I hope you are all well!
A lot has happened since I last wrote. I am much busier than before, and, well, writing has never exactly been a passion of mine, but I will try to continue documenting my time here. This might be a long one. I have 3 sections, so maybe read one at a time :) Haha. They're all really good!!! I promise!!
Our holiday break for Idul Fitri is now over. Classes started last Tuesday (they were pushed back 1 more day). I haven't really gotten a sense for classes yet; we did mostly introductions. If I write about my first impressions, it will come across very pessimistic, so I will hold off until next week to talk about school. :)
PS (okay, I know PS usually goes at the end, whoops): Some of you have asked for prayer requests. Most of what I am going to write about needs prayer. I will also mention a few of them as I go along for those of you who want to pray for me/SE Asia.
The Madagascar Guy's Crazy Life Story
We called him the Madagascar Guy for the last 6 weeks because he was the last Darmasiswa student to arrive and we didn't know his name. He (Andry) got here 5 days ago, and does not speak any Bahasa and very little English. He speaks French and Malagasy, which btw, is a very cool-sounding language. The second night he was here he and I had a very long talk about the spiritual things that go on in Madagascar. (The talk was probably equivalent to an hour long talk, but it took 2.5 hours for us to understand each other and what was being said using English and a few French and Indonesian words.)
For 5 years, from the time he was 10 years old until he was 15 years old, Andry practiced what he kept referring to as "power yoga" or spiritual forces using the mind. He left his parents' home during this time and lived on his own, going to school only on days when he wasn't with his "master" practicing. He explained a lot about the specific spiritual practices he did and the organization/hierarchy of the spirits and how everything worked. I wrote a lot of it down and we googled a lot of the terms so I could read about them. It was very interesting seeing how wikipedia described specific terms.. it made them sound like some strange spiritual, peaceful belief that no one probably ACTUALLY believes in and that has no REAL power. Quite the contrary is true. In reality these beliefs and spirits are very real and had complete control over Andry's life for 5 years.
Andry's teacher/master of yoga is apparently able to move things and make things happen with his mind. Andry learned how to do this too, but did not reach the same level as his teacher. Andry said he also never used the practice to hurt anyone or anything although he knew the spirits he was dealing with were evil ones. His teacher is involved in very dark magic (as all of this spiritual realm is). In order to become a master of the particular type of yoga/magic, he was required to kill someone (with his mind/Voodoo). Andry explained it to me like this: All the people who practice this religion/Voodoo are connected spiritually. They are interconnected similar to as if they are in a physical network with each other where they have ropes that tie each of them to one another. Therefore they are vulnerable to the others in the network and able to be controlled or killed by each other. So his teacher did end up killing someone with Voodoo. His teacher told Andry when Andry started studying with him that he didn't kill his students, so Andry shouldn't worry. However, during the time Andry studied with him, 3 students were killed.
When Andry was 15 he was pulled out of this realm by Jesus and moved back in with his family (and his Dad who is a pastor). He told his teacher he wanted to live a different life and to please grant him the peace to do so. Andry said that he knows this master guy has tried multiple times to mess with him, but he has no power over him because the blood of Jesus protects him. He explained to me that the only thing in the world that could possibly protect him is the blood of Jesus and that his teacher knows it too. Andry sometimes still has dreams that he is practicing this type of yoga and when he wakes up in the morning, sometimes multiple things in his room have moved positions or are on the opposite side of the room. He says when this happens, he knows that it was his teacher trying to mess with him. However, no harm can come to Andry now, Hallelujah!
I have left out a TON from this. First, because I don't fully understand it all. Second, I still have a lot of questions for Andry myself about the specifics of things that he told me so I don't want to give you incorrect information or an inaccurate report on what he said (part of that is, I'm sure due our to language/communication barrier). And third, I'm not sure how important it is (or even if it is a good idea) to know about this stuff in depth. I've heard from multiple people how the U.S./the Western world is a place of spiritual quietness, and the rest of the world is a place of spiritual loudness. I definitely am seeing and hearing more and more how true that is. It is crazy that all these things exist, but in the U.S. we (or at least the majority of ppl) think all this spiritual stuff/magic is fake. Maybe its just me, but I've always thought that EVERYone thinks, knows, and believes that dark magic like Andry was involved in was completely fake. That is definitely, definitely not the case, and I wonder how the word doesn't spread from Madagascar to the U.S. for instance and people don't see what is going on and the truth of the spiritual battle going on in our world. It is Jesus that we must put our trust in to be saved from this world!
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| Tagaytay Volcano on the right side of the photo. PS: This shot was taken from the Starbuck's patio. |
In the Philippines I stayed with a missionary and his family. He is a Pastor originally from the U.S. but has been in the Philippines for 27 years now, since he was about 23 years old. He and his wife started a ministry about 4 hours South of Manila, called Rich in Jesus, and they've started 8 churches there now. They were very giving and amazing hosts. They took me around the entire time I was there, including picking me up and dropping me off at the Clark airport (~6 hour drive from their house). They were truly a reflection of Jesus in how they cared for me when they were under no obligation to. We went to Tagaytay the last day and saw a volcano in the middle of a lake. It was very beautiful.
