April Prayer Update
To Our Dear Friends, Family, and Supporters,
We hope that this e-mail finds you all well! We have been busy but doing ok here in the Philippines. We continue to plug along in Language School and adjustments, and at the same time travel to different places in order to pick out where we will go this next year.
I will share more about that below, but I really wanted to share with you some very interesting and disturbing information about The Philippines and its people. This is not the first time, of course, for Gilmer to be here at Easter time and I have even been here once years ago, but this year was new for both of us. We have included pictures and you are probably wondering why I would send such gruesome pictures to all of you! The fact is that, this is life here and is not abnormal at all. In some of the pictures you might see the crowd, notice the children of all ages that are there.
Holy Week in The Philippines is probably the most important celebration of the whole year. We were able to experience some of the traditional activities starting with a procession on Wednesday night. It included 60+ floats adorned with flowers that were brought through the town depicting different images of Jesus and Mary. Most of the floats also had a loud speaker blasting the Rosary. Here it is for those of you that don’t know it:
"Hail Mary full of grace. The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary mother of God. Pray for us sinners, now and in the hour of our death. Amen."
The priest walks in front of the procession and sprinkles Holy Water on all the spectators. (He saw me and made sure that I was sprinkled twice!) A tradition here is that the float's foliage then has the power to heal.
On Good Friday we went to a church where they crucify people to a cross. The whole drive we saw people walking on the road carrying crosses or beating themselves with bamboo sticks, like you see in the pictures. They are on their way to different churches where they will lay in front of each of the 12 Stations of the Cross and ask for forgiveness, all while a friend beats them with some kind of rubber whip. These men have made a vow to do this so that God might forgive them of their sins. Or they are thanking Him for answering something they asked from Him. They also think that they are helping Jesus by doing this!
There are a few that have made a vow to crucify themselves to crosses. Only a few places in the Philippines do this and we were at one. (It even made the MSN homepage news when I woke up this morning. I will try to link it for you.)- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17978154/ - This area of central Luzon (the Island where we live and where Manila is) has a very strong historical Catholic faith. I>have heard that leaders in the Catholic Church discourage this form of penance but all the churches are open and many of the leaders in each church are present (even mayors, etc, running for office) though not the priests themselves.
One of the last pictures shows a doorway. Look at the line going into the door (it is a lot longer but we couldn’t fit it in the picture) these people come from all over to wait in line to see an image of Jesus carrying the cross. What they do is bring a handkerchief and rub the statue while they pray to it. The handkerchief then has power to heal them or someone they bring it to, in some way. There are many other beliefs here that are very shocking. Though of course, not all Filipino’s believe them but the majority does.
- There is a little pouch that you pin to the inside of your child’s clothes in order to bring good luck and fend off evil spirits.
- They tie rosaries to their cars, motorcycles, etc. for protection and good luck.
- Some where a necklace with a medallion in the front and one on the back, worn for protection and good luck also.
- If you travel on Good Friday and get hurt, it is likely that you will not be healed for a year.
- Most Filipino’s will not get their heads wet if it is raining. They will put anything they can on their heads to keep the rain from hitting them. Especially for children, they think this will make you very sick (they get quite upset if they see our kids playing in the rain!)
- If you stare at a white person while you are pregnant, your baby might be whiter. Which is the desire for most mothers. To have whiter children.
There is so many more that I can’t even begin to write them, for that matter remember them. And by sharing them I do not wish you to laugh or make light of their strong beliefs in such things. The only reason that I share these with you is so you can have a glimpse of what it is like here and the need for Christ in their lives. Most of the things that you will read about of the Philippines will tell you that it is the only Christian nation in Asia. But what are they meaning when they say Christian? If Filipino’s ask me what kind of missionary I am, I have to say "Born Again." There is big difference between the "Born Again" Christians and the Catholic ones and they all know it too!
This Easter/ Resurrection Sunday as you remember what Christ has done for us. Please also remember that there are millions of people, even in this one small country, who have not heard about the saving Grace of Christ. They live by guilt, as you can see from the pictures, and it is>grace that they should take away from what happened on the Cross! Not the need to do it themselves!
We do struggle sometimes with this new place, life, language, climate, house, etc. But as we reflect on what we have seen only in this short week, we are reminded why we are here! And we want thank all of you, our prayer partners and supporters, for being a part of changing lives here in the Philippines. Please continue to keep us, the Filipino’s, and the work of SEND in your prayers. There is a list below of praises and prayer requests if you would like more information.
