By James Webb
Jim and Moni write from the Philippines, where they coordinate Laymen Ministries' Philippine projects.

1. We get up at midnight to travel to Manila. We must make this trip every 59 days, as Philippine immigration won’t give us a longer visa. Even though the distance is only 100 miles, it takes 13 1/2 hours to reach our destination. In the same amount of time a jet can fly from Manila to Los Angeles.

2. The electricity goes off daily. Sometimes it stays off only 15 minutes. Other times it may be off all day, or maybe even two.

3. The tap water has black sludge and must be strained, then boiled. Almost daily it is off at least once.

As the administrators for Laymen Ministries’ Philippine outreach, it is necessary that we travel to visit our missionaries who are all in isolated villages. Sometimes roads are washed out and land travel is very restricted. Often during rainy season the ocean waves make sea travel dangerous or impossible.

After sharing some of these experiences with friends, we receive comments like, “You are really sacrificing to serve the Lord!” While we must admit that each day has its special challenges and the inconveniences are annoying, I am embarrassed when others comment on how “hard” we have it or how much we are “sacrificing.”

Compared to our missionaries living in the remote villages, we have absolutely no reason to complain or to think we are “sacrificing.”

Just recently we delivered our newest missionary couple to their village and the following report and pictures will give a better view of what a real missionary has for hardships and what “sacrifice” really means.

Life in the Jungle

Jeff and Cora Bala are both college graduates, in their mid-thirties, and have answered God’s call to “go to all the world.” Here in Occidental Mindoro the native Mangyan people live in bamboo huts with woven palm leaf walls on three sides and grass roofs. The typical size for a house is only 10’ x 10’. There is a platform approximately three feet off the dirt floor where both people and dogs sleep. Chickens, pigs, rats, ants and mosquitoes wander in and out at their leisure. There is no such thing as privacy, as the adjacent huts are very close and anyone can see through the three walls. For the missionary/teacher there is no such things as working hours or days off. All hours of the day or night adults and children come with their requests, or because they are curious. Privacy is impossible, and the villagers are up before sunup, wanting to “borrow” some food or having a medical emergency that needs attention.

As the people have always been gatherers and semi-nomadic, formal education is unknown in the village. Children accompany their parents into the forest gathering food. Whatever is found that day is also consumed that day. The villagers never know where the next meal is coming from.

This makes it extremely hard for our teachers, as the children never have anything to eat before coming to school, and are therefore drowsy and have very short attention spans. Even though the parents agree to leave the children in school, when the parents go into the forest, they almost always take the children along. This is very hard and frustrating for the teacher, as the class size can change by two thirds in one day. All classes are multiple grades and progress is literally three steps forward and more than two steps backward, and this rhythm is repeated constantly. As the parents are illiterate and have never attended school, the children receive no positive stimulation to learn from home. Therefore, all the pressure is on the teacher to motivate, teach and encourage, and to stay motivated him/herself.

Add to this the fact that they are isolated by four to eight hours of hard hiking through the mountains or by mission boat when weather conditions permit travel on the open seas. During rainy season the weather frequently prohibits travel, and therefore the resupply of food to the isolated missionaries is delayed, and they must exist sometimes for weeks on taro root and bananas.

Due to ignorance leading to no hygiene and poor nutrition, disease and death are constantly camped at the door of the natives. Our missionaries live every day with the gnawing reality that no matter how many hours a day they wor k, or how hard they apply themselves, their human efforts are just a drop of mercy in the vast ocean of human suffering. Under these conditions it is easy to become sick and discouraged.

In Another Village

Another indication of what these remote missionaries must face every day is seen in our recent visit to Aglimasan. It had been four months since our mission boat, which is 3 1/2 feet wide and 20 feet long and stabilized by bamboo outriggers, had been able to land through the nine foot waves on the shore. We’d had to stay 200 to 300 feet offshore, and send someone swimming in with food and medicines.

