Being music missionaries it has long been a dream for us to attend MusiCalifornia - a Christian music conference held annually in California. Its always seemed impossible but we’ve waited patiently on the Lord trusting on His will and timing. And this year as it all came to pass, the timing couldn’t be better as we are in the midst of preparations for MusiCamp 2008.

The event was a great opportunity for us to get training first hand from worship leaders such as as Rick Muchow of Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, and Tim Timmons of Mariners Church. We also got to meet legend author Max Lucado and mega-arranger David Clydesdale.

But the event was really less about meeting celebrities. It was about the entire learning experience and we take home with us a tons of new ideas and knowledge that we hope to cascade to those who will be attending our camp in May as well as in the future. Likewise we have lots of new music that the group will surely be able to use as we continue to reach out to lost souls for Christ.

Here are a few snapshots from the event:

Pastor Jupiter with Max Lucado

Brandon and Rick Muchow with Josh

Pastor Jupiter and I are in the United States to attend MusiCalifornia in preparation for our own MusiCamp 2008 this May, but we flew in a couple of days earlier so that we could minister to brethren at the Love of Christ Fellowship in San Diego, California.

It was such a blessing being able to minister to them in song and through the preaching of God’s Word. We also conducted a Musicworxshop in the afternoon - attended not only by members of their praise and worship band but others also who were interested to just to learn and be trained.

It was a great opportunity for us to share God’s blessings and support the work that is being done this part of the globe. We cannot thank enough the generous families who took us in over the weekend. Through them the Lord has provided for our needs while on this side trip to San Diego. May He be gloried with the intensity and passion of the Fil-American believers at LCF.

In Christ,

Josh

Pastor Romy Somera and some members of Love of Christ Fellowship.

Pastor Jupiter joins the praise and worship band of LCF during the afternoon musicworxshop.

The online registration facility for MusiCamp 2008 is now live.

Just visit the following page by clicking this link. Make sure to fill up the entire form complete with payment details. Once submitted allow us up to 24 hours to process your registration. We’ll immediately send you back a confirmation email once we’re done verifying all the information submitted.

If you find it difficult completing the form online. Get in touch with us so that we can arrange to have a hard copy mailed to you.

Last January 7, 2008, Musicworx along with other Philippine National Police volunteers were awarded plaques of appreciation for our contribution to the training being conducted at the PNP Values and Leadership School.

This is third time we have been given this recognition, Musicworx also received similar commendations in 2005 and 2006. But although it is great to receive distinctions such as these, all the glory really belongs to the Lord. Since its establishment in 2004 we have visited the PNP Training Camp in Subic more than 25 times, at 3-4 hours away (depending traffic) Subic is one of the longest drives we regularly make from Manila, and usually requires traveling early in the morning. Despite the distance the Lord has sustained us through this ministry and has empowered us to minister to members and officers of the PNP.

Please continue to pray for the work in Subic. We were informed that the school will be put on hold until the construction of new facilities is finished. The training camp that we has become our second home for the last few years was purchased from the government by a private group and although funds for facilities are already in place, the PNP leadership tells us they have yet to procure funds to buy the new piece of land that they are eyeing.

After a long hiatus, Musicworx renewed its ministry at the Women’s Correctional Institute in Mandaluyong today. This time around we partnered with longtime volunteers, Atty. Lily Biton of the Sandiganbayan, and Ms. Corky Binco.

We had a great time ministering to the more than 200 ladies who had attended. But there is much work that needs to be done. We are currently praying for more workers to volunteer at the “Correctional” so that we can setup accountability and discipleship small groups - which is necessary as the group grows even larger.

One group of women is also asking Musicworx to come back to and train then in praise and worship leading. We will plan for that shortly, and ask that you continue to pray for the ministry opportunities that the Lord is opening up here.

If you would like to volunteer to help Musicworx at the Women’s Correctional Institute, visit our contact page and send us an email.

