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Olson Family Newsletter Update Serving in the Philippines with New Tribes Mission Evangelism and Church Planting Issue #25, Dec 2009 |
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Click on the picture below to enlarge!
Fruit bat
Typhoon Ondoy in
Manila
Abby with her new
puppy
A blue krait, one
of the most poisonous in the world
Isaac playing
rugby
Bringing the pig
trap victim to our medical clinic
Getting tree bark
Pounding the tree
bark and submerge in the river
Then the fish are
easy to catch!
Bride & groom
eat from the same plate as part of the wedding ceremony
Village shaman
doing chants to heal the groom |
“He bit
it on the head after he caught it,” she
responded to my question on how her husband killed the fruit bat. I was examining the vicious looking
creature she was holding that they would later cook into some soup and eat. I
shot her a double-take. “He bit it? Do you mean it bit him?” Sure enough, the
man bit the bat, not the other way around! This bat would be a good meal for
their family... A
blessed and Merry Christmas to you all and Happy New Year as we wrap up 2009!
It is nice to take a break from tribal life and spend time with our kids in
Manila for a few days! The
things we are reading about in the news today seem to indicate an uncertainty
to our future, our freedoms, and this world. The volcano is about to explode
in the southern Philippines, the world economy still lingers in a recession,
and various governments seem to be in chaos.
Yet God’s promises are certain and sure! God promised to send a
Savior, and He sent His only Son, at just the right time! God also promises a
certain destiny for us and for the world, and these things can be read about
in His written Word! These things are true, and we can stand firm in them! Big
News The big news
from our part of the world is that 2 of our co-workers in the tribe have
passed their final language checks! This is huge – it means that the teaching
of the Gospel may be able to begin sometime in 2010! We are very excited
about this! We will not be at a language level high enough ourselves to be
able to join in the teaching, but we will be right alongside with them and assisting while the teaching is
happening. Furthermore, we will be pressing hard in our own study of the
language and culture so that in the future we will eventually be able to
teach and help new Palawano believers grow in the knowledge and love of God. Recent
events Since
our last newsletter in August, we have had many things happen: · A major typhoon hit Manila and our kids were caught in
the middle of it! · A tribal guy got speared through the legs and then
after we sent him to the hospital, he ran off! · My ankles got chewed to bits by chiggers as I watched
the guys strip off the tree bark used for poisoning fish. · When I was with my language helper out in the jungle
he was hungry, so he chopped down a small tree, cut out the inside of the
trunk, stripped off the outer layer, and started eating it. · A very young couple got married in the village. Typhoon
Ondoy As
you all may have noticed, the Philippines has been in the news a lot this
past 6 months! First there was a series of major typhoons, two of which
caused massive flooding and damage. Our kids were in Manila and we were in
the tribe when we heard the news about the typhoon and flooding in Manila.
When it was all said and done, Isaac was able to help several times with
rescue operations, and Sarah’s class was also able to help with some relief! There
have been other items in the news, but the Palawanos don’t hear too much
about them unless it affects other Palawanos. Life continues for them as it
always has - pressing on one day after another to gather food for their
families and to survive the next planting and harvest season. Though they are
not entirely isolated from outside events, their focus is much more on the
day to day things in their own jungle. Here are some things we experienced
the last 6 months that have helped us understand the people and their culture
more. Pig
trap victim Shortly
after hearing about the typhoon, one of the men from upriver walked into a
pig trap. He was speared through both legs and had to be carried down to us,
where we evacuated him to a nearby provincial hospital. After the initial
first aid treatment and giving him antibiotics, our attendant in the town
there brought him to a home to rest. While resting at home, he was left alone
for a few minutes, and the next thing everybody knew, he was gone! He had run
off, and nobody had any idea where he went. We heard later he had been scared
of the spirits of the people that had died at the hospital. Everyone
was afraid he would die alone in the jungle, being injured and having run off
without his medicine. But praise the Lord, he was found in the jungle, weak
but still alive, and we were able to get him some more antibiotics so that he
would recover! Catching
fish Palawano style… I
went one day with 3 guys to get fish poison (it is really more like a drug than
poison). They have this particular tree, that when you cut off the bark and
soak it in the river, all the fish downstream become weak and easy to catch!
They like this method better than any other, because it doesn’t kill the fish
outright, those that get away continue to live and reproduce, and the drug
has no effect on people. I
was watching them chop off the tree bark (using some small wooden chisels
that they had made), and my ankles were getting full of chigger bites. The
jungle chiggers here don’t just stay in one spot, but burrow around in your
skin and continue to itch if you aren’t able to kill them. They gathered the
bark, soaked it in the river, and caught over 500 fish that day! Those fish
were able to feed about 40 people for 2 days. Eating
a tree stalk… While
we were out in the jungle, one of the guys with me became hungry. He chopped
down a small tree called
enibong,
cut out the center, peeled away the outer layer, and ate it! He handed some
to me and I ate it! It was really good! They have several different plants
that you can eat the stalks of - some they cook and some they eat raw. Wedding
of a 12 year old girl… The
unfortunate reality is that child-brides are common in the Palawano culture.
A family near us recently had a wedding. According to the custom of the
tribal people, a young girl can get married as long as there is a family that
wants her and is willing to pay the bride price (or part of the bride price,
as we found out). Also in Palawano culture, they say that the bride to be is
not forced into marriage, but she is free to decide if she doesn’t want to be
married. So when a family of a bit higher status approached one of the
families near us at the beginning of November to discuss the possibility of a
marriage of their son (age 20 or 21 maybe) to the available daughter (age
12), she readily agreed. They
put the bride and groom in front of everyone and talked to them for about 2
hours about how to be a good family. Then the groom got sick to his stomach,
and he had to step away from the ceremony for a few minutes. So the village
shaman did some chants over him and then they continued on. Then all of a
sudden they were married! They looked nervous, and according to custom they
will spend the first few weeks going back and forth staying in the houses of
the 2 families. A few days after the wedding they told everyone they had
decided to be “good friends.” The marriage is really a contract between the 2
families, both of which will work hard to make it succeed. That
is life from Palawano-land! A happy and blessed Christmas and New Year to you
all from the Philippines! In
Christ, George,
Ginny, Isaac, Sarah, and Abby |
