SULADS STORIES

REVIVAL IN KALAGANGAN

by Fred L. Webb

December 1996

On December 18, 1996, Mountain View College recessed for Christmas Vacation.  The Campus SULADS (those now attending MVC who have previously served as student missionaries in the mountains) decided to spend their Christmas holidays working for the Lord.  The morning of December 19 found ten students and four adult sponsors heading for the distant town of Kalagangan. 

To reach Kalagangan, one must leave the paved road behind in Valencia and travel many miles of dirt road to San Fernando, the governmental headquarters for the township where Kalagangan is located.  Once reaching San Fernando, the road deteriorates into mud holes and quagmires as the bulldozers work to carve a new road out of the mountainside.  One day, the road will be nice but now it is quite steep and bad.  After climbing over a few mountains, the road comes to the Pulangi River.  Not only does one cross the river, but one must drive up the river bed for several kilometers.  Someone counted that one must cross streams, tributaries and the river itself up to thirty-nine times between San Fernando and Bugca.  Needless to say, an off-road vehicle is needed.  Some jeepneys are built specially for making this tortuous trip. 

When the happy group arrived in Kalagangan, some 20 kilometers beyond Bugca, they were met with rain.  They set up their tents and their cooking area next to the church and made ready for the Sabbath.  On Sabbath they learned that although there was once a thriving church in Kalagangan, the regular attendance is now under 10 persons.  Meeting with those 10 faithful souls, the group laid plans for how to interest those who had once been members but no longer met with the group. 

Early mornings (3:00 a.m.) found members of the group going from house to house singing for the inhabitants.  When the occupants came to the door, the members of the group would talk with them and pray with them, inviting them to attend nightly meetings at the church that week.  In addition, Vacation Bible Schools were conducted.  Yes, it was plural because, you see, Kalagangan is really two villages. The larger village is made up of lowlanders, sometimes called “dumagats”.  The rest of the village is Manobos.  The Manobos do not mix well with the dumagats as they feel inferior.  Most of these Manobos in Kalagangan work for the dumagats.  The Manobo village is at one end of the town and the houses are typical Manobo style.  Several of the dumagats in the village are quite wealthy operating stores, corn mills, trucks, and jeepneys.  A separate Vacation Bible School was held for each of the two groups to avoid problems.

As the week went by, Alex Panes, the speaker, opened before the 75-100 people in attendance each evening the Words of Life.  Agriculture lectures were given by MVC Agriculture major, Daniel Lincoran, himself a Manobo and former resident of Kalagangan, to assist the people in understanding how to earn a better livelihood, and health lectures were given by Isabelle Panes and Nenita Janoyan to teach them how to care for their bodies. 

On Thursday, Dr. Fred Webb and his son, Dr. Richard Webb who was visiting from California, along with Mr. Daryl Famisaran arrived with some supplies of food for the team and used clothing and medicines for the people of the town.  The clothing was divided up into family sized packages and distributed to those Manobos who were in need.  Mothers brought their babies to Mrs. Panes to receive medications for their children and themselves.  Many of them had coughs—perhaps tuberculosis.  Others had fevers, sores, and skin diseases.  The medicines were donated by the Valencia Sanitarium and Hospital for use in this outreach program of MVC.

On Friday morning, December 27, there was a combined graduation from Vacation Bible School.  A total of about 150 children with paper crowns on their heads listened as the SULADS sang songs and Dr. Fred Webb introduced them to his best friend, Jesus.  The children performed songs, skits, and acrostics which they had learned during the week.  One had to question, however, just how much these Manobo children knew about the “Halleluia Telephone” which they sang about.  After these inspiring numbers, the children were called up one at a time and awarded a ribbon for attendance, a certificate, and a small bag of candy. 

While there were several persons requesting baptism, they were advised that a baptism was not planned at this time.  This series of meetings was to begin the groundwork for an evangelistic campaign to be conducted in Kalagangan in March by a group of youth from North Pacific Union Conference in the US.  This effort over the Christmas holidays will be followed up by two SULADS through January, February, and March to prepare the way for the campaign.  Hopefully, the former members will be stirred by the Holy Spirit and will desire to return to their former church home.  These members, then, will be prepared to receive the new members brought in by baptism from the evangelistic meetings to be held in March, 1997.

Pray with us that the Holy Spirit will work mightily in Kalagangan during the next few months.