Culture Study

The Agta people are believed to have been the original inhabitants of the Philippine islands. It is believed that they came over sea from Mozambique or somewhere else in Africa, which is why those with pure blood still have curly hair, darker skin and shorter stature (like the pygmies or bushmen). Culturally, they are a very non-confrontational people and nomadic. So when the polynesians and later the Spanish started arriving in the Philippines, the Agta simply retreated and moved away. After a while, land ran out and there was no longer any place to move away to, so many of the Agta have become intermingled with the rest of society. Unfortunately, they are very looked down on by their neighbors, and they lack any cultural pride so many of them seem to believe others' view of them. Their people name has become an insult - when someone does something foolish, you might call them "agta". If you comment on how pretty their daughter is, they will say "O no, she is ugly. She is just Agta." To them, "pretty" (or smart or successful) and "Agta" can never go together. They don't like being Agta, so they have tried to blend in to the culture that surrounds them and forget their indigenous culture. As a result, it has been very difficult to do culture study on their "old ways" - ways that are no longer practiced very often but still affect who they are at their core. While we know a lot about how the Agta interract now, we don't know as much about their "old ways".

Last weekend, Steve got the rare opportunity to attend an event where these old ways would be brought into the present - the dedication of some "ancestral land" given to them by the government.

The adventure began at 5am with a 2 hr motorcycle ride to the coastal village and continued with a ride on a jeepney a little further up the road where the hiking began. Unfortunately, his contact in that area - a new believer - was not able to accompany him up the mountain as he had responsibilities at the base of the mountain for the fiesta the next day. So Steve didn't know anyone in the group at the beginning, but he was able to meet a lot of new people and develop some good relationships.

It was an arduous but beautiful 2.5 hr hike straight up the mountain next to the ocean. All the pics he got of the "up" part of the trip included the behind of the person climbing in front of him so I included a pic from the return trip so you can see the beauty of the location.

Upon arrival at the top of the mountain, he discovered a tent that had been erected to house the attendees. More than 60 people slept the night in that tent.

They had also set up a beautiful table with plates of food and fruits/vegetables on the other end.

The ceremonies began with a mass and dedication by a Catholic priest. Then the oldest Agta chieftain in the area got up and spoke for almost an hour. While he was speaking in his local dialect, Steve was able to follow most of it and got it on video so he can hopefully study it further with some friends. The chieftain spoke about the need for the Agta to return to sacrificing to the spirits in order to be blessed by them and protected from the evil spirits.

He then sacrificed a white chicken and drained the blood into a bowl. Everyone then came up and dipped in a matchstick and drew a cross on their forehead and both temples.

There was much more to the ceremonies, but I am sure that those of you who are not culture buffs are probably done anyway so I won't bore you (that and I wasn't there so can't speak authoritatively about it!) I do know that there was a band that played songs they had written and used all home-made instruments - Steve said they were amazing.

After the ceremonies, everyone hung out then tried to get some sleep. With that many people crammed into the tiny space (remember the table? Steve was one of the 10 or so privileged ones to be given a spot to sleep on the table!) Talk about crammed in like sardines. But many didn't have even an inch to lie down on the ground and just huddled around the fire all night so Steve really was one of the fortunate few. He got up to use the bathroom in the night and lost his spot so joined the group around the fire for the duration.

The next morning, he had some good conversations with several of men from that area. Their conversation sparked a lot of spiritual questions. Pray that these questions lodge themselves in their hearts and minds and prompt them to seek the Truth. Pray for a way to start a Bible study up in that village - it is too dangerous (and far) for Steve to go on a regular basis, but there is a baby church with new believers at the foot of the mountain and down the road. Pray that God would raise someone up to go teach in this village - wherever they might be from.

While we are still studying their culture and learning their ways (especially the ancient ones), the Agta are dear people we have come to love; and we have a burden for them to know the Truth about the One Who cherishes them and sees in them so much potential. They are so much more than "just Agta" to Him; they were worth the life of His only Son.

Catching Up

Buckle your seatbelts - it has been a long time, and there is a lot to catch you up on so this will be a long post. :) O - and if you haven't seen the next post about Mikayla's adventure yesterday, be sure to do that!

Ok, I really should be working, but just had to take a break and post some pics. The first few are of the kids snowboarding the weekend before we came back here to the Philippines. We were SO thankful for the 4” or so of snow we got just in time for them to try snowboarding (a long-time dream of Zach’s). They all did really well at it and had an absolute blast.

I didn’t take many pics on the flight over, but suffice to say it was pretty awful. We weren’t able to sit together, there were no individual monitors for the kids so had to keep them occupied so they couldn’t see the inappropriate movies on the big screen in front of them, we had a 3 ½ hr delay in the plane on the ground before the 16 hr leg (with the bathrooms broken so no one could use them!), 1 ½ hrs on the ground in Japan – but had to stand in security line the ENTIRE time (again with no bathroom) before immediately boarding the next flight, then to cap it all off we got hit with $400 worth of baggage fees for the last leg that we weren’t’ supposed to have. But we all arrived safely and were happy to have it OVER. While we were busy negotiating with the manager about our baggage on the final leg of the journey (to no avail), I got this shot of Zach. Needless to say, we were all pretty wiped.

