January 6, 2015
Journey to Cebu- Part One
Recently we were asked to travel two islands over to Cebu in the Central Philippines. Central Philippine Bible College was having its 13th Founders Day celebration which is a very special time for students, staff and the churches in the region.
Darryl was asked to present the main address or message and he chose to cover the theme with an approach focusing on our Restoration Movement of our Christian Churches/Churches of Christ. He spoke on the theme “In Times like these” we need to travel the Restoration Pathways and return to the Bible as our movement once did so faithfully. Even here on the foreign mission field we often underemphasize our Restoration Movement Principles of returning to what the scripture says in both teachings and practices as we strive to evangelize our world in the present time!
We traveled to Cebu by air from Iloilo airport. The plane was three hours late as a plane substitution for the day changed all the local flights of the airline we were on. Once on board the air bus took only 32 minutes to get to Cebu and land. It was a flight over several high mountain ranges and one could not but notice the rugged shape of the Island Mountains. They are very thick with jungle even though the population is over 100 million people. Some of our missionaries were born in these jungles during World War II and one can see they must have had a most difficult time of survival.
We were taken from the airport to our pension house where we were staying. It was comfortable and north of the major city of Cebu. The college is in the northern corridor of the major city and it is the second most populated city in the Philippines. Manila is the first of course. We had not been back to Cebu for a number of years and since Carol and I are co-founders of the Central Philippine Bible College we wanted to share with them again and especially see how they have grown. Darryl also wanted to share his vision for Returning to the Restoration Pathways of our church. As he often has said “There is no point in power point unless it points to the POWER!” Also there is a need to put the BIBLE back into “Bible College.” We like so many others in Christian Service have learned that so go the Bible colleges, so go the preachers, and so goes the church! This is true in our modern times especially when one has a danger of forgetting that a Bible College is for Bible Study and preparation to preach the Word of God throughout the world now and forever more!
Currently CPBC is meeting on the hills overlooking the city of Cebu. It is meeting at the David Livingstone Foundation complex that has provided its facilities for a nominal fee. At the same time land has been purchased and it is hoped to build a proper college, dorms, etc. as well as a K-12 Christian School along the “School of Tomorrow” guidelines. They already have the students and staff of the David Livingstone School attending their chapel services. It is a private school mainly for live in orphans and they are very pleased with having CBPC share their compound. As you look over the city from a vantage point above the college one can see the need of Jesus as you observe 50 story buildings and slums dwellers living side by side. The vision of the college continues to be to reach the “Lost Cities” in the Philippines with the message of Jesus and this is a very formidable task.
Nigel and Loida Pyle are the missionaries with this vision for CPBC and they have worked long and hard to bring it to this point even spending much of their own personal resources. Junior Navarates, our Timothy from Kalibo is now finishing his third year and is very well thought of by staff and students. He is a no nonsense type of person but still manages to have a good sense of humor. He guided us around some of the student facilities and introduced us to some of the students. All of the folk were in preparation for the big day on Wednesday when we would share in this wonderful moment of blessing and joy in the “Founders Day” program. We brought Noemi along and she plans to help her sisters and staff with cooking and student arrangements. So we look forward with abundant expectation to the day ahead. More in our next update!
Please pray for Central Philippine Bible College as it reaches out for Jesus to the “Lost Cities” of the Philippines with the message of salvation and hope!
Serving Christ here in the Philippines,
Darryl & Carol Krause
Pacific Rim Ministries
Forwarding Agent:
Mrs. Joanne McKenzie
Pacific Rim Ministries
P.O. Box 323
