Philippines Journal 2007 #3

The team is here! T’was a good trip for the most part. The couple 3 or so hitches include a two hour delay for the flight from LA to Japan (Dave Parks, Hiroshi, and Ken Anderson were on that flight). But they made it just on time to catch the Manila flight. The other was the meals for the bulk of the team from Portland. On our flight a couple days earlier we found that almost all the meals were laced with pork. So we got Bonnie (our travel agent) to call in and order vegetarian meals. It was horrible. One person even got sick. So we will order special meals on the way back. A third thing: Lydia flew from Detroit to Japan and on to Manila on the same plane – 15 hours. The entertainment system was broken! Try entertaining yourself for 15 hours when you expect to have movies and games! They gave each passenger a $100.00 coupon for the first leg and $50.00 for the second. Of course the team was overweight for the flight down to General Santos City (Gensan). But Zdravko and Dave Parks sweet-talked the airlines; telling them about the mission trip, etc., etc. They didn’t charge them a cent!

We were at the airport, on the tarmac again to greet the team (and also another person who was conducting a family life Seminar elsewhere). I think I mentioned earlier that we have a lot of Adventist connection in the airport so we got through easily (after going through security of course). The biggy was the motorcade through the city. We got a good tour of the municipality and Adventism was highlighted. The lead policemen were fun. I hope you can view the videos showing how the cop used his bike to clear the road. At the office there was another great greeting from the staff and the pastors with whom the team will be working. After food, rest and orientation, some of us went to the site for a small vespers meeting. Most stayed here to catch up on their well needed sleep.