Please feel free to drop us an e-mail sometime and tell us how you guys are doing and how we can pray for you too. We care about you all and feel like you know what goes on in our lives but we are missing yours!
Praises:
- In the past month and a half we’ve traveled to two different areas where we could work on church planting teams. They were both quite far but it was great to meet them and see about possibilities for joining a team in December. We have two more to visit still. We need to make a decision by September.
- We were able to attend Gilmer’s brothers wedding in March. Both Nhaya and Caleb were in the wedding and they were so cute! It was a fast trip, but good none-the-less, to be there for important family things that we’ve missed for so many years.
- My language is coming along alright. I have hit some confusing conjugation lately so please include that in your prayers too.
- We have decided to enter Nhaya in Kinder 2 at the public school right next to my school this June, she is turning 5 in a few weeks (that’s the beginning of the new school year). She is so excited and we hope that this will help her make some friends and get some language practice too. She really wants to speak with the other kids around
Prayer Requests:
- For our decision, that’s coming up faster than ever, on what team to join in December. They all seem to need so much help of course>so please pray for wisdom.
- Gilmer’s church planting group at the church we attend. He was involved in a basketball outreach a while ago that went well. They still have almost all women attending the church and it would be great to see some men be reached as well.
- It is now officially summer here and we are feeling it! The heat seems to sap your strength and not to mention your good attitude! Please pray that we can endure and hopefully soon adapt to the heat better.
- Our families- Gilmer’s sister-in-law had a baby last month. She now has 3 boys all under 3 years old and Gilmer’s brother, her husband, is overseas working for another 6 months. (That situation is very common here as their are few jobs that pay well, even many mothers leave there kids and go work for 2 years at a time). Also my sister Shawna is going to have a baby soon, in May.
Blessings,
The Paden Family
(Gilmer, Julie, Nhaya, and Caleb)
I. Cor. 15:58
Phone Numbers
Home – 44-766-1325
Julie’s - 927 -398-4085
Gilmer’s - 927-398-4053
Country code is 63.
Mailing address
P.O. Box 1415
QCC PO
Quezon City, 1154
PHILIPPINES
We hope that this e-mail finds you all well! We have been busy but doing ok here in the Philippines. We continue to plug along in Language School and adjustments, and at the same time travel to different places in order to pick out where we will go this next year.
I will share more about that below, but I really wanted to share with you some very interesting and disturbing information about The Philippines and its people. This is not the first time, of course, for Gilmer to be here at Easter time and I have even been here once years ago, but this year was new for both of us. We have included pictures and you are probably wondering why I would send such gruesome pictures to all of you! The fact is that, this is life here and is not abnormal at all. In some of the pictures you might see the crowd, notice the children of all ages that are there.
Holy Week in The Philippines is probably the most important celebration of the whole year. We were able to experience some of the traditional activities starting with a procession on Wednesday night. It included 60+ floats adorned with flowers that were brought through the town depicting different images of Jesus and Mary. Most of the floats also had a loud speaker blasting the Rosary. Here it is for those of you that don’t know it:
"Hail Mary full of grace. The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary mother of God. Pray for us sinners, now and in the hour of our death. Amen."
The priest walks in front of the procession and sprinkles Holy Water on all the spectators. (He saw me and made sure that I was sprinkled twice!) A tradition here is that the float's foliage then has the power to heal.
On Good Friday we went to a church where they crucify people to a cross. The whole drive we saw people walking on the road carrying crosses or beating themselves with bamboo sticks, like you see in the pictures. They are on their way to different churches where they will lay in front of each of the 12 Stations of the Cross and ask for forgiveness, all while a friend beats them with some kind of rubber whip. These men have made a vow to do this so that God might forgive them of their sins. Or they are thanking Him for answering something they asked from Him. They also think that they are helping Jesus by doing this!
There are a few that have made a vow to crucify themselves to crosses. Only a few places in the Philippines do this and we were at one. (It even made the MSN homepage news when I woke up this morning. I will try to link it for you.)- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17978154/ - This area of central Luzon (the Island where we live and where Manila is) has a very strong historical Catholic faith. I>have heard that leaders in the Catholic Church discourage this form of penance but all the churches are open and many of the leaders in each church are present (even mayors, etc, running for office) though not the priests themselves.
