Asia Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary near Manila

It may take a few blogs to cover our recent Philippine trip.  These blogs may not necessarily be in chronological order.  Our last 2 days were in the Manila area at our Nazarene Seminary (APNTS).  We met our good freind Wei Mi Ja who had a large part in getting us to KNU (pictures 1 and 2).  She worked in the international office there before transferring to APNTS to advance her degree and prepare for missionary work.  We had a great time sharing stories and coffee together in her apartment on campus.  Phuong and Mi Ja are also very good freinds.  We miss her sooooo much in the KNU office.
APNTS has about 130 students, although I don't remember the exact numbers.
 
We also met the first woman Philippino ordained in the Nazarene Church, Rica Valenzuela (picture 3).  We were both ordained by Orville Jenkins so we bonded quite quickly--Ha.  She preached in chapel and is an excellent speaker and has traveled around the world 3 times sharing the gospel message.  She has a great story about how God has directed her life through these years.  She and her husband have started 3 Philippine churches in California.  It was an honor to meet and visit with her.

It was also our privilege to meet a Work and Witness Team from our Southwest Indiana district (picture 4 and 5).  They were working on the new chapel.  It is hoped that with 20 teams participating in the project, the chapel can be completed over the next several months.  These teams are always a great blessings to our mission work around the world.  Bonnie and I have been on a couple of these and it is one of the best tools the church has to advance the churches work especially in developing countries.
 
We spent the afternoon touring a nearby cave with the Metro Manila District Superintendent (last picture).  Since the electricity did not work, we all received flashlights and ventured into the darkness.  It took about 30-45 minutes to walk through it.  In some places you had to stoop almost to your knees to get through  narrow openings and turn 2 corners in that position before entering  huge rooms.  It was very humid and the flashlights did not reach out very far so the whole experience was a little uncomfortable but exciting.  Only a small part of the cave is safe enough to visit.  I am sure it is very large. I would compare it to going through Mammoth Caverns with a flashlight!  It was good to see sunlight again!