The millipede stone makes you look like lots of people...

Magic stones abound here. I suppose they should really be called pebbles, because they are mostly small items. And they abound only in the sense that they are a big part of the culture in the minds of the people. There are not necessarily that many magic stones. You are not supposed to go out looking for them. You basically just have to happen to find them. A few people have them around here, probably like around 1 out of 10 people. If you happen to find one, put it away and take good care of it, because they are very valuable.

Usually they are found in different kinds of food. The taro stone, for example, was found by a shaman who was eating his taro root, and there happened to be a small smooth black stone inside one of the roots. This stone gave him the power to reduce or remove someone’s anger. Just like when you cook the leaves of this plant – you fill up your pot with the leaves, but when you cook them the visible amount in the pot shrinks down to much less than what you filled it to. So it is with the taro stone – if you have it, and someone is angry and comes looking for you, when they start to get near you, their anger will slowly be reduced. That way, by the time they arrive where you are, their anger will have gone away completely. That is the power of the taro stone.

The centipede stone is another one. If you see a centipede carrying a small rock, you pin it down until it drops the rock, and then you take the stone. This gives you the power to win at gambling, because a centipede is aggressive and hurts anything that bothers it. So you will most likely win, and when you win, whoever you beat will be afraid to hurt you in their anger because of the aggressiveness of the centipede. Note that gambling is not actually part of Palawano culture, but it has been introduced by the lowland people, and this stone specifically applies to relationships Palawanos have with lowlanders who gamble.

One of the guys here was eating monkey one time, and he found a stone in the monkey. So he kept it as his monkey stone. The monkey stone made him especially adept at climbing trees, they say. I asked if he was better than other people at climbing trees, and they said, “about the same.” But the monkey stone makes him really good at climbing trees, and he is not afraid when he gets up high. Also if there is a tree all by itself, with no other trees next to it, he will still be able to climb it easily.

The thunder stone is in a class all by itself and has multiple special powers. It was found when lightning hit a tree (which they said was “bit by thunder”) next to someone’s house, and the stone came out. It gives someone the power to call down thunder and heavy rain on a person who has been threatening someone else.

The coconut stone is really special. It makes a person handsome! Ah, so that is why his wife married him… :)  If you find this stone and put it in a jar with oil in it, and then put the coconut oil in your hair, you look especially good. It also makes people think you are a good person, as in, not someone who would start a fight. Like a peacemaker of sorts. For that reason, people won’t want to start a fight with you.

The millipede stone is the one that I found the most intriguing. It makes you look like you are lots of people! If you see a millipede carrying a stone, take it, because it will afford you some special protection. As long as you have your millipede stone, when you go into town or to the market alone, the people there will see lots of people coming, not just you by yourself. Because of this, they will not mess with you – you know, safety in numbers.

I had heard before about the very important rock that the chief found a long time ago, but I didn’t know there were multiple classes of magic rocks before all this came out a few days ago. It is interesting how all this came about. I was asking questions about what someone should do if they find different things walking through the forest. I was asking about items of different value in order to compare the pattern of speech regarding finding things of great value (like lots of money) to finding things of basically no value. Since rocks are very common, I figured they had no value, so I asked my language helper what he would do if he found a box with a rock in it in the forest. Well, ironically there was a treasure trove of information in asking about finding a rock!

Life in the jungle continues…

why there are so few fish in the river today

I was talking to my language helper the other day, asking if he knew how to swim as a kid. He said no, because there were no deep pools in the river when he was a kid. I was wondering about this, because the river is full of deep pools all up and down the river, and people talk about how in the past the pools were much deeper. So I asked him to explain.

It’s like this, egsa. When I was a baby there were many many deep pools in the river. There were also many many fish. In all the deep pools of the river you could just go and fish whenever you wanted and catch lots of fish. I don’t remember it because I was only a baby, but my parents and my older siblings told me about it. One day one of our friends went down river to town and bought some poison over the counter. He had decided to use it to catch fish. He went to one of the big pools in the river and threw out the poison. He caught lots and lots of fish. Way more fish than he could eat – there were a lot that were wasted. They had to bury the extra fish by the side of the river.

The river god saw this and was angry so he sent a big flood. The big flood washed all the fish away and filled in all the deep pools with rocks so that they were shallow now. So when I was old enough to start swimming, there weren’t any deep pools for me to swim in. Later when I was older, there were other floods that washed out some of the deep pools, so I was able to learn to swim. But they have never gotten as deep as before the big flood.

We knew about the big flood – everyone talks about it. It happened about 4 or 5 years before the first missionaries arrived here. It actually filled in the area where our airstrip is now with lots of rocks and mud – giving it a good foundation.

If there is some kind of disaster, like a big flood, or a drought, or the crops are all eaten by bugs, these are considered a judgment by the gods because of a particular sin that someone has committed. When we were back in the States for the summer, 2 young couples got married here. However, they did it the wrong way – they just got together without involving the chief or anyone from their respective families. They were both fined a very high fine – 1000 pesos each. That is about 25 dollars. They also had to give the chief a white chicken and a ceramic plate to appease the wrath of their deity, so that he will not bring upon them another crop failure, landslides, big flood, or whatever he chooses to punish them with.  He cut the chicken in half, threw half in the river and half in the air (that should stop the flood and make sure everyone gets enough rain for their crops). Then he smashed the ceramic plate, symbolizing that their sin was broken.

We have several prayer requests right now for things coming up, so we would appreciate if you would lift these things up!

• I have a language evaluation coming up in a week and a half. Please pray for my mind to be clear during the process so that the consultant will be able to accurately determine where I really stand in the language!
• Our partners are preparing the Gospel lessons for the beginning of teaching the Gospel to the Palawanos! Please pray for wisdom and guidance as the lessons are written, and that the hearts of the Palawanos will be prepared to listen to the message and receive it with joy! The process of writing lessons will take a few months, so please pray also that they are able to take the time to make things clear and easy to understand.
• After my language evaluation, I will be flying out with the consultant to visit some of the other tribes and assist in their language evaluations. Please pray for safe travels!
• There have been a number of problems between Palawanos and Visayan people that live down river. These have mostly been problems because they sell alcohol every Thursday at the market there, and men get drunk, and then they haul off and start hitting each other. Things have recently escalated into threats of more extreme violence, with some men down river threatening to come up here and kill the Palawano men they got in a fight with. Please pray that peace will rule and people will calm down and get their heads on straight about this.
• One of our son’s teachers at the missionary kids’ school, who also happens to be his rugby coach, has been very low on support and has not yet returned to the Philippines. (In fact, many teachers have been so low on support that they could not come to the school this year, and some important classes have been cancelled). We would ask you all to pray that the Lord would raise up more support for this man’s ministry. We feel that he in particular is a strong benefit to the school and our kids, and is also supposed to be Isaac’s bible teacher next semester.  In particular, if you know of anyone that is looking to support a missionary but doesn’t know where to give, we have the information on how to support this individual, and you can email us.

After our language evaluation and my assistance to the other tribes, our kids will have their October break from school, and will fly into the tribe to be with us. We are looking forward to that!

Blessings to you all in Christ for the Gospel

Fishing is a regular source of protein for the people.There used to be many more fish in the river before the big flood, according to what people say.

someone from downriver cut up this tree for wood, but before it was all used up the remainder was washed away in a flood last week

rattan vines from the jungle cut up and sold by the bulk to furniture makers is a source of income for the Palawanos

This young man needed stitches. He said the reason he cut himself was that he was working on a Friday, his holy day, and so he was punished for that by the spirits, his god, or bad luck when he accidentally sliced himself.

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cooking rice over an open fire in a grass house