Our new house was a disaster when we arrived. A thick layer of dust, grime and bugs (dead & alive) coated everything, both inside and outside the boxes. Cleaning enough to even begin unpacking was a serious job. Also discovered some termite damage in 2 rooms (which led to a lot of the dust since these termites are a little different and drop the dust all over as opposed to accumulating it). They had to remove part of the ceiling in the living room to fix it; haven’t done the dining room damage yet. And a serious leak in our bathroom that led to some good waterfalls and rain from the ceiling in the kitchen below. We also discovered that our fridge and washing machine had gone out; we are still in the process of fixing those.

To top it all off, our tools and school supplies are being held hostage in Manila by FedEx and the customs department and they won’t tell us their complete ransom demands, but it looks like it will be at least $500. Last we heard is that since we listed the value as greater than $500, we will have to apply for a “Importer License” to get it through customs…PRAY that we can get our stuff soon!!!

This little guy has taken up residence in our tiny screened-in porch. Was trying get rid of him then saw him catch this cockroach…now I don’t know what to think. REALLY hate cockroaches.

Our trips into the villages have gone well. A basic assessment of the status of the believers and churches is that the individuals are doing well spiritually, but the churches (at least most of them) are struggling. It is just so against their culture to step up and initiate a meeting as a group, much less teach a group, so many of the leaders are struggling with meeting regularly. We are excited though with how God has worked in their lives since we have been gone and can’t wait to see what He will do in the months ahead as we continue discipling & training the believers and leaders.

Here are a few pics from our trips out:

One of the churches that is really doing well actually started another Bible study about a 45 min hike away. It has been going about a month, and we got to go with them this week. The hike wasn't bad at all, but there were some places where balancing on the skinny rice terraces got exciting. Amazing how that deep mud on both sides seems to pull you in. Realized why the kids were so good at balance beam the few weeks they were in gymnastics though!

As we are hiking out there, MaryAnn tells me there is a bridge coming up that scares her every week. She is about 80 lbs dripping wet so I asked her if it scares HER, what am I going to do??? Ends up it was just a swinging bridge. It moves around a lot but is stable. On the way back, the kids and Steve decided to jump off of it and cool off in the river! The Agta (and I) thought they were crazy, but they had a blast.

We couldn't believe it when we saw that they take motorcycles across! Glad we were on foot.

Jose taught on the story of Noah, and it was such an encouragement to our hearts. I didn’t want to be a distraction by taking pics during the lesson, but I snuck this one afterwards while some of them were standing around talking in front of his aunt’s house where they meet.

Love this pic of Jose and his son hiking out to share the Word with another village.

The rice has just been planted and is a gorgeous bright green color. Beautiful.

Catching up. Precious reunions.

A group gathered to watch our every move wherever we went. They seemed happy to have their entertainment back again. :)

On the way to market.

The kids had fun chasing baby chicks in each of the villages.

those eyes...

village life

Well, Steve left at 5am this morning for a village almost 2 hrs away. He was invited to attend & observe the dedication of some ancestral land that has been deeded to the village by the govt. Upon arrival, they hiked almost 3 hrs to the top of the mountain to do their sacrifices and other ceremonies. They will be there all day and all night; many of the ceremonies will take place under the full moon tonight. This is a notoriously dangerous area so pls pray for safety for everyone involved. There is a large group so they should be ok, but I am still nervous. It was an opportunity to learn more about their culture though that we just couldn't pass up. Steve should be home sometime tomoro. Thanks in advance for praying!

Back in the Philippines

Ok, we are back in the country and back online again. I have TONS of stories to tell and pics to share but no time to do it right now so will have to catch up later. But in meantime, i just had to share these pics from earlier today. We went on a family bike ride around our neighborhood to get to know the area. Mikayla was riding on the sidewalk and went to ride over the weeds. Looks like a pretty nice sidewalk, right? Just a few weeds - no big deal.

Well, as it turns out, those weeds were covering a 6 ft deep sewer hole. Thankfully she was going fast enough that when her bike went down into the hole, she flew on across.

The hole is actually several feet deeper than this shows - the bike got caught on the weeds and didn't make it to the bottom.
Mikayla is ok. Pretty scraped up with a good headache, but she got off REALLY well considering how serious it could have been. Scraped tummy and elbows, wind knocked out and headache. Thankfully she was wearing her helmet!!!

Thanking God for His protection.

Please keep praying for the shipment to arrive! Customs is still holding it hostage but refusing to tell us their ransom demands (will be at least $500 but they not saying exact amount yet!). Has been almost a month now since we shipped it, and we desperately NEED those school supplies so we can start school.

The Agta are doing well and we are encouraged, but we also see some specific areas we need to help them with. More update and pics to follow - TONS to do yet today to continue moving in to our new house. Both the fridge and the washing machine went out - $300 to fix them. :( Feels like we are hemoraging $ here! Good news is that the leak in our bathroom seems to be fixed now - no more waterfall into the kitchen! And they have fixed the termite damage in the living room - now we need to get them working on the damage in the dining room. Well, at least there is something to keep us busy since the school books aren't here! :)

Happy New Year!

We got almost 2 inches of snow a few days ago, and the kids loved every minute of it!

In other news, I have 4 bags packed to exactly 49.5 lbs (to allow for their/our scale for being a little off). 6 or 7 more big ones to go, then 10 carryons, 5 big and 5 small. Making progress! We will drive up to St. Louis on Sunday, Jan 10 then fly out on Jan 11, arriving in the Manila just after midnight on Jan 13 then in our home area of the Philippines at 3:15pm on Jan 13.

Thanks for continuing to pray as we are in the throes of final preparations and saying difficult goodbyes...