Christian Growth in the Philippines
TEEMING over its 7,000 islands are the 40 million friendly people of the Philippines. Their warm, tropical land is said to be among the most fertile areas on earth.
Fertile their land is, too, for the spread of those who desire to live as genuine Christians. There are in the Philippines today over 78,000 persons who have chosen to make this their way of life. During the past service year alone, more than 15,000 of these have newly joined in Christian preaching activity as dedicated, baptized witnesses of Jehovah. That is about one every thirty-five minutes!
These Christian witnesses of Jehovah come from all walks of life. Many are farmers, fishermen and housewives; others are doctors, lawyers, teachers and businessmen.
They come from a variety of religious backgrounds too. Most were formerly Catholic, but one elderly man in Las Navas, Northern Samar, had been a Protestant for forty-three years before he was baptized by Jehovah’s witnesses in December 1973. Another man was an Adventist for twenty-five years, while a young woman had been a Mormon for eight years. Many were deeply involved in their former religion. A university professor in Quezon City had eight years of Roman Catholic seminary training in his background. Another person had been president of the Catholic Women’s League in Bogo, Cebu, for ten years.
WHAT MADE THEM CHANGE?
A woman who had been a member of the Legion of Mary and Heart of Jesus in the province of Cebu relates in this way what contributed to her making a change: “My close association with the priests and the pious led me to notice much hypocrisy among them. Yes, they are devoted and pious, but there is much quarreling, gossiping and use of unbecoming words among them. One officer of the Legion of Mary adulterously took the husband of a fellow Catholic but still she kept her position as an official.”
“I had my first inkling of the mile-wide difference between theory and practice in religion when I entered the religious life after graduating from high school,” says a young woman from General Santos City in southern Mindanao. “There in the Dominican convent I observed firsthand how religious superiors and members coming from wealthy families are given preferential treatment. Their patronizing and condescending attitude toward new members illustrates well the hypocritical love they practice as against the Christian love they preach so well.”
After leaving the convent to teach in public schools, she became disillusioned by unethical practices among public officials who were also prominent Catholic lay leaders. But, “in May 1974,” she continues, “I was given a free tract entitled ‘Has Religion Betrayed God and Man?’ distributed by Jehovah’s witnesses. Two days after reading it, I approached a Witness neighbor whose warm Christian family relationship I had secretly longed for in our own family.” This person was so enthusiastic about the ensuing Bible study that she requested that it continue for three hours every day. She now visits others to help them to see how the Bible changes the lives of those who truly follow its teachings.
Yes, the contrast between the Bible’s truth and traditional religious practice attracts many sincere people. But is that the only thing?
ATTRACTED BY LOVE AND KINDNESS
What appeals to many are the warmth and happiness that Jehovah’s witnesses display. One man used to organize town fiestas in Cebu. But he saw how, although they were supposed to be religious in nature, they became an excuse for raucous merrymaking, drunkenness and dancing, and often in the end—fighting. However, his visit to a circuit assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses prompted him to note the contrast, saying: “Peace and happiness were all I could see. No fighting, no smoking, no drinking and dancing, yet they were truly happy.”
Walking on his hands and knees is the only way one badly crippled man from Mountain Province can get around. He was in Dagupan City to receive schooling for the handicapped when one of Jehovah’s witnesses offered him a lift in his car and invited him to visit their local Kingdom Hall. His crippled appearance did not hinder the warm, loving spirit they displayed toward him. He so appreciated what he had enjoyed among them that, upon returning to his home province, he searched up and down the mountains until he found the local Kingdom Hall. He is now a baptized Christian Witness, actively preaching to others despite his disability.
Thus people looking for love and warm human kindness, so lacking in the world, often find among Jehovah’s witnesses this appealing quality that marks true Christianity.—John 13:35.
CHRISTIANITY CHANGES LIVES
It is to be expected that true Christianity would also change people’s lives for the better when they begin to practice it. It helps them spiritually and morally, and often physically as well.
The case of a ninety-five-year-old man in Basilan City who used to chew buyo leaves mixed with tobacco, lime and betel nut illustrates this point. He gave up his debilitating habit immediately upon learning that Bible principles show it to be unclean. (2 Cor. 7:1) He also went to a judge and had his marriage legalized so as to be morally clean in God’s sight. Certainly no one is too old to make changes!
“I was not ashamed to fight publicly,” admits a woman in Ilocos Sur of her former way of life. “When I disagreed with my husband I shouted and destroyed everything I could lay my hands on, including the radio, just to satisfy my anger.” After she learned the truth from God’s Word, a radical change took place. Although her husband opposed her study of the Bible, she no longer fought with him as before but showed submissiveness. This impressed him so much that he too is showing an interest in the Bible.
Feeling what she considered to be a lack of parental love, a youth in Iloilo ran away from home when she was twelve. In Manila she began a jaded career that came to include excessive smoking, drinking, the use of drugs and knives and guns. An interlude back at home, when she also studied at a Catholic school, only added to her vices, now expanded to include lesbianism. During her high-school years, she began to have a guilty conscience and to wonder what was wrong with her. Approaches for advice to her mother, her teachers and her priest only brought the opinion that she was “normal.”
Finally, she asked one of Jehovah’s witnesses, who did not hesitate to tell her God’s view of such matters, noting that God had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for similar immoral conduct. On hearing this, she said: “I was stabbed to the heart and awakened as from a deep sleep.” A study of the Bible and sincere effort produced gradual changes in her conduct until she qualified for Christian baptism on July 7, 1974. Truly the “word of God is alive and exerts power.”—Heb. 4:12.
MARVELOUS GROWTH
Thus from all parts of the fertile Philippines people are flocking to serve God. The Del Monte Congregation in Quezon City started with 20 persons in 1949, and now it has grown and subdivided into four congregations having a total of 758 Witnesses. Seventy persons from the Aurora Hill Congregation in Baguio City were baptized in the past year alone. Bright prospects for Christian growth throughout the nation are reflected by an attendance of over 167,000 for the March 1975 celebration of the Lord’s death—more than double the number of Witnesses in this land!
Of course, this has meant tremendous increases in attendance at their five weekly meetings. The Aurora Hill Congregation, mentioned before, has had to expand its Kingdom Hall three times since 1967 and, at the time of this writing, is enlarging it again. When the dean of a private college in Pinamalayan, Oriental Mindoro, first attended a meeting at the Kingdom Hall, he commented: “In almost all churches I have attended they have more pews than people, but in your Kingdom Hall, even though you are just a minority, there are just not enough seats to care for all who want to attend!”
EVERYONE AN EVANGELIZER
Each one of Jehovah’s witnesses feels the urgency of helping others. They know from their study of the Bible that we are living in the critical period just before God will bring an end to all wickedness. This makes their work urgent, since it involves life.—2 Pet. 3:3-9.
With over 78,000 actively preaching to a population of about 40 million, this means that each one, on the average, has only to reach about 513 persons, including children, with their message. And when you consider that an average of over 9,000 of these Christians have been spending from 75 to 150 hours a month in this work, it is not hard to see how widespread and effective it can be. Thus, even though their nationwide total is less than that of one of the larger Catholic parishes in Greater Manila (one parish is reported to have 100,000 members with only one priest), they are literally able to cover the nation with their preaching.
The foregoing is just a sampling of the many thousands responding to the good news about God’s kingdom in the Philippines. If you find this report of dedicated activity and personal interest in others displayed by these Filipino Christians to be appealing, why not get in touch with Jehovah’s witnesses in your own locality? Christianity is thriving among these same Christians, not only in the fertile Philippines, but throughout the inhabited earth.