Brownsville, Texas

We've had a blast here at Brownsville. We met some old friends, and made new ones too...

Friday 7pm - We played at First Baptist Church. There were a lot of Filipinos at the "concert."  It was fun to play a long set, which we've haven't done in a long time.

Saturday night - we joined a Filipino community Bible Study. There were Filipinos from  different churches here in Brownsville & it was fun talking to them. We were surprised because a lot of them spoke or understood Cebuano, so it was fun.

Sunday - we played at First Baptist Church during their morning worship. After the service, the band and about 30-35 Filipinos went to a buffet restaurant and had lunch there. I guess the owner was happy  :)

Anyway, continue to pray for us. We're going back to Jacksonville on Thursday to play in a few more churches there. God bless!

Travel

... about 4am early. We had to leave for Jax airport at 4am coz our flight is at 6am. we had an uneventful trip (Jax - Nashville - San Antonio).

When we arrived, there was Ken & DJ waiting for us. It was great to connect with friends we don't see all the time. For the basketball guys out there, we went to see AT&T Center, home of the San Antonio Spurs. Then the 5-hour drive that followed, as you can guess, we were all sleeping (try waking up at 3am) most of the way.

When we got to the Soria's house, waiting for us was TINOLANG ISDA, SINUGBA, AND KINILAW! Yahoo! Oh how we missed them. Thank you uncle Glen for preparing that...

We miss you guys. Pictures & a video were just posted so check them out. Send us some more pics too, pls, esp from Quest...

adousa.multiply.com

Too Long...

Im so sorry guys for not being able to post the last few days. I will try to remember as much as i can  :)

We were in Jacksonville, Florida for 8 days but we all stayed in 3 different houses. The guys stayed at Aaron Tison's home (some of you guys may know him), the Cagases stayed at the Newmans, and the Tilkas (minus Kuya Les) with the Kays. Kuya Les had to go back to Cebu for 4 weeks to attend to church and office stuff, so we will try to manage the next 4 week without our leader. hehehe....

Wed - we attended a Communion Service @ First Baptist Church in Jax. FYI, it is a HUGE church, not just building-wise, but member-wise too. It was a great service, remembering Christ's death & resurrection since it was Good Week.

Sunday - we attended Access Church, a strategic partner of North Point in Jax. They were so happy to hear that we were partners with NPCC in the Phil. They are doing pretty much the same things Quest is doing so everyone there be encouraged, we are going in the right direction.  Then in the afternoon, we went to Stefanie Dinsbeer's house, remember her?

Monday - we visited CLF main headquarters. We got to meet Patti, Carl, & Jack Cummings (boss ni Kuya Les :)    Then they took us to Wasabi, a buffet Japanese/Chinese restaurant. KAON NA SAD! hahaha

Then that night we said our thanks and goodbyes to our host homes because we will be leaving early on Tuesday to fly out to San Antonio, Texas... 

South Pointe Fellowship (& Florida)

Last Sunday, we played at South Pointe Fellowship (Pageland, South Carolina) during their morning worship. Most of you know Gary Pierce, he is now the Worship Pastor and the Student Pastor for South Pointe. We had a great time there. It is a growing church. Morgan and Vaida (& her dad) were there too to "support" us! Thanks gurlz.

After the service, we had to hit the road again because Florida was about 5-6 hours of driving. So we needed to leave early to get there for a dinner meeting with friends from that area. Praise God for the safe travel. We got there about 7:30pm and we meet the folks at Cracker Barrel. For those who know what I'm talking about, the guys had a blast trying to solve the "Peg." We got to meet Lee (Les' brother) & Katie, Aaron Tison, the Newman's, and others too. It is warmer here than North Carolina, so it's pretty cool!

We are staying with the Newmans, the guys at Aaron's, and the Tilkas at the Kay's. This afternoon, Les "left" us to go back to Cebu for 4 weeks. Pls pray for his safe travel.

We miss you all and pls continue to pray for us.

