Participants: Jeff Reich
Series Code: LM
Program Code: LM000141S
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00:45 I've been thinking about all the years
00:46 we've been coming here to the Philippines, 00:48 came here the first time in 1997 00:51 and I remember when Allen and Maritess Branson 00:54 asked me to come up to the village of San Jose 00:56 up in the mountains here. 00:58 And I went into that village and I was just horrified 01:02 and shocked by what I saw. 01:04 In fact, I coined this phrase that the people here, 01:06 the Katutubo people are what the Tagalogs 01:08 call the Mangyans in this area 01:11 where an almost forgotten people 01:14 and it seems like they are most forgotten 01:16 because in the villages I'd never seen 01:19 any kind of conditions like this in my whole life. 01:59 I saw old black and white pictures of-- 02:02 from the 1940's 02:04 after the Japanese were driven out 02:06 and I saw the pictures of the Mangyans 02:09 or the Katutubo people with the soldiers 02:11 and were no different then what I saw in 1997. 02:15 The disease and the conditions, the fungus on the skins. 02:20 It's the first video as we shot here in 1997 02:24 have been showing on some of our programs 02:26 and those videos and those pictures 02:28 still haunt me today because of what I saw there. 02:32 Over the years we hiked into the mountains 02:34 and we got newer footage of the conditions 02:37 of some of the people there with just terrible situation 02:41 beetle nut coming out of their mouths 02:42 and their teeth missing 02:44 and they hadn't taken bath for weeks 02:46 and living under the bondage of superstition 02:48 and it was just heart wrenching and realized that 02:53 we needed to do something to help these people. 02:56 And one of the things that was really necessary was 02:59 the need of Christ in the villages 03:01 to be able to free the people 03:03 from the shackles of superstition 03:04 and bondage and to be able to establish 03:06 some kind of self birth in Christ. 03:11 An education was gonna have to play an important part. 03:14 So I remember back in 19-- early 1998 03:18 I asked Jim and Moni Webb to come here 03:20 and they retired business people in the state of Texas 03:23 and I knew that they could possible come 03:26 and troubleshoot this project 03:27 and help us with some ideas maybe. 03:30 Jim and Moni Webb came here 03:31 and they were only gonna stay for like six or seven weeks 03:33 and now its been 16 going on 17 years 03:36 and they are still here. 03:39 Working in these villages 03:40 was an extremely hard thing to start out with. 03:44 So we saw that education is gonna be key role 03:48 but trying to convince the older people that 03:53 they needed to make changes was gonna be almost impossible. 03:56 They say old habits die hard and that's really true. 04:00 And so we realized that it was-- 04:03 if any kind of change was gonna take place 04:05 it's gonna have to be through the young people 04:06 or through the children. 04:08 So we started schools 04:10 and you know these people are like a nomadic tribe. 04:12 They only stay in these little makeshift houses 04:15 for a few months out of the year 04:16 and then they are up in the mountains 04:18 doing slash and burn 04:20 planting rice and harvesting rice 04:21 and just living from one meal to the next 04:24 and often times-- having times 04:26 where they were starving 04:27 and happening to dig up poisonous root crops 04:30 and washing them in the rivers to try to be able to 04:34 find some kind of simple foods to eat 04:36 and eating is always called yami and cassava, 04:41 basically food it has no nutrition 04:43 but puts a little bit of food 04:44 in the bottom of their stomachs. 04:47 So trying to establish a school 04:49 at a place like this is extremely hard. 04:52 And over period of time, we started building schools. 04:56 In fact, we build schools in some places 04:58 and it just didn't work and we had to move 04:59 to a different place after that. 05:03 And then places like Pinabayaan 05:05 and we started to having more, more students come 05:07 and have got up to 103 students there. 05:10 And then Cagbalete was another village 05:13 that we established a school and it started growing 05:15 and we built a campus there. 05:17 But beings at the people were nomadic 05:19 the parents always wanted to pull their kids out of school 05:22 and they always would say things like 05:24 oh, we are Mangyan, 05:25 you know, we don't need education. 05:27 This is the way our fathers lived 05:28 and our forefathers lived. 05:30 Dreams are for the Tagalog 05:31 or the child's of the majority people 05:33 but not for Mangyans, Mangyans don't have dreams 05:35 they just live this way. 05:37 But we encouraged the parents 05:39 keep putting their kids in school, 05:40 kids came and went and we started setting 05:42 a standard higher and higher for the kids. 05:45 And we started seeing change starting to develop. 