tribal trekker: tie him up by his feet

We are so thankful for all that the Lord has done and is continuing to do in the Philippines! Please know as you read the following narrative that even though we have had some difficult things happen the last few weeks, we are full of thankfulness, hope, and joy in the Lord! Not that any of it has been easy, but it draws us to Himself, and we are learning to rejoice in the trials.

“Cousin, let's tie him up by his feet and hang him upside down from a tree!”

This is one of the many solutions offered by the Palawanos to me this past week as I was able to return to the tribe for a visit and to pack up our house. You see, right at the beginning of January I received a text message from one of the tribal guys saying there were a bunch of guys inside our house with flashlights making all kinds of noise. (The guy who texted me is one of the few mountain Palawanos that can read, and he also happens to have a cell phone.) So, I called a Filipino pastor I know that lives downriver from us, and he got the police from town to come up and inspect our house.

Two weeks after that, the same guy texted me with more bad news. Our dog had been found dead on the trail with a big wound to the side of her head. Nobody knows who did it. So it was a difficult week this time, going back in to pack up our house, and also to have to confront the thieves and see where they buried our dog.

When the plane landed, the village grandmother, who we call Minan (Aunty) came up to me and gave me a big hug and was crying really hard. “I am so sad about what happened to your dog, and your house. We are all so sad. And we are so sad that you are leaving.” There were many tearful conversations like this over the whole week, and over all it was quite a difficult time for me.

Right after talking to Minan, a guy from downriver came up with a sliced knuckle on his left forefinger. Now is the time the Palawanos are chopping a section of the jungle with their machetes in order to prepare to plant rice. He had been holding some weeds in one hand and his machete slipped, chopping the knuckle and almost completely severing the tendon. We were able to stitch the tendon back together and then also stitch the wound closed. Now his task is to keep the splint on and keep his hand from getting dirty over the next 2 weeks.

So many memories of our time with the tribal people kept coming back to me, and it felt so strange to be packing up what remained in our house (that wasn't stolen). The familiarity of the beautiful place we lived – it just didn't seem real that we were really leaving without knowing if or when we might return.

Thankfully, I had a fellow missionary come with me to help pack the house. He is our Palawan region supply buyer, and without him there I would not have been able to complete the job. It would have been too emotionally and physically draining. He did a tremendous amount of work and I was very thankful to have him alongside for the week.

The Gospel Teaching
The Gospel teaching was temporarily halted while all of us were out over Christmas break. Our partners are returning this week and will resume the Gospel teaching once they get settled. Please continue to pray for the Palawanos as this goes on, that they would come to know Christ our blessed Lord.

Discussions about the theft
The big news in the village this week, since I was there, was that everyone knew who had robbed our house. He is a guy that lives across the mountains from us. We have helped him in many ways with medicine and trade items, but he has continually responded with ingratitude and selfishness, and has also regularly stolen from many of the other Palawanos. In the Palawano culture, it is difficult to get all the Palawanos mad at you at the same time. In fact, you have to be a pretty bad guy to do that, because they are generally pretty non-aggressive people. Well in this case, Maylum has succeeded in getting practically the entire Palawano valley irritated at him, for robbing the missionary's house. Not only that, he brought his 12 year old son along to teach him how to do the job.

So the way the Palawanos reacted to this with us was to begin discussing various possible punishments. Hence the call to hang the offender upside down by his feet. “They do that on Sulu!” they said.

Here are some other statements by various people we talked to.
“We should just kill him.”
“Let's beat him real good.”
“Hey, let's bait him with more of your food! We will put poison in it and let him eat it! Then he'll die – that will teach him!”

We were sitting in a big group when someone suggested that they chop off one of his fingers, which is a real punishment practiced in the area. Several people responded, “Yes! Yes! We should do that. The people upriver from us do that, and that is why nobody up there steals anymore! We should chop off one of his fingers! Then if he steals again, we will chop off his whole hand!”

