So... where do I start? So many things have been going on here: over half a year has passed for me here in the Philippines, I spent over a week in bed with malaria in July, we have completed many medical trips to the mountains since February, supervised the completion of a well in our adopted tribal village and are continuing with the work here. But I can give at least one recent story...
Our last trip to the ButBut tribal people (and one new tribal people) in the mountains has been the most strenuous for me so far. We spent much time hiking in the mountains to each village we would work at(which I love to do anyway) but also encountered Spiritual opposition. During our first night in a village (that we had never done checkups in before), we spent much of the night up with a sick child and in prayer. We were awakened by frantic knocking on the guesthouse door where we all were sleeping in preparation for the next day of checkups. A child was sick and very lethargic in a nearby house. When we arrived, the child was barely able to keep his eyes open and his mouth just hung open. We gave him paracetamol to help lower his fever and prayed for him. The parents and grandparents were present during this time. I noticed a pig that had just been killed on the shelf near my head. We stayed with the family until about 1am. We said we would check up again at 3am to give meds again and see how the child was. At 3am, upon arriving, we immediately noticed the pig was now on the floor, cut open and a container of blood and a bowl of livers were on the counter.
Many of the people of Kalinga still hold to ancient beliefs that a sacrifice has to be made for a sick person. Sometimes blood is wiped or sprinkled on the sick and sometimes the village witchdoctor is used. We wiped the pig’s blood from the child’s face and continued to pray for him. During this time I really struggled with what to do. Do I need to demand that the pig and blood be removed so we could pray? Do we overlook it? We used the opportunity to tell the family that there was no need for the blood of pigs, but the sacrifice was made by Jesus Christ on the cross for the spiritual and physical healing of all peoples. It is his blood that heals us and nothing else is needed. The family agreed and together we prayed for the sick child. We left the house again at 5am and checked up on the child at 7am. He was noticeable better, but still needed to be transported to the nearby hospital (which was about 2 hours away).
A few days later, I was awakened (and praying immediately) by a strange dream. The moral of the dream (I believe) was that the Word of God is like shotgun shells in our fight against the enemy who is a liar and deceiver who comes to kill, steal and destroy. Without knowledge of God’s Word, we are unarmed. Even if we have God’s Word, but do not have wisdom, we are like one who does not know how to use a gun. Proverbs tells us to cry out for wisdom and understanding and search for it as one searches for gold. We need to ACTIVELY search and cry out for God to give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation as prayed for in Ephesians 1:17.
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