Here is my favorite, my wife posing with Bro. John and the Bishop. I know this was a special event for Cherry as she looks forward to the Philippine mission trip to her home village of Biao. I am very proud of Cherry and her efforts to coordinate God's planting of a church in Biao. Thank you dear for putting up with me during this stressful process. Yes, she maintains an attitude of success even when I get on the nervous side. God Bless you Babe!
The Bishop listening to the Children's time during service.
You can tell Pastor John was honored to have the Bishop not only visit but present the message.
Philippines Bishop, Leo Soriano, visited the Fort Branch United Methodist Church on Sunday, Nov. 15th, 2009 and delivered a powerful message, titled "God's Connectors". It was an honor to invite him into our home over the weekend, we were truly blessed. What a wonderful opportunity for members of the congregation to meet the Bishop before our mission trip in April 2009.
Here is a picture of Pastor John introduction the Bihop.
We are very excited to have Bishop Soriano visit us in November. We will pick him up Saturday, November 14th in Nashville and he will be staying with the Rogers in Fort Branch. We will have the honor of him attending our Sunday service on the 15th. What a blessing this will be. It really shows the support we are receiving from the Bishop on our mission trip in April of 2010. I will also be an opportunity for our congregation to meet him and ask any question. God is Good.
Sunday Sept. 27, 2009 the Bishop visited Nashville again and we visited for dinner. He will return next month and will email his schedule, hopefully he will be able to attend a Sunday service here in Fort Branch, Indiana.
We were very excited to read the following in our bulletin today and wanted to share this with our friends and family who read our Blog.
"I would like to thank all of the volunteers who helped make this years VBS a success. We had as many as 22 volunteers each day this past week, each one doing their own part to give each child a positive enjoyable VBS experience. We had 35 children attend our VBS this week. They happily donated 73 food items for The Lord's Pantry. They also had a boy/girl competition for the offering with the boys bringing in a weekly total of $124.70 and the girls $117.40. The total collection of $237.13 will be sent along with Philippines Mission Team to Support a VBS for the first time ever in Biao".
What a blessing to see how the Lord is providing for our Mission trip. We are truly excited about what the Lord has planned.
On Tuesday, May 12, 2009 Bishop Soriano was in Nashville, TN on business and Gordon and Pastor John drove down to discuss the 2010 Mission trip to Biao in more details. This was a great opportunity to share ideas with the Bishop and we both felt it was a worth while trip. The Bishop will visit Biao in June to meet the High School Principal where we will hold our mission event. This will afford him the opportunity to meet the people and set the stage for our trip. He has agreed to accompany our mission team along with two of the District Superintendents and other Pastors from the Philippines. He will ensure we have interrupters and will assist with musical arrangements. Unfortunately Cherry could not attend since Maria is still in school. We had brochures printed which Pastor John presented to the Bishop. The brochure had a picture of the Bishop, staff and Cherry during a meeting early this year while Cherry was in the Philippines. The Bishop was very impressed and excited about our mission plans. I had one of the hotel employees take some pictures and I tried to take some as well. Yes, without Cherry's assistance it was messed up and ended up being video instead of pictures. My best attempt to convert them into pictures are below.
I did have the opportunity to visit the family farm in Nasanagan, which Cherry owns in the mountains. I was introduced to a new definition of remote. We traveled over 5 miles on a dirt and rocky road to reach the farm. It is hot and an experience that I will never forget. It was an opportunity to really see the beauty that our Lord has created. Here is a few pictures of the farm.
Cherry and I meet with the Bishop in the Philippines and he is encouraged to see our interest. Aside from spreading the Word of Christ there is a great need for a Medical Mission. One of our objectives is to help the High School children with basic school supplies and backpacks. There is a need for rain gear since children walk such long distances during the rainy season. The 2010 trip will be costly as transportation is limited and costly to hire someone trustworthy. We will have to transport the majority of the food and is necessary to bring ample supply of clean drinking water. We are trusting that the Lord has his hand in our mission and will ensure the funds will become available.
This is a brief overview of our trip. I had to return to work the day after we returned and I am way behind in everything. We will be more than happy to provide additional information at a later date. We do ask that you remember us in your prayers as will continue to finalize our plans for 2010.
Here is a picture of the Community Center in Biao. You will find people gathered here selling fruit, vegetables and fish every Sunday.
Biao has an Elementary school and a High School. The high School has 337 students, far less than the Elementary School. The majority of children do not attend High School because their family is poor and they are needed to work on the farm. Antoher reason most children do not attend High School is due to the long distance they have to travel. You will see children walking in from the mountains, some travel 5 - 10 miles one way to reach school. It is sad to see them carry a plastic bag with a little rice and a dried fish, all the eat for the day. Here is a section of the roadway near the school with several school children.
You will see a lot of small stores in the front of homes. They sell snacks, drinks and gasoline in glass soda bottles.
Here is what the typical road looks like in Biao. There may be a few stretches of concrete road way and many areas surrounding have dirt paths.
Here is the Market Center in Payo where they have many small stores. There is a small hardware store, several small markets, cell phone load center, electrical shop and every Monday they have an open market. 
Maria and I arrived in Bacolod on March 7th, Cherry had arrived several weeks prior to this. It was a good two hour trip to the Village of Payo where we stayed most of the time. Payo is the last Village where supplies can be purchased before you get to Biao. It takes another 40 mins or so to reach Biao and most of the roads are dirt and rock, you will find a few small stretches of concrete.
Cherry is in the Philippines and Maria and I are leaving Thursday, March 5th, 2009 at 11:30 AM. We are very excited about our trip and trust God has his hand in coordinating next years mission trip. Cherry had the opportunity to meet Bishop Soriano (purple) and I am looking forward to meeting with him in a week or so. The Bishop was accompanied with Sharon (flowery blouse) , Irene (red) and Pastor Jonathan (yellow).
