Homegrown Harvesters: Ministering to Moliton -- Subanen outreach Part 1

One of the most important things we did during my three-week trip to the Philippines was participate in the Subanen outreach.

Pastor Buyog, left, a Subanen tribe member,
leads prayer before our trip to Moliton. Pastor
Mario is also pictured.

Subanen is a Visayan word for "native." The Subanen typically live in the mountains of Mindanao. Most mission work that is done on Mindanao, a southern island in the Philippines, is done on the plain in the big cities where travel is relatively easy. But there are many, many people in the mountains, many of whom have never heard the name of Jesus.

Ministering to these tribal people is very difficult. The people are so poor, one pastor described the work as "suicide." If you want to be a pastor to the mountains, you will die if you get sick, your children will starve to death. It's not a matter of if, but a question of when. You must understand this reality before you go into the mountains. This is the price that they must be willing to pay.

Pastor Mario Montero, pastor of Shiloh Bible Baptist Church in Punta, Dipolog City, is burdened for these souls. But how to reach them? As he prayed and fasted over this need, he came up with the idea of extension churches. Since all the men in his church are taught how to preach strong, Biblical sermons, they are able to plant extension churches in these mountains.

Aiza Buyog, my hostess and sister of Pastor Buyog, stands
with the Moliton extension church in the background.

One of the extension churches was in a place called Moliton. The first Wednesday I was there, God blessed me to be able to visit this extension church, and we attended a morning dedication and anniversary service.

Traveling in the mountains is not easy. The roads are not paved at all. You must ride a motorbike up muddy, rocky roads that take a terrible toll on the motorbike (not to mention your body, as I would find out later in my trip).

The Philippines government has ignored the poor mountain dwellers for many years, refusing to pave the roads. These poor farmers, because of the roads, are not able to take their produce to the plains. They can rent a truck, but the cost is five times more than the selling price of their items.

A closer look at the church building.

This constant poverty makes many Subanen ripe for wooing by the New People's Army, the communist rebel group that controls many of the mountains. We got to go near their strongholds later in the trip, but those stories are for another time.

Moliton was the easiest of our mountain excursions, but it was not easy by fat Amerkano standards. People in this part of the island were very unaccustomed to seeing a white person. Many would call to me from the roadside, "Hey Joe!," their designation for Americans.

Finally, we arrived at the church. As you can see from the photos, it is a small structure. The church members built it themselves, and the men who preach at this church pay their own way to minister to these people. They get no reimbursements for driving their motorbikes up the muddy, rocky roads.

Moliton is situated in a beneficial place for a church. The mountain village farmers meet in Moliton to sell their goods to people from the plains. In fact, contact through that business is how the first converts were made. So, many villagers from all over the mountains will travel to the market day on Friday, and if there are believers among them, they will stay until Sunday to attend the church.

A mother and her children arrive for the service.

One girl, who now lives at the church in Punta, is named Regen. Her family lives in Palampalay, a village in the mountain next to the mountain where Moliton is. Her family would hike 5 hours each way to attend the church after they converted. Regen is now a member of the school of discipleship in Punta, learning how to lead souls to Christ. Pastor Mario told me that when her family would be hiking down the mountain, through the valley, and back up the next mountain, they would sing hymns. He described how they would echo across the valley, and it would bring tears to the pastor's eyes.

The day was a wonderful one, and I am so thankful to have been a part of the meeting.

Sister Regen, whose family hiked five
hours each way to attend
the church in Moliton.

One of the first things I noticed was the abundance of children in the audience as we were waiting on the members to arrive. I remarked about the number of children, and a man told me, "The people up here are always making souls, so that's why there are so many children."

The people start making souls pretty early in life, and there is little understanding of birth control, my friend told me. So, there are many kids.

Pastor Mario preaches to the people.

There is a particularly disgusting cult up there that tells the people they can have their sins forgiven for only 500 Philippine pesos. So, these poor people will do all they can to give the cult leader 500 pesos. The leader gets rich, and these people think they can have God's forgiveness for only about 12 US dollars.

This same cult leader teaches the women that if they are young when their husband dies, the husband's soul takes up residence in the cult leader. So, the women must move in with him and let their deceased husband father children through the leader.

On this day, Pastor Mario preached in the Mindanao language of Visaya or Cebuano. Neither he nor I can understand the Subanen language, but they all speak Visaya, too. However, the Subanen do not understand English (unless they have been taught), so when it came my turn to speak, my friends Joel and Leah translated into Visaya to those around them.

You will notice the streamers hanging up around the church. Pastor Mario makes those so that people who struggle to follow the sermons audibly can still understand. The pictures also reinforce the points to those who cannot read. Twice, when I spoke, I pointed to a particular picture.

Graciously, 8-10 people prayed to receive Christ after the service ended.

Before the service began, we had to break up a dog fight that broke out in the middle of the church. We ran most of the dogs out, but one fell asleep near where the podium was. When I was preaching, I went to point to an illustration of Christ on the cross, and I forgot about the dog. Fortunately, I did not fall, but I did stumble and irritated the sleeping dog.

I had prepared an in-depth sermon on Psalm 103, but God led me at the last moment to simply read from Romans 8 and expound on the promises of salvation. Twice on this trip God put a new sermon on my heart hours or moments before I was to preach, and both times, God blessed with the salvation of souls.

After the sermons were over, Pastor Mario gave an invitation. Somewhere between 8 and 10 people responded to the gospel. We are thankful for the precious fruit from this trip.

Me and my squash, from this dear family.

Bananas from a dear sister.

Then we had a child dedication service. As you might imagine, that took a little while, with all the "soul making" going on. Some of the children were shy, but it was a blessed time.

After the meeting, it was time to eat. Those of you who know me well know I am always ready to eat. These dear people prepared many local dishes, and they blessed me with gifts. I was given a squash and a cluster of bananas.

Following the service and the meal, we hiked to the baptistry. Now, the baptistry is not like anything you've probably used in your church. We had to hike a mile or two, down hill. It was difficult going down hill, but the return trip was even tougher.

But oh, was it worth it. The baptistry is a pool below a waterfall in the valley down the mountain. After hiking that far, what could we do but go for a swim? Even in my Sunday dress clothes, that water felt really good.

It's a long way down there. Pant, pant, pant.

The trip was wonderful, and I thank God for the precious souls in those mountains. Please, let us pray for the Subanen outreach. These precious souls need the gospel.

Join with us in praying for more laborers. Perhaps God would use us to help support some pastors to go up into the mountains, or help the weekend preachers who prepare sermons around their regular work schedule pay for their gas, motorbike repair and other needs.

But most of all, let's pray for laborers to reach these dear souls. May God bless you for reading, and may He strike your heart to have a burden for the unreached in the Philippines and elsewhere.