FYI - in case u missed it, here is the new link to the latest pictures: http://adousa.multiply.com

Washington, DC

Wednesday - We left the hotel @ Virginia & drove 4 hours to Washington, DC (the US Capital). It was a very nerve-wracking experience (driving 75mph [120kph] in a 6-LANE Interstate Highway! And it's not like there wasn't any other cars, it was cars everywhere you turned! Thank God we didn't get into any accidents.

After settling in the hotel, which is actually in Maryland (another state w/c is pretty close), we rode the Metro (subway station) to the center of Washington, DC. We went into the Museum of Natural History & we had a blast. "Dinosaurs," "Mammals," "Gems," etc. It was all in there. And we got to see the Capitol, the Washington Monument, & a lot more places we only saw on TV & the movies. We were all blown away!

We had dinner @ a Mexican restaurant with Les & Saralee's college friend who now lives in DC. By the way, there are a lot of honking and crazy here in DC, too (murag Cebu).

Thursday - We went on a tour around Washington (our tour guide's name was Jimmy, pretty cool guy). We got to see a lot more historical & famous places. I can't write everything so i'll let the pics speak for themselves. Some of the places we visited: Arlington Park, Lincoln  Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Printing & Engraving (where they "make money," literally), and of course, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave (WHITE HOUSE)!

IMPORTANT: the old link was starting to get full so i made another multiply link to put the rest of the pics. its - adousa.multiply.com

BGEA, WorldHelp, LU

Sorry for the long layoff from posting, we have just been on-the-go the last few days. Anyway, here are the latest events (or as far as i remember them).

Tuesday - After playing at Samaritan's Purse devos on Monday, we got invited to play at Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) staff devos for Tue. But since we were about 2 hours away, we had to leave at 4:30am, yup you read that right, 4:30am from Newland. Praise God we got there safely. It was great and people came to us and asked us a lot about our ministry. But then, we had to leave ASAP because we had a lunch meeting. So after the devos (9am), we stopped to eat for a few mins, then drove fast to Virginia (about 3.5 hrs away).

We went to WorldHelp Main Offices (Lynchburg) to meet with Vernon Brewer (President of WH) and we got a tour too. Then Kuya Les & Ate Sara took us on a tour through Liberty University, the largest Christian school in the USA.  That's it for Tuesday...

Samaritan's Purse

... we woke up early because we are playing at the Samaritan's Purse Staff Devotions. They had great equipment so we did our best to do them justice. Shen gave a small talk about how OCC helped their church. By the way, Operation Christmas Child (OCC), the shoeboxes, is a branch of Samaritan's Purse.

Then we got to eat breakfast with Kirk Nowery & Gary Lundstrom (in Samaritan's Purse chain of command, they are number 2 & 3, only Franklin Graham is above them). So naturally, we were privileged to have eaten with them. Not to mention the food was GREAT, as always.

We are now resting for another big day tomorrow. We will be playing at Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) main headquarters, for their staff devotions. We have to leave here at 4:30AM, yup, 4:30AM tom. Then we ride up to.... hmmm.... i'll let you check the next post for that  :) 

Pray for us!

Sunday

Hello everybody. it is now 3:15 pm Monday 3/10 (by the way, there was a time shift here in USA, so Pinoys are only ahead by 12 hrs only, not 13hrs anymores, okies?)

Yesterday, we played  for 2 services at Mt Calvary Baptist Church in Banner Elk, NC. It went well. Matt gave his testimony. And we got to connect with the people from the church. Some of them are coming to the Philippines this June or July so pls pray for that too.

We had lunch at this Mexican restaurant, and PRAISE GOD! We got to eat fried TILAPIA, and i mean the real thing. All it lacked was some vinegar, soy sauce, and sili... hehehe

After lunch, the guys from the church invited the band to play basketball with them, so we did. It was probably the first time since we arrived in the States that we actually had sweat. so it was good.

