After Bukidnon’s 4-day festival celebration, I slept again at a pastor’s home in Valencia City after visiting and conducting a pastors meeting in Quezon, Bukidnon. After an overnight sleep and after a counseling session early morning, I proceeded to Camp Phillips (Del Monte) where our Cagayan de Oro Church pastor lives with his family. He works as an engineer for Del Monte. The place is really cold especially early in the morning. It’s a wonderful place for a retreat.

We attended the 3-day Cagayan de Oro festival the following day where some 230 brethren attended. The festival ended with 4 baptisms — 3 youths and 1 elderly lady. It was great to see the brethren again from the northern Mindanao local churches and outreaches.

My family and I lived in Cagayan de Oro for some 5 years as an assistant pastor and the brethren here are really close to my heart. Their love for me and my family is really something. Veejay entered kindergarten and grade school here. The people really love us here and it’s a great feeling to be among close friends and family. It was great to see them all again.

Last night while I was at Mergrande Ocean Resort (Davao City), my daughter (somewhat sobbing) called me up from home telling me that her Papa (my father-in-law, Henson Fen Santos) died already. A little later, my wife confirmed it. He was sick and he suffered greatly from cancer for several months. He is finally at rest and there’s no more pain for him. He was a man of God all the way — a man who always prayed to God even in his worst condition and in the midst of severe suffering and pain. He trusted God all the way. That’s how I will remember my father-in-law.

According to my mother-in-law, they are the 25th and 26th member of the original Worldwide Church of God - Manila congregation. They began attending church back in the 1960’s. He was an ordained elder of the Worldwide Church of God and for a while, he pastored (as a bivocational pastor) the Manila South Church and also the Sta. Rosa Church.

I’m still stuck here in a hotel in Davao City. I attended the festival celebrations of the WCG local congregations (Davao City Church, Tagum City, Church, Digos City Church and Kidapawan City Church) in this area. I hope to be back home soon to join my grieving family.

The photo above was taken last August 29 on his birthday. He was in pain when I took this photo but he managed to smile a bit. My wife and I along with my mother-in-law, brought him to Yellow Cab at Paseo de Sta. Rosa to celebrate his 77th birthday. He was already very sick and has already been to the hospital for kidney operation when we celebrated his birthday.

I thank God because he has helped us all the way through even as we all (in the family) went through these trying times recently. I think that we all have matured somewhat spiritually because of what we all went through in the family. Thanks be to the God of love we have learned lessons along the way.

I’m on a visit here in Bukidnon and it brought back memories when I was first assigned here as a ministerial trainee for one year sometime in 1986-87. My little daughter Veejay was still about 6 years old then. We used to fetch water for our needs at a nearby well. We had to boil the not-so-clear water first. Or else, you might get sick.

I guess we did experience some kind of “missionary life” in a very remote place deep in the heart of Mindanao when the roads were then very rough and dusty or muddy depending on the weather. We visited the brethren on foot to reach some of their homes, across farms, over hills and sometimes on shallow river and it was a difficult and trying time for me and my wife — city dwellers from Metro Manila. It looked to me like Veejay enjoyed it or she did not know the difference. She had no complaints. She was still young then. She has learned early in life how to be a missionary kid.

The people here are plain and simple — somewhat devoid of any hypocrisy or the looks of sophistication one easily finds in city dwellers. I love these simple, down-to-earth folks, our Bukidnon brethren. Their love and respect for me is quite amazing and it touches my heart each time.

Hello Everyone! I’m right now in Bukidnon. We just had our 4-day festival celebration for all 4 of our local churches here last October 23-26. We had 402 in attendance during the last day. It was great to see the Bukidnon brethren once again.