Back to Work

Entering our second week in the Philippines the mission team is focused on getting as much work done as there can be. As we have come accustomed to, the day began with stagnant grey clouds and threatening skies. We walked from our quarters at the guest house about a mile through a small community to the Southern Philippines Methodist Colleges. Again we were met by the foundation holes. Still saturated by a weekend rain, and more surely to come soon. While we waited for more lumber to work on the men’s dormitory stove, the shoveling began.

There is no question that when you are digging muddy clods from foundation pits, you surely ask yourself, why would anyone take a plane, travel half way around the globe to work so hard. Then you are hit with mission moments. Our foreman, as it were, is a genteel man named Millson. His rename is Carmillo, but his father shares the same name and decided he didn’t want to call his son junior, so he came up with the nickname Mill-son. Millson called out to me, Carleton you played with my grandson! I had to think a bit but I remembered on Saturday there was a little boy who was being a little bit of a toot during Vacation Bible School. “Carleton I knew it was you because the three year old told me , Tambok picked me up!” I now know a new word in Tagalog, Tambok meaning “Big Man.” Again my thoughts turned to my family as for so many years I carried little brothers and sisters, my daughter and several nephews on my shoulders. In this case all I was trying to do was to help quiet an unruly child. Instead I made a “huge” impression on a three year old and his grand dad, a little thing, but something which won’t be forgotten.

The rains did come, and they always do, but we did have enough dry weather to continue work on the men’s dormitory stove after lunch. I always find it fascinating how third world carpenters get as much as they can out of the supplies that are on hand. U bolts are made out of 10 penny nails by bending them hard around the rebar. It may not sound like much but sawing through the soft lumber is an interesting sensation. In Houston we’re more accustomed to taking a power saw and zipping through pressure treated pine. Here there are no power saws so all the work is done by hand. While the 2x6 was firm, it didn’t take long before the teeth of the hand saw chewed through the board. In no time a scaffold was assembled to erect the frame for the roof of the structure.

On a final note I would like to share with you something called the “Dionsia Clap” Readers of the sports pages back home may be familiar with a boxer named Manny Pacquiao. He is a local hero coming from the Island of Mindanao and highly revered by both men and women students at the college. Dionsia is Manny’s mother and she has popularized a cheer much like “The Wave” or the “Tomahawk Chop” which we are used to seeing at football or baseball games. On several occasions the students have treated us to the “Donisa Clap” as an appreciation for helping them. For the record it’s three claps of the hand, three stomps of the feet, and then a salute as they call out the words, “Thank-you Sir!” with an emphasis on thank-you. Again I have to say, “No thank-you, I am so happy to be allowed to serve in The Philippines!” It is just one of the many examples of seeing God’s Grace as we encourage the people of Kidapawan.

Carleton Cole