Day 3.  Sunday the Day of the Celebration.  

      We start with breakfast at 6:30am and there are a lot of guests in the village that need to have breakfast.  And that is when you see the Isnags at their best.  They have coffee for anyone who wants it, eggs, bread, and of course rice and pineapples.  What more do you need.  The service started about 8am in the Dibagat Bible Church. We have at least 3 visiting pastors from USA. Pastor Rob and Pastor Mark (retired) are from a church in Virginia Beach, Virginia that has supported Rudy for a long time, and Pastor Zack with the Wycliffe USA group from Orlando.  Pastor Rob and Pastor Zack took part in the dedication of the completed Bible and new Hymn book. Rudy had added new songs to the Hymn book  so that it was completed and timed with the newly completed Bible.   I hope to have both of them add to this blog so you can hear from them too.  

But after the service, some went down to the river to have 20 + baptisms.  So just a history note here, Pastor Mark form Virginia Beach also baptized 20 + in 2006 at the New Testament dedication.  

After the baptisms and the hike back up from the river, yes that river and that hike back up.  We had lunch with everyone who was there, Isnags and visitors alike. We sat and talked about families and where people are from and just being brothers and sisters in Christ celebrating the same thing together. What do you do if you don't have enough plates? You use banana leaves.

       After lunch was wrapping, up we were told it was time to distribute the newly printed Bibles.  We went into the church to help set up, and what happened next for me, is when you are doing something and you realize as it is happening that this is something you will not be able to express to other people in words very well.  So I got to hand the new Bibles to Nard as he is handing them to the people coming up to the front of the church.  I am crying as I am doing this. I don’t know why, this is a happy event and they are tears of joy.  As this is going, on some who have only the New Testament are turning them in as they pick up the completed Bible.  Some of them are worn out from being read and taken back and forth to church and bible studies that they have during the week. 

  After the Bibles were distributed most of them asked the visitors to sign their bibles so then could pray for us by name after we leave Dibagat.  Ken VW a pilot from Wycliffe who used to fly into the village with Rudy and others or to pick him up, had many Bibles to sign.  It was very neat to see. He said he was getting writing cramps in his hand.  

Then the people slowly started to return to their homes and some visitors had to start the way back to home. We as a group that was left just sat around looking at each other and talking about what had happen that day were in awe.

The day ended with a rainbow in the sky, now the Isnags can read what that means in the Bible, about the promise God gave to Noah and symbolized it in the form of a rainbow.