Philippines Journal 2007 #15

This was one of the best days of our sojourn here because of our visit to Calumpang Central SDA Elementary School. The Principal invited the VBS team to visit the school this afternoon. We arrived just before 2:00pm to a royal welcome. The balconies were filled with children waving and cheering us, and the marching band putting on a very impressive show. Then we went into the Church for a special Chapel service. Those kids can sing! My O My!! They put us to shame! Incidentally Dave Thomas and I have been talking about have a great songfest at the College Church and a great Preach-out! He has been inspired – or his inspiration has been intensified since he has been here. After Chapel we got a tour of the School. It is one of the largest SDA Elementary School in the country – nearly 500 kids, with some classes having over 50 kids. But you have never seen children so happy.

This morning we had the last regular Field School before Graduation on Friday. Hiroshi Yamagata did the devotional. He is a fourth generation SDA from Japan. Adventist makes up .01% of the population there. He told the story of the struggles his grandfather had to keep the Sabbath and attend University in Japan. He finally gave up and studied at Loma Linda after receiving an anonymous gift of $7,000.00. Today his father is the head of our hospital in Japan. I facilitated a discussion and lecture on “How Big is Big Enough!” I made the case for large efforts to bring large amounts into God’s kingdom without minimizing “nurture”.

Tonight’s seminar topic was “The Greatest Place on Earth.” I told my story how I grew up to have church be the greatest place on earth. As a boy and teenager, I spent more time at church than even at school. Church was my life! So I told my audience why I was a Seventh-day Adventist, including why SDAs adheres to our wholistic lifestyle.