05:47 Kids would come and go 05:49 and some of the kids would stay, 05:50 some of the kids that only last a half year, 05:53 and we started to roll saying that, 05:55 if they had three absences 05:56 they had to leave the school till the next school year. 06:00 And they started to understand that 06:01 these foreigners, these Americans were taking 06:05 this education idea very seriously 06:08 and some of the children 06:09 started attending school and not missing. 06:12 Some of the children would come here very hungry 06:14 the teachers would feed them. 06:16 And over a period of time 06:17 we started seeing the children grow older and older 06:20 and they started learning English, 06:21 they started understanding their Bibles. 06:23 They started growing and maturing 06:25 and it was a delight. 07:30 Education is a long time process. 07:34 I mean we-- we are not only teaching 07:37 English and math to these kids. 07:40 Actually what we ask them 07:42 is a complete mentality and culture change. 07:47 We ask them to understand new concepts of life, 07:50 planning ahead, hygiene. 07:54 We try to help them to prepare for future. 08:00 And let me remind us 08:04 that every thing we're doing 08:06 is to prepare these native children 08:09 these indigenous children 08:11 to become missionaries to their own people. 08:16 That's our whole focus. 08:18 They are used to-- 08:20 to ask and demand for things and we try to help them. 08:24 You can do something with your life, 08:26 you can be independent, 08:28 you can prepare for yourself if you know how 08:31 and we are willing to teach you. 08:32 So it's not only a matter of teaching English and math 08:37 there is much more behind it. 08:39 And that takes time, it takes time 08:41 for the parents to allow their kids to attempt. 08:44 You know parents always made it difficult, 08:46 it seems like the parents are constantly trying 08:48 to pull their kids out of the school. 08:49 They just didn't see a vision for, 08:51 you know, the idea of education 08:52 for this minority group here in the mountains and-- 08:56 but then they would come to church services 08:58 and they would listen to the missionary preach. 09:00 They started to listen to their children 09:01 talk to them in their homes 09:03 and you don't have to-- you have to understand 09:05 in this kind of culture there is very, 09:07 you know, little interaction 09:08 between the children and the parents. 09:11 There is very little emotion, there is very little affection 09:14 and the concept of saying 09:15 I love you to a child is the most unheard off. 09:18 And the missionaries here 09:20 were talking about the love of Christ 09:21 and they were touching the children. 09:23 They were telling the children they love them 09:26 and they were building these bonds 09:28 and these kids would go home 09:30 and share with the parents the things they were learning 09:33 and this change started gradually to come. 09:36 Some of the children started reading really well, 09:39 and then they started reading Bible books 09:41 and reading books on history 09:43 and geography and learning mathematics 09:46 and learning their Bible's 09:48 and the teachers and the missionaries, 09:50 the student missionaries that Came 09:53 year after year were incorporating the Bible 09:55 into their grammar lessons, into their mathematics. 09:58 And so the children became more and more acquainted 10:00 with the scriptures and the truths the scriptures. 10:02 And you know there's power in the word 10:04 to be able to bring about change. 10:06 And that's probably for me personally 10:09 and one of the reasons I'm still a Christian till day 10:10 'cause of the word. 10:12 You know it's not because of what people say 10:14 good or bad either way 10:15 but it's because of the word I'm here. 10:16 And I know it's because of that word that 10:19 will sustain these kids to stay in these schools 10:21 and to be able to be part of a better society, 10:24 to be able to come back to their own people group. 10:46 Back in around 2002, 10:48 we decided it'd be a really good opportunity 10:50 as the school started to grow. 10:53 They started having student missionaries come here. 10:57 I remember the first student missionary 10:58 was a young man by name of Tim De La Torre 11:00 came here from California. 11:03 And that opened the door for a wonderful opportunity 11:07 for young people to be involved with this project. 11:09 We've had young people who had come here 11:11 from South Africa, from various parts of Europe 11:16 and also from Australia. 