Blanche and I just came from a wonderful evening celebrating Oly Reyes' birthday at Pastor Jun & Gigi Escosar's beautiful home. Oly served as one of Victory Christian Fellowship's pastors for several years before he moved to the USA. He is in Manila to attend the 2007 Every Nation World Conference. Oly's old friends showed up to surprise him, but as it turned out, he kind of expected it somehow. It was a great sight to see old friends reconnect and reminisce the early days of our church. We had a blast... plus the food was great! Thank you, Pastor Jun & Gigi for being such wonderful hosts! Those who attended Oly's party were Juray & Deah Mora, Joey Bonifacio, Jay Duque, Junn & Maru Besana, Roland & Becc Saavedra, Noel & Gigi Landicho, Winston & Gigi Reyes (hhhmm... ang daming "Gigi" na pastor's wife ah!), Jun & Mabel Lee, Bernard & Ivy Marquez, Ferdie & Zen-Y Del Valle, Gene & Yollie Manaois, Benjie & Bianca Bernardo, Gilbert & Cathy Foliente, Beth San Diego, Blanche and yours truly. I don't know if others arrived after we left at around 10pm.

It is great to see Oly in the Philippines again after some time. I visited Oly in Michigan where he lives with his wife (Gel) and daughter (Hunter) a few months back. He was also once the pastor of the Victory churches in Los Baños and Cebu. Oly and I were together in the church planting days of Life in the Son Christian Fellowship in Guam (circa 1992-1993) as missionaries and church planters. We shared the same apartment, the same second-hand car (which turned out to be a lemon), the same problems, challenges and whatnot, and the same victories. Those were the days! Thank God for relationships that last for eternity!

Happy Birthday, Oly!