Chapter 1

                     Pastor Rudy Bernal  Ministry  in   Cawayan Baptist Church in 1970;

         Church Strengthening,  Chicken Immunizations  & Bible Study w/ Beach Swimming

After my arrest by the military  at the College of Theology  mid- 1969, I went  home to Carles. I want to breath fresh air from the sea and walked on the shorelines.  I want to relax.   I need to refresh my mind and spirit.

It was not easy feelings to be arrested   and detained for some hours  by the Philippine Constabulary officers in their headquarters. Arrested when you are crossing a  street,  was  sometimes natural. But to be arrested by some 20 police and constabulary officers, ordered by their commander,  armed with powerful armalites, right at the Dean’s Office of the  College of Theology,  seemed  hard for the mind carry. 

One week, after my arrest at  CPU College of Theology,  I went  home to  Carles.  Mayor Alfredo Alava of Carles learned I was home. He  sent me a message. He asked me to see him. Mayor Alava was a close friend of my father. And I am close to him.  He said:   “Rudy,  do you want to work as  Sanitary Inspector of our town?  We need you here.  You can helped our  people.  And you can helped   our town.”  There  was only one medical doctor  and 1 Sanitary Inspector in  Carles that time.   

Pastor Rudy Bernal,Assistant Pastor of Cawayan Baptist Church, Cawayan, Carles, Iloilo. His journey in the Christian faith and struggle for equality, freedom and Justice led him to be Director of the CPBC New Frontier Ministries (NFM),  Vice President of the Baptist Convention, a radio ministry of 25 years, natural farming, printing and publishing ministry.

                              

I told Mayor Alava. “ Mayor, I will try. I will apply.”  It was also a way to gauge  the political atmosphere. Mayor Alava,  told me to go to Camp Delgado, in Iloilo City and  get employment clearance. He gave me the  name of the officer I will looked for. He gave me a letter of recommendation.

I went  to the Philippine Constabulary office at Camp  Delgado. The officer,  led me to the NISA office and introduced me to  Gen.  Gerardo Flores, the Regional  NISA Officer.  He told General Flores, that  I was recommended  by Mayor Alava.  General Flores  asked me to set  in front of him.

After some  short  conversations,  General Flores   went inside another room.  When he returned, he has a  folder with files. 

He read the files. He shook   his head. He asked  me a  lot of questions.   “Why were you in the  village in   Dingle? What did you  do there? Who were your  companions?”  Why I was in a village in   Pavia. Why  I was in a village in Leganes. Why I was in Ajuy village. And why I went to a village in   San Dionisio.?”

 I told  General Flores: “ Sir, I am Chairman of the Education Committee of PANELFU, a labor Union. I was in those places  doing education seminars   and organizing  farmers in different towns in Iloilo and Panay. PANELFU is   a labor organization registered with the Department of Labor.” It’s headed by Atty. Nicolas Centeno.” 

General Flores told me, they have a big dossier on me.  He  said:  “Mayor Alfredo Alava  recommended you to me. The mayor has high trust   on  you.”  Then,  General Flores asked me.  “Tell me,  why were you  arrested a week  ago at   CPU?”  Only then, I realized fully,  the   NISA  powers. There   inteligence networks  reached out to different communities, and reached an ordinary man like me. 

It seemed he knew  most  happenings in Iloilo. He knew every place I visited. Then, he told me. “I cannot give you a clearance.  There were  lots of   dossiers on you.  But Mayor Alava trusted you. He want you to help him in Carles.  I will try to  help you.  But  you  must accept  as true all these  things,  written on your  dossiers.  Then, you  must asked for pardon.  You must asked  for  forgiveness.  You  must  sign an  affidavit. I will see what I can do to help you.”

That was quite hard. I thanked General Flores.  I will return, after thinking on his proposal.   But  I lost my interest on the possible   job.  I went to  Atty. Alfredo Banares and Atty. Edgar Villalobos. They were my lawyer friends. I told them what General Flores asked me to do.  Atty Banares said: “Rudy, you must not sign, you must never sign  any affidavit accepting  as true what were written  by the military on your dossiers.  When you do that, you will   tie  a strong  cord on your neck.  You’ll  be  ready for  hanging.”

I went  home to Carles.  I decided to keep cool.  Meantime, I will  lessen my involvement in   labor organizing  works.  I went to Mayor Alava and told him, it may be difficult for me to get a clearance. I told him, I will  try again. 

