TFBC's Sambang Gabi (Worship Night)

 

A Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Philippines!!! 
 

Many Filipino people have been asking me "how do Americans celebrate Christmas? I reply, “just like the Filipinos do.  We have family come over, we hand out gifts and eat many different kinds of special foods.  In the south, people shoot off fireworks like the Filipinos, but up north it is too cold so they just stay inside watch American football and Christmas parades.  I also say Americans do not have karaoke machines nor do they sing all day and night...LOL, and of course it is very cold in most places in America right now. 
 
This year, Jen and I will be heading to Pampanga to visit her family on the 24th and on the 25th we will be having dinner with some friends from Canada. ahh :)
 
I was able to get a 2-month extension on my visa so I will be allowed to remain in the country until the 29th of January.  We hope to get a 6-month extension in January so it will give us more than enough time to file my permanent residence status. 

TFBC's Sambang Gabi (Worship Night)

Simbang Gabi (Filipino for "Night Mass") is a devotional nine-day series of Masses practiced by Filipino Catholics and Aglipayans in the Philippines in anticipation of Christmas. This is similar to the nine-day series of dawn Masses leading to Christmas Eve practiced in Puerto Rico called Misa de Aguinaldo.

But here at Tarlac First Baptist Church (TFBC), we call it "Sambang Gabi" (Worship Night) wherein we start from the first Monday and ends on the 3rd Friday of December, a total of 15 days of two-hour worship and fellowship every day!

60…is just a number!

I will be turning 60 in two days. I say that number and it sounds so old. I do not feel like I am 60 nor do I act like it. I walk or jog every day, eat healthily and I am surrounded by a family that I love dearly. I am a very blessed man!! 

Thank you for praying for us as I adjust to living in the Philippines, learning their language. (which is going very slow) but I am making progress. The bible studies that will be starting in January, and the Mission work Bishop Frank will be asking me to do, also starting in Jan 2020.

Thank you again for your love and prayers