Murrell Family ReportCebu City, PhilippinesVolume 5 - #9 – April 7, 2006Web site: www.BibleStudyCenter.netHowdy once again from the Philippines! We hope things are going well in your part of the world. Things here are very hot and very dry. The rainy season is definitely over and each time you are in an elevated spot in the city the view is masked by the haze from all the dust being stirred up by the thousands of vehicles plying the streets of the city! When you wipe your forehead with a handkerchief, it becomes blackened from all of the soot that the many diesel engines of “jeepneys” and taxis continually spew into the air. Sometimes we joke that we can get our daily dose of eighteen essential minerals by simply taking a brisk walk in the morning! Each night, we arrive home from the office to the acrid smell of burning leaves and grass that numerous neighbors bless us with, as they try to protect their children from deadly mosquito born viruses using the smoke from burning green leaves as a natural repellant. The Dry Season in the city IS NOT a good place to be for those with allergies or asthma! In the streets you can see some people attempting to protect themselves from all the dust by wearing masks, while others simply hold their cupped hand over their nose and mouth, as if that would make a difference. In the face of all of this we continue on in the work! Our final session of classes (Session 2 for 2006) at the current location of the Bible Study Center is almost over, with just one and a half weeks remaining and our search for a new location is proving to be… rather tough. We have found several places with good possibilities but nothing that yet fits our basic criteria. One of the more promising places we looked at is about a mile north of the main highway that runs through the middle and southern parts of the city. It is back inside among a large area of subdivisions and it is also near a small market area frequented by lots of people. However, the landlords are a big question mark! After we initially surveyed the place we designated Jon to be our "negotiator." (This was on a Saturday afternoon a few weeks back.) The caretaker of the place gave us the contact information of the owner and told us to call him the next day, Sunday, but that we should wait until the afternoon to call because the family would be in church the whole morning. (They are Catholic.) We were happy to learn that at least the family was religious. Jon made contact with the owners on that Sunday afternoon and he told the man of our desire to rent the space and what we wanted to do with it. (He seemed happy when he found out that we are a religious group.) Jon asked if we could possibly have a reduction in the price because of our fixed budget. The man was very accommodating and without hesitation took 10% off the top! Jon said that he was quite happy at that point. Then they began discussing the details of the contract and the man told Jon that each month he would give us TWO receipts; one for the actual amount we would pay to him and a SECOND that would reflect an amount equal to about 45% of what we would pay! Being puzzled, Jon inquired about the reason for the TWO receipts and he was told by the man that the smaller one would be for the Philippine Government… for tax purposes! The man continued to explain that it is somewhat “customary” in his line of business to underreport rental earnings to the Government in order to lessen the tax burden. When Jon asked if that was not “illegal”, the man just laughed, which is a common way people in this culture react when caught in a wrong. The man's justification was that “everyone is doing this” and then told Jon that IF we wanted the place with only ONE receipt then the original price would have to stand because he would need the extra money to “pay the taxes.” Of course, the irony of this was that the man had spent the whole morning “in church” with his family! We are somewhat hesitant to get that space because if the landlord is doing this sort of thing to his own government what guarantee do we have that he will not do something similar to us?
The place we are currently considering is by far the BEST one! It is a GREAT location! It is right on that major highway I mentioned earlier that runs through the middle and southern part of the city! In addition, right across the highway from this location is another road that is a major transportation artery for most traffic on the south side of the big highway. In short, about HALF of the public transportation in this city of three million people as well as all major transportation going South, out of the city, would pass within about 40 yards of our front door! In addition, it would be very easy to tell people where we are located because our office would be on the second floor right above a Pizza Hut restaurant! (If you are thinking that we are REALLY interested in the place because there is a Pizza Hut then you ought to be ashamed! [grin])
We have been very fortunate to have the assistance from many of our brethren of the Uptown congregation in scouting for and getting information about places for rent in the part of the city where we are looking to work. It is just another “neat thing” about having this great family of God! Our studies continue at the Center. We ended Session 1 and had a party for all of the Greek students who completed their TWO-YEAR JOURNEY! After receiving some really great help passing out fliers we began Session 2 for the year and we have a few new students taking our non-member courses and our member courses are going well too. However, we set a light schedule for this session so that we would have time to work on surveying and researching new locations. Classes are set to end in about a week and a half and then we will have another two weeks to pack up and vacate our current location. However, our current landlord is being very flexible and says we can extend our current stay month by month if necessary so that we can have an easier transition. Once again, please pray for our efforts in this matter.
The situation with Ping reminded me of the part in Jeremiah (Chapters 42-44) where he confronted the Israelites who fled to Egypt against the word of God. When he told the people to repent and turn back to God they replied that when they prayed to "the goddess of Egypt," rather than to God, they received good, but when they did not pray to her they did not and so they felt quite comfortable and protected by her there in Egypt. Not only did those people perish, but so did the Egyptians! Please pray for our efforts to continue reaching out to Ping. On the home front, we are fine. Sara and Amy are finishing up their school for this year and Shari and I are trying to get in better shape and drop a few extra pounds. We are excited about next week, which is the Catholics’ “Holy Week” here in the Philippines. It is a big vacation time in the country and most things shut down during Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Although we in the church do not celebrate Holy Week, the vacation time is traditionally used by the brethren to hold youth camps and family camps all over the country. Lord willing, we will attend a family camp in Negros next week, where the organizers are expecting somewhere around 400 participants! That will be pretty awesome! We appreciate so very much the opportunity to serve God here in Cebu City and want to continue to thank you all for your concern, prayers, and support. Please join us in asking God for success in our plans and for good health for us and for all the brethren here in the Philippines. We pray that God will be glorified by what we do! Love and Peace to all, Barry, Shari, Sara & Amy |
