A Pinch of Salt and a Bottle of Kerosene

Let me start my article by telling you a story commonly told in the barrios.

One day, a child was heard crying and shouting to his mother, “Nanay, manok na naman ba ang ulam natin?” The mother replied, “Pasensiya na anak, hindi pa ako nakakaluwas para pumunta sa palengke at bumili ng sardinas.”

During those times, it would take an hour or so to wait for a bus to go down to the city proper and another two-three hours to travel because of the bad road conditions. With that, the people in the barrios would always have second thoughts of going to the city and would go there only in times of emergency or when the benefits of traveling outweighed the costs.

Even now in our barangay in the province which is situated in the uplands of Ligao, Albay, people would go to the market most often only once a month because of the distance. And they would often just go to the nearby sari-sari store to buy only two things – salt and kerosene. My mother owns a small sari-sari store and I know that these are the two fast-moving commodities.

Most, if not all of the daily food of the people in our barangay are from their backyards. Surrounding the local community are coconuts and banana trees, corn, and rice. In their backyard are chickens, pigs, turkeys, geese, and ducks. Thus, the dining table would have chicken or pork and eggs during mealtimes. Indeed, the families in our place would rely on their own produce for their daily food intake.

What then is my point?

God graciously entrusted to us hectares of land in Laiban, Tanay for our mission works. Our pastor has envisioned it, not only to house our in-house missionary school but also as a training ground for future missionaries on how to live simply and productively amongst the people they will be ministering to. It will also be a source of funds for our missions. These are all in line with the indigenous principle that our church is adhering to. With our limited manpower and financial resources, we need not always look to the more affluent Western world to support the work of Christ. By God’s grace, we can do it!

We have started planting camote for industrial purposes. We have also finished restructuring the fish ponds which now have 7,500 tilapia fingerlings in them. Lord willing, after three and a half months, we will be able to harvest 1,200 kilos. We also have started planting vegetables and are currently preparing the housing of goats and pigs. We already have a few chickens, ducks, and turkey running in our “backyard” in Laiban.

In the future, we aim to have 50-100 heads of goats not only for meat but also for milk production. Aside from that we envisioned a small piggery. This June also will be the rice planting season. Recently, we have asked the permission of the Latojas to cultivate more than two hectares of uphill portion of their land for the planting of bananas and other root crops.

All of these, the Lord willing, will not only address (at least partially) the financial needs of our mission works but also the daily provision of our church workers. If we can maximize the use of the land and use it at its full potential, we believe that we can greatly reduce the food expenses of our church workers.

Right now, every time we go down to Laiban, we always bring our own food. Wouldn’t it be a great blessing that one day, it will only be salt and kerosene that we will need to bring down with us? And wouldn’t it be a double blessing that we will be able to bring up with us vegetables, eggs, rice, bananas, fish, meat, and other victuals from our own produce? What a great blessing that would be indeed!

Brethren, the work before us is great. This can not be done by one man. Neither can it be done by two or even the leadership of CAM. We all need to take part in this. The volunteer work of cleaning the land is continuing. More money is needed also to finance our future projects. One way of financially helping this work, is to patronize our products. But above all, we need your daily and sincere prayers for wisdom and God’s abundant blessings. Pray always that God will envelop with his cloud of protection whatever things we have placed in Laiban.

May God continuously bless us all. Amen!