At this point, I asked the question I was most curious about. “If you decide to chop off his finger, who will be the one to chop it off?”

They all paused and there was a silence for a moment as they stared at me. Finally someone spoke up, saying to me, “Cousin, you're the one he stole from. Of course you are the one who will chop off his finger!”

Right, as if I am going to chop off anyone's finger. Of course I refused, telling them that I couldn't do that. So in the end nothing was decided yet, but that is ok, because there is going to be a big tribal council about this guy and that is where it will be decided what to do. Most likely it will be a huge fine along with a return of the items. There are other possibilities as well, like requiring some work without pay, or even possible jail time for the main offender. All of these things will eventually be decided by the tribal council and the local civil government.

Another interesting thing to note about the incident. We now have many reports from eyewitnesses of people who have our things, how they have bragged about robbing the missionary's house, and testified that Maylum was the one to lead the break-in. So there is no doubt at all that Maylum is the one. However, when we asked the village chief how they knew it was Maylum was the one who robbed our house, he gave us this story. He said they were all gathered around and they cut a length of bamboo to exactly the length of his arms out-stretched, finger-tip to finger-tip. Then they gave some kind of chant and called out to Empu (God) the names of various suspects. When they called out Maylum's name, they said the bamboo grew about 4 inches longer past the tips of his fingers.

One day Maylum's 12 year old son came to me to confess and ask forgiveness. Of course I told him I forgave him, but that his offense was very serious and that the tribal chieftain was still planning to decide on a punishment. We talked about how he felt when it was his own father influencing him to do bad, and this poor kid is in a difficult situation. We also talked about God, how we came to teach them God's Word, and how God's Word could deliver him from his desire to do bad things from time to time. He was receptive and humble, but he is still having to go back and live with his father.

In that regard, please pray for the father, the son, and the other 3 people that committed the crime. We estimated they took around $1000 worth of things, which is far more than any of them would be able to pay back in a lifetime, even if they pooled all their resources together. I did tell the son that we have no bad feelings toward him or his father, and we hope that they will come and listen to the teaching of the Gospel. However, I told him that they must know that they committed a crime and that there was going to be some punishment coming to each of them, as directed by the tribal authorities.

Over all, this incident gave a great opportunity to be able to openly share with many people once again why we came, and how important the Gospel teaching is. I believe they understood our love for them by our actions. We hope and pray that this will result ultimately in the Gospel triumphing over the lives of the people, and that they will be able to live in hope and love, free from fear and despair.

Return to work and continuing on...
So I am back now in Manila, and very glad to be back with Ginny and the kids, although I miss the tribe. We have a lot of work to do over the next few months, with my new assignment in the mission and getting Isaac prepared for graduation and going to college. By the way, please pray for that also – he has applied for a 4 year ROTC scholarship, but as of this writing we have not heard any results. He wants to go into the service after college anyway, but the scholarship would be a huge help in paying for his continuing education.

My current assignment as a language consultant and helping direct the national language program for new missionaries is very important to the work we are doing in New Tribes. There are still many, many unreached areas of the Philippines, and there are still not enough workers to bring the Gospel to all those places. When a new missionary comes to the field, it is important for them to not only do well in the national language, but to truly enjoy and become part of the Filipino culture. This will help in the long term health of our mission, will keep missionaries here for longer, and will have long term results of strengthening tribal churches. We earnestly desire your prayers for this new ministry, that it will bear much fruit and result in a harvest of souls in all the indigenous tribes of the Philippines. Pray for more missionaries to come here, and for us all to grow stronger in our walks with the Lord, strengthening each other and bringing glory to God.

As a final note, we are so thankful for all of your prayers and support for the continuing work in the Philippines! God is amazing, and we are so glad to be part of His service. We can't wait for His return!

Blessings in Christ to you all,
George for all of us
George, Ginny, Isaac, Sarah, and Abby