First day, 920 souls were baptized. Second day, 114
souls were baptized. Total 1,034 precious souls
Another mass baptism was held in Southern Mindanao Mission (SMM) two months after the “thousand baptism” on July 7, 2007.Bomb locations for Ministers
The Walla Walla University Evangelistic Team is now back in USA but had left behind many memories that folks from Southern Mindanao Mission will never forget. The 20-member Team held 6 meetings all over General Santos City and 3 in the province of South Cotabato and 1 in Sarangani Province. The head of the Team was Dr. Pedrito U. Maynard-Reid.
Back in February 2007, Dr. Maynard-Reid went to General Santos City to confer with the mission president regarding the planned meetings for August 19, 2007. Since that time, the whole staff of SMM had only one activity – that of intensive preparation for the said meetings in 10 places for 14 nights per place.
In the month of July, there were four bombs that rocked Southern Mindanao, which targeted mostly bus terminals. News from Walla Walla was received “Abort the meetings because of security issues.” The SMM leaders had to do something because the laymen and the adopted ministers were already deployed to do groundwork.
With non-stop prayers, the SMM leaders consulted the Gen. Santos City officials. So, the City Council and the Mayor himself personally sent the invitation to the Walla Walla University Team promising full security.
The mission, with the help of the Region 12 Bomb Squad Team, held a seminar for the brethren on matters of security. They taught the people on what to do in case of a reported bomb threat, and what emergency measures to take in case of a bomb explosion.
The type of security established by the mission was each member of the WWU team had at least one security personnel wherever they went. And military personnel patrolled the city at all times.
All the members of the team went home to the mission compound (where they were housed) every night after the meeting. Each one was provided with a vehicle and an escort.
In the end, 920 precious souls were baptized on September 1, 2007.
There were 114 who were not able to come to the mass baptism but were baptized the following day, so the number of precious souls baptized totaled to: 1,034. Thanks to the concerted effort of the WWU team, the SMM administration and staff, the brethren, and the 42 adopted ministers of AaMI.
But sad to say, the enemy tried his best to attack God ‘s workers. Last August 26, Sabbath, while some of the team were on their way to South Cotabato, the mission van they were in was struck by a speeding pick-up truck. The van was slightly damaged but thank God, nobody was hurt.
However, in another place, a district pastor and his wife riding in a motorcycle was hit by another motorcycle. The damage was devastating. The pastor had 15 blood clots in his brain and his left leg was broken. The pastor’s wife also broke both of her legs.
Yet, in spite of the attacks inflicted by the enmey to God’s workers, we praise God for the success of the crusade and His safe keeping of all. After the crusade, the WWU team went back home to the U.S.