Trip to Philippines 2013

NB We will add more photos when we can!
We left Auckland on Jetstar to Singapore on Tuesday 8th Jan.
Arrived in Singapore after our long plane journey, and as we were rising to leave the plane, Karen noticed that the girl who had been sitting next to Aimee for the entire 11 hour flight looked very familiar ... a younger version of Jocelyn, niece of Yvonne Childers. Looking a bit further, Karen spotted Jocelyn, whom she knew from 30 years ago, along with her husband Chris. We were to be with them in Bambang in a week’s time, and it was absolutely remarkable that we were not only on the same plane, but adjacent to in the same row of seats. We were to be accommodated with them up in Bambang, then travel with them back to stay a further night with them at Hebron, in Baliuag.
This was just a little sign that our Heavenly Father is with us and letting us know He truly has our steps ordered. We had no idea that they were catching the same plane as us, and only Karen had ever met Jocelyn before. So to be seated right next to them in a plane load of 300+ people was more than coincidence.
We had planned to stay at the Singapore airport at which we had a 17 hour wait for our Tiger flight to Clark AirBase in Philippines The intent was to rest in a comfortable spot in the transit lounge, but had not thought through that we had to leave the transit lounge to pick up our checked baggage. So we found ourselves wandering around with no resting place, at 7pm Singapore time (Midnight NZ, after rising about 5am), and unable to re-enter the transit lounge because it was too early to check in for our next flight. Rod went searching, found the Plaza Hotel on site, where we luxuriated and felt thoroughly spoiled. An exotic buffet breakfast was part of the deal. This would not have been our choice because of the cost, but it was greatly appreciated by these three weary travellers.

The Crowne Plaza, Singapore Airport

Breakfast at the Hotel Restaurant

In the Orchid Garden Singapore Airport 

Wed 9th
Flew out of Singapore on Tiger Airlines, arrived at Clark airbase (was the American airbase in the 2nd world war) where we were met by Dianne Bayley and Pastor Rio in their jeep. Pastor Rio is the one in charge of the Bible College a Hebron. Stopped for lunch at Jollibee, arriving at the Hebron base at around 5pm.

Arrival at Clark Airbase

Thur 10th
Dianne Bayley took us on a tour of the base; several of the SPED classes with autistic and deaf children, in one case the teacher was deaf, showed us some of the high-school facilities and specialist rooms, including the newly refurbished science lab. Here the science teacher showed us exhibits of some of the students’ projects, all of which used recycled materials, demonstrating outstanding ingenuity and creativity with little cost. These included a ferris wheel made from an old bicycle wheel with plastic from bottles for the seats, a jar of cheap solvent with polystyrene dissolved in it which could be used for patching holes in roofs (useful in a rainy climate), displays in plastic boxes of animal ecosystems using plastic toy animals, … I had to reflect on how much we in New Zealand take for granted the resources that we have, and pondered on how effectively we are using the resources that we do have.

Fri 11th
No sleep in this morning! Dianne had suggested we might like to go in the school jeepney with the orphanage children, leaving at 6:30am (the govt school they all attended began at 7am) So we set out, 30+ of us crammed in, then upon arriving at the children’s school, we were each grabbed by the hand of one of the children and proudly shown around to their classes.
Back to Hebron school, which started at 8am, to attend assembly which began with pledges of allegiance to God, and the Philippines. We were welcomed and introduced, then Aimee shared a short testimony with an interpreter to the 300 students. The juniors were dismissed, while the seniors then did exercises. While this was going on, Grace, the principal came and shared her heart on some of the challenges she was facing with staffing. Teachers in Hebron school are paid not much more than a third of the wage teachers in government schools receive, although they are equally qualified, simply because, like NZ, the main source of income for private schools is from school fees. Family financial pressure on a couple of staff she was reluctant to lose meant they would probably have to leave.
After this we set off to the Hebron Bible College class of four 2nd year students who each shared a brief testimony with us. We learnt of the hardship and sacrifice some of them had made to be there. A beautiful lunch brought to us in our guesthouse, with lovely company of tireless Dianne, and Nimfa who is in charge of the orphanage. Herself an orphan she has come through the ministry of Hebron to now be serving on staff. This is true of quite a few of the staff members here.

