A Mission Trip to the Philippines – Part II

By PJ Martin
Editor
The Herald-News

The future goal of the mission trip to the Philippines taken by Charles Costello and Jeremy Glass for the North Main Church of Christ is to help some of the churches they visited with funds to repair their churches. Also, there is the hope of helping to build at least one church since there are several preachers trying to build churches.

When a church is referred to, it is quite different from what we call a church building, as many of these churches use what we would refer to as woodsheds. The members sit around and in the buildings. Some are no more than a metal roof held up by posts.

Charles and Jeremy described several as being very small spaces, and occasionally, the people would use old blocks to build whatever they could. In some, the women would hang curtains to make it look nice. “They’ve done their best to make it look good for God”, said Charles.

Currently, the goal is to build one church and possibly repair a couple more. Whatever they are able to do to help them.

Jeremy explained that the average daily salary is 15-20 dollars in Tuguegarao (Tug City), and that is working in the rice paddies planting rice all day. On Sunday, when the offering is gathered, the plate may contain several coins, but they total less than $1. They have little and still give what they can.

The official currency is called the Philippine Peso, and as of this writing, the exchange rate is 59.19 pesos per $1 of American money.

The church they want to help build is at Tang Bay, Tabuk City, which was described as a hard place to travel to. The current building (church) owner wants them out so he can use the building for something else. The preacher, Andy Dapps, explained that two sisters owned a piece of property on the other side of the village. One sister gave him her half, and the other sister sold her half.

Dapps told them he had started building a church, and they asked if they could see it, so he took them to see what had been done. He had steel posts and the holes dug to cement the posts in, but he didn’t have any money for the cement.

So, after seeing what he was trying to build, Charles and Jeremy decided to help build this church, even if the Church back home didn’t want to help. “We’ll pay for it, because it’s only going to cost about 17 or 1,800 to build it,” said Charles.

Another part of the North Main Church of Christ’s mission is to supply Bibles to the people in their own language. They have been purchasing those through a business there, and the Church had already purchased 100. Charles and Jeremy visited the business and, while there, bought another 100 Bibles in their language.

Charles stated that each person baptized was given a Bible, and the Bibles they purchased were written in Tagalog.

Tagalog is a mixture of the various dialects, Spanish, American, and other ethnicities, and most people can speak Tagalog. It is like a second language to many.

If you are wondering how your church might set up a mission to the Philippines or just how all of this was arranged, it took months of planning. Before the plans to travel, there had been years of contact with preachers in the Philippines. One named Jeremy Pater has been in contact with the North Main Church of Christ for over three years. They had planned to bring Jeremy Pater to the US last October, but the embassy wouldn’t let him have a Visa, because he’s not married yet.

His father’s name is Robert, and his mother is Tess. They were all there with the other preachers the day Charles and Jeremy left to come home. Robert brought them both white shirts like the ones all preachers wear during services.

Many of the preachers there preach at two churches each Sunday. They have church at seven o’clock in the morning, because then they have to travel a long way to the second church.

The North Main Church of Christ became involved in helping the Philippines after talking to a preacher in Louisville named Ron Holbrook, who is 90 years old. He travels there every three months and has been since 1995. He was actually there when Charles and Jeremy were, but was in the hospital.

Charles relayed how Holbrook had explained the traditions and filled them in on what to do and what not to, and basically how everything should work. He said that he also spoke with a preacher down in Athens, Alabama, and his name was Jerry Sandlin. He travels with church members to the Philippines about once a year.

They may be home in the US, but they are still working with their Church to help repair churches and purchase Bibles. On his Facebook page, Charles Costello has set up a GoFundMe page called Donate to Support Filipino Churches in Spreading the Gospel.

Anyone interested in contributing can visit the GoFundMe page or speak with a member of the North Main Church of Christ.