11:19 And most recently we have a young girl name Andrea 11:21 that's here from the country of Honduras. 11:24 These student missionaries 11:25 have coming on a year after year 11:27 and they worked with the students 11:28 and help them with understanding 11:30 how to read and write 11:32 and how to study the Bible for themselves. 11:35 The real nuts and bolts if I can say it that way 11:38 of making this whole operation successful 11:40 is our Filipino and Filipina coworkers. 11:43 The-- they've come from all different parts 11:46 for the Philippines to Tagalog, Visayan, 11:48 Ilocano various different areas 11:51 and the Philippines who have come here. 11:53 Frank and his wife 11:55 have been in this particular village eight years 11:57 working with these children. 12:01 And each one of these student missionaries 12:03 have brought with them 12:05 a bonding relationship of hugging the kids 12:08 and telling the kids that they love them 12:10 and helping them to grow spiritually 12:13 and to be able to teach them 12:14 better English and teach them math 12:16 and history and geography and Bible 12:19 and all these different things. 12:20 But more than that that they found out 12:22 that world is considerably bigger 12:25 than this whole village here. 12:26 And so they started learning about 12:28 wow, where did this student missionary come from? 12:30 Oh, they're from Switzerland and they got out a map 12:32 and they actually started grasping 12:34 the concept of the globe, the world 12:36 and that there was these other countries 12:38 and different cultures and people groups 12:39 and they were black and yellow 12:41 and white and brown and-- 12:46 it's just been a really wonderful opportunity. 12:49 This is a great opportunity for young adults 12:52 who are college age 12:53 to spend one year here 12:54 and work in these villages. 12:57 So Andrea, you are here from Honduras, 13:00 how you like it so far? 13:01 It's been a good experience. 13:04 The village, the kids are really friendly. 13:06 At first they were really shy 13:07 but then when you get to know them 13:09 its really good friendship you have with them. 13:13 How long have you been here now? 13:15 I think like a month, 13:19 I think I don't count the days. 13:21 And today where are you going? 13:23 I'm going to Mangyan 13:25 to the village I'm going to be on tour. 13:26 So you haven't had the opportunity to see 13:29 where you are going yet? 13:30 No, not yet. 13:31 And how you're gonna get there? 13:33 Hiking. 13:34 How many hours did they say? 13:36 Some of them tell me six hours, some of them five hours. 13:40 I'm going to say-- 13:41 If you are anxious it's gonna be 13:43 six and half hour probably. 13:45 Yes. So you ready for that? 13:47 I think, just let's see what it shows. 13:49 Okay, well, we will see you on the other side. 13:51 And see how you're doing 13:53 when you get there or if you make it. 13:54 I know, I'm not gonna be like this. 13:57 I'm going to be all dirty 13:58 maybe some leeches in my legs 14:00 or something like that, yes. 14:02 Okay, well, we'll see you on the other side. Safe trip. 14:05 Okay, thank you. 14:07 We left on Laymen Ministries boat 14:09 that same day to go to the village of Binuangan 14:11 and well, Andrea with the students 14:13 and teachers took a bus to Paluan 14:15 and hike the five hour trip over the mountain. 14:20 We started out by loading the boat down 14:22 with supplies for all the villages. 14:24 This is what we do every single time 14:26 we need to take supplies out to the villages 14:28 where we have projects. 15:22 Are you tired? 15:25 How about you? How are you doing? 15:28 I'm okay, at least I'm here. 15:30 I thought I was never going to get here. 15:33 Is this what you are expecting so far? 15:37 Its actually looks more beautiful. 15:39 More beautiful. 15:41 I thought that they were like wood houses. 15:43 You haven't-- you haven't seen inside yet though. 15:45 The big spiders and snakes-- 15:48 They told me about the snakes. 15:50 That's just not right, it doesn't happen very often. 15:54 We never had the opportunity to be in the village 15:56 when we were student missionaries just arriving 15:58 so this is kind of a new experience for me, too. 15:59 Oh, that's fine. 16:01 But I'd like to see your reaction 16:02 but so far you seem pretty favorable towards it. 16:04 It's because people have 16:05 just told me that village is ugly 16:07 and you're not going to like it. 16:08 What I think is just looks okay. 16:11 Well, this is the campus and that's actually village. 16:13 You got to see the few of the houses 16:14 where you came in there, pretty interesting. 