Sat 12th
This is the morning of the outreaches for the Bible college students. When we were here in July 2012, this was the thing that we were so sorry to have missed. The Bible College students go in pairs to already established Bible Clubs in the poorer and often squatter areas. The pairs also take with them a couple of children from the Children’s Home. To see the operation of these is so overwhelming.
We followed Sylvia, a preschool teacher who also lectures in the Bible College, around the various Bible clubs held among lean-to shacks along a river bank that also seems to serve as a dump. It had been raining, and Karen and Aimee who had on jandals got totally splattered with mud + ?? on our pants as we picked our way through the mud, animal faeces, scrawny half dead cats and dogs, to the interested stares of the local inhabitants. Although I know we stood out with our white faces, we felt amazingly safe. But the incredible poverty was certainly impacting. Each little Bible club had a gathering of young children. Sylvia was clearly known by quite a few of the local people, she reminded us of Heidi Baker, she just bowls up to people and loves them. She introduced us to one old lady outside a hovel, that she said had been recently widowed, and she always gives her a hug each week when she goes into the area. The harvest field is just so ripe. These people have no home, they are squatters, the govt turns a blind eye to them as they have nowhere to go.

Sun 13th
We went to Grace’s church, leaving at about 7.30 am.. Grace is the principal of the 300 member Christian school during the week, but also pastors a church on Sundays. So we got dressed up for Sunday, then taken to her church. It was not what we expected. The church building was open on the tops of the side walls, adjacent to a barely flowing, stagnant looking pool, in the midst of another poor area. The congregation we discovered was nearly all children from homes (shacks) under a big bridge. We sang a couple of songs from an ancient hymnal, then a tall very skinny girl (name Pinky) got up and started to pray passionately. We found out later that she was the product of a Bible club, very, very poor, mother dead, and during the week is permitted with her younger siblings to stay in the church building. This building is really just a roof with a bit of a wall – certainly not secure, but better than what they would otherwise have. You could tell the hand of God is on her, so passionate in her prayers and then later in her worship leading – I filmed a little as discreetly as I could.
Grace’s husband goes back and forth with his jeep to the bridge and picks up as many loads of the children as want to come, because for them to walk it would be dangerous (from the traffic) and they are so keen to come (they also get fed) that they would walk if he didn’t.
There is so much to tell, our time has been so amazing and touched our hearts.

Mon 14th
Back at Hebron we have had wonderful times with 2 classes of Bible college students, prophesying over each, and recording it – mainly Rod and Aimee who is a “hit” with them. We also went to the senior school class and had a wonderful time with them (age 15). Blessing indeed. Holy Spirit has really been at work!
We are leaving tomorrow, catching a bus by flagging it down as it passes Hebron and hoping we get off at the right place 5-6 hours later, have been told to get off by a Shell service station then catch one of the trikes and ask for “Pentecost”. Then we’ll meet up with John and Yvonne, and 3 of Yvonnes relatives (Aimee is going to be sharing a room with Yvonne’s great-niece that we met very amazingly in the plane from Auck to Singapore – have told about it in our blog. Will then return to Hebron from Bambang with Yvonne’s relatives and a Filippino driver before going to catch our plane home.
Thank you so much for your prayers and support.

Athens and Jerusalem

Week 18 June to 24 June
Our flight to Athens took us through Frankfurt, and upon arriving at Athens, we were instantly hit by the heat. Our hotel was in close proximity to the Acropolis, so we went early in the morning before the heat set in, to walk up the hill, observing the sites on the way. Many repairs were being made to the various structures with modern machinery.  It is truly amazing how people of that time managed to do what they did without the machinery of today.

Theatre of Dionysos

The Erechtheion

Getting a better perspective

The Parthenon

We were particularly impressed at the amount of dedicated man hours that people must have put in to make a dream become a reality for their gods. When the time came for our descent, the sweltering heat had already set in. (9am) We retired to our air-conditioned room until later in the afternoon. Either it is global warming or it’s our age!!

