Journey to the Island of Samar

By Jim Latzko

One Saturday, I climbed into a long outrigger boat and crossed the Leyte Gulf to the village of Osme-ya on the island of Samar, where Pastor Don Butad is planting a church. He is supported by New Life Baptist Church of Tacloban. Pastor Butad and I took a boat trip to an extraordinary place called the Hidden Sea, a body of water completely surrounded by rock except for an archway which allows a small boat to pass through at low tide. We had to scrunch down in the boat to squeeze through.

At the entrance to the Hidden Sea, we hiked to a cave where we saw jars and piles of human bones, as if someone had unearthed a burial ground. We entered the cave through a narrow opening. Bats hung from the ceiling. One bumped my cap as he scuttled out. Farther up in the cave, we saw a sign, like a skull, next to a sealed area. I wonder what lies beyond that skull?

Returning to the boat, Pastor Don and I floated along a mangrove-lined waterway, to a larger, steeper cave. Pastor Butad's flashlight petered out, but fortunately I had one also. We were able to exit on the other side of the cave and look out over the mountains.

After our second cave exploration, we hurried back to the archway, hoping the rising tide hadn't sealed us in. It hadn't risen too much, and our boat scraped through. We found even bigger caves with green walls covered with hundreds of whirring and screeching bats flying through the upper recesses. A true other-worldly experience!

On Sunday, about 35 people attended the service in Osme-ya Pastor Butad gave a message on salvation from Romans 3, and I spoke to an attentive audience on how to answer those who ask, "Why do you read the Bible?"

Pastor Don and I stayed up talking. We discussed the three outreach churches in the New Life Baptist family. These are located at Osme-ya, San Jose and Leyte. In order to better meet the needs of these new churches, New Life Baptist Missions was formally organized on July 21, 1996.

Pastor Don told me he has a burden to visit all 24 nearby barrios (small villages). He frequently makes trips to a place about 30 minutes away from Osme-ya, where many of the NPA (rebels) go for food supplies. He knows many of them and they don't bother him. He also goes on evangelistic tours far up in the mountains where men have long hair, which they cut with sickles. The first time the mountain people saw Pastor Don, many of them started to hide, thinking that anyone with a short haircut must be a soldier. When Pastor Don's NPA guide explained he was a pastor, they came out of hiding, and he was able to distribute tracts and to preach to them.

At the next Sunday worship service I gave testimony to God's goodness in allowing us to begin New Life Baptist of Tacloban long ago. We gave special recognition to the THIRTEEN Christian workers produced by this group of churches since 1985. Looking back at our 11 years of service I see God's power, working through ordinary people, in producing a growing family of believers. Two churches graduated to independent status, three more are being planted, two Christian kindergartens have been started, and many people have been brought from the kingdom of darkness to the light of Christ.

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