Calayan Mission Trip

Greetings from the Philippine Islands. Two weeks ago I had the privilege of visiting the only Assemblies of God Church in the Bayuyon Group of Islands situated off the northern coast of Luzon mainland and south of the Batanes Group of Islands. I will never forget this particular trip as long as I live. What was supposed to be a 5 hour ferry boat ride, took us over 24hrs! While in route to Calayan Island we were met by an unexpected storm with waves from both the Pacific and South China Sea reaching 6 to 7 feet high, both of which caused the ferry boat to nearly capsize, due to this many on board were being sick (including myself), the pilot decided to seek shelter in a near by Island (the one which we had come from), though it could about 2hrs to reach as the waves and the weather were pretty bad.

We had to spend one night on the ferry boat. The crew were kind enough to cook food for those of us without any food. We had a film show for the ferry passengers that night. The following morning the pilot attempted to cross the channel to Calayan Island only to be met by high waves again and so returned to the same Island we had come from. After an hour or so, the pilot went for a third attempted and thankfully we were able to cross before the bad weather closed in again.

Calayan Island is home to one of the newest type of birds to be found (the Calayan Rail bird). We spent a week ministering and encouraging the pastor and the church, conducting evening meetings as well as evangelistic film showing. The pastor and his family lived in a very small house with an amazing view of the sea. Pastor Paul must be one of the only AoG pastors whom I know who lives so remote and does not usually have the opportunity to fellowship with other ministers from his own group. However as a testimony he did mention that he was a part of a minister's association on the Island which was made up of pastors from various church denomination's.

This particular trip reminded me of one of Raynalyne's and my goals to help encourage and strengthen pastor's such as pastor Paul who live and serve the Lord in some of the remotest and neglected places.

Jonathan Winter
British AoG Missionary.