Our Efforts in Sagulayan
By Alberto Canete
Student, Mountain
View College
We were greatly disappointed when we arrived in Igulgsad,
Fan Fernando, Bukidnon. The brethren in
Iglugsad, who are our main supporters of our seminar in Sagulayon, had another
appointment when we arrived. Pastor
Sonny Tero had invited the New Generation Singers from Bagota’as, Valencia, to
sing in Halapitan, San Fernando. He then
informed and invited the brethren in Iglugsad to Halapitan for Sabbath
worship. Even the fellowship in
Kibungkog, San Fernando was affected.
We were supposed to have started our nightly meetings on
October 16, 1999, (Saturday night) but we started on Monday, October 18. The main reason was that the there had been
no publication of the evangelistic meetings.
We went out and invited our brothers in Kibungkog on Sabbath morning and
the brethren in Iglugsad late in the afternoon on the same day to help in
building up the meeting place. We worked
the whole day Sunday. At night, when we
were about to start, we thought the battery and sound system would soon arrive
only to find that there were none available.
We then decided to open the meetings the next day, December 18. Bobby Enabong and I were the only men in the
group so we did the speaking. We also had
three ladies in our group. Two were from
Limbayao, Nincy Celedonio and Lucele Lopez.
Mary Jane Manlapao is from MVC and is the younger sister of Bobby’s
wife.
The opening meeting was very encouraging as the as the
people were very attentive to the word.
The peace and order chairman of the sitio, the chairman of the sitio,
and the chief datu spoke for the formal opening.
We had a Bible quiz each night before the special song. We counseled with the villagers when they
were sad or discouraged and even played games with them in a social
occasion.
The people are dominated by the belief of the “Oneness
Pentecostal Church”. Their pastors did
not want to accept us into the community, not because they did not accept the
SDA theology but because of their loyalty to their church. The people were reluctant to go contrary to
their pastors.
On the last night of the effort, the sitio leader called us
because the pastors had called for a talk.
The pastors did not come. We
requested the leader to join us as we went to the pastor’s house. The pastor let us in to his home but told his
wife, “Stay away from their chair” and requested us to sit down.
Without introduction, the pastor blurted out, “I am very
angry with you because you did not let me sign the permit as I am the 7th
councilor of the sitio and the pastor of this sitio. Your church members gossip and say that my
members will not be baptized because I tell them to accept Jesus. Can you not keep your members from
gossiping?” Finally, he said, “I invited
you to come for interrogation because I
had an agreement with you to not trouble your meetings but because of this
situation, we will have a debate tomorrow, Saturday at one pm.”
I responded, “No,
pastor, we will not debate you. Please
stay calm. You were just ordained a few
days ago. If you are angry because our
brother did not let you sign the permit, then you must call him. We came at his request and he was responsible
for the permit.. Bobby added, “We were
concerned about your response so we talked to you personally when we arrived
here. We did not want you to be able to
say that we did not respect the pastor.
Further, if you would tell us who it was who was gossiping, we would be
happy to talk with the.”
No matter what we said, he was still angry. Perhaps it was because some of his members
were beginning to be convinced that the SDA doctrine was correct. He still wanted to debate. We told him we did not want to debate and
requested that he not force us to debate.
I stated, “We are here not for trouble but for peace. We are just helping you to finish the work in
this sitio. Those people who are in the
world must be told and we are here to help you tell them. If they will not follow our belief, they are
yours. If, however, they wish to obey
the voice of God, they will worship with us.
We are here to make Sagulayan a peaceful place as our God is a God of
peace. If we are causing problems as
lightbearers, then how can we show them a Godly peace?”
“Pastor,” Bobby
stated, “we love you as Jesus loves each one of us. If you are in trouble, it is because of a
misunderstanding. Now, I know that you
understand. Why not pray with us?” He refused to pray but Bobby prayed for us.
Hoping that we had reached reconciliation, we went out
happy. At 5 pm, we were called back
again and we talked until 7 pm when it was time to start our meetings. We left the pastor’s house and proceeded
directly to the meeting hall. We
launched into the program which was the Bible Spectacular.
On Sabbath morning, Mr. Miguel Lagil-as, a witness, told us
that the pastor said, “I know I cannot beat them with the words or the Bible
but I will beat them with my fist.”
Two days before the planned baptism, Mr. Lagil-as decided to
be baptized and was married by Datu Colonda the day of the confrontation with
the pastor. They were already married by
local custom and had two children but their marriage was not recorded by the
government so their marriage was not official.
Bobby, two ladies of the group, and I were the sponsors of the
wedding.
On Sabbath, seven souls made heaven joyful as they were lowered into the watery grave signifying their acceptance of Jesus as their personal savior. More will be baptized in December. During the baptism, one of the Pentecostal pastors joined us and said, “My flock will not be happy that I have followed your teaching.” That night we had a social. Even the pastors of the local Pentecostal church joined us in the social as a farewell to our group.
On Sunday, as we were preparing to depart, the people of the
village gathered to wish us well. We talked to the Pentecostal pastor once
again. He told us to “just come back,
brothers, and we will study together the words of God.” We then prayed with the people and there were
many tearful eyes. We shook hands around
and departed. Even after we were up the
trail into the mountains on the way out, we could still here them shouting,
“Good –Bye” and could see the children and adults waving to us.
With happiness, we talked together while walking. We had done our work. God had blessed.
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