In Carles, I helped my father  and younger brother in the farm.  We planted  corn and vegetables.  I helped flatten our rice farms.     Some kind of realization on my life came.  It  touched me.  “I tried to re-think my life. My past years.  I tried  to look into the   future.   I looked back at  my  involvements in labor education and  organizing works.  Labor organizing  was  a legal work. But it was now considered by the military, a dangerous works. I saw some   labor leaders  accused  as subversives and arrested.”  

That  night, I asked God for guidance.  I knelt   in prayer.   I said:  “ Lord,  I am  committed to  continue  the   struggle for  equality,  freedom and   justice.  But meantime, I will take a rest. I will try to parry the hot political situations, I am in.”

To soften suspicions on me, I must  lessen my  involvement on  labor  organizing. I told the Lord. “Lord, I will lessen my labor organizing works. I will go teaching, if possible also  preaching.    I  will go  to a  new ministry.     But how?   Quite impossible.  I have  finished  only  One Year  and  1 semester of the 4 years  Theological Studies.  How could I be a pastor and  a preacher?”

That night, I asked  God: “Lord, I will try and work as a pastor.   I will follow what you want me to do. If you would like me to be a pastor,  I will go wherever  you want me to go.  Please open my way. I am ready to go anywhere  you  send me.   I will go to the mountain church.  In an  island church. Or,   in a church in a city slum.  I will go even in a foreign country, if  that’s what you want me to do.   Please let me know.  Just make it clear, that is your will for me.”  

After praying,    I  lay  on my  bed that night.    Easily, I  fall asleep.   It was a long and  peaceful  slept. I woke up that morning  with a peaceful heart. 

 I went on with my gardening.  The following Sunday, I  went to church. This was  our  home church. I took a Bible. But when I start to go, I remember, I will pass several houses to church. I seem felt ashamed to carry the |Bible on my hands. I put it on my back and cover it with my shirts. I walked to the church.  I attended   Sunday School that morning.  I shared my thoughts. And we have a lively sharing and discussions. 

We went on  to our worship service.  Pastor Glory Forro Bullo preached.  She gave an inspiring message. It was my first worship in church  for about a year.   The following Sunday,  I went again to  Sunday School and joined the worship service.  We   have a good  sharing  at   Sunday School  again.  

On the 3^rd Sunday, Pastor  Glory  Bullo,   asked me to lead the Sunday School the   following Sunday. And also the next. I continued as Sunday School teacher.  A few weeks later, Pastor  Glory Bullo, who was  teaching in Carles National High School,  asked me to preach on worship the following Sunday.

About  two months  later, she  asked me to serve as  Assistant Pastor  of  Cawayan Baptist Church. She said:  “To Rudy I am very busy in school. I need your help..  I  asked the church officers to call you as Assistant Pastor.  Please accept the church request.” I told Pastor Glory Bullo, I will accept the  request.  A day or two, I was given a call.  I was called,  Assistant Pastor  of Cawayan Baptist Church.

I  began visiting and sharing with the adults. I organized the Deacons to join me in visiting and calling on other  church members.  We visited  Baptists members who have not joined worship servives.  We use this visits as  a  time for sharing.   During visitations, I often read  short verses. Then simple words of reminding  God’s faithfulness. And closed our visit with a prayer.  On Wednesdays, we have prayer meetings. And Saturday afternoons,  we go to some homes  where we preached  at home of   a non-church members.

After  visiting  church members at their homes, I found many families has chickens. The chickens were just roaming around.  In  nearby  villages,  we heard many chickens have died. They were hit  with  Avian Pests, a deadly chicken  disease we called  “aratay”.   When Avian Pest hit a village, a few chicken, two or three only  survived.

I called  the Baptist Men  for a meeting.   We must work to help ourselves against  “aratay” chicken disease. We discussed what we will do. They said: “We will immunized  all the chickens  of our  church members . Then we will immunized  the chickens of the community.”   They church gave me  expenses  for Iloilo City.

 I went to  the Department of Agriculture’s  Vetenirary /Sections in Iloilo City. I requested  Avian Pest Vaccines. They  provided   me free vaccines for all  chickens we  need.  They told me. “Put  the vaccine vials inside a plastic cup with cover and put it  inside  a plastic bag with ice. When you  arrived  in Carles, you looked  for rotten banana trunks  and put the vaccine vials in the rotten banana trunks.  The coolness of the rotten banana trunks  will  preserved the  vaccine for several  days or  weeks, until you will use them.”     I took a bus back to  Carles,  148 kms away.

