One day more than a year ago, Mando, a Palawano Adventist man from the Abo-Abo area, came to Kamantian to request our help. The Abo-Abo area is the most northerly settlement of Palawanos in southeast Palawan. Mando told us his area had been evangelized by some American Adventists several years ago. After two weeks of meetings, he and others had been baptized into a Tagalog church just north of them. He described how abandoned they felt when their evangelist died, ending the payments Mando and several others in the area had been receiving as lay pastors. They felt marginalized at the Tagalog church, and their spiritual needs weren’t being met, so they stopped attending, and no one had seemed to miss them. He begged us to help his church and support him.

We told him we would try to visit his area within the next several months. However, we were completely consumed with our already full ministry. Periodically, Mando would call us to plead for support and tell us of his efforts to hold his tiny congregation together.

One Sabbath when we were in the lowlands, we made time to go to Abo-Abo and visit Mando. Hiking into his village, Tegbebenga, is a picnic in a park compared to hiking into Kamantian. We found Mando and his church already done with their worship service, but we joined them for their afternoon program. Mando showed us the few Tagalog Bibles they had, the three Tagalog hymnals and one picture roll. We met his wife Nurya and their four young children and the handful of people meeting with them. We recognized their ardor and desire to work for God. We promised to bring our lay-pastors from Kamantian back for a visit, but we couldn’t promise when it would happen due to an upcoming furlough. The Abo-Abo group was sad when we left but hopeful we would return one day.

That day finally came on the tail end of our trip to the Taw’t Deram tribe last March. On a Friday morning, our group of 13 hiked into Tegbebenga. Mando had already informed people we were coming, so after eating lunch with them, we began treating the sick people who had come. We worked until just before sundown, ate supper, conducted a well-attended meeting and treated more people after the meeting.

On Sabbath, our pastors and high-school students took turns preaching and telling Bible stories during Sabbath School, church, an afternoon meeting and then again Sabbath evening. That night, I taught the people from Titus 2. I prayed the Lord would teach us in our respective dialects and that all would be blessed. The next day, Mando told me several people had wept that night in conviction that they needed the Lord to clean up their minds so their words and actions would be pure before Him. I praised God that the Holy Spirit had worked on people’s hearts. I was humbled and very encouraged that perhaps we could be instruments to bless these people and grow them as Christians.

Mando and Nurya expressed their gratefulness that we had come and ministered to them. They felt blessed to be taught in their language and in a manner that fit them culturally. They said the whole weekend had been a huge success, and the people felt cared for and blessed. We made arrangements to continue working with them, though we could not promise monthly funding until a donor or two would come forward.

The next month, we invited Mando and his family to Kamantian to live near us for a few weeks while we discipled them and gave them some specific ministry training. It was an eventful time and very enlightening. We found Mando and Nurya to be earnest in their desire to follow God and work for Him, and they have a heart for His people. Though not very educated, they are willing and able to learn. We found they were ignorant of some things, like tithing. Mando’s sermons tended always to be about what Christians should not do, so we worked with him to present Biblical sermons that would engage people in how to live an abundant Christian life.

Pray with us for Mando and Nurya. They are outgoing and outspoken, ever seeking to bring people to conversation. They are unabashedly Adventist. Pray for the work going on in their area. I know the Lord has a work to do in them and through them. They told us of a church in their area of another denomination that, when they received a Bible and began reading it, were astonished at the Bible truths and horrified at the false doctrine they had been following.

Please pray for this new area we are discipling and for the families, as they are often under attack through sickness. Pray they will be faithful and, though they are a long way from us in Kamantian, that we will be able to mentor them effectively.

• Twitter