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YWAM exposure team report
January 22-28, 2007
Marilog District
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“A hardcore experience!” describes Jana Porter from Alaska of the week-long visit to mountain communities in Marilog
district, Davao City . Jana was part of the 20-man team from Youth With a Mission that visited the Matigsalugs, one
of the most isolated tribes of Mindanao in Southern Philippines . The outreach was facilitated by Tribal Mission
Foundation International last January 22-28.
“It opened my eyes to seeing the beauty of simple life. No electricity, no TV, no CD players, no noise or car pollution,”
says Lee Liu, an 18-year old girl from Sask. Canada. “It’s so much easier to realize and focus on God in the laid back
atmosphere. To see people worship God and have the joy in the midst of their circumstances was so encouraging.”
The team experience TMFI projects hands-on. They rid the community of plastic garbage; they build toilets, they learn
Sloping Agricultural Land Technology farming, made hedgerows, planted them, harvested seeds and trimmed the plants.
They were exposed to the everyday lives of the natives. They have learned something new. Eunsol Seo from South Korea
was very excited. “It was a very interesting experience - the long hikes, making farm plots, planting seeds and even
seeing chicken slaughtered for food. Everything was new to me. I love the campfires at night, the fireflies. I love being
with the people. I realize that there are a lot of things I still don’t know in the world.”
The team also observed the Foundation Learning for Indigenous Kids (FLIK), an indigenous program to prepare young children
for school.
Christy Hildebrand from BC, Canada was impressed. “I could see the value and importance of the program. I appreciated
the sense of community and rooted ness that growing up in the village provides for children. I saw the value of projects
that bring clean water and health care for the villages, to enable children to live there safely.”
To most in the team, the journey was a life changing experience. Miranda Hancock from Alberta Canada exclaimed, “I am
forever changed! I will be backed. My heart has been remolded with a burden for the Philippines . I love the people
and the culture and everything!”
“The trip has changed my perspective on life and has inspired to do more ministries in the mountains,” wrote David Wicks,
a Canadian missionary who recently moved to Davao . “I realized the poverty that I live in - the lack of community,
lack of family and living with so many unneeded things.”
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