When I arrived in Carles  I  looked for an old and rotten banana trunks and buried the Avian  Pest Vials inside the rooten banana trunks.    There was no  refrigerator  in Cawayan, Carles that time.

The following day, all the Baptist Men  and  other church officers met. We have a training on  chicken immunizations for Avian Pests. For small chicks we use  1 drop of vaccine  on the nasals or eyes.

For chickens more than a month old and  up, we will put 2 drops of vaccine on their rectums.  For adult chickens and roasters, we will injected a  about 2 drops  of vaccine on their body muzzles.   We immunized all the chickens of  church members.  Then we immunized the chickens of all  the  village people in Cawayan.

In 3 days we have immunized all the chickens of the village against  Aratay. After we have finished  immunizations, we came together to share our experiences with  the church and some members of the community. I told them, in 6 months time we will immunized again all chickens with Avian Pest. And thereafter, every six months.  We closed our  our sharing with Bible reflections. Then we prayed. 

For strenthening of relations, we  tried to reach out to the Elementary school teachers. There were 8 teachers in Cawayan Elementary School. Two were married -  Mr. and Mrs. Romeo Bellosillo, the head teacher. All the other six teachers, all females,  were single. 

I invited the teachers to join us visit some homes in the village.  We will  eat young coconuts in some homes.  We call this  “pangolabo”.  Two teachers joined us the first week. Then some others, joined us on the 2^nd and third week. We began to get closer.

We planned to go swimming.   We went early. At  7:00 AM  we were already in the beach. We walked about 1 kilometer.  We  gathered  on the beach. We   have  some  singings and  Gospel reflections. With us were  Young people. Young adults. The teachers.  Older people and the Deacons. About 30 of us on the beach that morning.  We sing gospel songs. We asked each to share the things the want to thank God for last week. Each shared the things, they want to thank God for.   We have Bible reflections. Then we prayed together.

During our prayers, we were setting  on a circle. We prayed.  The leader, said  each will  pray for the man on his right. One was requested for Closing Prayer.   Then we have our  snacks.  And we ran to the waters. The friendship and relationship has  strengthened

We  invited them also  to go swimming  With the young  Young People leading, Elma  Bantillo and  Nancy Villanueva, we asked the teachers to go Night Swimming.  We thought it would be good fun. It will be an  adventure in our search for relevant faith. Few people go   night swimming in Carles. When I was  in Manila,  often we go night swimming  in the beach. And in  swimming pools.  It’s good for relaxations after  days of works.  Dayhagan, Carles was  one of the beautiful beaches in the municipality. The evenings were very lovely,   sun starting to  setting down –the sun’s  rays still seen on the western  horizons.

The young people prepared our snacks. The womens group  prepared home made drinks.  The teachers brought something for us to share.  I realized, sharing our Christian faith, when we’re closed was easy. And the sharing were deep and led to  helpful conversations on the meanngs of faith.  The importance of life. How to relate our lives to God. 

Night swimming with young people, young adults and some Elementary school teachers was great fun. It helped build close relationship.  Night swimming was  new experiences for most.  These simple things  played a role in strengthening  relationship and helping  our  ministry.

The young people and young adults prepared for this activity.  They prepared snacks.  The women  brought  some  home made drinks. There were boiled bananas and root crops.  They have their Swim Suites.  Some have their "patadyong".  Then we went swimming. We just made sure that we do not go to deep parts of the beach.

While on the beach we saw   big tree trunk  carried by waves  to the  beach. We carried it down  to the  waters.  We rode the big tree floating on the sea water. We have some short conversations on the water, holding on the tree trunk.  We looked at the beautiful  sights  under the covers of the red horizon.

The two  elementary teachers, hold on the tree trunks with me, as we allow the  gentle currents to carry us,   drifting  for some times, under soft coolness of the  moonlights. All the teachers were now close friends. But I cannot remember their names now, except two, Miss Racimo and Miss Erlida Gonzaga.   Miss Racimo, taught at Cawayan Elementary School until her retirement. Miss Gonzaga, transferred to Pavia and taught in  the towns elementary  school.  I have not met her again.

After our night swimming,  around the  flames of  the burning woods, we have short reflections on life and God’s  purpose for us.    It was a simple sharing.  But it  touched  our hearts and minds.  Then we go home, reminded  of  God’s grace along our way.