When we got home, we were all ready to dive in the bed and zzzzzzz..... also, because of the time shift, it was weird because when it was 8pm, there was still SUNLIGHT!

So we rested and on the next day..

SNOW DAY

Today is Sunday 5:54am (we just moved an hour for Daylight Savings Time) preparing for Sunday Service.

Yesterday, we had a very...brrrrrr.... COLD day! It started out with us hauling & chopping firewood in the house. Then we headed out to Blowing Rock, NC (which is a tourist attraction here). On our way we passed thru MAST STORE, built in the 1800's. So as you can imagine, floors are creaking everywhere  :)    That's when the snow started to really fall.

At Blowing Rock, the guys played in the falling snow (with the wind gusts hitting us straight in the faces), throwing snow balls, & visiting some stores. Some of our friends came to visit us & so we had more time to play... On our way to sound check at the church, we stopped at another church and sled in the snow. It was an adrenaline-filled experience. Not to mention really cold...

For those that can relate, the high yesterday was 4 degrees Celsius (39F). That is not typo, 4C was the high... and because we are used to 90F (32C) weather, you really feel for us... brrrrr.  BUT, we had a great, great time. Lots of pictures. And did I mention it was cold? :)

some pics will be from the Linville Caverns we visited last Thursday. it was cold (again), and very wet. i will let the pics speak for themselves... hehehe

Pray for our ministry today. We'll be playing in 2 morning services.

link - melshenvjynz.multiply.com

Prison Ministry

We went to Avery-Mitchell Correctional Institution last Thursday and sang to about a hundred inmates. This has been one of the most impacting ministry events we've done so far! At first we were all scared (because as you know, these guys are in there for a reason). But just seeing the inmates listen to the music & the Word, and to see them smile, it was a blast! After the presentation, most of them approached us and talked to us, and some of them were teary-eyed while talking to us. Matt gave his testimony & it was great. He even prayed with a guy after the presentation. Too bad cameras weren't allowed inside. There was even a Fil-Am inmate we got to talk to.

For a study in contrast, their kitchen was almost like a student cafeteria (i think it was cleaner than most restaurants in Cebu, seriously). The "cells" (if you want to call them that, it was more like rooms) had their own bathrooms  :)  And security was SUPER STRICT! and many more...

Our next ministry is Sunday at Mt. Calvary Baptist Church, Banner Elk, NC. Pls continue to pray for us...

As usual more pics & videos at melshenvjynz.multiply.com

Walnut Grove (& misc)

We just finished ministering to Walnut Grove Presbyterian Church. It was a small church of about 40-50 people but it had a very warm atmosphere. Very nice people.

Yesterday, was sort of a rest day for us. We did laundry and went to the store to get some pants for the guys. Very cheap (second-hand stuff). Then we did some packing for our BalikBayan boxes (oy, ngisi dayon mga taga-Cebu)!

Then this morning, a couple of the guys went to ship the boxes out and the others hauled firewood for the house. Also, this morning something funny happened. FYI, the four "single" guys are staying in another house. Someone saw them going to this house, and because our guys were not familiar, CALLED THE POLICE! A policeman showed up at their door (and the owner was not there yet), and Eph had to do some explaining.. hehehehe... he was so nervous he didn't get a picture with the officer.

Pls continue to pray for us. we will be playing inside a prison tom. pls pray that the inmates will be touched by the songs.

more pics will be posted, as soon as i see more comments...  hehehehe

Back at Poppy & Mimi's

We are now back at the Tilka's house (in the mountains). This morning we went to Biltmore House, the biggest house in America. You can check it out at biltmore.com.

We had a great time at Tri-City last Saturday when we played during their International Banquet. We played for 45 minutes and everyone was impacted by the video we showed about Irene's story. Praise God for that!

Then Sunday, we played during the morning and evening services. We made a lot of new friends, as well as bonding with the old ones. It was a great experience. Pray with us that many people will be touched not just to give to missions, but also to be involved in a bigger way! till next time.