Adding to my fury is that one of our church families is suffering in stinking blackwater in Pasig City, while City Hall is being decorated for Satanic Halloween, a celebration toh which most Filipinos can truly say, “I don’t know and I don’t care.” Filipinos are well-known for being great copycats, but only of the worst of everything, instead of copying the best.

In February of 1953, a big storm hit the Netherlands which breached its famous but old system of dikes and levees, killing 1,800 people in the worst flooding in modern Dutch history. The Dutch learned their lesson, so they embarked on an $8 billion, 30-year program to strengthen its flood control system. The centerpieces of this engineering marvel are a 2.4-km system of gates along the North Sea and a massive storm surge barrier at the mouth of the Rhine River.

Even while still an engineering student (which was a few decades ago), I remember hearing proposals for flood control from the Dutch. Filipinos have to accept that floods are a natural occurrence in Metro Manila because it is mostly at or below sea level and the Pasig River that dissects the city always overflows. And the primary solution to the problem is an adequate flood control system; controlling trash and reforestation are only secondary.

Sixty percent of the Netherlands is below sea level, but this didn’t daunt this small resourceful people from thinking of ways to control annual flooding. They built dikes, dams, rain storage ponds, and windmill-powered pumps to move water from low areas to higher level areas. In fact, words like dike, dam, sluice – commonly-used today for flood-control – originated from Dutch words.

Decades ago, the Philippine government should have built infrastructure for 100-year flooding (i. e., the kind of flooding that happens once in 100 years): notably high dikes along the Pasig River and high sea walls along Manila Bay. In addition, they should buy extensive tracts of land in the higher portions of the metro area and the surrounding hills and make them storage ponds. These ponds would catch a huge amount of rainfall such as the 410 mm of “Ondoy” to prevent extensive flooding.

These projects might not completely control flooding, but it would surely prevent disastrous flooding such as the most recent one. If the Dutch could control flooding for 10,000 square miles of their country, why can’t the Philippines control flooding for a tiny 240 square miles of Metro Manila? London has its Thames River floodgates, Venice is building the same in the Adriatic, and Japan is building superlevees. Even such a poor country as Bangladesh has erected concrete shelters on stilts as emergency havens for flood victims. Did you read that, “honorable” president, cabinet members, senators and congressmen?

Why not stop squandering $20,000 for a dinner in New York and $1.3 million for a house in San Francisco? Why not use $40 million from ZTE kickbacks, $15 million from the fertilizer fund scam, and $6 million from the Jose Pidal money laundering scheme – to name a few– for flood control?

(Information for this article came from The New York Times article, “In Europe, High-Tech Flood Control, With Nature’s Help.”)

Ladies' fellowship at our home

ANTIPOLO, Rizal, Philippines: July 2009—Greetings from the Philippines, in the name of our only Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We hope that all’s well with you and your family and the various ministries in the church. Although we are in unsure and difficult days, I’m sure that everyone’s enjoying their mid-summer.

We’re in a mixed mode beginning this month. The Philippine schools have begun their new school year, but Rachel only started her “summer.” I’m teaching Homiletics at Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Cavite province. I’m also preparing a few classes to be taught at Mars Hill Study Center, but not sure if there will be interested interested students. I’ve also made contact with another school interested in using the study center for their research.

We continue to hold afternoon worship service on Sundays at the study center, with about 10-12 adults and eight children. I have resumed the series on Numbers (”The Pilgrim Church in the Wilderness”) after several Sundays preaching on 1 Peter. We will also resume our membership class study of the Heidelberg Catechism. So far, we have had 5 baptisms and 4 professions of faith, and we pray that the two adults and Rachel would persevere in their preparations for their professions. This week, I’m starting a Bible study for a family in Manila.

Children at church's "cry room"

Since the positive response I received in the publication of the Tagalog-English Version of the Westminster Confession of Faith, I have embarked on another endeavor: translating and printing booklets and articles that will be of benefit to Filipino pastors.

Because of the financial crunch during the last year, we rented a very small place to make ends meet. But we have found our house to be so small that life had been like living out of suitcases and boxes all over the house. We have found a modest, but roomier house, with additional rent of course.