One of the last pictures shows a doorway. Look at the line going into the door (it is a lot longer but we couldn’t fit it in the picture) these people come from all over to wait in line to see an image of Jesus carrying the cross. What they do is bring a handkerchief and rub the statue while they pray to it. The handkerchief then has power to heal them or someone they bring it to, in some way. There are many other beliefs here that are very shocking. Though of course, not all Filipino’s believe them but the majority does.
- There is a little pouch that you pin to the inside of your child’s clothes in order to bring good luck and fend off evil spirits.
- They tie rosaries to their cars, motorcycles, etc. for protection and good luck.
- Some where a necklace with a medallion in the front and one on the back, worn for protection and good luck also.
- If you travel on Good Friday and get hurt, it is likely that you will not be healed for a year.
- Most Filipino’s will not get their heads wet if it is raining. They will put anything they can on their heads to keep the rain from hitting them. Especially for children, they think this will make you very sick (they get quite upset if they see our kids playing in the rain!)
- If you stare at a white person while you are pregnant, your baby might be whiter. Which is the desire for most mothers. To have whiter children.
There is so many more that I can’t even begin to write them, for that matter remember them. And by sharing them I do not wish you to laugh or make light of their strong beliefs in such things. The only reason that I share these with you is so you can have a glimpse of what it is like here and the need for Christ in their lives. Most of the things that you will read about of the Philippines will tell you that it is the only Christian nation in Asia. But what are they meaning when they say Christian? If Filipino’s ask me what kind of missionary I am, I have to say "Born Again." There is big difference between the "Born Again" Christians and the Catholic ones and they all know it too!
This Easter/ Resurrection Sunday as you remember what Christ has done for us. Please also remember that there are millions of people, even in this one small country, who have not heard about the saving Grace of Christ. They live by guilt, as you can see from the pictures, and it is>grace that they should take away from what happened on the Cross! Not the need to do it themselves!
We do struggle sometimes with this new place, life, language, climate, house, etc. But as we reflect on what we have seen only in this short week, we are reminded why we are here! And we want thank all of you, our prayer partners and supporters, for being a part of changing lives here in the Philippines. Please continue to keep us, the Filipino’s, and the work of SEND in your prayers. There is a list below of praises and prayer requests if you would like more information.
Please feel free to drop us an e-mail sometime and tell us how you guys are doing and how we can pray for you too. We care about you all and feel like you know what goes on in our lives but we are missing yours!
Praises:
- In the past month and a half we’ve traveled to two different areas where we could work on church planting teams. They were both quite far but it was great to meet them and see about possibilities for joining a team in December. We have two more to visit still. We need to make a decision by September.
- We were able to attend Gilmer’s brothers wedding in March. Both Nhaya and Caleb were in the wedding and they were so cute! It was a fast trip, but good none-the-less, to be there for important family things that we’ve missed for so many years.
- My language is coming along alright. I have hit some confusing conjugation lately so please include that in your prayers too.
- We have decided to enter Nhaya in Kinder 2 at the public school right next to my school this June, she is turning 5 in a few weeks (that’s the beginning of the new school year). She is so excited and we hope that this will help her make some friends and get some language practice too. She really wants to speak with the other kids around
Prayer Requests:
- For our decision, that’s coming up faster than ever, on what team to join in December. They all seem to need so much help of course>so please pray for wisdom.
- Gilmer’s church planting group at the church we attend. He was involved in a basketball outreach a while ago that went well. They still have almost all women attending the church and it would be great to see some men be reached as well.
- It is now officially summer here and we are feeling it! The heat seems to sap your strength and not to mention your good attitude! Please pray that we can endure and hopefully soon adapt to the heat better.
- Our families- Gilmer’s sister-in-law had a baby last month. She now has 3 boys all under 3 years old and Gilmer’s brother, her husband, is overseas working for another 6 months. (That situation is very common here as their are few jobs that pay well, even many mothers leave there kids and go work for 2 years at a time). Also my sister Shawna is going to have a baby soon, in May.
Blessings,
The Paden Family
(Gilmer, Julie, Nhaya, and Caleb)
I. Cor. 15:58
Phone Numbers
Home – 44-766-1325
Julie’s - 927 -398-4085
Gilmer’s - 927-398-4053
Country code is 63.
Mailing address
P.O. Box 1415
QCC PO
Quezon City, 1154
PHILIPPINES
Comments
We can only imagine what it was like to have seen all of this in person.
Thanks for sharing your experiences. You mean a lot to us!