Day 11

Well it’s our last day in Malaybalay today. Last night Steve, Paul, Stephen M and Brandon (building supervisor) played Basketball with a few local farmers and builders. It was a great time of fun and fellowship despite our very tired legs and their willingness to keep on playing; we were able to finish after 3 hours and share a coke or two with them.

This morning after another fantastic meal of pancakes from our fantastic Filipino cooks, David Johansen from New Tribes Mission took all of us for a motorbike expedition. Dave had brought along 5 motorbikes to take us to a remote village. It was a 20km trip off the main road to the village through mountain terrain and many river crossings.

This was an awesome opportunity as we were able to see and experience first hand what it is like for missionaries that work in this hard to access places. This trip even included riding the bikes over a suspension bridge with many gaps; this was scary even for the experienced riders amongst us.

After finally making it to the village we were greeted and asked to sign a very empty visitors book, many of the towns folk had not see white people in a long time so they were very weary at first. After a short break we said goodbye to the village and carefully proceeded back down the mountain during the afternoon rain.

This was a fantastic experience for all and we really enjoyed getting to know the local missionaries and finding out what their various roles and responsibilities are. Tomorrow will see us leave Malaybalay at 3am to drive back to Cagayan de Oro, to then fly back to Manila for some much needed rest and relaxation.

God Bless