Inauguration Day

It’s a national holiday today in the Philippines. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino took office. At noon everyone was to clap for him, and out of respect, the Chapelwood mission team stopped eating lunch and clapped and cheered. To be perfectly honest, I had no idea today would be a holiday until I was told about it when we arrived on Sunday. Aquino won the election on May 10th by a landslide campaigning on a strong anti-corruption platform, promising to investigate the alleged wrongdoing of outgoing President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. I’ve added a picture of the new president in today’s blog.

The holiday actually turned out to be a gain for the mission team as students, who would normally be in school, joined the mission team helping to dig out the foundation. Chapelwood members can certainly relate to building programs as it wasn’t so long ago our church property had a giant hole. Now that’s been filled by the very beautiful youth building, so it’s always important to remember buildings like Christians need solid foundations.

There is no question the Philippine people are so happy we are here especially missionary Janet McCarty who is the acting president of the Southern Philippine Methodist Colleges. In the blog yesterday I mentioned Kidapawan is a city of about 80,000 people. Today I leaned Janet is the only American living in the area. “I was told once there was another American here but I’ve never seen him.” Janet says. “When I was here once before and there were security problems, my driver said to me, ‘Well we can’t hide you, you’re too white!’ so yes, I do stick out. But the Filipino people are so friendly and so kind and so willing to help there is a lot of support.”

There are a lot of smiles and a lot of camaraderie especially working together in the rainy wet pits. Today team member Warren Castagnetta had a number of kids hanging on him as he pushed, or rather slid, a wheelbarrow full of dirt away from the job site. Let’s face it, digging foundation trenches is not the most glamourous job, but even in dripping sweat, the task has its moments. “I think it’s important for our students to see that people from another country care about them,” says Janet. “And one way they can show they care is that they actually come.”

In fact team member B.J. Castagnetta was moved to tears. “To have the opportunity to work side by side with Brothers and Sisters in Christ there are no words for that. To be able to share in the work and sweat and the fellowship and the worship and spend the time it takes to get here that’s something that words and your heart can’t express.”

Carleton Cole