Ever since our first MusicWorxshop in Roxas, Palawan back in 2003, Musicworx has always dreamt of one day putting together an entire camp aimed at providing training to men and women in the field of music in order that they might be used by the Lord in this regard.

We’re not sure what really happened, or why it took so long to turn it into a reality. Perhaps we had shelved the idea temporarily out of self-doubt, after all we didn’t have the experience nor the resources necessary. But as our Lord promises in the Bible, everything happens according to His perfect timing, and when that time comes he will pour out His resources to fill in for whatever we lack.

That’s what He did last week, when Christian Artists Ministries Philippines and Musicworx put together the country’s very first music camp.

MusiCamp 2007: “Created to Discover, Called to Deliver”, was a three day music camp held at the UMC Compound in Mexico, Pampanga. 119 churchgoers from Bataan, Pampanga, Bulacan, Cavite, Metro Manila, and Leyte participated in the event where they took classes in Music Theory, Voice, Worship Leading, Instruments, and Speech.

It was an enriching experience that afforded everyone the opportunity to learn new things, hone their talents, meet and fellowship with new people, hear God’s Word, and sing praises to the Lord.

The following is a photo essay of highlights from the activity. After you’re done you may want to jump over to our flickr page where we’ve posted over a hundred photos from the event - you can view the photos, post comments, or download a high-resolution copy for printing.

Day 1

After beginning with registrations in the morning and classes in music theory and voice in the afternoon. Day one ended with a mini-concert by Musicworx…

…and a message by Chris Vidad. Kuya Chris talked about service, and how we are created like different animals with different functions.

But before everyone could retire for the night, it was off to choir sectionals. In this photo, Bonita & Felynn lead the Altos as they learn the song, “For All The World.”

Day 2

Josh leads morning devotions on Day 2. He talks about how as musicians who often take the stage, we sometimes make the mistake of stealing the glory from God. We are just supposed to be, “messengers”.

Camp Director, Pastor Jupiter Vidad leads campers in a game of pass the message with a MusiCamp twist.

Teacher Delight Saladar-Hubilla of Trumpet’s Musicademy teaches a course on “singing with microphones” during the advanced voice class.

Caleb Coniate of Trinity College leads one of two speech classes. Meanwhile other classes in Praise & Worship Leading, Conducting, and Instruments are held simultaneously.

Night 2 was all about the campers. Several participants were invited to render special numbers. This one by members of the Fairview Fundamental Baptist Church (John & Jerriane) was a duet of the song People Need The Lord.

After being split up for sectionals, choirs came together for the first time to rehearse with their conductors. Here Felynn leads the Blue team during a run through of their common piece, “For All The World.”

Day 3

Praise and worship teams rehearse for the afternoon event which they were assigned to lead.

Teacher Caleb checks the answers of the Green team during the Music Quiz Competition.

Teacher Evelyn conducts the Green team during the Choral competition as judges Chris, Josh, and Caleb look on. Other events held that afternoon include solo and duet competitions, as well as competitions for drums, guitar and piano.

Rev. Donald Coniate leads the final service of the camp, tackling the importance of music in worship. He also offered those who had not yet received Christ an opportunity to do so.

After the evening service, certificates were awarded to camp leaders and participants…

…and winners of the afternoon’s music competition were awarded.

The event ended around 9pm after which it was time for everybody to say their goodbyes and head home. In the midst of all this, plans were already being made for MusiCamp 2008. Looking forward to seeing all of you then. Information will be available on this website very soon.

A mission trip to Visayas has long been one of our goals, a to-do item however that had so far been left un-ticked. It made perfect sense to go, after all Musicworx has already been to all the other major island groups in the country, including Luzon, Mindanao and Palawan, but it wasn’t the Lord’s timing until last September when we visited Leyte.

We went on the invitation of the Maasin Christian Academy in Maasin, Southern Leyte. As part of the school’s fund raising initiative for a new building, they decided to put together an evangelistic conference featuring Musicworx.

But wanting that we be maximized, our hosts also planned a tight schedule of activities for us. This trip turned out to be one of the highlights of the 2007, and we all came home feeling energized, and fulfilled.

