MAGAHAT
By:
Selpha Velasco
Lapangon
Mission School
November
2000
You may have read and heard
of the precious Lapangon stories about the “bloody bolo baptized”, when the
vice chief chopped a rapist to pieces right before the eyes of the student
missionaries; and when that chopper Datu was baptized and had his bolo baptized
with him too. Today, that baptized bolo
no longer chops but is only displayed in the chief‘s house as a loud, unspoken,
message of peace after receiving the transforming love of God through the
SULADS missionaries.
Sometimes, old conflicts,
when not settled, take roots of hatred that affect innocent children who are
asked to pay blood debt. One day, the villagers told us that there’s “MAGAHAT”
coming to Lapangon. We had heard of this
thing during our SULADS orientation and seminar. We also heard about it from
the folks in the village, but we had not met any of these MAGAHATS on the way
and now they were coming to our village.
We are the first lady missionaries assigned here but we never have heard
of the former missionaries that they were attacked by “magahats” in their time.
And now “Lord, what shall we do?”
The village was in terror.
The chief announced that nobody should be seen in the outskirts of the
village. Curfew was set. We dismissed our classes at 3:30 PM. The village warriors came to our cottage led
by the chief. “What shall we do, Ma’am?”
the chief asked. “We are already
baptized and we don’t plan to kill anymore.
But here is the danger that is threatening the village. We need to protect the village from
MAGAHAT. What do you suggest for us to
do Ma’am?”
I was caught unaware by the
question. “Lord,” I whispered. “Please help me! I need you.”
Then I asked the chief,
“What do you do, Chief, whenever you encounter such a problem?”
“We used to whet our bolos,
prepare our bows and arrows, secure our children in our homes with the mothers
and guard our village in the night.”
“And what do you do whenever
you spot the MAGAHAT group?” I continued.
“We strike, and whenever we
get hold of them, we kill them.”
“Whenever you kill them, does that solve the problem?” I asked.
The chief paused for a while
and after a deep thought, he said, “Yes and no.”
“What’s that,” I
inquired.
“It solves the problem of
our village being threatened and saves the lives of our people but the
MAGAHAT’S people would always find a way to retaliate. This threat we have now was a problem we had
sometime ago before the SULADS came.”
“Do you plan to kill them,
Chief?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“Will that solve the
problem?” He was speechless. “Would you
still plan to kill now that you are already baptized?”
He still was speechless. After a long pause he
said, “What do you suggest Ma’am?”
I said, “We have seen the
miracles of our God in our village many times already. We have seen angels in
form of bright lights in the night and strange visitors. You have heard of many stories about the hand
of God that is a ready help if only we call on Him in prayer. He promised that
if we call His name in prayer He will help in whatever situation we are in. He
will send His angels to keep watch over us in times of danger.”
The chief was just nodding
in approval. “Then what do you suggest ma‘am?” he said.
“I suggest that you continue
with what you have planned to guard the village with your weapons, of course,
with you, but bear in mind that we should not kill. Whatever we do in our strength and might we
will never win them to Jesus whether we kill them or not. Remember they are our brothers that we need
to reach for Jesus. We SULADS missionaries are giving our lives in dangerous
villages, such as this village when our first missionaries came, and we still
plan to reach them, don’t you? They kill
because they don’t yet know the message of love about Jesus but if ever they
come to know about it, just like you do now, they would not kill anymore. Don’t
you think so?”
“Yes, I see,” the chief
approved.
And so it was that the
chief, together with the warriors were roaming every night guarding the
village. About six of them were deployed around our cottage. Then it happened one night.
Every thing was quiet now,
save the night sounds of the crickets and the snores of the guards asleep. When
all of a sudden a cry, “MAGAHAAAAAAAAAAAT”, awakened everybody! The guards were
awakened, the dogs howled, I lit a lamp, the children were crying and the
warriors were shouting “GET HIM! GET HIM! GET HIM!”
“MA’AM BLOW OUT THAT LAMP!
BLOW OUT THAT LAMP!” somebody shouted and my partner blew our lamp out.
We climbed up to the second
deck of our bed and there we prayed.
“Dear Lord, the long heard of MAGAHAT is now in our village. Save us.
Please don’t allow any bad thing to happen. Please send the MAGAHATS away. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”
We heard our neighbor in the
next house shouting, “HE‘S HERE! HE‘S HERE!”
“GET HIM! GET HIM!” came the
male voices, running to the scene.
“Lord, please intervene,” I prayed again. We then heard a group of fast legs going in the direction of the stream. The sound faded away into the night. Then the warriors, children, mothers and everybody came to the cottage to check on us.
“How are you doing here,
Ma’am?”
“We are alright. You don’t need to worry about us.”
“Let’s have worship,” I suggested. “Let’s praise the Lord that he preserved our lives from the hands of the MAGAHAT. Let’s also praise Him that you were not able to kill.” In a moment the village of Lapangon reverberated in songs of praise to God at that early hour of 3:00 in the morning.
The chief shook my hand and
said, “Our GOD really is GREAT
Yes, “Our GOD really is GREAT!” Please pray with us that the SULADS can reach out to more villages in the mountains. Pray that more Datus or Chiefs will accept the message of Jesus and become peacemakers rather than MAGAHATS.
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