Another exhausting day, but the presence of wi-fi in the room here tempts me to put forward another report.  Please forgive any misspellings in all these posts.  I’m too tired to spell.

I was inspired by the beauty of this Philippine Island today.  For three days the huge hulk of dormant volcanic Mt. Kanlaon haunted the right side of our vision as we drove up the west side of Negros Island.  Today we drove across the foothills of that mountain to reach the east coast.  I’ve never seen such spectacular valleys and vistas, not even in California.   Amazing sights.

And I was inspired today by the people I met in the two congregations we visited.  The Sunday morning service was in our church at Ulay-Cabiguhan.  The Rev. Rebecca Sienes preached.  She is the daughter of Philippine martyr Toribio Quimada, and she also happens to be my roommate for this part of the trip.  Rebecca preached in the local language, Cebuan (we had printed English translations to follow), and the singing and responsive readings were done with English speakers doing English and the locals doing Cebuan.  There was a good felling about it, and I taped a sample for you to hear.  Afterwards we were able to greet the members of the congregation.  Most speak only a little English, but they are friendly and responsive to their guests.  The afternoon included a visit to our congregation at Nataban, another village at the top of a treacherous hill.  And this one has a terrible story to tell.  A young woman from a Unitarian family was raped and murdered with her two young daughters looking on last summer.  The congregation has pulled together to help the family, and volunteers, working through the Partner Church program, have provided support for the children and even funded the relocatation of ten households to a central plot of land so that the families will be able to protect each other from similar invasions.  It was very moving to be with this congregation, and see both serious concern for each other and the usual joy in being together.  I had several interesting conversations with children and youth at Nataban.  Many young people have good use of English.

Enough for tonight.  One more congregation to visit tomorrow and then home on Tuesday.