Philippines II

Written by Anita B.

9/21/00

The whole value of our trip to the Philippines is yet to be realized. I know that sharing our experiences with you is valuable, so here's the continuation of our report.

Just on a personal level, prior to going to the Philippines, I had been considering the verse Deut. 8:18, " But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day." Working to earn money to provide for ourselves tends to lead to the thinking that we ourselves provide for our own needs, not God. Experiencing the Philippines shoots that idea down. Growing up in America, we take for granted a life with the comforts of soft beds, heated or cooled homes, homes filled with beauty, a variety of things to entertain ourselves with, bright light to read by, toilets that flush at the push of a handle, warm or cool water that showers us also with the turn of a handle, etc. "When riches increase, it is easy to cease depending upon the Lord; and when we feel that we do not need the Lord, we lose our love for Him." In this country, we see outright rejection of God. Man seeks to elevate himself to hold the position of God in his own life as the humanist worldview is perpetrating. In the Philippines there is a lot of false worship of God but there still remains the recognition of the need for a higher power other than oneself. For instance, Roger has a baptismal certificate he is trying to figure out a way to get blank copies of because a baptismal certificate is required to get a job. What, did I hear him right? How can Roger even relate to our issues?

We arrived home on Wednesday morning, having left the Philippines 16 hours earlier, also Wednesday morning. Ariel's first day of school was Thursday. She attends a coop school on Thursdays. Her combination American History and Literature class has six students in it. She was dragging. Her head was down on the picnic table as she took notes. She would rather have been asleep because to her it was nighttime. She commented after school that she actually took notes willingly, an activity she usually rebels against. She further stated that she now realizes that education is a privilege.

Education is critical in the Philippines. It means the difference between poverty and comparative wealth. If Roger's children did not attend a Catholic private school, then they would have to attend a public school, which would have approximately 120 students per classroom. At first, I was horrified when Roger said that his son was learning how to say the rosary. I suggested home schooling. At present, Roger knows of no way to provide a diploma if the children were taught at home. A diploma is critical and highly prized. We understand a college diploma is required to be hired at McDonalds. That helps explain the vast numbers of entrepreneurs over there, those young children and adults selling things on the streets. I bought raw peanuts from a young boy in front of a duty free store at Clark Air force Base. His brother followed us to the car begging me to buy peanuts from him as well. Ariel bought 2 dogs with bobbing heads for her future car. She liked the effect of Roger's "dogs" nodding their heads when the car was being driven, "yes, master, you are a good driver." The large numbers of people manning their booths long hours at the markets also appears to be of similar venue. We also saw small stores in many homes in Roger's neighborhood. Business licenses must not be necessary for these kinds of businesses.

Education in the Philippines is power to provide the best for one's family. That is somewhat true in America but is not the only avenue to wealth in this country. Most of you reading this letter probably remember when Roger was thinking about leaving the Philippines to work as a civil engineer in another country so that he could earn more money to provide more for his family. Roger shared with us what a temptation that was but as he saw the needs of his brethren in the provinces, he became content in his calling to preach the gospel. I know he had already realized how God had prepared him to preach during the time he refused to recognize God as God and his Lord, but this concept seemed so uniquely mine when I also recognized God's preparation in his life. Our brother, Roger, not only was a captain, a leader of men in the Filipino military, but also was a civil engineer. As we traveled with him and Doris, we observed him using the people skills and language skills learned throughout his life and perhaps especially from his years in the military. He knows 12 dialects. And now God is using the preparation of both the military and his college training in civil engineering to help others in this world and the next. That leads to the reasons for the hired help in his home.

Hired help at the Wanasan's has everything to do with the need for education, skills, jobs and survival. Roger's government project home is a basic two bedroom home bigger than the Carabbacan home. It is different in that it has no yard like the Carabbacans. It does have a large front porch with decorative bars and a gate that they lock with a padlock, their way of locking their home. Roger has roofed the porch to increase living space. The front porch is used kind of like the old parlors, a place to visit or read. Their home also has an indoor living room but I preferred the outdoor area. A portion of the porch has been enclosed to make two bedrooms for their live-in help. In addition to Roger, Doris, Hilario and Queenie, a widowed relative, Lorene, and her 16-year-old son, and another woman, Irene, from the church in Mindanao and her son live there. Lorene's son is in his first year of high school, 2 years late by America's standard and 4 years late by theirs as high school begins at age 13. The Wanasan's are sending him to private school with their children. The Carabbacan family also has a boy living with them, a relative, who they are also putting through school. In exchange, both boys were observed by us to help in the home doing what one might consider woman's work. Lorene's son rises early, about 0500, as does the whole household. Lorene and Irene rise earliest to prepare breakfast. Lorene's son rises early to clean house, haul water and prepare for school. Hilario and Queenie rise early to prepare to leave for school by 0600 with their mom and dad who also leave for work early because of the long transportation time. Lorene and Irene stay busy in the home throughout the day communicating and cooperating together well though their dialects are different. Home base is always a safe haven with these women in the home who serve the Wanasan family with thankful hearts. Hilario and Queenie arrive home from school around 1700 and Doris arrives about 1900 or 2000. Lorene's son depends on Roger's son in law, John, for transportation to and from school so leaves later in the morning and comes home on John's schedule. John provides transportation for the family when Roger away Irene's son is 18. He sleeps mostly down the street at the piggery and cares for Roger's animals and garden. He also helps to haul the daily water supply from the piggery to the house. All their household helpers will get up out of bed late at night after a trip and clean out the family van. Irene and her husband with their son came from Mindanao about two months ago. Irene and her son have stayed on for a time to work. Irene does all the family's laundry by hand down at the piggery. The whole household attends Sunday services. The piggery was inspired by Arlis Bown's pig farm in Iowa. It is a tool to teach skills, employ needy brethren, to make a profit and to feed family and friends. At the end of Roger's street is open government land with lush vegetation (weeds). Roger asked permission from the government to develop a portion of it for a garden and a piggery. Somehow he cleared the land and built the piggery using skills he learned from being a civil engineer. He also built two cement fish ponds, which he does not yet have in operation. He currently has chickens, pigs, two dogs and a large garden. This operation is a model for what he would like to see happen elsewhere. While education is very important to the people living in the cities, skills and land are just as needed in the provinces. Our 18-year-old young brother shares responsibilities at the piggery with other young brothers. Roger helps when he can.

