DAY 11 – UP HIGH IN HIMAMALAYAN AND THEN BACK THROUGH BACOLOD

The 8am convoy of vehicles left La Carlota and passed by Pastor Norman’s house to say final goodbyes to the main pastor in charge of this 60,000 strong city.

There are a number of times on this trip when Pastor Gary, after speaking to local pastors, has identified needs that we have been able to contribute towards with funds raised in Australia or donated by people in Australia. We had this opportunity in La Carlota again this morning and the joy and happiness that radiates from the people who receive these financial donations is simply amazing.

It is also contagious.

You want to help them because you realise that the amount that you or I spend on a night out at the movies could sustain an intern pastor for three months or rebuild a school library ravaged by flood waters.
With teary farewells we took off for the two hour journey from the centre of the island to the large city of Himamalayan (pronounced ‘Hey Mum! A Lion!)

Arriving at the Mayor’s office at 10.15am and the game scheduled to begin at 10am meant that we were whisked through the normal formalities and hustled into some government 4WD’s to be sped to the game. This took away somewhat from the motorcade that the Mayor had set up for us, complete with 24 red-and-blue motorcyclists accompanying us and a Brazilian conga band beating drums on the back of a flatbed truck!

We arrived to hear speeches from the Mayor again and Tito Doden (aka. Mr Basketball, because of his numerous contacts in the world of basketball) as the children from the neighbouring school filed into the grandstand.

As the game was delayed significantly, it was decided that two 12-minute halves would be played rather a full 48 minutes and this brought the game down to style more than substance as the accompanying acts outshone the main performance.

The quick start with barely a warmup shocked the Aussie team and they trailed 17-6 before Giles Creelman (who shared his testimony in front of the noisy school crowd) and Danny Cook came off the bench to steady the scoring and tie the game at the interval. The second half saw a lot of ministry work being down by the players and the game finally ending with a 54-53 Sports Ambassadors win.

The celebrity status attributed to the players was kept in check by Pastor Gary Visitacion who again whisked the players into the 4WD’s and off to lunch with the Mayor.

After lunch the group continued on in the government vehicles for a further hour to our destination for the evening – Bacolod.

This large city is the former home of Pastor Gary Visitacion and he played the ultimate host‘s role in the late afternoon, taking us to visit the Ikthus Church of Bacolod where Pastor Joe met the players and informed us of the work they were doing in helping families recover from the Cagyan de Oro floods which devastated the region at Christmas.

One pastor we spoke to on the phone was helping his local congregation rebuild their houses after losing his fiancée in the floods. He had lost his own house, was supporting 72 families who had lost theirs and stated that he refuses to leave the area because ‘this is where God wants me’. Our final donation on the trip was made here to this pastor over the phone who replied that his ‘soul was uplifted’ by this news.

Gary then took us on to the birthday party of his well-known mother, Ivy Visitacion, a respected print and radio journalist in Bacolod. The party was held in a palatial house with newspaper photographers and the presence of the city’s gentry creating a stark contrast to the unshaven Australians who sat in the corner of the marbled lounge rooms sipping Coca-Cola and nudging each other regularly!

It was a great evening in which Mr Basketball entertained the Aussie troops with NBA tales and his coaching exploits while owning a PBA franchise earlier in his life.

With the photos expected in the press in the next few days, we can only but wonder whether our international presence was a highlight for the well-known Bacolodians or some unwanted invitees who had crashed a high-brow party and ate the caviar thinking they were Pascal lollies!

We leave Bacolod on the 1050 flight tomorrow for Manila and play the Cainta Junction Selection team at 4pm.