Grace and Missions

Setting the Scene

I had a budget of $800 a month and enough immediate cash to purchase plane tickets for my family. I contacted Jim Curtis an AG missionary located in Manila who had lived in Leyte and built a few churches in there for AG trained pastors. We spent a night at his house prior to leaving for Tacloban City. In Tacloban he had leased a second home in a development on the outskirts of the city. Initially we lived in this home for $100 a month until we rented a home a few blocks away. When we moved Cora left and we added another Yaya, her name is LynLyn. She would eventually attend Zion Bible Institute and marry Pastor David Pica. I have worked with David and Lyn on several occasions in the early 2000’s and in 2016.

After placing our suitcases into the mission home in Tacloban we left to go to Sagkahan and bring Michael to our new home. He would meet his mother and brother and sister for the first time. He was 9 years old, malnourished and a typical little Filipino kid at home in the barangay. Initially our days were busy settling in, purchasing bunk beds for the boys, and a bed for Trinity. Our first Yaya or (helper) was Cora. She worked for the Curtis’ and lived in a small room separate from the house at the back of the lot. Within a month we added a helper named Ining who walked the kids to school and helped Nympha with the cooking. After we

My first friend in Tacloban ‘James Balista’ had been Jim’s traveling partner and was on Jim’s payroll. James and I are still friends. James drove me around in an old green van that was used for transporting the Bible college students at Zion Bible Institute. ZBI was originally founded on the island of Samar by Pastor Levis Montes. Levis and his family immigrated to the U.S.; at the time of this writing they have been living in California for over thirty years.

I was awaiting my tax return to purchase a jeepnee like passenger vehicle. In the meantime, James had an old Suzuki 80 leaning against a banana tree that was not running. James had a larger 80’s style dirt bike that he rode. I took the Suzuki downtown and managed to get it running. Each evening I would drive into the Tacloban market to purchase our evening meal and daily food. One day I took my entire family, all five us, on the Suzuki across the San Jaunico bridge to Samar; just a little family sightseeing jaunt.

With the help of James’ brother Gunder we rented a large room at Leyte College and began holding church services. For our services at Leyte College we used a ‘minus one sing along karaoke machine’ - small PA with a cassette tape player and microphone plug ins. During the week I use the minus one machine for holding evangelistic meetings in the Barangays that surrounded the City. First, I went to the local hardware store ran by Robert Yao to purchase a hundred feet of Romex cable with plug ends for a lengthy extension cord. Barangays usually had a community meeting place where we could set up and have singers and seating for people. We had to arrange our events with the local Barangay captains. These were outreaches to the poorest people in the city. They were our first church attendees aside from the small group of college youth Gunder had been teaching.

This was the beginning of Living Word Christian Center in Tacloban City. When I left, I asked Levis to become the pastor and he bought land and put up a building. The church grew into three separate locations with others to serve as the pastor because people could not afford the cost of traveling from the far side of the city.

I enjoyed preaching at LWCC. I worked with various persons as my interpreters; James Balista, Gunder Balista, Levis Montes, and a Foursquare pastor named Jessie. After the church in Tacloban was doing well, I began traveling throughout Leyte, Biliran Island and over to Cebu to preach in churches and bible schools. Initially James was my traveling partner. Rolito Cruz also made a few trips with me. After a few months I began traveling alone in order to keep the schedule I had made to preach in churches that had been established by graduates of Zion in Leyte and of IBC (Immanuel Bible College) in Cebu.