Pastor Stephen DeFor of Austin Church of Christ, left, poses with Nigel Pyle, a New Zealander who helped start the Bible College in the Philippines. Pyle graduated from Minnesota Bible College in Rochester, Minn., in the 1980s. -- Photo provided

By Pastor Stephen DeFor, Austin Church of Christ

Guest column

Thank you for praying for me on my recent mission trip to Cebu City, Philippines. All the flights went well and the whole trip was very good. It was very hot and muggy for me coming from our climate.

Depicted are some of the students at Central Philippines Bible College, where Pastor Stephen DeFor of Austin Church of Christ recently visited. He said they are enthusiastic, love to sing and love the Lord.

I taught and preached at the Central Philippines Bible College in Cebu. The college is 10 years old, and I helped them celebrate with a weeklong conference that brought together former and present students. It was great to be with students eager to learn, who love to sing and praise God.

One thing I thought about was the churches all over the world worshiping God all day on every Sunday. Cebu is 14 hours ahead of Austin so we came together there early to participate in worship and the Lord’s Supper. The Philippines is one of the first places in the world to start their Sunday services. After them, brothers and sisters in Christ in succession in China, India, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and then South and North America come together to worship God, sometimes with the same songs and certainly the same scriptures. We are part of a vast family of believers all over the world, something we sometimes forget being in the U.S.

Cebu is part of a complex of cities of 3.5 million people, and when we were driving from place to place it seemed like all of them were on the streets. There were cars, trucks, hundreds of motorcycles, and Jeepneys, a van-like vehicle. Add to this people crossing the streets all the time and driving or riding in a car was an adventure. The city had a lot of churches of different kinds, from large cathedrals to many storefront churches, Buddhist and Taoist temples, and I saw one Mosque. They are definitely a very religious people.

One of the things I had fun with was giving out nickels. I brought 100 nickels with me, and give them out and asked the people to pray for the kids in the U.S. when they saw it. They were eager to do that. I brought back about 100 pesos and am giving them out here, asking the people to pray for the children in the Philippines. People here have been just as willing to do that.

It was a tiring but fulfilling trip. Thanks again for your prayers.