A Little Embarrassment for Him who died for Me

When you pass somebody here in Kalinga, even a stranger, they will ask you, “Agwan najam?” (Where you are going?) The next question will be, “Aqwan nan nerpugwam?” (Where are you coming from?”) This may seem like quite an invasive inquiry from a complete stranger to a westerner but the question is purely for security reasons.  With all the tribal and clan wars they want to make sure where you are going is safe and where you are coming from was safe.  I often find it humorous that they don’t say with a sweet smile, “Hello, how are you?” but instead greet you with fierceness demanding, “Where are you going?” I want to wrap my beloved Butbut friend up in a hug and squeal, “It’s so good to see you again.”  However, instead I’m made to feel like a mischievous child getting caught by my mother.  I’ve found pointing into the distance and responding with, “Over there!”  is an acceptable response for people I don’t know and don’t really want to know where I’m going.  The third question that you are sure to be asked here is, “Are you married?”  It’s so relieving to them when you say yes because they can’t comprehend why you would be 26 years old and not married.  Still being single causes them to worry and wonder if something is wrong with you.  They think you should already have had two children by now.  One should never respond with simply, “No” or they will believe you truly are crazy.  The polite response to this question if you are single is, “Not yet.”  This answer suggests your optimistic intentions to get that taken care of as soon as possible.  On the other hand, this response will quickly leave them with a task to help you get that taken care of as soon as possible and they will respond with, “It’s good if you marry here.”  I use to respond to that statement with, “Baka ma'id merjad a sa'on na asna.” (But I think nobody here likes me.)  Until an elderly lady said, “Yes!  Many here like you. I will go find them and bring them to you for you to choose the one you will marry.”  Then I started saying, “But you might get tired of seeing my face everyday.”  They told me they are becoming blind and can’t tell who is who anymore anyway.  For now I respond with, “Maybe.”  This response I have found fills them with hope which leads me to the main point of this story. 

We travel each week to a different tribal village where we do outreaches consisting of a health teaching, devotion, prenatals and baby checkups.  We’ve tried for a while now to think of an exciting way to present the health teaching to keep the audience attention so they actually learn and do not become bored.  Usually by the time we get to the devotion babies are crying and nobody seems to be listening.  One of the midwives had an idea and told me she could keep their attention if I didn’t mind being embarrassed.  “Sure! Let’s give it a try!” I said convinced nothing could embarrass me among the precious Butbut people.  So she told a beautiful story about how I fell in love with a specific Butbut man, got married and became pregnant.  She talked about all the changes that happened in my body while being pregnant and all the comfort measures I would need to use.  It was unbelievable not one baby was crying.  All eyes were on the midwife as she said, “and she started craving…” then before she could finish her own sentence the ladies were shouting out, “Mangoes!”  A normal person would have been most likely mortified by all the personal details that had been told in this fictional story about ME, but I’m luckily I’m not a normal person.  I was intrigued that this had worked and we had captivated their undivided attention.  When the health teaching was over, for the first time ever, I had silence and all eyes on me as I shared the devotion about how God is both strong and loving.  I wanted them to know that we can pray and live beyond our means because we know God is ABLE to respond and He WANTS to respond to our prayers.  I wanted them to realize that we should live a life that can be explained ONLY by the existence of a God who is infinitely capable and compassionate.  I’m not sure they grasped the whole concept since faith is so hard to translate but I learned something that day that I will never forget that’s best quoted by Corrie Ten Boom, “We never know how God will answer our prayers, but we can expect that He will get us involved in His plan for the answer. If we are true intercessors, we must be ready to take part in God’s work on behalf of the people for whom we pray.” I will gladly be embarrassed any day if that’s what it takes for people to experience our Father’s LOVE.