So our immediate need is the two months’ advance for rent and deposit that the new landlady requires, a total of 40,000 pesos or about $850. We also have to do some “home improvement” projects ourselves.

Again, thank you for your interest in our work, and for your encouraging words and prayers. We hope this brief letter will help you visualize what we do in the Philippines, and to assure you that the Lord is with us in this distant part of our world.

Do send us a line. We too are interested in what God is doing in your life and in the church.

NOTE: Please make your checks payable to MEANS with the memo line saying “R1612 (FEURM)”. Mail them to MEANS’ address below.

We appreciate your continuing prayers and support of the Philippine mission.

Nollie & Evelyn Malabuyo
Email: dvopilgrim@gmail.com
Web: http://blog.twoagespilgrims.com

Mission: East Asian National Support (MEANS)
P. O. Box 8434, Bartlett, IL 60103 • 1-630-542-2168
Email: info@meansusa.org • http://www.meansusa.org/
Member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability since 2000.

Many visitors graced our retreat. A family came from 5 hours north of Manila, and another from about 2 hours to the south. Some members of our church family invited their friends to join us, some of them making the difficult 2-3-hour commute from the metro area.

Since it was our first retreat, and also the first time for many to visit this mountain city, we didn’t structure it too much, leaving more time for R&R and fellowship. But we did have three teaching sessions on 1 Peter 2-3 from Friday night till Saturday night, and a worship service this Sunday morning. The sermon was “Severe Penalty Against Covenant Disobedience” based on Exodus 4:18-26 and Acts 2:37-39.

But the most joyous part of the retreat were the professions of faith of three members and the baptism of all four of the children of one of the “professors.” For the first time, our whole covenant community witnessed God’s work among both adults and young children.

Tired but refreshed, the Lord sent us home with his blessing of grace, mercy and peace.

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When God’s people assemble together each Lord’s Day, they hear his wondrous works of creation and redemption, and glorify him alone in their songs, prayers and promises of thankful obedience. Because God alone is to be glorified in worship, our worship services are God-centered and based on these principles:

Worship must be Biblical. We may do that and only that in worship which is required explicitly or implicitly in God’s Word.

Worship must be historical. We believe that the ancient and Reformed worship liturgies that we follow in our worship services reflect patterns of worship in Scripture.

Worship must be both reverential and joyful. God is a God of order and splendor, and as such, he is to be worshiped with an attitude of reverence and joy.

Worship must be covenantal, dialogical and liturgical. Because our corporate worship service is also a renewal of our covenant with God, our worship service is ordered as a dialogue between God and His assembled people: God speaks to us, and we respond with prayer, singing, thanksgiving and vows.

This is why we have a well thought out liturgical order of service designed to reflect the above principles:

RCJ Building Room 305 (3rd Flr)
Ortigas Ave Ext cor Countryside Ave
Brgy Santa Lucia, Pasig City
Philippines
Tel. nos.: (02) 661-0653 • (0927) 863-6364
Email: dvopilgrimatgmaildotcom

How to get there:

From Cubao, Ayala, Megamall/Robinson’s/Crossing: Take any jeepney, bus, or FX taxi to Cainta, Taytay, Antipolo, Angono, Binangonan via Ortigas Ave Ext. Get off at corner of Ortigas Ave Ext and Countryside Ave right before Super 8 Center and Ever-Gotesco Mall. RCJ Bldg is on the right.

From Cainta, Taytay, Antipolo, Angono, Binangonan: Take any jeepney, bus, or FX taxi to Cainta, Taytay, Antipolo, Angono, Binangonan via Ortigas Ave Ext. Get off at corner of Ortigas Ave Ext and Countryside Ave right after Ever-Gotesco Mall and Super 8 Center. RCJ Bldg is on the left.

From Marikina: Take any jeepney or FX taxi to Cainta, Taytay, Antipolo, Angono, Binangonan via Ortigas Ave Ext. Get off at Junction (Imelda Ave cor Ortigas Ave Ext). Take another jeepney, bus, or FX taxi to Ayala, Megamall/Robinson’s/Crossing. Get off at corner of Ortigas Ave Ext and Countryside Ave right after Ever-Gotesco Mall and Super 8 Center. RCJ Bldg is on the left.