M E M O R I E S:Life and Time of Pastor Rudy Bernal, his Glimpses on History 

                        & The People’s Struggle for Freedom

Chapter 29 – My First   Year Ministry at  Maao Central Evangelical Church, Helped  Revitalize the Church &  Start “Hour of Discovery” Radio Ministry

Maao Central  Evangelical Church  was located in an industrial community, with  Maao Sugar Central Company, Inc., one of the big sugar centrals in Negros that time. It was surrounded with thousands  hectares of sugarcane plantations that  covers most Bago villages and some nearby towns..

The central  rail road crisscrosses the villages, with nearly a hundred bagoons, working  9  months during the year  on harvest season.  People were  always busy. The Sugar Central operates 24-hours a day.  The village has several small housing subdivisions, where sugar central families reside  with their families.

Nearby, in La Carlota, about 10 kms away, is La Carlota Sugar Central, a bigger sugar central company with wider sugarcane plantations covering four  towns around.

I requested  Mr. Childe Alvarez  to   help   make a vicinity map of the housing  areas.

I requested him to marked the  home of members with blue. The  home of potential  members, with red.  The families that were not associated with MCEC marked with green.    I pasted  the  vicinity map on the wall, near the area where I sat  for study and  knelt for prayer.   There were 6 small housing  villages in Maao Central, where the where people resides. At the center is the  community market.

Looking at the vicinity map, I can see  clearly the members of the  households  and the community they were living.    Then, I can   reached   them  in prayer.

To  make the work more easier,  I requested   Mr.   Alvarez,  to  give  me a list  of  all the members of the church,   with  their   names  and   the ages of  their children.  It   will be easy for me  to learn all the church members and  names of  their children.  I would like to call, if possible,  all the youth and  children  by their first names.  I  can  pray for the whole family.  

I scheduled my home  visitations.  I visited  the homes of members alone.  I discovered that only women were mostly  at  home.  The men were  in there works. Or they were sleeping.  They rests and slept  during the day. While the others, works during the day.  At most, only  50% of the men in our  church can attend worship on Sundays.  For the other 50% were working in the sugar central. I kept thinking of the situations. And brought it go God  in prayer. 

Mondays  were  my oft day. I usually go to Bacolod City and hang at the Record Bar and met friends.   Tuesdays  were my visitations..  Wednesday  was Prayer Meetings.  Thursdays  mornings  were  visiting  days.  Wednesdays are Prayer Meeting.  The afternoons and evenings were   for my studies, meditations and  reflections.

I have learned the importance of visitations. It’s during the sharing with them, that I learned the problems and their joys. Knowing their problems, I would be able to bring it to God.

I saw the need for a wider visitation ministry. I shared this need with the deacons. The Board of Deacons saw the need.   We organized the deacons  for  home visitations. . Two deacons  visiting  each  home a week.   After three months,  we have developed the deacons  into a dynamic group for visitation ministry.

 Pastor  Dolores Escoton was the minister  of Maao Central  Evangelical Church before I came.  She  resigned about 4 months ago.  She’s  a  talented,  committed,  industrious   and dynamic lady  minister.   But she has some other  plans and priorities.  I assumed my pastoral work at  Maao  Central Evangelical  with   guidance,  insights and advises  from Pastor Dolores  Escoton.   For that, I will always grateful to her and Jun Escoton, her husband.  

I also learned one effective help in our church. Mrs. Samson, the  Kinder teacher of  MCEC.  Mrs.Samson, has taught Kinder for years, until she retired.  She was a graduate of the Bible School. She dedicated herself to teaching and many of her graduate, get higher grades in the first grades in school. The community has a high regards for  our kinder school graduates.

One day, I called the Church Officers and the Board of Deacons for a meeting.  I discussed with them the situation. Every Sunday, only  50% of the members can attend worship. Because  50% were working. Our worship time of 9:00 AM was working time. If we changed our time of worship, we can get more than 50% attending the church on Sundays. Then, we will be able to help their growth.  After long discussions, the officers saw the wisdom of the plan. We decided to change the time of the our worship service.

Our New worship service will start at  5:30 AM.  The shifting time  was 6:00 AM. Those who  return from work at 6:00 AM can attended at least part of the worship service, perhaps before the message.    And those, works during the  day, can have time for worship. We program our worship service at 45 minutes. It was a hard decision, which calls for change in the life of sleeping and working habits of our members. But we made a decision. And  we made announcements on our worship service. It was 5:30 AM. After the worship service, follow our Sunday School. At Sunday School, we use more time for study and  discussions to help in the growth of  the members. At 7:30 we finished our Sunday services. 

