We left with dirty feet

Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave. As you enter the home give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. (Matthew 10:11-14)

My last blog entry had gotten us into the fourth village, Mirol-o in the middle of a rainstorm. This next entry will chronicle the following day as we interacted in the churches and villages.

We spent the night in the nipi hut of the pastor, just a girl’s stone’s throw away from the church. There were separate rooms for the guys and gals and we barely fit into them. I’m not sure if the bigger concern was our wet mats or that our Matt was so wet. Since he had failed to bring another change of clothes and the small Filipino’s could loan him nothing to fit, he was provided a large sarang which was wrapped around him like saran. Trust me, he had a marvelous sense of humor about traipsing around the village in a dress for two days, but he will also never again go to a village without a properly packed overnight bag.

The night was very dark as this is a village without any electricity. Once the village went to bed the only lights were from the stars and the fireflies. We were exhausted from the excitement and travel and everyone fell asleep quickly. The sun also rises early in the morning but not before many of the men head out of their huts to their fields. The roosters also make an early go of it, which meant the team was up by five thirty. Other noises we heard that morning was a snoring contest between Stacyann and Matthew, in which all of us lost, and a volley of threats from Elyce to the rooster.

The villagers began to make their appearance as we started making the coffee. Even though it was just instant Nescafe, I was proud to see that my morning routine was supported by the locals. The oldest man in the village joined us on the porch. When Pastor Alan introduced me to him he took my hand and raised it to his forehead. I know this is a sign of respect in the Philippines and that it is something that I should have instead done for him. But once I tried, he did it to me once more and so instead of arm wrestling about it, we just shared a cup of coffee.

All six of the Vineyard pastors from the night before had a sleepover in Mirol-o as well. I’m not sure where all of them stayed, but they all joined us in the church after breakfast for our first service of the day.

The older people in the tribe had gotten dressed in their best tribal outfits. The Vineyard has been encouraging them to let go of traditions that are sinful or harmful, but also encouraging them to embrace the cultures of their tribe that are God-given expressions of who they are as a people. The Ata tribe has beautiful, bright clothing, and they are encouraged to wear them to church. One woman had a stunning, beaded necklace that was attached to both earlobes. The older ladies had tattoos on their arms and stomachs, much like the Butbut tribal people our school met on last year’s outreach in Kalinga.

Part of what I like so much about this story is how the churches were planted in these villages. Pastor Alex, who is the Sr. Pastor in Davao felt the calling to plant churches in an unreached people group. After doing some research he found that there were no churches in many of the Ata tribe’s villages. He started interacting with tribe leaders, explaining the benefit of bringing the gospel and a church to a village. Alex’s church in Davao really reaches out to the local community, mostly to those that no one else would reach. Although that is a different story for a different day, it is important to note that Alex and his church have born much fruit in the past seven years.

Together with the tribal leaders, Mirol-o was chosen. Alex began preparing Ian, a young man in the Davao church that had himself been taken off the street and discipled , to lead the outreach in Mirol-o. Alex, Ian and others from the church began journeying to the village, all the time waving and smiling to the people in the villages along the way. In Mirol-o they met with the people and told them if they wanted to have a church had to have a pastor. Alex read them the qualifications of a pastor and told them he would provide the training, if they selected the right person. They picked Paulo, so Alex took him down to Davao for a crash course on following Jesus. He got saved, filled, and envisioned. He went back to the village with a guitar, a bag of nails, some wire ties, a hammer, a saw, and a bag of rice to feed the villagers on the days they helped him build the church. The villagers bought into the vision. They gathered the materials for the building and helped Paulo put it together. Altogether it cost less than $300 to build the church and train the pastor.

The trips back and forth to Mirol-o got the other villages talking. They could see the benefit of having a church. In Mirol-o the transformation was apparent as people gave their lives to Jesus. Something in their culture has prepared them to receive the gospel message not as the words of men but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which is able to save their souls. The village was transformed- out with the old, including stealing, gambling, and other vices that hurt the community; and in with the new, including worship, brotherly kindness and unity.

One by one the other villages approached Alex and Ian. “Why do you just pass through our village? We would also like you to put a church here. So the pattern was repeated. The community came together and a man with character was chosen to be the pastor. He gave his heart to the Lord, went to Davao city for training and orientation, came back to his village to build a physical building and begin the work of God.

Ian goes to the villages once a month to meet with the pastors for further training and to encourage the churches in their faith. Seven churches have been planted in the past three years. There are another seven to eight churches in the Ata tribe that are wanting the same transformation.
Our trip on this day took us to four of the villages with Vineyards. They greeted us; we introduced ourselves. They worshiped and danced; Isaiah and Kona took turns leading us in worship. My favorite song to sing included these lines:

…and we can see the Love of God in this place
We believe his goodness
We receive his grace
We delight ourselves at your table, oh God.
You do all things well,
Just look at our lives…

We also got to preach the word, pray for the church leadership team, take pictures, chase squealing children, and share a meal together. Then we hiked back down the mountain and repeated the pattern in Mangani, where we were treated to purple sweet potatoes, and then in the evening in Tulay, where we slept over for our second night in the villages, our women in a nipi hut and the guys in tents underneath the stars. When Isaiah woke up next to me in our tent I watched him take in the sunrise over the beautiful mountains. He didn’t say anything, we just drank in the view together. Andrew was filthy, somewhere on the outskirts of Mangani he got a head first look at a rice field. He did the best he could to clean up at the spring, but his white t-shirt had definitely seen better days. As we started down the trail he told me he could easily stay a month in this place. I think he is right; he is made of that material. Matt is loved everywhere he goes. He has such a sweet spirit about him and his size just brings the kids to him in wonder. Our team from Boise was loved in this place.

We said our goodbyes in the morning and headed down the steepest part of the trail to Labo for breakfast and an early morning church service. It was a celebration and it was hard to leave personally so we left our blessing and our peace. We heard the motorcycles arrive for us around 10 am and we made our way across the river for our journey back to the city with our very dusty shoes.