Day 1 / September 13 / Thursday: Pastor Jupiter, Bonita, and Zedith were the first to fly into Leyte. They went ahead to meet with concert staff and oversee final preparations for the concert. This was the first time the church/school staff would be putting together a concert of this size, and everyone was feeling the jitters of what needed to be done. Meanwhile the rest of us were back in Manila busy getting ready too. I remember taking the day off, rushing to complete the audio/video packages that were to be used in the concert. I was in between writing my thesis and preparing for the concert, and was beginning to feel the stress pile up all the way to the top of my head. I finally finished about 1am, which bought me about an hour of sleep, before we had to leave for the airport.

Day 2 / September 14 / Friday: The rest of us were flying in the day of the concert itself. Having to wake up at 3am on the day of a big concert, is real risky for any singer. I remember renowned Tenor Nolyn Cabahug once told me that the best thing a singer can do for himself is get the right amount of rest, but it seemed impossible with today’s schedule. We did try to sneak in as much sleep as we can, such as during that one-hour flight from Manila to Tacloban (the capital of Leyte Province), and then again through the 3-hour zigzagged trip down to Southern Leyte (another province altogether). It was about 10am when we finally arrived in Maasin. After breakfast and a quick run through at the venue we were able to catch about 2 more hours of sleep, before heading off to the motorcade around the city, and a courtesy call with the Mayor. Looking back I can’t imagine how we fit everything in, it seems however that time does run a bit slower when you are away from the hustle and bustle of city life. And of course everything would not have happened the way they did without the grace of our Lord.

The concert started on time, about 8pm of September 14th. About 1,500 people had come to hear us sing. We had expected the center seats of the gymnasium to be filled but were pleasantly surprised to see the riser section filled also. Truly God made a way for more people to come and hear His word. There were a few technical glitches with the video presentation towards the end of the event, but overall, the concert was a success. The feedback we got was also great, one audience member writes, “I’d say that, of all the concerts that I have attended, it was the best concert I’ve ever seen. It was very overwhelming and it really made me feel that God really loves us and is always there for us.”

Day 3 / September 15 / Saturday: Our hosts were good enough to let us sleep in on Saturday morning. No one bothered to get up for breakfast so that we could catch up on the much needed rest. So much planning and preparation goes into the production of every concert that we do, so it is quite a relief when it is finally over.

The rest of the afternoon was spent visiting Evelyn & Bonita’s relatives. The Serata sisters were both born in Maasin, but haven’t been back in more than 20 years since leaving for Manila. They had lots of catching up to do with relatives they didn’t even know they had.

That night we ministered during the final night of a missions conference at the Maasin Fundamental Baptist Church. We met Pastor Epelipcia whose son Zimran (an intern at the Laoakan Fundamental Baptist Church in Baguio City) we had met on another trip a couple of months back.

Day 4 / September 16 / Sunday: We ministered during the Sunday Service at the Hilongos Baptist Church in Hilongos, Leyte Province. We were told that this was the church which ABWE missionaries Ken and (Musicworx adviser) Alice Cole attended when Dr. Cole worked at the Leyte Baptist Hospital. Here we met Dr. Regan Espina who now heads the medical team at the hospital. There are 4 Baptist mission hospitals in the Philippines. My dad has worked for two of them (Iloilo Mission Hospital where I was born in, and Roxas Baptist Hospital which Musicworx visited back in 2002). We all made it an informal goal to visit all four of them through mission trips in the next couple of years. That means we will need to visit Aklan and Bukidnon next.

Lunch was amazing, especially when they took out the suman, a native dessert made out of sticky rice. You can get suman all over the Philippines, but the Leyte variety is arguably the best we’ve ever tasted, with the right consistency of sweetness and softness. After lunch we had to say our goodbyes to our hosts Nelson Tan and his family. Kuya Nelson is the person who God had chosen to put this whole trip together, and words are not enough to describe all the work that he put in to make this trip possible. He, his wife Alma and daughter Ella were such generous and loving hosts. They not only opened up their house to us, but also took care all of our needs, for which we are grateful. May they continue to be used by Him in mission work in Southern Leyte.

