Well, it's hard to believe but our week in the Philippines is up! It has been a whirlwind to say the least. We visited all seven locations, met with barangay (the city government officials) officials in six of them, met with the pastors in each and arranged hotels, ground transportation and MANY other details.

The good news is that everyone here is excited about the Sports Outreach. That "everyone" includes the unsaved, unchurched government and basketball officials! More good news is that our original budget will be able to cover everything based on a worse case scenario.

Everyone who supports missions, missionaries and those who assist them by taking trip to visit them, should begin supporting the Macedonian Logistics and Travel ministry headed by Jack Story. He has been worth more than his weight in gold to this effort. He has already saved up hundreds of dollars and has arranged for all the details (with negotiated discounts) for the trip. He has insured that there should be few or no surprises during our trip.

By being here we have come across some wonderful opportunities for the group we never could have found online on the other side of the world. I even paid a visit to the U.S. Embassy today and the Cultural Affairs Officer met with me and offered to assist us in any way he can. I'm not going to mention all the things because I want the team to be surprised. You will hear more later.

I have to stop now because it is time to get everything together to leave for my 27-28 hour trip home. Thanks for your prayers!!

Oh yeah, speaking of prayers please pray that airfare will drop sometime in the next couple of weeks. It is currently running about $250.00 per ticket more than it normally does. THANKS!!

It is now Monday evening and we arrived in Manila late Friday night. I have been to a couple of internet cafes, but not for long enough to do anything other than email.

Things have gone well for the most part so far. It is amazing how much I don't remember about being here that comes back to me as time goes on. This being my third trip here I am beginning to recognize more places and have my bearings much better. I never thought I would say that about a country other than the United States.

We, Jack Story from Macedonian Logistics and Travel and I, have really accomplished a LOT! There have been several occasions when we have said to each other how necessary this trip was in making plans for the Sports Outreach trip. You can't book hotel rooms and negotiate pricing in Caloocan online. Priceline doesn't list those. You also can't talk to the local basketball league coordinator when he only has a cell phone and no email.

I was encourage from the very first meeting we had with a basketball league official. We were at Vista De Lago in Taguig. This man is not a believer, but at the end of our conversation he said, "This is a very good thing you are doing." I counted that as verification that we are doing the right thing.

In Muntinglupa, a very small village that is basically on the grounds of a prison (no it would not pass U.S. inspection), as I stood in the living room of the very modest home of the government official in charge of the basketball court and team (they only have one) you could see on his face and the faces of his wife and daughters a look of amazment that a team from America would come to their village. When our conversation began he asked me, "You are going to come to this court and play?" It seemed to lift his spirits that his village had been counted as "worthy" of such an "honor."

We have a FULL day of travel and planning tomorrow. We will leave here (Bulacan) at 4:00 a.m. We will drive to Pangasinan (abour 4 hours). We will meeting with the officials and church family and have lunch with them. It will then be back in the car (a story in and of itself) and head back this direction. There is be a stop in Angeles City to try and arrange an event there. Then back to Bulacan where we hopefully will be back by 10:00 p.m.

To be continued...