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| Also in Tagaytay. Beautiful country. (Click on photo to enlarge.) |
The most fascinating thing about the Philippines was the political and religious situation. I started learning about this from the aforementioned book I was reading ("Good News About Injustice"). It talked about the corruption in the Philippine government and military. I learned more on my flight to the Philippines when I sat next to a young man who was part of a religious organization (aka cult). And then when I was there I learned a lot from Rich and his family as well as from International Justice Mission (I visited the Manila HQ on my 3rd day there-which was awesome).
Basically, it seems like there is a lot of corruption within both the political and religious bodies in the Philippines. There is an organization called the NPA (New People's Army) and they are a Communist rebel group that blackmails people and is known for violent behavior. They have a lot of anger and hate towards 1. the Philippine government, 2. Christians, and 3. anyone who doesn't agree with them. To sum up: they basically hate everyone except for themselves. They also specifically target anyone who they think has a substantial amount of money. This includes all white people, even if the person doesn't actually have money, they are assumed to since they are white. They blackmail them and if the person doesn't pay the NPA a certain amount of money per month they will most likely kill them. Pastor Rich told me about a young missionary couple he knew that refused to pay them and a few nights later in the middle of the night their home exploded in flames.
Iglesia Ni Christo
On the plane ride to the Philippines I talked to a Philippino man about my age named Marvin (who I briefly mentioned at the beginning). He was reading the Bible when I sat down next to him. We started talking about the Bible and he started explaining his beliefs to me. For the most part he was on the right track, but he also seemed to be misinterpreting some things that were pretty important. I am obviously in no place to say whether or not he is truly a believer, I am only going to re-tell the story of our conversation. He explained to me that his church, Iglesia Ng Dios (Church of God), was started when it broke off from the church Iglesia Ni Christo (Church of Christ).
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Iglesia Ni Christo. Notice they do not use the symbol of the cross. All of their buildings have this exact same architectural design and color but vary in size. The buildings cost a lot of money, which has created some skepticism/controversy in the Philippines where many of their members are living in poverty. |
So anyways, Marvin's church split off from this church and now there is huge conflict between the churches (the majority of crimes Iglesia Ni Christo commits is towards them). Marvin told me (among other stories) that some members from his church were tricked into going to a restaurant for an event and when they got there, they were all locked inside and members of Iglesia Ni Christo open-fired on them with machine guns. Another story that I learned from...I think Pastor Rich, is that one of the high-ranked members of Iglesia Ni Christo that was allowed to read the Bible to "interpret" it for the members, was convicted by Christ and became a real Christian. He left Iglesia Ni Christo and began following Jesus and became a Pastor for some type of Protestant church. Iglesia Ni Christo tried to kill him several times. I don't believe they have succeeded yet. Pray for more stories like this one; for Iglesia Ni Christo's members to learn about who Jesus is and be turned from Iglesia Ni Christo towards Christ.
Marvin's church, the Church of God, believes that Jesus is the Son of God and allows their members to read the Bible. However, from the way Marvin talked (as though he were repeating other's words and couldn't/didn't want to think for himself) and from talking with other people in the Philippines I learned that his church is also a cult. I think they are in a very difficult situation with breaking off from a church like Iglesia Ni Christo, so prayer for Marvin's church and their correct understanding of the Bible would be great! The second half of the flight I started asking Marvin questions about why he believes certain things about the Bible to make him think for himself. He seemed to not want to consider any interpretations different from what his church had told him, but when I started talking about Jesus he seemed to start listening. It was pretty cool, I was able to speak some truth into his life and he seemed to take some of it in. One good thing was that he agreed with me that we should live according to the Bible and take our beliefs from the Bible, not from what other people - even our pastors - say if it does not agree with the Bible. I pray he remembers this and that God would show Marvin the truth and true meaning of His Word. The Church of God also needs prayer! Their doctrine can probably be found online, but if you want more details on their specific beliefs, let me know.
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| This is the Clarke Quay district where people go out at night. The area feels surreal with the dollhouse-like buildings, lights on the ground, and the illusion that you are indoors. |
I stayed in Singapore for a few nights with a few couchsurfers. It was a very nice break from third world type living, but quite honestly, I was not very impressed. Probably because I've heard about how cool Singapore is my whole life, so my expectations were high. The country, which is also a city, appears to be a big city with its modern architecture and skyscrapers, but it feels more like a small community living inside a bubble. People I talked to that live there described it the same way. Although it is not the most interesting place, it is very nice and clean. It is interesting how society functions there. People seem to have a strong sense of community and are very obedient to the social norms. It seems like they think in terms of the community more often than not. I got a bit of a socialism vibe there. It's interesting that this idea of the societal unit is so strong there given that the city is far too large for people to know each other and that the Western concept of 'the individual' has permeated the country possibly more than any other SE Asian country. Nevertheless, everyone follows the rules almost as if they are under control of the power of the government, the government-made identical apartments house the vast majority of the citizens, and the crime rate is one of the lowest in the world. The mix between the Western world and the Asian world is very interesting as well, but I won't go into that. The majority of the people there are of Asian descent, although it is a very international city. If I had to sum up Singapore, I would say it felt similar to a (very nice and large) retirement community in Florida for Asians.