We were very pleased to finally be able to visit and spend the night with missionaries Rene and Emily Rimandiman. Aglimasan is the least desirable of all the villages in which Laymen Ministries works. The steep western slope of Mt. Calavite has poor soil that has been badly eroded after years of the slash and burn practice of the native Mangyan tribes. In addition, the afternoon sun bakes both men and vegetation unmercifully. This village presents an additional challenge, as the villagers are a mixture of minority native Mangyan and the majority Tagalog/Visayan people groups, and contention between them is frequent.

Rene and Emily moved to the village in mid-February, 1999, with their two small children, ages five and two years. After only six months they had a fenced garden and flowers planted around the church/school and mission house. Now several other villagers have also built fences and have planted gardens of their own. The village is now cleaner than before, and the children are learning the 3R’s in school. In addition to the spiritual training, the people are also beginning to open up to hygiene, nutrition and life-style advice. To date, the Rimandimans, in cooperation with the local pastor, have been responsible for 31 baptisms.

More Challenges

As we prepared to leave for another village the next morning, a Mangyan mother came running to the mission house. She was very excited and spoke rapidly in Tagalog. Rene translated briefly, “Sir, she is inviting you to come see her sick son.” Before I could say anything, she took me by the arm and started pulling me toward her hut. I knew it must be serious, as these shy people won’t usually even look me in the eye, much less touch me.

Upon arriving at her hut, I was shocked to see a young boy with blood spewing out of his mouth and nose. My first thought was tuberculosis, and I estimated he had already lost 200 ccs of blood. We prayed over the boy, and praise the Lord, the bleeding stopped. I believe God allowed this hemorrhaging to occur exactly as we were there so that our recently baptized young brother Nick, whom we estimate to be 12 to 14 years old, could get medical attention. He has been living with us while undergoing tests and treatment for tuberculosis.

Even though the government has a program of free medicine for confirmed TB patients, it is only “if available.” Laymen Ministries, therefore, finds it necessary to supplement the “free medicine” with frequent purchases from local pharmacies in Mamburao. We were able to secure a one month supply of medicine for Nick. To be cured, he will have to receive the medicine every day for six months.

Nick’s older brother, Armand, who is approximately 18 years old, accompanied him. My wife, Moni, insisted that we have Armand checked for TB, even though he showed no symptoms. Sure enough, he tested positive.

Laymen Ministries missionaries constantly teach hygiene. This is very difficult, as the people live in a very congested communal fashion, with no bathrooms, and sharing plates and glasses. The people eat with their hands, and often their drinking “glass” is a plastic one-liter container which once held motor oil.

Hopefully, these scenes from our recent trips will help you understand what our Laymen Ministries supported missionaries for Jesus Christ face daily. Please pray for wisdom and courage as the darkness of superstition and ignorance is conquered one soul at a time.

The next time someone makes an appeal that you “sacrifice” and give of your abundance, if you feel led by the Holy Spirit to give, then of course, do so; however, please remember that mankind has cheapened the word “sacrifice” to mean inconvenience.

Thank You, Father. Sacrifice is what Your Son, Jesus, did for us on the cross by giving His all. Thank You for wanting to live with us eternally. Please help us depend on You and believe that Jesus is coming again soon. May we demonstrate our belief by surrendering our all to You and giving of ourselves to obey in the small things You invite us to participate in today.

Note: If you would like to receive either of our videos on the Philippines: An Almost Forgotten People or Return to the Philippines, please call our office at 1-800-245-1844.

The sleeping platform in the mission is a simple wooden platform, only three feet off the ground. As you can see, privacy is not easy to find in a house with woven walls.

This photo does not have an error in color adjustment. In Aglimason the afternoon sun bakes the village and its inhabittants like an oven, turning everyhtin a glowing red.

Nick, one of the newest church members in Aglimasan, is undergoing treatment for tuberculosis under the care of Jim and Moni Webb.