16:16 This is where you're gonna be staying right here. 16:19 Let's see. 16:21 I actually gone in and kind of looked everything over 16:23 and make sure it was looking pretty good for you. 16:26 Do I close my eyes or something like that? 16:28 So this is it. 16:30 Wow. 16:32 You have a nice little living area here. 16:34 Yes. 16:35 And we brought you a new mattress, 16:37 you probably knew that. 16:38 Oh, I haven't, yes. 16:40 There's your new mattress 16:42 and then you got your bed there. 16:45 And then this is the kitchen in here, 16:48 and you got this but there is no gas bottle, 16:50 I think that they may be forgot 16:51 to give you a gas bottle for you. 16:54 I can cook with fire so that's okay. 16:57 You know how to cook with fire? 16:58 No. No, I can't. 17:00 You got a lot of things to learn here. 17:02 Okay. 17:03 Oh, the one thing I want to show you is the CR. 17:06 Oh, the comfort room. 17:08 Take a look at this. 17:09 Well, take a look see what you think here? 17:11 That's how you're gonna take baths 17:14 with that thing you take that. 17:15 Yes, the deep tray. 17:17 Yeah, the picture over your head 17:18 and then you got to a little toilet there. 17:21 And you think you're gonna be able to take that water 17:24 and just pour it over to you like that. 17:26 I think but I don't know why they call it comfort room. 17:29 This isn't comfortable for me. 17:32 Yeah, we always thought that was kind of oxymoron, 17:34 they call it a comfort room but it's not very comfortable. 17:38 This is gonna be your new home, 17:39 for how long, you're gonna stay here till April, right? 17:41 April, yes. 17:45 When I was hiking I was thinking 17:47 I should have got in the boat. 17:50 Well, that's a pretty long walk. 17:51 How many hours, do you have any idea? 17:53 We started hiking from 11:30. 17:57 This morning? Yes. 17:59 Wow, and it's almost 05:30 now 18:01 and this is how the people live here. 18:06 And there's actually a couple families here, 18:08 the children are back. 18:11 This is the homes. Hi, how are you? 18:17 This is the new girl coming to work here in the school. 18:31 Let's walk down through here. 18:35 But some of the kids are happy to be home, 18:36 you can see them. 18:37 Have you ever seen pound rice like this before? 18:39 No. 18:43 This guy is an expert rice pounder. 18:50 So take this thing, and this is how they-- 18:53 instead of having machine do it. 19:01 And so this is gonna be a real common sound 19:04 in the whole corner of the village 19:05 every evening about this time you will be hearing-- 19:08 They are pounding them. Yeah. 19:10 You want her to try? I can do it. 19:16 Its lot easier then it looks, 19:17 I mean lot harder than it looks. 19:21 Like that. 19:25 I think you should do it. 19:27 Okay. 19:33 I did waste his rice about that careful. 19:37 Just look at it he's got it hardly 19:38 so just, hardly come out his hand goes up like that. 19:43 You want to see like inside there? 19:45 They have fire burning inside there 19:48 and it was a kitchen fire. 21:13 We just this past week dedicated 21:16 the first all Katutubo, Katutubo meaning native 21:21 or indigenous person a high school accredited 21:25 by the department of education 21:27 specifically for indigenous tribe 21:31 in the all 7,107 islands of the Philippines. 21:36 So, Laymen Ministries has a first year. 21:40 You have to understand that, 21:41 if some of the children in these villages 21:44 maybe they walked over to the mountain 21:45 to the small town of Paluan 21:46 which is about a five hours hike, 21:48 and they've seen a jeepney or a car or something like that 21:51 but they've never ridden in that car or jeepney. 21:53 They've never really gone a further than that. 21:55 They've seen very little of "western society." 21:58 These people are really primitive people, 22:01 and we hired a professional big air-condition, ac bus 22:07 to come to the town of Paluan 22:09 and all the children from these three villages 22:11 from our schools hiked over the mountains 22:13 with their teachers. 22:15 And you know the older kinds not the little children 22:17 like the kinder for second, third graders 22:19 but the ones that are just about ready to graduate 22:21 and be in high school, next year didn't want to go. 22:24 You know why? 22:25 Because they were afraid of what the Tagalog, 22:28 what the Filipino majority people would say 22:30 oh, look at here comes the Mangyans, 22:32 here come the Mangyans. 22:34 Hence, they didn't want to go 22:35 because they were afraid of being made fun off, 22:37 but they went any how. 22:39 The kids were coming down into the little town of Paluan, 22:42 there was a Tagalog man there in 22:43 and sure enough to kids were thinking, 22:45 couple of the older kids are thinking, 22:46 oh, this guy is gonna make fun of us 22:48 and this guy, this Tagalog Filipino man 22:51 walked up to the one boy and he said, 22:54 oh, you are going to that-- that school, 22:56 that special high school for the Katutubo's 22:58 where they're having a dedication there? 