That afternoon it was back on the long-winding road to Tacloban, where we were scheduled to do another concert at the New Life Baptist Church. There were probably almost 200 people who attended that night, 18 of them indicated in their response slips that they had come to receive Christ.

It was also a night of reunions. Our Tacloban host, Pinky Modina and her husband Pastor Romeo were schoolmates of Pastor Jupiter, John and Evelyn back at the Baptist Bible Seminary and Institute in 1996, we also met up Boris Pascubillo, a prayer warrior for Musicworx when he was still an OFW working in Japan. We are also glad to have met up with Leo & Linda Elechican, a retired couple based in Illinois who were there to speak at several missions conferences. The Elechican’s are the parents of ABWE missionary Maylin Hartwick which we have worked with on a mission trip to Hong Kong several years back.

We were billeted that night at the mission house of ABWE missionaries Jim and Allene Latzko who agreed to let the group stay at their place, even if they were abroad on furlough. While there we met Marilyn Aralar one of the workers at their resource center. She told me how excited she was when she heard Musicworx would be coming to Tacloban. She had first heard about us via a duet album that we had released almost 4 years ago. It also is a blessing to find out how that album continues to touch the lives of people on a spiritual level.

Day 5 / September 17 / Monday: One of the most rewarding parts of the trip came unexpected on our last day. We had to be up early to make it to the morning assembly at the Bethel International School in Tacloban. We always enjoy it when we minister to children. We all just let loose and had a great time with the kids.

After the presentation, we were invited to have breakfast with the school’s principal, during this time several kids came up to us to give us their pictures. It really was heartwarming to think that we were able to have an effect on these children even if our presentation lasted for about 30 minutes only. Knowing that they had gone out of their way to give us something meant that we had somehow impacted their lives. We were at the school for about 4 hours, and also had a chance to teach the Grade 7&8 music class. We thank the Lord for giving us the opportunity to minister to these children, it was just priceless.

We had lunch at a small mission outreach, the New Life Community Center in Utap, Tacloban City. Leading the outreach is Filipina Vangie Byrnes. Tita Vangie and her late husband had started medical missions to the Philippines, before he lost a battle to cancer last year. Now she remains to continue their vision.

Her nephew, 12-year old Romeo is also a good singer who we feel just needs to come out of his shell, we are making arrangements for him to come down next year to train with us for a week.

After lunch there was just a little bit of time left for some sight seeing before our flight home. Ate Vangie took us around in her jeep. We were able to see the San Juanico bridge, once the longest in South East Asia, and still the longest in the Philippines. We also got to visit the Mac Arthur shrine (where Gen. Douglas Mac Arthur made his historic return to the Philippines).

Our schedule was packed all the way till our trip home. We got to the airport just in time to board. It was an amazing trip, with hardly a second wasted. I consider this one of our most fruitful trips yet. We met so many amazing people, had different opportunities to minister, and likewise learned a lot about ourselves and our calling as music missionaries. It is our prayer that whatever impression we have left behind will only be for God’s glory.

After several years of praying for it, His timing is right and Musicworx is finally recording its first group album.

And among other tasks is the design of the album cover.

The beginning of every creative process is very difficult, because you can’t force ideas to come out of thin air.

An initial concept for the album cover was very easy to implement, faces of group members over a white background, and the name of our group affixed in bold below. But this I felt was self serving, and lacking in inspiration.

After some prayer God led me to the song I Will Go. Since beginning way back in 2002, the song has been our theme song. It talks about answering the call of God to serve Him and making the missionary journey our home even if it entailed leaving behind the comforts we know, and giving up our earthly ambitions.

The new concept took inspiration from this song, it would picture all of us walking into the sunrise, symbolizing our decision to answer the Lord’s call. Our figures were to be silhouettes against an amazing backdrop of colors, and far off into the horizon a journey that beckoned us forth.