To help us in our new schedule of worship, we  bought a powerful amplifier  with 3 strong trumpets to bring soft  gospel songs to the members and the community.

Our Sound System was powerful.   We can reached  the community  3 kilometers around.  Every  4:30  AM, we have soft  recorded gospel music played for the church and the community. It prepared the members for the morning service, waking them softly an hour,  with our soft music spewed by the sound system.

Then, we  started a  Radio   ministry.  We called it  “Hour of Discovery” aired first over DYVS, at 5:00 AM every Wednesday. We were with DYVS for some 6 months. We made  a good breakthrough. 

How did we start our Radio ministry? Under our circumstance, it was nearly impossible to start a radio ministry. But faith taught us how. Nothing, we’re told, is impossible with  God.

At MCEC,  I started  thinking of  a radio ministry,  Maao Central Evangelical Church as base. I negotiated with  DYVS. They accepted our request. We will pay  P50.00,  per broadcast.  This means,    P 200 –P250  monthly. They gave us  5:00 -5:30 AM time slot every Wednesday. That was a  good privilege given us  by DYVS.  But tiresome.  I woke- up at 3:30 AM every Wednesday. Take a bath. Then wait for  a jeepney for Bacolod City.  I must be at the station, at least quarter to 5:00 AM.

After, I got the contract with DYVS, I  showed it  to Mr. Alvarez. I told  him, I decided to start a radio program. I asked him for his support. I will announce our decision to the church that  Sunday.  We  made a flyer announcing “Hour of Discovery” broadcast w/ Maao Central Evengelical   at   5:00 -5:30 AM  every  Wednesday.  We announced the start of our radio ministry to the church during worship service.  We prayed for its start and success. We  gave copies of the Flyers to our church members to  give  to the community.  We  made   our  maiden  broadcast that Wednesday morning, praying for  God’s guidance and help.

That morning many homes, opened their radio  to DYVS with  Hour of Discovery.  At Central Maao, it was a great moment, with   church and community members listening  to  our broadcast time.

The following Sunday, some members of  Baptist Men  decided to sponsored a one day broadcast. And  almost  all  Baptist Men sponsored our broadcast time. Five months later, we transferred to DYHB, one  of the strongest radio station in Bacolod, with its power reaching  whole of Negros,  Panay, Masbate and part of Romblon.

A new ministry was born with    Maao Central Evangelical Church.  Every Wednesday morning, at 5:00 AM almost all Baptist households  in Maao Central  and  Baptist churches in Bago City  were   tuned- in to DYVS’s  “Hour of Discovery”.

Then we transfered to DYHB, the strongest radio  station in Bacolod.  We  reached out most Negros Kasapulanan Baptist Churches every Sunday at 2:00 PM.  Later, Baptist  churches in Panay also listened to  “Hour of Discovery”, based at  Maao Central Evangelical Church.

This journey we made together with Maao Central Evangelical Church was started. You knew who  helped us make this possible?

Mr. Doronila  & his daughter Daday.    Leonila (Deding) Mongcay  and her parents.   Simon and Endring Alvarez. Atty. Wally  &  Linda Hidalgo.  Lolita Bulaclac and her sisters  Lota &  Linda. Mr. &  Mrs. Vic Llanado. Cecilio Villasenor & his  brother. Mr. &  Mrs. Tito Figueroa, Mr.  Ephraem and Mrs. Villasenor, Mr. & Mrs. Childe & . Leonor  Alvarez, Mr. & Mrs. Marcelino Libre,   Miss Modesta Belmonte,  Mr. & Mrs. Linaja, Mr. &  Mrs. Bien &  Amparo De Asis,  Mr. & Mrs.Dimapindan, Mrs.  Tingson, Miss Erlinda Almaiz, Mr. &  Mrs. Dalmacio Samson,   Miss Daraug,  Mr. Montor and Dapia Advincula, Mr. Teodorico and Ella Villaflor.

Mr. and Mrs. Laurico,  Mr. & Mrs.  Julio & Angelica Gonzaga,  Mr. and Mrs. Hermosura,  Mr. & Mrs. Abelarde,  Mrs. Inocencio & son, Tongue.  There were some others, who supported our  ministry. But we have forgotten their names. I have records of our  ministry with Hesther, but these were destroyed  by Bagyo Frank some years ago, when our house submerged in a 10 feet flood in Buntatala, Leganes, Iloilo.

I have learned as Jesus taught, the greatest gift and resources we have are our members and our  people. We must worked hard so that no one will go out of our fellowship. For they are God’s gift to us.