After breakfast we all decided to walk around the mall across from our hotel. It's the happening place here. It's bigger than any mall I've ever been to. And they are building an even bigger one down the street from it. We all stopped in to the local coffee shop, Bo's, to get some coffee. Looks just like a Starbucks but it's all local ingredients. Oh and of course there is a Starbucks two stores down but who would choose that over a place where they serve real blended mango tea.
After Bo's we ventured into the mall... If you can imagine 8 Americans and 2 Filipinos walking around like a group of tourists. That was us. Us ladies decided we needed to split off and really look around and meet back up with the guys later.
After the mall we all jumped into a van and headed to lunch to spend time with Pastor Romeo from Grace Baptist and Pastor Joel from Grace Talisay Fellowship. We will be at their churches on Saturday and Sunday. Lunch was at Sunburst Fried Chicken, a little place in the middle of the city. Dojo said they have the best fried chicken in the Philippines. And it was pretty good. We had lunch in a little upper room above the restaurant. We all went around introducing ourselves sharing where we were currently serving and what ministry we were involved in at Faith Bible Church. It was a sweet time for the pastors to get to know us and for us to get to hear the pastors share their hearts for the church and the people they minister to. The food came and we were off... plates full of fried chicken, rice, something like a very saucy coleslaw, and a variety of noodles. Pastor Romeo sat at our table so we were able to ask him questions, hear his testimony and hear about how he got to Cebu City. We were all blessed to have gotten to spend time with these sweet pastors. They love the people and work hard to love and teach their body the Word of God.
After lunch we stopped off to check out the meeting place for the conference. It's a great place and we were all excited to get to share God's Word there on Monday. Below is a picture of Jeff in one of the chairs on the stage. We all joked about him giving his message from the "big kahuna" chair!
By the time we made it back to the hotel it was already 4 pm. Christine and Sheila have been talking about getting massages for $8 for awhile now so we had a few hours and went. It was an experience I will never forget. As we walked into this tiny little door next to a pharmacy there were so many thoughts running through my head like "where are we?" and "I'm not sure about this!!!". I will just tell you I was nervous and when I'm nervous I laugh or cry. Well a lot of laughing occurred, so much I had tears in my eyes and I had to hold my back pack in front of my mouth to keep it from coming out. The place was dark and in my mind I could just see a movie scene playing out. The ladies and I had a lot of fun and will probably talk about this for a long time. Let's just say we are much closer friends now. ;)
Around 7 pm we all went back into the mall where there is a plethora of restaurant choices. We all settled on a Chinese restaurant. At one point I look out of the corner of my eye and Seth is telling Greg to smile for a picture with our waitress. She was as tall as Greg while he was sitting down. We ended the day with great fellowship and great food.
Tomorrow we will be street evangelizing at the oldest Catholic basilica in the Philippines...
Sharing our lives with each other.
Lunch with the pastors.
Group photo atop the hotel where we will have the conference.
A picture from the hall where we got massages.
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