SULADS STORIES

I’M READY TO DIE

by Arlyn Tolentino

Dao Mission School

May, 1997

My close friends and roommates criticized me when I decided to join the SULADS student missionary program at Mountain View College.  I felt so sad when my closest friend said, “You’ll become a Manobo someday.  Remember that!”  She looks down on Manobos and the SULADS.  I was hurt but my heart told me to be strong.  I wasn’t discouraged by the discouraging words of my friends.

 

“My decision is final.  I have prayed about it.  No more turning back.  I’m ready to die.”  This strong and bold decision of mine stunned my roommates and friends and that was it.  I’m now a student missionary.

I’m now assigned to the Dao Mission School.  This is a three hour hike from an abandoned logging road.  My partner is a Manobo and a mother of two.  Dao is a territory frequented by NPA rebel soldiers.  Military detachments put red flags on the map for the Dao area meaning it is a war zone because of the monitored presence of the NPA rebels.

Chief Datu Mampalawod is a strong supporter of the student missionary program.  He protects our student missionaries.  He speaks for his people in the municipal office.  He strongly objects to the recruiting and polluting of the minds of the many promising youth in Dao by the NPA’s. 

Datu Mampalawod was instrumental in getting his nephew who was an NPA guerrilla member to surrender to the authorities of the law.  This made the NPA’s angry and they plotted to kill Datu Mampalawod and other officials in the village.  Because he and his four companions were issued fire arms and ammunition, there were determined to fight the NPA rebels.  This angered the NPA commander and he then plotted to kill all the people in Dao, including the children and of course the student missionaries.

I prayed, “Lord, I decided to work for you even though I was forsaken by my friends but because you called me, I’m here working for you.  You brought me to this critical area.  As You promised that You will not forsake me and Your people, I’m claiming that promise.  But if ever it is Your will, Lord, for me to die with these people, I will accept it with joy of victory in Jesus.”

Friday afternoon, about sunset, a boy reported that two NPA’s were already in the village.  The people were so afraid.  The village was so quiet and everybody seemed to just feel and wait for what will happen next.  Then it started to rain.  My partner was pale and grabbing her two kids, she asked me, “What shall we do now?”

Calmly I got my Bible and turned to Psalm 23.  I read it to them in the vernacular.  I went on to chapter 91.  I encouraged them boldly.  “We should never be afraid.  Relax, pray, and trust the Lord, our Shepherd, and nothing will harm us.  Nobody will run away, please,” I instructed.  The two kids held close to their mother who was more afraid.  She was praying for her husband who might be on the way still.  I came close to her, hugged her tight, and we reconciled with each other.

“Don’t you worry, my partner,” I comforted her.  “We are working for the Lord. If he wills that we die for him like John the Baptist or Paul, I’m ready now.”  Our tears were choking us as we surrendered our lives to the Lord as we were still glued together with our tight embrace for that seemed to be the last moment of our lives.

Then we heard a knock on our door.  “Open, please,” he demanded in a loud whisper.  I opened the door and there stood in front of me two men.  One was my partner’s husband and the other was his brother. 

 

“Don’t you worry,” they calmed us down.  “The NPA’s are gone.”

What a relief.  But in the morning the threat of the return of the rebels still haunted the villagers.  I was refreshed with the thought that the angel of the Lord drove those NPA’s away.