The concept was beautiful. But it would be much harder to implement.

God loves challenges. I forgot that. So here is when I started to worry.

As soon as the concept was firmed up, the search for a new location began. I knew there were lots of grassy slopes at the university where I had gone to college, but the location was too low. And if ever I’d be able to shoot silhouettes I’d also get distracting trees and other buildings. We needed higher ground.

All through the week I prayed that God would provide us with the perfect location for the shoot. But the week was coming to a close and I was getting desperate. It was a Friday morning when I posted SOS messages on a couple of local photography discussion boards that I regularly frequent.

I let them know I was a member of a Christian singing group, and what our needs were. “Help find location for photo shoot,” I called out. Throughout the day I would visit both sites, refreshing its contents in hopes that someone would have the answers. There were a few suggestions, but nothing sounded right.

Disappointed, I checked one more time before going to bed that evening. And to my delight, someone had posted a photo. “This place high enough bro?” asked forum member Deo Patalinhog (who coincidentally goes to Christ Commission Fellowship also). The photo brought me to tears. It was perfect and everything I had imagined. At this moment my heart bounced back to life, God had answered my prayers.

With the location in the bag, my worries moved on to shooting the photo. I just purchased my first Digital SLR a few months back, and as much as I was an avid amateur photographer, I was daunted by the technical challenge. This entire week I prayed that God would see my inadequacies and fill in what was missing. This week, He kept reminding me, “its not about you, its about me,” and I that I should just continue wanting to know Him more, and seeking His glory. He’d take care of the rest.

I prayed fervently, asked everyone I could to pray for me. There were other things to think about too. Our recording was the coming weekend. Heavy rains have blasted through Metro Manila the entire week. I had my Master’s Project to complete. And then there were the preparations for an evangelistic concert in Southern Leyte next month. My hands were literally all clammy the entire week. So much worrying for a small little man.

Small indeed. If we compare ourselves to God we are insignificant. But He also promises that if we look to Him in faith His resources are limitless. I held on to that verse all week.

The weekend came by. We recorded Saturday. Sunday was supposed to be the day everything would begin clearing up, but it was still very cloudy. So we did not shoot as scheduled. We finished our recording instead.

We still had Monday. It was declared a national holiday and everyone was off from work. I too was given the option not to come to work as well. We had agreed to wait and see, if the weather was good I’d take a leave and we’d go for it.

Upon waking up, my eyes not yet adjusted, I went straight for the balcony, squinting like I had been blind all my life, the pain was searing but I could see the sun shining and that was enough to make me smile. I prayed, “Lord take away the clouds and let the sun shine through today. Shine upon us that we may reflect your light.”

The decision was made. Everything seemed right. I kept peering out the window and the sun seemed to be shining brighter each time. Calls were dispatched to the group members. Almost all of us were available except that John had already set an appointment, and Zedith had to go back to Manila to run some errands.

Sunset was 6:16pm on that August 20th. We wanted to be there early so we would have enough time to find the place, set up the equipment, and rehearse blocking. But it would not be, despite leaving early we lost precious time waiting for the two to arrive. The album cover would not be right without the entire group, even if we just needed silhouettes.

Then out of nowhere Evelyn asked me if I had brought my tripod. I had forgot. Leaving the other group to wait for John and Zedith at the train station, we dashed back home to get the tripod.

It was passed 5pm already when we had caught up with the other group on the way to Taytay, Rizal. Although the weather was fair back in the city, here grey clouds were over head, it was starting to drizzle. “How much worse could it get?” I kept looking at the sun. The traffic was terrible. Our collective nervous energy at that point would probably have been enough to light one household.

As we drew closer I prayed even harder that God would stop the sun, that He would paint an amazing backdrop for us. “Lord I have been putting you first, please shower your riches upon us today.”

By the time we had found the place, it was almost 6pm. The sun was saying goodbye. Despite the drizzle we ran through the knee high grass taking as much photos as we could. They looked alright but not one close to what I had imagined.

