Little But Great
by Bonifacio Escaño
Dapilo-an Mission School
Little
children are active participants in whatever activity the student missionaries
make in the mission school. They run
errands whenever asked to. Fetch water,
gather firewood, hunt “SEE” foods, sing, pray, tell stories, name it, so long
as they know how, they’ll do it. For
them, that is one way of showing respect and love to their missionary
teachers. They do it heartily and
happily.
In
our morning and evening worships in the village, we always emphasize how
important prayer is. We just randomly
call on anybody to pray during worships.
Little
children of 6 pray like their older teen and youth brothers and sisters. This
is not true of many of their parents because.. “old dogs learn no tricks”. An attitude has seemed to be learned that
after prayer comes confidence, and a feeling of security. This is because one has fully surrendered
himself to the Lord, and therefore, whatever happens one fears nobody whatever
the situation may be.
Dapilo-an
Mission School is situated on a high mountain, a little distant from the woods
but far away from the bloodthirsty tribe of Langilan. Though how far they are from these warring
tribes, they are not excused from the killing spears and arrows of these
headhunters. That is why when an
announcement is made that headhunters are on the strike again, they are just
like chicks running for refuge under the wings of their mother hen whenever a
falcon is seen hovering above.
One
day, a rumor spread that a group of headhunters are out again to strike. This time it’s not from Langilan but from
Matig Talomo tribe. They are known to be
fierce warriors too. The people of
Dapilo-an were alarmed because the killer group is roaming near their
village. Their problem was their farms,
where they get their food everyday, are in the outskirts of their village 2 - 3
hour hike away. “Alas!” one mother
said. “How can we get our food from our
farm. We don’t have anything to eat
here”. They began to panic. One family packed their things up and went to
Kalagangan a bigger village by the road.
It was good this family had relatives there. But what about those that will be left here
in Dapilo-an
During
our evening worship, I preached about “how God protected His people in times of
trouble when we stay faithful to Him.” I told about David, who even as a small
child was able to beat the giant. We too
can beat these headhunters, only if we are faithful and prayerful.
The
chief (DATU) ordered one day, that nobody should go too far or into the woods
from the village. When one gets hurt
then, the men of the village will be obliged to fight and big trouble will
start again.
In
our class we emphasized to our children to take heed of the Datu’s advice and
they did. But the following day
something happened. There were four
girls, all students of ours, who were bringing their “liyang” (baskets) ready
to go to their farm to gather sweet potatoes.
They came to our cottage to ask permission as they used to.
“Where
are you going girls?” I asked.
“To
our farm sir. We don’t have food to eat
and we are going by all means”, their leader spoke boldly.
“Didn’t
the Datu tell you not to?” I
warned.
“Yes
sir,” they chorused. “But, we have
prayed already. When David was able to
beat the giant, we, too will be saved from the head hunters.” What a faith.
I looked at my partner, he looked at me, we were speechless.
“Yes
girls, you can go but we’d like to pray for you again before you go.”
“Yes
sir, please”. We prayed and they
went. Many times the simple faith and
boldness of these children are our inspiration and strength as we work for the
Lord in the SULADS ministry.
Our
SULADS MISSION is to “reach the unreached” who are especially the unserved
indigenous tribes of Mindanao by providing them non-formal education which
hopes to help alleviate illiteracy, poverty, diseases and promote social
awareness, yet give due respect to their traditions, beliefs, customs,
aspirations and interest so that they may see the richness and the beauty of
their cultural heritage and their whole life.
SULADS
is a ministry that is dependent upon God to move the hearts of people to
support its work.
Donations
for the support of missionaries my be sent
to
SULADS
C/o: AWESNA
2417 S. Azusa Ave.
West Covina, CA 91792
Mark
your donation “MVC/SULADS”
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