about a 20 hour bus ride from kalinga, (but thankfully, i found a cheap plane ticket from manila)....anyway, back to my story. when i traveled to legaspi, i planned an extra day to swing by a place close by that's renown for whale shark sitings. they are the largest fish on earth, reaching lengths up to 60 feet long and can weigh almost 5 times as much as an elephant!... at this place, Donsol, you can even get in the water and snorkel alongside these enormous fish. so i didn't want to pass up this opportunity.
i planned on getting there early in the morning and leaving for our outreach destination that same day. after 2 hours of waiting for decent weather to board the small boat, we then circled the ocean for another hour and a half looking for the whale sharks (while slowly baking in the sun). at that point i was really thinking of how i just wasted that whole morning and should have left when the weather was bad...but shortly after there was a sighting!!!
what followed next was our guide yelling "get ready"..."jump". everyone sat on one side of the boat and slid into the water as the boat passed about 20 yards ahead of the whale shark's destination. we all swam toward the fish with the dark ocean below...looking below for anything. then suddenly a giant grey dotted shadow floats straight toward you and you don't see it until it's about 10 feet away!!! i froze for a moment and marveled. it was amazing. then i swam along side this monster of the deep, seeing even the small cleaner fish clinging to it's dorsal fin.
we did this 4 or 5 times, each time was just as amazing as the last. i was satisfied and ready to get back to my original business. i wanted to eat at this point and didn't see many options in this small town but a 25cent bowl of soup across the street.
while i was there eating and waiting for a jeep, God opened the door of conversation with 2 gays. one was dressed like a woman...it was totally God, cause at first, i was annoyed and didn't want to hear them hitting on me, but then i just turned and began to ask them questions...like why they dressed like women, dated men, and acted with the mannerisms they did. the main reason this young man said he was a "bacla" was because he enjoyed the attention. i told them they have an identity outside the "costume and act" and "gay" is not who they ARE. one guy was almost in tears and the other said, "no one's ever asked me these questions", so when one asked about what i thought about heaven...the door was wide open! so i told them that there is a heaven and a hell and a God who loves them, but their unrepentant actions separate them from Him. shortly after this conversation, i had to catch my jeepney, leaving them to consider the truth that apparently no one has ever shared with them. i knew God gave me grace for that conversation and was thankful that i wasn't too busy or annoyed toward them in order to have that conversation.
Here in the Philippines, there are many "bacla" who dress like women and live the homosexual lifestyle. as i continued on my way seeing they two confused young men, i chuckled to myself as i remembered talks i had with a friend about the (the bacla) and hitting their fore head saying, "out! in the name of Jesus!", so it didn't happen like that, but i think God got their attention.
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