One of the activities of the Manila YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) is a yearly work camp for college students. What they do here is they ask volunteers to stay in very rural communities for up to one month where they will work with the community. This work could be farming, repairing schools or setting up facilities for learning or playing. The volunteers would shoulder their own expenses for that month and often forego urban comforts such as having one toilet per person or even a comfortable bed.
One such community we visited was located in a mountainside Barangay in Morong, Bataan. It was a community of indigenous peoples we call as Aetas. This was one of those isolated communities, quite far away from civilization. There were no roads going to the village. We had to park our pick-up trucks by the roadside and began a trek to the place. You had to cross a hanging bridge over a wide mountain stream and then hike up the mountainside for a few minutes before you could see the houses that belonged to the village. Talk about adventure, that hike was something else--a real break from the daily routine we call city living.
When we got to the village, you could see the definition of agriculutural living. The people farmed the land for their daily sustenance, and we were even welcomed with a fresh jar of honey taken straight from the hive. Although they lived mostly off the land, they had a school in that community, even a barangay health center but most strikingly, there was a church.
I talked to the pastor of the church, and to my pleasant surprise,they were part of the Kalookan Christian Church, which was headed by a friend of mine, Rev. Eric Maliwat. Eric is also the station manager of 702 DZAS, a non-profit radio station dedicated to bringing the gospel.
Even before the courageous volunteers of the YMCA dedicated their time and strength for the community,someone had already blazed that trail in the wilderness to bring the gospel to this community. Although the church was small, you could tell that it had been built a few years back. They already had a decent building, pews and all the trimmings of a church. It was obvious, someone had walked the rough road before to bring the good news to these people.
Someone who did not have a car, who had to hike up a mountain, who had to bridge cultural differences went there and told them about Jesus Christ. I would certainly like to shake the hand of the person who did that.
Then, I began to ponder again. There are some of us who are content with going to church once in a while. Who come in just before the message, and maybe even leave before the offering plate comes around. Maybe there are those who sit there with idle thoughts, maybe even random thoughts or problems that seem to have no end. Maybe there are those who think that "It's all good," I've done my weekly dues to God. I'm reminded of the main character from the movie Flywheel who answered that he had already given his "tithe of his time" just by going to church that particular Sunday. I wonder how many others think that way.
Going back to that little church on the mountainside; are there those who are still willing to blaze a trail in the wilderness for the gospel? Maybe there aren't that many mountainsides anymore with people that need to be reached, but there are other wild frontiers where we need to blaze new trails. We have before us the wilderness of apathy and complacency that needs to be dealt with. The Christian faith is under attack from a resurgence of humanist views while its warriors either sit comfortably in their pews or bicker with each other over petty things.
Is there someone who is willing to take up the cudgels and fight for the faith? To boldly go where no one has gone
before in the words of Star Trek. I even dare to quote another pop culture reference and ask like Slim Shady asked: Will the real Christian please stand up?
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