23:00 Wow, you have a chance for opportunity of a lifetime, 23:04 you should go there and do that best you can 23:06 and they were surprised to see 23:08 you know not negative response 23:10 but positive response. 23:12 That's why we're giving them a first class education, 23:16 we're grounding them firmly in their spiritually life. 23:21 And we are preparing them to be able to attend 23:25 any college here in the Philippines, 23:28 because when they finish college 23:31 as a pastor, as a teacher, as a nurse 23:35 whatever they will be coming back 23:38 and ministering directly to their own people. 23:42 And then there were some people of course, 23:44 you know looking at this large group 23:46 of Katutubo children walking down the street 23:49 and they're like talking you know 23:51 and laughing a little bit 23:52 and the kids were noticing that. 23:54 And then this big bus pulls up 23:56 this big huge air conditioned bus 23:59 that even some of the Filipinos 24:01 don't even ride out here in these island here, 24:03 these remote island places 24:05 and all of this Mangyan children, 24:08 this Katutubo children got on this large ac bus 24:12 and their laughing stopped. 24:14 Then they rived up on the property, 24:16 this is kind of almost parochial in essence 24:19 because these people considered mountain people. 24:22 Most of the Katatubo's, 24:24 while they have little houses like this 24:26 maybe down by this seashore 24:27 majority of the time they're way up 24:29 in the mountains hiding under the tree, 24:31 sleeping in the trees, sleeping under some branches 24:33 and brush and nomadic tribal people. 24:36 And the new academy that we built there 24:39 is on top of the mountain, with the wonderful view 24:43 of the South China Sea on one side 24:45 and the mountains all around 24:46 and so here is a place, its kind of most like 24:49 a heaven on earth for this Katutubo. 24:51 And they got out of the bus, 24:53 and they've just standing there a lot of them 24:55 you know, they're excited to see each other and be there 24:57 but then they just started looking around 24:58 and this morning in church 25:01 some of the students that went there, 25:05 started giving their testimonies about being there. 25:08 And one boy said, oh, the new buildings for us. 25:12 This buildings are not for Tito Jim and Moni or 25:15 its not for Laymen Ministries, those buildings are for us. 25:18 And those buildings are made from mirrors. 25:21 The doors are mirrors, and one boy said 25:23 and the lights, the lights are in the ceiling. 25:26 And when I looked down 25:27 I could see myself like a mirror in the floor. 25:31 I never even thought about anything like that. 25:33 It's just, for them leaving these kind of conditions here 25:37 and then going to a place like that with the tile floors 25:39 and the white walls and solar reflectors 25:42 you know, bringing lighting into the buildings 25:44 and electric lights 25:45 and it was little bit of culture shock 25:48 but what was unique was the fact that they realize 25:52 and we emphasize this while they were there 25:54 that is dedicated for them 25:57 and for their future and for their future education. 26:02 We had a dedication here on the mountain 26:04 with politicians, with our students, 26:09 with members of the Adventist church 26:12 and representatives from there, 26:14 and when Jim and I discussed about a program 26:18 we saw what will we do. 26:20 Usually you dedicate or inaugurate a building 26:23 but we said it's not about any building, 26:26 any construction we have here it's about people. 26:29 And so we tried to shift the focus from the building 26:33 to the people, dedicate people. 26:36 And while we had the program here 26:39 it really was a spiritual program 26:41 and I was impressed also how the governor 26:44 and the congress woman, they felt the spiritual atmosphere. 26:48 They even cried there in first row 26:51 and in the speech the congress lady gave 26:53 she also expressed it. 26:56 And that a lifted-- that uplifted my soul 27:01 and made me so happy to see it 27:04 that our mission work 27:05 is not only the education of our young people 27:09 but always to focus them on God 27:12 and even in a event like a dedication 27:15 of a building of the high school 27:17 to focus on God and to uplift Him. 27:22 And it's our goal that this school 27:24 will become a lighthouse, a beacon on a hill, 27:28 a bright light amongst the Katutubo people 27:31 that they too can come back 27:33 and work among their own people group. 27:35 That they can be nurses, doctors, 27:37 that they can be missionaries and Bible workers, pastors 27:40 and come back and work among their own people. |
Revised 2022-10-13