SULADS STORIES

OUR GOD IS ALIVE

By Dave Soreqo

Lapangon Mission School

April, 2000

               
The people of Lapangon Mission School have learned the habit of praying.  Morning and evening worships have been part of their everyday routine.  They pray to God expressing from their hearts as talking to a friend.  Even in public they are not ashamed to pray.

One Wednesday morning, three men from Lapangon came down to Magkalungay village to sell their gathered abaca fibers.  Magkalungay is still a Manobo village with few lowlanders that buy and sell abaca.  One lowlander who also buys and sells abaca is a Seventh-day Adventist.  They sell their abaca to this man they call brother.  Near the house of this brother is a Seventh-day Adventist Church.  The nearest house to the church belongs to a Manobo who is a drunkard. 

That evening, those three Lapangon men attended midweek prayer meeting with that lowlander brother.  Still in their working clothes and as usual with bolos tucked on their hip sides, they invited that Manobo neighbor to attend the prayer meeting.  Drunk, he started to laugh and make fun of our God.  He insulted our Lapangon brothers of our God. “Why are you attending church?”  Our brothers were ashamed by the rudeness of the man. 

One brother who was one of the warriors baptized Last November could no longer tolerate the ridicule.  “I’d better teach this guy a lesson.”  Holding his bolo he stood up and went outside.  The two others were alerted and followed him outside.

“No, you should not do that.  You’re baptized already.  We should not kill anymore.” 

“But I can’t stand his ridicule any longer.  He is defying our God, he must learn a lesson,” he shouted. 

“Let God teach him a lesson.  God can handle this simple problem,” one comforted. 

After some time of explaining and pleading he went back inside the church for the service to start.  During the prayer they requested that God would teach the drunkard a lesson.  They went home after the prayer meeting forgetting about the problem.

In the morning they were surprised to see a crowd at the house near the church.  They joined the crowd to investigate.  “What’s up?”  He asked one. 

Anggam (Uncle) is dead.”

“Who’s this uncle?” 

 They found out that it was the same person whom they wanted to teach a lesson the night before.

“Our God is alive!”  When they brought this story home to their village in Lapangon they all declared, “REALLY OUR GOD IS ALIVE.”