Lost to the tempestuous raging, the billows are tossing high.
Which is what made me think of that.
So congratulations, praise the Lord for that.
And I want to talk to you about how the weather affects us here in the Philippines.
Now this video is actually inspired by the typhoon that we're currently experiencing
where there is massive flooding.
And I have a chart here of countries in the world and they list 181 different countries
based on their average amount of precipitation.
We in the Philippines are number 18 on the list of the most precipitation, averaging
2,348 millimeters of precipitation per year.
Now obviously, depending on what part of the Philippines you're in, and depending on what
time of the year that is, that can affect things.
But we are definitely near the top of the list.
Number one on the list is actually Colombia at 3,240 millimeters per year.
Two other ones of note, one of them in the United States is 715 millimeters per year.
So the Philippines, 2,348, United States, 715 millimeters per year.
Way at the bottom, by far at the very bottom is Egypt.
They are less than one third of the second to last place.
They're at 18 millimeters per year.
Kind of explains why they would worship the Nile and be obsessed with that.
Because if the Nile dries up, which it did in the past when God cursed it, they were
in a lot of trouble.
So the United States has, where I grew up, has less than one third the amount of precipitation
including rain, snow, hail.
But generally rain is the big one you would think of per year.
And you know, it's interesting because when I grew up, if we would have what we would
consider a heavy rainstorm in the United States, it probably wouldn't be considered a heavy
rainstorm here most of the time.
Because we in the Philippines deal with some pretty heavy rains at certain times where
there can be flooding on the streets that is above waist high and it is extremely dangerous
to leave.
And of course that depends on where you live, if you live near a river, if you live near
the water.
A lot of different factors.
But it certainly does affect us here in the Philippines.
And so being here for more than five years, we've had to make some changes or at least
I've learned some lessons of things to do and not to do as a result of the weather.
When we do our missions trips, we always, the first ever missions trip was done in April,
but now we really kind of target late February to do that missions trip.
And we really only have a small window to do a missions trip here in Metro Manila, because
you know, ticket prices are normally very expensive until you get through January.
And then they end up dropping and that's a good time and you know, we do it in February
and the weather is not too hot and it's not yet rainy season.
But then once you get to April, April can be very hot, so it can be very difficult to
preach the gospel for long periods of time.
And then May is kind of the start of rainy season, at least the way I see it.
I look at May and October as being the beginning and end of rainy season.
Of course it's possible to rain before May and it's possible to rain after October, but
those are generally kind of the start and the end of it if you look on a chart, at least
for Metro Manila.
Then when you hit those four middle months of June, July, August, September, you can
have very heavy rains in this part of the country.
Now other parts of the country are different.
Other parts do not have a graph that goes like this for the rainfall.
Some of them are more constant.
We did a missions trip recently in Cebu because in Cebu the amount of rainfall is more constant
through the year rather than really hitting heavy at one time of year.
And so we have this six months of the rainy season and then six months of the non rainy
season.
So there are not four seasons here.
We're really looking at two seasons, rainy, non rainy, uh, seasons that we have.
And so what we've learned is for missions trips, we really have to target that beginning
time of year because that is really the prime time to have a soul winning missions trip
in Manila is toward February and March is sort of that ideal time that you can actually
bring it to place.
We generally aim for February because we want it done, uh, to give us rest before Easter
because we have a big soul winning push during the Easter season.
Another thing that, um, I've learned because we do a lot of big soul winning events on
holidays and we have a lot of holidays during the year.
And I remember just, you know, within the first 12 months of ministry, we had a big
soul winning event planned and it was in August and August is right in the dead center of
rainy season.
And so, and you know, you have the typhoon season, you have a lot of typhoons that come
in.
So we had a big soul winning event planned in, um, Bulacan and then we had a massive
typhoon, massive rainstorm and we had to cancel the event.
And what I realized is during this time of year when we're doing so many events for the
most part, we're not going to plan on going to places that are a long distance away.
We're going to try to do so many events that are a little bit closer.
Now I say that, but we actually just did an event for our church in Pampanga that was
pretty far away in Tarlac because we were trying to go to a really receptive area and
it was in August and it was certainly raining, but it was still very successful.
God definitely blessed us.
But in general, we try to avoid doing the far away events during that time of year because
of the fact that they could easily get rained out and you know, I really have to pay attention
to the weather and possibly cancel last second because you just don't know what is going
to take place.
And of course, you know, not everybody has a vehicle here, so if we end up renting vehicles
for an event, you know, it can be kind of a pain because you've already rented it and
then trying to cancel last second can be a hassle.
So in general, we try to do most of our soul winning a little bit more close rather than
going far out just because of the fact we, the weather is very unpredictable.
Another thing we deal with is sometimes we have to cancel church service and you know,
this is obviously not our norm, but what inspired this video is the fact that we have a heavy
rainstorm today and this morning I was making the decision back and forth.
Should we cancel?
Should we not cancel?
I made the decision to actually cancel church service here today and you know, as a pastor,
I can say that when you have all these decisions that you got to make, it can be very stressful.
I never thought about it growing up in West Virginia during the winter season where we'd
have heavy snow and every once in a while the pastor would cancel church and I never
really realized that that actually can be a very stressful thing for the pastor because
you don't want to cancel, but you want everybody to be safe.
You're worried about church members being really zealous where they might be in a dangerous
position and they end up coming anyway because they love God and everything and it's a very
tough position.
You do your best to make the decisions and it's just something that we deal with here
in the Philippines because when it rains, it pours and if, depending on where you are
in the world in this video, I mean, if you're in the United States, if you think of the
heaviest rainstorm that you've ever experienced in the US, you know, we have that several
times every single year and it can be a very dangerous thing and of course you try to stay
off the streets.
You only go out if necessary.
It reminds me back several years ago when we were still living in Metro Manila where
we had a big rainstorm and the Marikina River flooded and my son, you know, hit the ground
like really bad.
I had to run to get first aid equipment and the closest first aid place was, you know,
quite a bit away and so the water was up to my knee and I was like running through the
water to get there to the mercury drug and my umbrella was half broken so the wind just
completely, you know, messed it up so I had, you know, basically no umbrella and I'm just
running through the rain.
Very few people out because you're trying to avoid the streets and they looked at me
like I was insane but I had to get medical equipment for my son and so, you know, it's
just a time you want to try to avoid, um, you know, being outside because it can be
very dangerous.
Now I say that but realize no matter where you live, you're gonna have obstacles.
When I grew up in West Virginia, during the winter season in the mountain state, it can
be very dangerous.
People sometimes live in areas with tornadoes or hurricanes and I'm sure churches have to
cancel and they deal with a lot of different things.
Some parts of the world where it's extremely hot, maybe you have to cancel soul winning
because it's just too dangerous, you know, obviously there's obstacles no matter where
you are so I'm not complaining but it is something that we deal with during the rainy season
here where when it rains in the Philippines, it pours and it can be very dangerous.
As a result, we do have to make some adjustments with our soul.
Anyways, thank you and God bless.