Cebu

This Saturday, Brenda and I boarded a plane in Manila headed for the beautiful city of Cebu, about 300 miles to the south. We had been invited to preach the 5th anniversary service of the church founded by the Henry Pestano family. What a great experience it was.

Cebu is the oldest city in the Philippines and is rich in history, beauty and resources. In fact, Asia Week Magazine ranked all the cities in Asia and gave Cebu the title as "8th Most Desirable City in Asia to Live in." It is also the place where Ferdinand Magellan was killed. (You know him, he is the guy who was given credit for the first man to go all the way around the earth. Only, he gained that notoriety with an asterisks, his ship made it, but he stayed in the Philippines with a chieftain's spear in his spleen.)

Pastor Henry responded to God's calling and left the church he had pioneered and pastored for the last 12 years near Manila, and came south to Cebu.

Thankfully God has given him a very talented family and the church has grown and matured much faster than should have been possible in 5 years. Thank God, their place was packed out, and they desperately need a larger auditorium.

All three of Henry and Filda Pestano's children are standouts musically. Their eldest daughter has a very special singing voice, the 13 year old son very well could be a prodigy on the keyboards, and the 9 year old daughter plays the drums flawlessly while appearing to be a little girl daydreaming in church. She fixed her pony tail, adjusted her head band, kept up with what her friends were doing at the back of the church, and never missed a beat.

Here are a few clips so you can see for yourself how amazingly talented these young people are.