Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Metro Manila, Philippines
We arrived in Manila Wednesday night after an
uneventful flight from Cincinnati. Senior pastor David Dobson along with his wife
Denise met us at the airport and took us to our hotel.
A day is missing because we crossed the International Date Line yesterday on our flight. We arrived Wednesday night to Manila. So, today is already Thursday morning. I seem to always have something to do, read, write, answer and I did all those things this AM. Darris texted us about having breakfast at 9 am. We have really enjoyed being with the McNeely’s on this trip as we have very similar purposes on this trip as well as other aspects of the Work of the Church.
About noon we left for United Church of God’s Philippine office in Makati, the business district of Manila.
We spent much of this afternoon with the Dobson’s
and Richard Macaraeg, our Philippines Office Manager. The office is located in the Makati district
of Manila. We also spent time with Stella Cambare who works as the Church’s
accountant at the office. It was so good
to see all the things that they do and discuss details about Beyond Today media in our magazine,
Internet and video.
Richard is very knowledgeable about many media aspects,
particularly video editing and Internet management.
Above the office the Church maintains an apartment
where Dave and Denise Dobson stay on their 3-4 visits a year. They are doing a
great job in overseeing our Work in the Philippines and both are highly
regarded by the Filipino brethren. We
went up there to see the small two-bedroom apartment that was adequate for
short stays. Actually, it looked like it would be an interesting and enjoyable
experience to be assigned here for a period and live one floor above where your
work is, although when the Dobson’s come here, they travel a lot through the
vastness of the Philippine Islands. The
Dobson’s are so positive about this assignment.They actually live in Alaska….quite
a contrast of locales.
We discussed our Kingdom of God seminar in Quezon City. We are hoping for a good response from our
500 plus subscribers to the Beyond Today
magazine in the Manila area. In the entire country, almost 3000 people receive
the Beyond Today magazine.
The week-long Pastor’s Development Program starts
Monday. 41 elders and leaders are
scheduled to come from all over the Philippines, Malaysia and Myanmar for the
event, the first of it’s kind in years. It will certainly be a time for a lot
of learning and getting to know one another through the week.
Events like this are so helpful for developing and
sharpening the skills of our ministry in helping them care for our brethren in
their congregations. Senior pastor David Dobson and his wife Denise will help
with presentations. Former Philippines senior
pastor Earl Roemer will also be with us.
We went back downstairs and did more talking with Richard
Macaraeg and Stella Cambare. We talked about future Kingdom of God seminars,
improving our communication with our subscribers to engage them more. I told
them about some of the advances that we are doing with our own member
development process and offered the help of our team.
We talked some more about various things connected with UCG
and UCG Philippines. We then decided to
go for lunch and decided to go to the Mall of Asia not far away. It is supposed to be the largest mall in Asia….it
was huge! It extended over a few
blocks. We went to a restaurant called “Abe”
which means “friend.” Our group of eight
really had fun and good meal as Stella ordered several dishes that we shared
with our bowl of rice.
From there we went back to our hotel. Great day becoming immersed in UCG
Philippines with the senior pastor, office manager and accountant. More to come!
Nancy Jorgensen
2019-12-20
Beautiful work. God Bless!
ESTHER ZORNES
2019-12-20
Esther Zornes Enjoyed the pictures. Wonderful seeing the staff and thoes that are called.