I had a unique opportunity to visit the tribe on Palawan where I grew up and where my parents worked hard to plant a church from 1978-1986. When we left the tribe there was a small group of vibrant believers there, but no established church or church leadership. It was a big unknown to us whether or not the believers would continue to grow or if they would be swallowed back up by their ancestral beliefs. It was hard to leave but we knew that God is faithful to His children, and these dear new believers were not going to be left alone, God would continue to be faithful to them.
You can imagine our excitement this year when we heard that a church has now been established and one of those early believers is the pastor. Not only has a church been established now, but there are four Batak churches in various settlements on the island! It was amazing to see the ways God has worked among them, His precious people who will represent the Batak tribe in heaven!
Click to See The Video of Our Visit
One of the women there heard that Bailey and I were here as an aviation team and she got really excited as she remembered Rod Parks, one of our former pilots. She said, “There are two of us here who are going to heaven because of him! If it weren’t for him flying in and taking us to the hospital we would have died before we ever heard the Good News.” She suffered from a gunshot wound and her friend had been stabbed shortly before my parents started working there. Both of them were airlifted to the nearest hospital.
It was such a good reminder to me that I am not only here to serve the missionaries, but that my interactions with tribal people, no matter how routine they may seem, can leave a big impact on them. I was really encouraged by their stories.
After we said our “hellos” we attended a church service where they sang songs that my dad had written years ago and Elisio taught from the book of Daniel. They even asked my dad to share something! It was such a neat opportunity to see them again, and when we live on Palawan this time next year, we hope to make some more visits to see these wonderful people!