In August of 1983, I asked Jesus into my heart following an evangelistic crusade which visited my hometown of Eden and for years afterwards, I attended various churches which reassured me I was saved. For many years I lived a selfish and reckless life. Beginning in high school, during my time in the military and for the years that followed. All this time thinking that if something were to happen to me I would be “OK”. After all, I had asked Jesus into my heart, right? I was saved, or so I thought. I had done some good for others during my life, but for the most part, it was always about me! That is until a trip I took halfway around the world to the island of Mindanao in 2011.
My primary reason for visiting Mindanao was a simple toothache. I had been talking online with my friend for over a year and had always wanted to visit, but the expense of the trip was too much for my budget.
An off-and-on toothache finally forced me to go to the dentist where I learned that I was going to need to get not just one, but two root canals and crowns. One of course for the tooth that was bothering me and also one for a tooth on the opposite side. The cost to do this was going to run about $4,000.
Ironically the friend I had been talking with was renting a room from a dentist so naturally I asked about this procedure and was told that it could be done there in the Philippines for around $500. Once I heard this I decided to check airfare and lodging and found that I could get the work done there for far less and it would allow me to meet my friend in one shot with change to spare.
It was during this visit that I met the Badjao. The Badjao are a water-based tribe and they live on the bounties of the sea or on what is left of it. They are an animistic tribe, however; they do have some Islamic influence since they originated in the Muslim areas of Southeast Asia. Having lost their traditional fishing grounds due to armed conflict, commercial fishing, pirates and poachers, they are left with meagre means of livelihood. Extreme poverty has forced many of them to resort to begging as a means of survival. Wherever they live, they are considered citizens of the lowest class: ignorant, dirty, stench-smelling and deprived and most people have very low regard for them. The Badjao are by far the most marginalized and poorest of all of the tribes found in Southeast Asia.
Currently, the literacy rate among the Badjao is less than 10% and fewer than 20% have any type of formal education. Very few ever make it to the high school level. Education is the key to their being able to break the cycle of poverty they have found themselves in.
“Get away from me!” I yelled at the three unrelenting Badjao girls who after I’ve given them a few coins kept following me on the street asking for more.
They didn’t seem to understand that beggars can’t be choosers or perhaps they just refused to be dictated by social norms, much less conform to them. After all, they were touted as social outcasts so why should they care, right?
They probably knew only one thing: that their stomachs were empty and the P5 coins I gave each of them were not enough to buy a few grains of rice for their respective families. Commercial rice of decent quality by the way costs around P38 per kilo and up (approximately 90 US cents at an exchange rate of 42 pesos to a dollar).
The girls continued to follow me around with their bare feet seemingly unmindful of the scorching hot pavement. Maybe they have developed too much callousness on their soles that they could no longer feel the heat and sharp bumps beneath their feet.
How could I ignore them when they were relentless in tugging at my conscience until I gave in and reached for my pocket in search of some decent amount to spare? The problem was they were tugging at my shirt too and kept poking at my arms. They unceremoniously stretched out their empty hands towards me with their sorry-looking eyes.
“Get your dirty hands off me!” This time, I had to raise my voice quite loudly. I was very upset at this point. “Go away!”
What happened next caught me off guard. One of the girls then asked the other two to give her the coins and she then attempted to return them to me. One of the coins dropped to the ground into a puddle of water and I reached down to retrieve it. In doing so my hands got pretty dirty. The girl then reached out for the hem of her rainbow-coloured malong, a traditional “tube skirt” pulled up to her waist. The malong may also be used as a blanket, a turban, a hammock, or practically anything within the stretch of one’s creativity and necessity. She used the cleanest part of the cloth to meticulously wipe the dirt and grime off my hands.
When she was finished, she just looked at me and smiled.
It was at that very instant that I realized that I had been wrong for so many years. Not just wrong for living the way I had up until that point, but wrong for believing I was a saved, Born Again Christian. At that very moment, it was like there was nothing or anyone else around. I couldn’t even hear the sound of traffic passing by. It was a very powerful and life-changing moment.
I immediately went to the room I was staying in and with tears rolling I thanked God for preserving my life until I was able to know the truth. I immediately knew that had I died prior to that meeting with the Badjao children I would have spent eternity in Hell.
Upon returning to the US, I found it hard to sleep at night thinking about the children I had met on the streets during my trip to Mindanao. It did not take long before I decided to sell everything I had and moved to the island where I started a feeding program which soon evolved into me sponsoring some of the children in the public school system and eventually starting a learning centre which taught reading, writing and math.
Also read:
- Understanding God: He is A Shield and A Rewarder
- The Benefits of Wisdom: Greatness and Honor
- When You Find a Penny
- The Harness of the LORD (2)
- Bye Bye Depression
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