The little boy’s eyes burned into me as he walked slowly up the dry river bed toward me, and I will never forget, to the day I die, what I saw in those eyes. I saw a fear—utter, abject terror. A terror of the spirits who haunted his every waking and sleeping moment and who could kill him without any provocation or warning. But I saw something else there, too. I saw a desperate longing, a faint flicker of hope reaching up for something better, for someone to free him from his slavery.

You see, I grew up working with AFM among the Philippine Alangan people. As I grew, God began opening my eyes to what was all around me. I saw the desperation of the lost. I saw the vastness of the work still to do. I saw the eyes of that little boy, and I felt God telling me that this was the calling for which He was preparing my life.

It wasn’t until the summer of 2003, however, that God fully opened my eyes to what had been in front of me all along. When my parents and I arrived in the Philippines, we heard about a strange people who lived just south of the Alangan. They are called the Highland Batangan, and their territory begins two full days’ hike into the interior over trails that scale waterfalls, ford rivers, and slash through thick jungle. As animists, they have a deep connection with demons in the form of nature spirits who give them incredible power in order to ensnare them in spiritual slavery so deep and dark that they have no power to escape. One out of every five Batangan is a shaman with personal spirits who work for him, healing diseases one day and killing enemies the next. The spirits make the Batangan feel so powerful and self-sufficient that they think they have everything they need, so they don’t want anything to do with the outside world. In reality, however, they live in misery and terror of the spirits.

God began to show me that He had uniquely prepared me to reach these people. Having grown up just a few miles north of their territory, I already speak the trade language, Tagalog, as well as the Alangan language. In fact, several Alangan church leaders will go with me, helping me reach the Batangan more quickly and effectively and training them in cross-cultural missions. I already have many contacts there, and I know how to live and operate in the jungle environment. Most importantly, though, God has put a love for these people in my heart and has made His calling so clear that I cannot doubt it.

God has already been working incredibly to get this project started. The Batangan have already heard about me and have agreed to let me enter their territory. Even more amazing, God recently gave Ramon, one of the Alangan church leaders, two dreams showing him that the Batangan were ripe for the gospel and indicating the specific part of their territory where we should begin.

Dear friends, the Batangan are open to the gospel right now in a way that they never have been before in their entire history. The time is now! That little boy’s terrified eyes and the despairing cry of the lost haunt me day and night. I cannot rest; I cannot be satisfied here. I must go. Please pray for the Batangan that God will go before us. And please prayerfully consider pledging to support this project so the Batangan don’t have to wait any longer!

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