The Loboc Cross

You may remember our Kayaking Loboc River post. We kayaked the stunning, green (in the beautiful way, not the dirty way) Loboc River in Bohol. We had the what felt like the whole river all to ourselves. Zachary was a little ways in front of me and went around a bend of the river. As soon as he did, I heard him shout, "Heather! You have to see this!" I quickly rowed towards him, around the bend, and saw what he was so excited about! There was a huge cross on the top of the hill in front of us. It was such a breath taking sight. We were enjoying the day so much, soaking up the time together, the beautiful scenery, the quiet river & the exercise from kayaking. We were worshiping God throughout the day, marveling in His creation & goodness but when we saw the cross, it almost brought me to tears. It was like the Lord was saying, "I'm with you!" It was so sweet.

Later, we heard that you could actually drive up to the cross, so we knew that we had to go! We got on our little rented bike & headed for the road.

Every where we went in Loboc was just ridiculously beautiful. We loved driving, seeing rice field after rice field, reflecting the gorgeous blue sky.

Can't. Get. Enough!

We drove up the road from our resort & took a right directly after the Loboc Church. The church suffered tons of damage from the earthquake. We could still see how beautiful it once was, though. Even in its damaged state it was beautiful.

We took a few back roads, went through a small neighborhood & finally found the small road up to Loboc cross.

Some of the hills were pretty steep, so I would often have to get off, let Zachary trek up them with the bike, and hike behind him.

After 15 minutes of climbing up the hill, we found a small path, that led directly to the cross.

I was constantly amazed in Bohol how we had so many moments, in gorgeous places, with not a soul in sight. We had this entire mountain top to ourselves. It was extremely peaceful but I kept thinking, it was the perfect place to have worship. With the huge cross & the beautiful views, I wished that our church family, family and friends could be there, so we could all just worship Jesus together! The cross was surrounded by seating benches & awning.

We're not sure why but the columns holding the covering over the seating around the cross, had years printed on them. We found our birth years.

Ocean Views one way, hills & a storm rolling in the other way.

There was some earth quake damage here, too. We saw some damage pretty much everywhere in Bohol. They are slowly putting things back together, though.

We also saw a HUGE centipede shell. A huge centipede shell is totally cool but if that thing had of been alive, I would have freaked! I mean really?! There should be some rule that they CAN'T get that big.

Bohol was so spiritually refreshing for us. I think it was the quietness & all the people that we met that just seemed hungry for God & worshiped him. Our waiters, the lady giving us a massage, our taxi drivers and even our butterfly guide at the Butterfly farm all talked about God or gave glory to God in one way or another. I think 'sites' like this just added to that refreshed feeling we felt.