The election had taken place just the day before we arrived. Since there had been some political unrest in Athens in recent times, we were somewhat apprehensive about what we might strike there. Our fears were completely unfounded, apart from a little graffiti designed to incite rebellion, there was no other real evidence of any unrest.  From the media we were told that a lot of the turmoil in Greece has been created by a tax avoidance culture. In our short stay we befriended one of the local café owners, and observed evidence at first hand of this claim.

From Athens we flew to Tel Aviv through Istanbul, tasting first-hand the wonderful hospitality of Turkish Airlines. This would have to be the best airline we have flown on so far. They could not do enough to help.  Upon arriving in Israel, we took the Sherut (a shared minivan taxi) to Jerusalem. It was awe inspiring to realise the amount of change that this nation must have experienced in the last 60 years. The infra-structure is incredible.

View of road from Sherut

There was a joy in our hearts travelling through the countryside, seeing the names of places of Biblical fame. The Sherut brought us to our hostel just outside Damascus Gate of the Old City, and the joy rapidly dissipated. The first exposure to the dishonesty was recognising after the Sherut had taken off that we had been overcharged – unfamiliar currency.

We had booked a room with air-conditioning, an ensuite, and linen. Our hearts sank when we saw the sign indicating the hostel entrance. But more shocks were to come. Going through the sleazy entrance, we lugged our bags up the stairs and made our way into the dark office. Here we were met by a charming smiling man who welcomed us in. We gave our names. “Did we want air-conditioning?” he asked. He then proceeded to get out his calculator, and presented us with the bill for our 6 nights’ in advance accommodation.  But hey – the room we had booked was advertised as having air-conditioning, but now we were being told that there was an added charge (50 shekels per night) to be able to use the air-conditioning. When we later figured out the actual charge in NZ$, after paying in advance up front for 6 nights’ accommodation, it was almost double the advertised charge, and included other “add-ons” that were either deceptive, or outright illegal ….. We should have taken note of the notice behind the proprietor’s desk which read, “No refunds.”  The proprietor then tried to negotiate an exorbitant trip package, and got quite belligerent when we refused. We were taken to our room, only to find that the large sliding door onto an outside patio, extremely accessible to any of Jerusalem’s diverse inhabitants, did not lock. Our host assured us it was totally safe, but by this time we realised we were dealing with someone who could not be trusted at all, and we asked for a room change.
As for the ensuite – later we discovered that there was no hot water in the “shower”, if it could be called such, consisting of a hose hanging down with a shower head, located in the toilet area, to drain out of a hole in the toilet floor.  

The "Ensuite"

And the linen? We were supplied with smelly towels, and pillows reeking of stale sweat, no sheets or pillow cases. Welcome to Jerusalem!!
The hostel was very close to the Old City, so we set out to the information centre to get maps etc.

Outside the Old City Wall

The streets in the Old City are narrow, and lined with merchants, ready to lure you into their dens and haggle over the price of items. Fortunately we needed to buy very little so observed as we passed by.


Hustle and Bustle inside the Old City

The first day saw a visit to the Wailing wall followed by a walk around the Western side of the city overlooking the Kidron Valley.

Declaration of the Future

The Wailing Wall

Excavations outside of the Old City Wall

Looking Across the Kidron Valley to Mount of Olives

We also met up with a German man and his daughter (both Christians) staying in the hostel, and we commiserated together about the lodging. They blessed us by taking us to the Yad Vashem holocaust museum, quite an experience for them as Germans. We were greatly impacted by the 5 hours that we spent there, looking at the film footage, listening to testimonies, seeing the artefacts and the photos. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos there.

The Garden Tomb was very close to the hostel, and the atmosphere there was completely different – it would seem that this attraction is actually run by Christians, and would have to be one of the highlights of the things to see.


Golgotha, the Place of the Skull

The Garden Tomb

The Reason Why We can Live

Another must see is the Temple Institute, a trust that is preparing for the building of the third temple. This trust is currently making the vessels and articles to be used in the new temple, and it was interesting having it explained to us what the various articles were and what they represented. Again we were not allowed to take photos there.