When we wrapped up, it was getting dark. The drizzle had stopped, and we were left sitting on a hill overlooking the city. It was beautiful there, and it would have been a waste if we did not make the most of it. We paused for about 20 minutes to have devotions, the light had waned, so much so that as I read through the last pages of the chapter, I had to strain my eyes to read the words. We bowed down to pray…and as we opened our eyes the city had lit up before us.

We had already begun packing up, ready to go when Pastor Jupiter asked me to photograph the nightscape. I didn’t tinker with the camera, let it decide on its own how long to keep the shutter open. When the preview popped out 30 seconds later, it was a breathtaking photo. Then it hit me, what if we try standing still, will our outlines become silhouettes?

Like brave soldiers Bonita and Felynn walked through the tall grass without even worrying about being bitten by snakes or other creatures just so we could do a test shot. It came out promising.

Then it started to drizzle again. Everyone was rushed out to the field. Quickly shouting out commands for the blocking, I set the timer, and ran towards the field myself. It was such a quick thing that we didn’t have much time to setup. I just ran into the first available space. Everyone was instructed to stand as still as possible, “the shutter is going to open for 30 seconds to a minute. I need you as stiff as a tree.” By this time the drizzle had turned to rain, as everyone patiently waited for the sound of the shutter to go off.

We all ran back to the camera. A professional photographer would by practice take an entire roll to have a sizable amount of shots to pick from but it was raining too hard to afford another go at it. That one shot had to be right.

With bated breath we hit the preview button.

The photo looked amazing.

Better than we could have ever hoped for. There was a combined gasp for joy.

In high spirits we all hurried into our vehicles and left for home.

I am writing this piece a day after, and I am still charged with emotion. Despite all my worries He came through for us. I had stubbornly wanted things my way, I wanted to shoot when the sun was bright enough so that it would cast silhouettes on our figures, naively I didn’t dare to think that my Father in heaven is also an artist who can create beauty even if it was completely dark. He had planned it all along. His plan was better and it came out much more beautiful than I had ever imagined. Truly He is all that He has promised to be and so much more.

This album cover is a tribute to Him and all that He is. May He be glorified forever.

We just wrapped up a couple of recording sessions for our very first group album. We hope to complete work on the project in time for our concert in Maasin, Southern Leyte this September 14. Please do pray for the work that still needs to be put into it.

Today (Aug 20) we will be shooting our album cover at a location the Lord has provided in the outskirts of Metro Manila. This week Pastor Jupiter and sound technician Ricky Gonzales will be working on the audio editing of the tracks. We’re also set to finalize our arrangement with Copy Care Philippines, the company in charge of issuing royalties for published music. We will end up paying a large sum of money for royalties, but to use copyrighted material without permission would be stealing, and we trust that the Lord will provide for this need, His resources our limitless.

The album will contain songs from our repertoire over the last 5 years and some new ones. It is our desire that through our music we can mirror God’s glory and that it will be used by Him to touch our brethren in ways that are fitting not to our own intent but to His individual will for each one.
Please pray for us. We will keep you posted.

Ever since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took office, there have been more and more “long weekends”.

Instead of declaring certain holidays (which fall in the middle of the week) non-working days, the President instead declares the nearest Monday or Friday a non-working day. These extra long weekends are the perfect opportunities for Filipinos to get some much-needed rest and recreation, and for us music missionaries (who also have full time secular jobs) to go out of town on a short mission trip.

In the case of June 11th (which was declared a special non-working holiday instead of the June 12th Independence Day) we decided to make a trip up to Baguio City to get a little bit of both. Having been quite busy this past year, we had not had the time to just get together as a group to rest and fellowship amongst ourselves.

Here’s a day to day account of our trip:

June 8: Friday

Pastor Jupiter, John and I, having been the only ones to secure leaves for Friday, were the first ones to arrive in Baguio. We left Manila very early in the morning and arrived at Doane Rest (the ABWE missionary rest house) just before lunch.

