I made it to the Philippines finally! I know it’s taken a couple of days to get these posted, but I will try and catch up soon to try and get in a few stories from the last couple of days. But the good news is that after nearly 30 hours of transport, I finally grabbed my checked bag and made my way through customs. Now I was headed to the jungle that is public transportation in the Philippines. I was immediately flooded with vendors trying to get my business and all offering outrageous prices. I finally made eye contact with a taxi driver that drove past, so I flagged him down and escaped the flood.
Since it was a little after 1 AM local time, I was just ready to take the first reasonable price I heard. My driver named his price, and without even an attempt at bargaining, I was sold. I may could’ve gotten a better price, but I wasn’t 100% sure where I was going and neither was my driver, so I settled. It ended up being a good enough decision.
My driver’s name was Rollie and he was excited to have someone with him. He was a little shy to talk to me in english at first, but I could tell her wanted to talk. As soon as I asked him about his family, that was all that I needed. I heard all about his little seven year old girl and how she was his world. He told me all about her schooling and how he had taken jobs driving in several different countries to provide for her. He also told me about his wife and how their family was very much in love.
In the midst of a country where fathers may be abundant but daddies are hard to find, it was refreshing to hear from Rollie. He told me how important his family was and I asked him what else was important to him. Rollie told me that nothing compared to his family and nothing else held that much importance. After about 20 minutes of family talk, he turned the conversation to me. “What is important to you?” I couldn’t help what came out.
I told him about my family and how valuable they are to me. Then I told him about the work I’ve done in the Philippines and how important to Filipino people are to me. Finally, I told him testimony and told him how everything else paled in comparison to how important the Gospel was for me. It’s the reason I’m here. It’s the reason I left the States. And it’s the reason I even talk to people.
He then told me a little about his Catholic faith. I don’t want to come across in a bad light for this comment, but Catholicism in the Philippines is not anything like the Catholic faith. We talked through some of his traditions and why he does what he does. We finally talked about works based faith and how it stacks up to the Gospel of Jesus. I’d like to say we came to a conclusion when we pulled up to my stop, but I’ve been learning that’s not always the way it works. I told him about the few churches I knew and respected in Manila, and grabbed my bags to leave.
I asked to pray with him, but he told me he had to get back out to the road. It would be nice to hear from him again. But if I don’t, I’ll trust God has a plan…
