THE PHILIPPINES—The Quezon City and Angeles City Spokesman clubs held their first combined year-end ladies night on Dec. 8, 2013, with 62 in attendance including Regional Director John Macdonald, Preaching Elder Pedrito Cara, and Local Elders Kirk Macdonald and Benedict Marquez. This was a rare occasion with all the ministers serving the Philippines to be together in one place.

The event was held in the beautiful outdoor garden of Mr. Kirk Macdonald, decorated with a royal theme including pillars, flowers, decorative lights and a fountain. The theme for the evening was “To Build and To Plant.”

“We were impressed by how royal the setting was,” Cherry Ann Marquez said. “The Macdonalds’ garden looked very regal with all those lights and pillars and rose petals.”

The evening began with the table topics session where club members and ladies shared their thoughts, then continued to an evaluation by Mr. Macdonald, the club director. The group then ate a buffet, including a leg of roasted beef, which was served by high school students from Imperil Academy, Philippines.

“The help and service by the IA students was remarkable,” Erwin Romanes said. “They were really pleasant and accommodating.”

The second half of the club featured five speakers and their evaluators, who left impressions on several other attendees.

“Most of the speakers really showed confidence,” Sandra Santos said.

“[W]hat I was most impressed about was how much the evaluations of the speeches have improved,” Marquez said.

Mr. John Macdonald delivered the second-half evaluation, presented a certificate of completion to the club’s newest graduate, Noel Callope, and concluded the meeting with a lecture about the value of Spokesman Club. He encouraged spokesmen to use the club to go forward and step up their thinking and character development. He concluded by saying, “The importance of the club is beyond evaluating. This leads up to the World Tomorrow.”

“I’ve been to several ladies nights, and this one for me stands out,” Nestelene Gallardo said. “It was a truly awesome and special night in so many ways—the food, the setting, the speeches and the lecture were just all so inspiring, added as well by the rare opportunity of having the two clubs … together and having all ministers present.”