Just like walls painted with whitewash, what is more easily seen in our part of the Philippines is the externals. Here, Christian placards are plastered on many t-shirts and vehicles. Pictures of religious icons hang on the walls as protective charms, rather than an exclusive statement of overarching belief. Alongside outward religiosity, fear runs deep. Fear of family/ community reaction. Fear of the spirits. Fear of the deceased haunting family members.
A grandmother we visited one day was very interested to hear words from the Bible. She told us she was a die-hard Catholic.
“Who will keep the spirits of our dead ancestors happy if I convert to follow Jesus?” she said.
I asked her what people in her community’s greatest fear was. She told me everyone feared drunk people at night with knives. Other friends have told us they’re afraid of rapists. Maripas lives with her extended family in a dark and hot house. The walls are decorated with pictures of religious icons. There is even a picture of Jesus. Yet her partner is not at all supportive of her reading the Bible or attending church. Maripas whispered to me last week that she could come along to our church event because she had told him that it was a farewell party for us at the beach.
Despite these challenges, Maripas has chosen to follow God. Just before her baptism in January she snapped off her necklace that had acted as protection for her since she was young.
“God is your protection now,” the pastor reminded her.
Leonora’s walls also sing of the spiritual reality she lives in. Matt and I have been meaning to talk with her about an idol on a shelf in her room, as well as a framed picture of the Santo Niño (Baby Jesus) on her wall. Leonora has spent her life seeking blessing and prosperity. She told me one day of the money she gave to sponsor an idol parade. She was assigned that year’s parade for a particular statue, and also had to pay for many, many people to eat in honor of it. Religion is not cheap, and pleasing the deities doesn’t include grace.
After Leonora’s granddaughter began attending church, Leonora watched carefully. A couple of years later, she came along to church too. We began opening the Bible with her and slowly she started to make sense of things. One week she said to us that she used to be very angry, but now that anger was gone. But slowly and surely, she really did show a big change in her life. We weren’t sure whether to believe her or not. Her daughter-in-law in Saudi Arabia began doing video call Bible studies with her too.
Despite the different names for fears, fear also grips our country too. Fear causes me to panic, to not think straight, to focus on things that are not healthy. “I would be too afraid to stop my car in Gisborne if I was driving through,” someone once told me. We may not stick a palm branch to our door to ward away spirits, but our habits speak of our fears too. Pray that the gospel message proclaimed would confront spiritual beliefs and strongholds of the evil one. Pray that believers would find the freedom through God.
