Tanjay drag race

Sunday July 21, 2013

Today is our 29th wedding anniversary and we are in Dumaguete, Philippines.  We attended church in the Dumaguete 2nd Branch and were warmly welcomed.  We visited with the young missionaries there and were so impressed with them and their enthusiasm even though they are less fortunate than other missionaries.  The Cebu mission has two couples but not one is in Dumaguete so the Zone leaders have to do the things that 6 senior couples do here in Bacolod Mission. They have to find the missionaries apartments, appliances and teach them all the procedures when the missionaries arrive.  Saturday, the day before, two new sisters arrived to Dumaguete.  They have the same trainer. The zone leader had found them an apartment, but they did not have a refrigerator or a cook top.  During church one of the members offered a fridge and they were going to take it to the sister's apartment after church.

There was one elder there and he did not have a companion with him so we asked him about it.  He said he had two young men as his companions that Sunday because his companion had to go to the small island of Sequijor, where there is only a group of members.  The first time we heard about Sequijor we were told they had 7 members of the church there. A month later we learned that they now have 15 members attending and many investigators.  But in order to take care of the Sacrament one of the Zone leaders has to go to the island to be the second priesthood holder to officiate.  The Cebu Mission also had twenty sisters arrive last week and the president had to extend two sisters time for another six weeks to help with training and all the training sisters have two brand new companions to train at once.

The best part of this day thought came in the afternoon.  We were to meet with President Calumpang of the Tanjay District to train on PEF at 4:00p.m. We left Dumaguete for the 45 minute drive with time to spare, thankfully.  We got to Tanjay and were directed to a detour.  We knew we were  not far from the church and were hoping we did not pass it.  When we got to the other side of the detour we were told we could not go the way we needed to go and would have to take another detour. The other detour took us back to the first detour.  What to do? We parked the car and text the President to tell him we were walking to the chapel.  The entire city of Tanjay were lining the streets to watch motorcycle drag racing  down the national highway.  The highway is just a two lane road and the community were lined up and down both sides of the street.  We walked about a half a mile through the crowd of people to get to the church.  I am not sure you can imagine we were the only white people around and to stand out even more, we were in Sunday dress, me in a dress, Dan in a white shirt and tie. Everyone we passed said, "good afternoon".  We were walking at a good clip to get to our meeting on time and as we would pass a group of people everyone would stare and giggle at us as we snaked our way through the crowd toward the building.  When  we finally arrived the president was so thrilled that we overcame the obstacle to meet with him.  We had a lovely training and the District president already has a couple in mind to serve as PEF church service missionaries.  We were so excited. 

After the meeting was over we had to again walk back to our car. This is when we actually saw the racing.  The race is one bike going as fast as it can through the crowds (who are standing on the pavement along both sides of the highway).  I think they must go by time as they have one cyclist at a time drive down the street.  Talk about being a peculiar people.  We stood out so very much as we walked through the crowds back to our car, not so fast this time. I stopped to talk to each of the children and  some of the teenagers as we made our way to the car.  Everyone also called out "good afternoon"  as we approached and then they would chuckle and comment about how beautiful I was, being the only white woman.  I just think it is so funny that just my skin color and lack of black hair makes me beautiful even though I am old enough to be most of the spectators grandmother.

I guess this would be the true missionary experience in the Philippines as the young missionaries have to walk or take tricycles where ever they go.  We are so fortunate to have a car and normally drive to every location.  I have to say the young missionaries are so faithful and energetic and a real blessing in our lives here as they fill a large void as I miss my family so very much. I know though that I am changing the lives of young people each day with our PEF assignment and I feel so blessed to be able to serve during this time in my life.