THREE SURPRISES!

SURPRISE #1: Many on our team awoke at 4:00 am yesterday, drove to preach, rode the ferry to Cebu, flew to Manila & arrived at our hotel around 1:30 am exhausted. We were surprised & disappointed to realize we would have to miss morning church, get up early again and preach. We were at the end of ourselves.

SURPRISE #2: The Manila team arranged for us to preach in 11 college classrooms this morning and 13 this afternoon. When we arrived and began asking questions, the school thought it was with ROTC, and so they began to work out the details for Jeff to speak. When they realized it was room to room, they allowed us to do BOTH. While we preached in 11 classrooms, Jeff spoke to 138 ROTC, lined in a hallway. It was the first time in the 17 years the ROTC has existed at that college that anyone has ever had the privilege to preach the Gospel! Many made decisions. Anna spoke to 61 university students who sat, intently listening. One wrote: “I feel a huge sense of relief, as if a heavy burden had just been lifted off of me.” What a special surprise!

SURPRISE #3: A friend of ours, Tim Berry, was preaching at a church nearby and we thought we missed it! When we returned to our hotel at 10:00 we heard singing nearby & followed the sound to the very church where our friend was preaching. Surprise #3 – We can see the church from our hotel doorway! Our hearts were filled as he reminded us about the most important death – Christ’s, which was substitutionary, universal and emancipating!