The church in Jasaan.
This picture makes the
sanctuary look
deceptively small; the
retable in the back is
3 stories tall.
David has 2 adorable
older sisters.Sorry it took me an extra day to get these photos up. But here they are. I was asked by David Schreuder's father, Ron Schreuder, to be a Godfather at David's baptism today. Epril and I went to Jasaan's Catholic church and joined in the event. Mike Bird was also asked to be a Godfather. The rest of the people I did not know, but Ron's mother (arrived from Holland) was also there for the event.
The baptism was after the second church service of the day (which is performed almost entirely in English, as opposed to the first service, which is performed in Visayan). There were 3 babies being baptized today, so there was a bit of a crowd (as always seems to be the case at Filipino baptisms) up at the alter today. I'm there, standing behind Ron and his wife Marla, holding David.
All in all, there were 7 Godfathers. I don't know why in The Philippines, babies have multiple Godparents... and all male in David's case. My sister and I each have one Godfather and one Godmother. So I'm now a Godfather to 2 of my friends' children. Fortunately, it doesn't make me responsible for tuition to Princeton or anything. At least I hope it doesn't.
I thought it rather amusing that the priest was reading out of a baptismal breviary upon which are printed the words "water, an endangered natural resource".
So Ron and Marla welcome a freshly-minted Christian into their lovely family.
After the baptism, of course, was a luncheon. Ron, owning a bakery, had a whiz-bang cake baked for David, whom I'm sure appreciated the effort fully. (It's a bit embarrassing, but I don't have one close-up photo of David from today. Sorry. Maybe somebody will e-mail me one in his cute christening outfit with white satin bow-tie and bowler cap.)
Anyway, Ron greeted the guests with a nice speech, and then there was an absolute ton of food (all of it great) to be enjoyed. Oh... and there was this pinapple-coconut flan served which was the most amazing dessert I've ever had in The Philippines... I have to have Epril get the recipe from Marla.Well, Epril and I offer up our congratulations to David and his parents. Good luck and long life little guy.
Hi Jil,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the report, I've read it only now.
We wanted to make a baptismal day, to be enjoyed and to be remembered.
We really enjoyed the day and we hope everybody did.
You know, and not only for the Filipino, enjoyment starts with food. Luckily I have Marla to make sure first that we have enough, second that it is not the ordinary Filipino food and that it tastes delicious (only your favorite ribs: the taste was good, but they were prepared by Marla's brother and he didn't make them as juicy as usual, sorry for that).
Thanks again for joining us and for being one of the godparents.