decorative arms.

Kennan, Alayna, and Asher