After settling in, we left for the Baguio Public Market to buy some meat and vegetables, there would not be any time to stock up on supplies after today. The market is an interesting place with interesting people, I could probably spend an entire afternoon taking photographs and watching people as they go about their business.

But our afternoon at the market came to an abrupt end when rain started to pour. Sidelined, we took shelter under a covered portion of the meat section only to be attacked by erupting sewerage nearby.

June 9: Saturday

Our day was off to an early start because we had to pick up Felynn and Zedith at the bus stop around 3am. After breakfast of leftover mashed potatoes and roast chicken from the night before, we spent left to visit some churches.

We were meeting most of these Pastor’s for the first time, so we wanted to be able to have enough time to fellowship with them before ministering at their churches.

Our first meeting was with Pastor Chommog of Pines City Baptist Church, who had only taken the duties as Senior Pastor just recently. Prior to this he was a missionary pastor in the Mt. Province working with tribes there. It made us think about expanding our ministries to include our brethren from remote tribes in the country.

In the afternoon we met up with Pastor Ruben Huyo of the Loakan Fundamental Baptist Church. Pastor Huyo had also taken on the post quite recently. Youth Pastor Zimran Epelipcia also invited to the Ambassadors For Christ Youth Fellowship of Metro Baguio Baptist Churches.

That evening we met up with the rest of members of our group, sisters Evelyn and Bonita.

June 10: Sunday

9:30am: Loakan Baptist Church. The last time Musicworx was in Baguio was two years ago, we had a big concert at the University of Cordillera Auditorium, and as I recall visited a couple of churches to promote the event. One of them was the Loakan Baptist Church, but since our group had to split up to cover more churches, this would be the first time we’d be singing there as a group. We were given 30 minutes to minister to the congregation before we had to rush off to the other end of town for our other engagement.

11:00: Although we only took 20 minutes (vs the estimated 45 minutes) we arrived shortly after Pastor Chommog had begun his sermon (we were supposed to sing before). Still we were given the opportunity to sing two songs. After the service we met several other workers including Pastor Adrian Piza of Ilocos Norte and Maj. Benitez who had recognized us from the PNP Trainor’s Training at Subic.

2:00: We had the chance to fellowship with young men and women from several Metro Baguio churches during their music competition. I thought it was a fitting opportunity to encourage fellow musicians to really develop their talents and use it for God’s glory. Among the churches in attendance were Baguio Baptist Church, Buyagan Christian Fundamental Baptist Church, Missionary Church of the Living Christ (Camp 7), Way of Life Baptist Church, Bineng Baptist Church, Pico Fundamental Baptist Church and the Laoakan Baptist Church.

6:00: Loakan Baptist Church: We were invited back to sing a couple of songs for their evening service more and then were invited to dinner after with Pastor Ruben and his family.

June 11: Monday

Everyone slept in on the 11th. It was a public holiday, so we all didn’t have to rush back to Manila to work. We left Doane Rest shortly after lunch, and then headed back to the market for some last minute shopping for pasalubong.

The market is an amazing mission field in itself. While there we were able to minister to a couple of sales ladies who were assisting us. Pastor Jupiter and Felynn shared the gospel with a lady selling brooms, which turned out to be quite a challenge because she didn’t believe in the Bible but believed in Jesus. Evelyn also shared the gospel with a girl named Grace who had sold us all sorts of native jams.

We also spent a some time with a bunch of kids who were offering to carry our shipping bags for us. My camera battery had given up on me so I wasn’t able to take any photos of them, but they were just the sweetest boys. Two of them were Muslim kids who travelled from Mindanao with their older brother. They now both go to school in Baguio but try to earn their keep by carrying bags for people doing their shopping. As did our previous market visit, it began to rain, so we used the extra time to tell the kids about Jesus.Several of them prayed to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. I think about them a lot, unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a contact number, I do hope that we will be able to bump into them next time around so we can follow up on their progress.

By the time we were done at the market, it was about 5pm, shortly after, we were all headed back home to Manila looking forward to the next long weekend.