When Brother Roger first started going to the provinces to teach and preach he noticed that the brethren were not using their yards to grow vegetables. He began teaching them how to plant and grow vegetables. He has conceived in his mind other ways to help his brothers in the physical world. His hope is that American brethren will catch his dream and help him make it possible to keep his brethren in the provinces off the dole from American brethren in the future. The saying is “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day but teach a man to fish and he will be fed for life.” We discussed many things towards that end; the most far reaching one is along the lines of a farm and piggery. Presently, our brethren in Mindanao do not own their land. They are farmers without farms. Roger dreams of land that could be purchased and used to help the brethren help themselves and benefiting all in the church at Mindanao. Some of the details like ownership of the land have yet to be figured out. Perhaps some of you have ideas on details of ownership so that no one brother is tempted to say it is my land even though he did not purchase it. Some of the brothers that have received money from Americans have forgotten to use monies to benefit the whole.

Because we attended at Manila twice, I got to hear the announcements, which roused my curiosity so I quizzed Roger for details. As many of you know, Roger works part-time for a security company. The owner has another office somewhere else so Roger has infrequent contact with him. The owner is a Catholic, a good man who allows the church to meet in the building and for a few of the brothers to live there in the building. One of these brothers helps with the security business. As an aside, we noticed security is big in the Philippines. Our purses were searched before entering the mall and security personnel were numerous inside the mall and in individual stores. The security office is in Quezon City, basically a suburb of Manila, also 7 km from Roger's home. The room where worship services are held is about the size of some our good-sized church classrooms or maybe a large family room Amazingly, the front wall is all chalkboard. When all are there, some must sit on stools just outside the door on the ramp that goes up into the building. I did notice if late arrivers were women or older folks, the younger males would give up their seats in the room. Roger's office is the room beyond. There are two side rooms in the entryway, one a comfort room (bathroom) and another a very small space currently being used as a kitchen. The congregation is saving for their own building. Every Sunday before church services are dismissed, the amount of the collection is written on the board and a separate amount is written below which indicates specific donations made for their church building fund. They have been saving for 5 years and have enough to buy 50 square meters of land in Manila. P50, 000. Land costs in Manila are higher than other areas. Education costs are higher as well yet the people that come to Manila to live come because of jobs. The exchange rate when I was there was 44.8 Pesos to the dollar. The congregation there is supporting 2 evangelists at P1500 each as well with the belief that Filipino congregations should be helping other poorer congregations.

Our money goes a long way in that land. The daily wage of an unskilled laborer is about P200 per day and a professional receives about P440 per day. An entry level educated person makes P200 per day and will often work 6 days per week. Minimum wage for Americans for an hour is more than the worth of a day's labor there. Telling them our hourly wage means nothing out of context of our cost of living and economy. Even then, we found that understanding their wage scale and economy helped us very little in grasping the whole picture there. Roger says the people there sometimes have the feeling that Americans just pick money up off the streets. They assume we are rich because we are Americans. Our assumed wealth can be a source of envy and discontent. One young brother wrote wonderful letters to Ariel and I. Yet, he wrote that we were better than him because he is poor. Yes, he was poor but I observed rich in the Lord.

By being there, I saw and understood much more the things that Roger writes in his e-mail. He knows that Americans have much comfort and that our money goes a long way to meet the needs but he doesn't ask. He chooses rather to faithfully report the sufferings and the needs of his brethren in the poorer areas so we will understand.

