End of the Weekend

I already miss the 2 week crew. They should be in the air or landing soon in Detroit. I also miss my family dearly but they are doing great. We have appreciated all the support and help from our church family.

It’s great to get rest on the weekends. Saturday we went to the market and then headed to the Vigan zoo. Filipinos apparently do zoos a little differently than in the States. You can walk right up to the tiger cages and even pet most of the animals in the zoo. We chose not to be mauled and stayed away from the tiger cages. The zoo also had a photo shoot with an orangutan and a tiger. We are all pretty sure the tiger was highly drugged during the picture taking. Nonetheless, it made for some great pictures with the team of tiger handlers standing by. Hilarious and a little scary at the same time. We also were able to hold a boa constrictor, hug the orangutan, and get up close with a huge lizard.

Today (our Sunday), we went to the beach located 10 minutes from our hotel. The sand is black and the water looks a little like Gulf Shores, Al. The waves were huge and we had a fun time swimming. Tonight we had a ton of pizza and almost all the students are in bed now at 9:10pm. We have about 100 schools to cover here in Vigan and then we will finish off Wednesday and Thursday in Candon City. We will leave Friday afternoon around 3pm for Manilla to catch our early Saturday morning flight.

A few more pictures have been added to the picture page here.

Turning the corner

We just said goodbye to the 2 week Philippines crew. While I know many friends and family members are looking forward to seeing the students, it was hard for me to say goodbye to them. I was full of pride and joy when I was able to hear them preach the gospel, get up early without complaint, and truly see them enter into a new season of life. There is something about thinking about the gospel everyday and communicating the message of Jesus over and over again. We preached to 10’s of thousands of people. We had numerous hilarious experiences (which I’m sure you’ll hear all about), and we wrote a chapter in our lives that is permanent. As you see your loved one come through the airport, be proud of them. Understand that they had an experience like none other, and know that as their student pastor I could not be more proud of them.

Vigen

Trip is going great. We are now in the Vigen area of Llocus Norte. We visited every public school in Laoag City over the past two weeks. We have been to over 600 schools! I’ll have some numbers of students we have preached to very soon. Pray for us as yesterday was a tiring travel day and we are up at 430am today.

We miss everyone!

We Love Filipinos

We had another great day. Our students are getting more and more confident in their preaching and we are continually amazed at what God is doing.

I wanted to share with you something that the Filipinos shared with me. I can’t believe all the way over here there are still amazing CARDS fans.

Guest blog post- Matthew Wilson and Jonny Blount

After 33 hours of heart-stopping travel and the tragic death of Billy Mays, we arrived in Laoag City (known to an undisclosed few as “log city”). The first week, to say the least, has been nothing short of epic. The Highview group alone has used japanese spray toilets, played cornhole in an airport, stared death in the face during a crazy filipino bus ride, purchased a rabbit, started filming a future hit tv series known as Bill and Ted, retreived a coconut from the top of a tree, eaten chicken and rice everyday, listened to the straight-foward and inspiring (and sometimes intimidating) teaching of Bob Tebow, and preached to well over 20,000 filipino school students. Every member of our Highview team is having a wonderful time and is seeing God work in their lives and the lives of others. For example, one group met the mayor of Log City who happens to be a born again Christian and is incredibly excited to see that we are ministering to the children of her area. She even gave that group a police escort to the next school where they spoke. We are all becoming incredibly confident (probably more so than we should be) in our speaking abilities and our knowledge of the good news of Jesus Christ. So please keep us in your prayers as we minister to these people (and participate in other activities such as vollisketball, wrestling with leaders, eating the dancing chicken and rambatans, taking mind blowing tricycle rides through log city, and purchasing items for much cheaper than in the States). We can’t wait to see what God has in store for us and for others in the next week or two. We are having a great time and we miss everyone!

-Matthew Wilson and Jonny Blount

Weekend

The much needed weekend is here. Many of our team members are in Manilla with Bob Tebow & Zack Parker waiting to catch a flight to the orphanage. The rest of the team will rest, play basketball & share the gospel, and have our own church service here at the hotel. You would be thrilled to watch your student missionary share the good news. They are becoming skilled communicators and I’m praying what they have experienced will have a lifelong impact.

Pictures and video are available here.

4:00am

When I told students that we would be waking up at 4:30am each morning, I misinformed them. We have been waking up at 4am. Many schools are an hour away and start at 630am so we have to get going. Yes, it is possible to get them up this early. No, they may not wake up this early at home w/o threats from Bob Tebow.

I watched yesterday as Jonny Blount shared the gospel with multiple schools including one with only a handful of kids. It was sweet to see him share with a small school of 30 kids with the little ones gathered around his bigness under a tree. All the little Filipino eyes peered up at him as he shared the life-giving message of the gospel.

Students are amazed and amazing and we are ready for another great day.

Update!

We had an absolutely incredible first day. Amazing. Our team from Highview preached to over 3,000 people in one day with most of the Filipinos indicating they put their trust in Christ. Amazing. Every person in our group did a great job and we are all learning how to more effectively share the good news. The group going to the orphanage will leave Friday. Those not going will have a fun weekend here in Laoago City. You should be proud of your person on this trip. Many are going far outside their comfort zone and are growing tremendously in their ability to understand and communicate the gospel.

Here is a link to a picture and video gallery for the trip. I’ll try to update as often as possible.

Skype

If you have Skype on your computer (it’s free), you can add me, Dustin, as a contact – skype name “dustinschadt” w/ no quotes). I’ll be on periodically between 4am and 9am.

Everything is going great. The crew is looking forward to much needed sleep and we are ready for a great day tomorrow.

Working Hard

As you can see in the Twitter updates on the right, the team has hit the ground running.  They are already meeting with school superintendents to plan out the week.  Pray for energy for the team.  Thirty-six hours of travel is exhausting!