The evangelists have been visiting the Philippines in February, during their summer. We visited during their winter, monsoon season. We experienced lots of heavy rain but were spared the typhoons, which came, shortly before our arrival and right after our departure. When Roger writes the peoples homes are flooded, my question has been so now what? What do they do, how do they manage? I am not sure yet as we learned that the water level rose up to 4-5 feet in Pampamga due to the two typhoons that happened since our leaving. I was there when the water level was up to one's thighs in the home of Arsenio Wanasan. He had stacked his belongings up just above the water level and was canoeing to and from his home. He and family climb the steps to his second story, which was added on last winter. The second story consists of two rooms and a balcony. I watched a neighbor woman pull up her dress and proceed to walk to her home down the way to a one story home. These people stay in their homes for two reasons, because it is still their only home and because of thieving if they leave. I presently understand they live on platforms above the water or I am guessing now on their roofs. Because we went on a walking tour of all the homes of the brethren in Maccabebe, I am trying to picture and process this new information, what it means for each family.

At Resurrecion, Pangasinon and Maccabebe, Pampamga, I had the opportunity to speak to the women about their illnesses and about medicine. I was familiar with their illnesses and traditional treatments but I could do nothing to help them with my current knowledge as a medical surgical floor RN. I did bring with me common over the counter medications, which was shared among 5 congregations total. Two older women in Pampamga had obvious goiters. I will be looking in my resources here at home on how to help them. Two young children had respiratory difficulties. One of the boys had a severe barrel chest common among chronic respiratory difficulty sufferers. I was able to recognize and know too that the wet environment contributed to his problems but I had no solutions. The family did have a home nebulizer, which I was surprised to learn they had. A young child had a rash, which I could not identify. If I had been a pediatric nurse in a county clinic in America I might have known its cause. As I had already decided to learn more about healing herbs, it seems appropriate to me to team up with Doris Wanasan who has knowledge of plants in the Philippines and share what I learn as I learn it.

The people are poor in the provinces and the opportunity to visit doctors is almost nil. If there are any medical doctors among us who have a desire to go to the Philippines, the need is real.

I was also given an opportunity at Pampamga to share words of encouragement in the Lord which I was more than pleased to do as I recognize too that just as in Roger's life, God is a God of preparation and has been preparing me to have a message of hope and faith. Even without that actual opportunity of sharing, I could see how our visit was valuable to the churches in the Philippines. A smile and a hug and recognition of common hope and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, to be called Sister Anita and Sister Ariel and to be introduced to each one of them in like manner caused our spirits to soar.

We did observe that the churches are kind of like what I picture new congregations that Paul, the apostle, established. Roger's work reminds me of Paul's missionary journeys and the follow up he did to establish them and set them in order I was recently asked if the women there are taking an active role in the church. The answer is no. We need to remember these are relatively young congregations in mostly poor rural areas except for Manila. Roger vocalized the need for a woman to come prepared to teach the women their role in the church. If any woman reading this believes that she is able to meet this need, speak to your local elders about your desire. Our dear sister Doris Kansan is an able interpreter. I would venture to guess that Sister Carabaccan would also be an excellent interpreter. Both women speak English well, have a heart for the Lord and are well educated in this world.

Some further thoughts and dreams. The population in the Philippines is largely Catholic. Mrs. Carabaccan, for example, was soon to take her vows as a nun when a daring young military captain in full uniform pleaded the priests to allow her to be his wife. She and her children were brought to the Lord after Tony, her husband, believed and was baptized. It took eight months of exposure to the gospel for Tony to turn to Christ. His life was so drastically changed as a result, many came to the Lord, seeking baptism before hearing the gospel preached. These same people heard the gospel over the next three weeks and were baptized and remain in the Lord to this day. Many of the converts in the Philippines come out of Catholicism. Recognizing that fact, I came to realize that Hilario learning Catholic doctrine at school is God's preparation for Hilario to understand the deception of Catholicism so that he will be ready to reach his neighbor with the truth in the future.

It seemed a shame to me that the people do not have knowledge of food preservation except perhaps Bagoong. Some questions I have, are canning or drying of fruits and vegetables viable skills for our sisters there? If so, could we teach them?

Are there any young people who want pen pals? Two young women in Pampamga gave me their addresses in case some one desires to write them. Their life there is very simple without the clutter of things. Their homes are sparse without books and without toys of all varieties. They don't go to the movies or hang out with their friends. There is a not a big youth culture. Their lives in that area is challenging with the flooding that occurs every year. They will bless you as they share what life is like there and what they need from you is encouragement in the Lord. They know little about our materialism and comforts unless they have seen it on a television and personally I would hate to see that they learn very much because it could become a source of discontent for them. These people have the hearts of servants and contented hearts. It was truly a joy to meet them.

An update received from Roger Wanasan on September 19, 2000

Right now I am assisting the 3 congregation who were affected by the floods last week, rains still continue here in our country and our brethren in Pampamga are very much disturb. Some of them especially their children were evacuated and stay at the church building, there are some people in the community who beg to stay in the church building.

Their situation are getting worse especially that the water was not running and stay on their houses, some parts of their homes were deteriorating and also some of their belongings. Please pray for them my sister and I know God send you here in our country to witness the situation of our desperate brethren. Thank you for the love you shared.