ACAP Philippines (Oriental Mindoro)

ACAP - Mindoro (Mangyans)

In July 2007 Acap provided more food and clothing relief to the Mangyans (the original inhabitants of the beautiful island Mindoro, in the Philippines) ... there are various pictures to be uploaded shortly. Before the distribution of the relief to the indigenous, the Word of God was clearly preached and many men, women and mungyan children aknowledged together with a rejoicing voice that only "Jesus is Lord!" ... and that is the best news any Christian would like to hear. There are many groups of Mangyans such as Iraya, Alangan, Tadyawan, Tawbuid - but the ones we contacted are around Baco area, in a location called "Katarata".

Above picture Tessie and Mungyans listening to brother Teddy delivering a spiritual message. Below Tessie (wearing an Acap t-shirt) in front of a relief-box and a Mungyan man wearing a t-shirt from Italy. The Mangyan population are really very nice people, they are a tiny minority in the Philippines, could be just over 100.000 - although there are no official statistics available because of the difficulties in counting and arriving to far and isolated tribal groups, many of which have no contacts with people.

Tessie also had the priviledge of witnessing her faith in the Lord and explaining the importance of the "Spiritual Food". Acap is very proud of her, as we are proud of all Acap Founders and Members.

Above picture Tessie scolds some foxy children who queued more than once to get double and triple gifts! :) Children are wonderful and are the same all over the world.

Below brother Teddy sharing the Word of God before the distribution of gifts. The spiritual views of the Mungyans are very near to the "Animistic" world, but with God's grace around ten per cent of them have accepted Christ as their Lord and read the New Testament in their own dialect.

Above Mungyan women and children lining up to get supplies from Tessie, and listening attentively to her advice. You can notice that in the pictures are mostly women and children, Mangyan men are mainly working in agriculture, planting a variety of sweet potatoes, rice and the tropical vegetable food named "taro".

* Special thanks for contributing to this project goes to: Tessie Albo (for organising,buying and distributing) - Mrs. Maria, Daniela, Enza O. and their families (for donating nice men and women clothes), Acap Battistini (for instructing, and giving various things).

The photoes below do not refer to the Mungyans but to a school in Baco (Oriental Mindoro), the school was damaged during a typhoon and water entered everywhere damaging many assets. Acap provided to build the fence and buy many useful things for that school, witnessing God's good news was of course given but singularly to persons in this particular case because it was not easy to gather people because of the typhoon period.

"Acap's help to the poor is just a drop in the ocean, but without drops there ain't no ocean!" (F. Zacaria)

"The Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God."

We are so happy to know that God loves us, He has showed His mercy upon us in many ways, one of them is permitting to this Acap to proceed and open far away from Rome, in Baco Mindoro (Philippines) ... what a wonderful gift! This Acap - like all others - want to show in a small way our love to the Lord through loving our needy neighbours (in this case the original inhabitants of Mindoro, largely neglected by the government for obvious financial reasons). We pray for them and for our rulers for abundant blessings and peace. The following explanation is in Italian.

Siamo molto riconoscenti al Signore per l'apertura di un'Acap nelle Filippine, e precisamente nella bellissima isola di Mindoro, a sud di Manila. Gli abitanti originali dell'isola, i mangyans, sono molto poveri, vanno in giro mezzi nudi e senza scarpe, dormono nelle capanne fatte da loro, e si nutrono con quello che trovano nei boschi. Sono molto buoni e riservati e anche dignitosi. Ringraziamo tanto tutti i membri dell'Acap di Mindoro (nelle foto in basso tutti quelli con la T-Shirt bianca con il logo Acap) per la loro buona volontà di aiutare il prossimo, un ringraziamento particolare va a Teresita Albo che è il fondatore dell'Acap di Mindoro per il suo proficuo lavoro svolto con grande impegno, grazie anche a Maribel Sol per il suo incoraggiamento e aiuto pratico nell'acquisto di riso e alimenti vari da inviare a Mindoro e per il suo entusiasmo nell'intraprendere un'attività di volontariato in quella zona. Un grazie di cuore anche ad Aireen Estilo che da Mindoro ha eseguito scrupolosamente tutte le raccomandazioni di Teresita e Maribel e ha organizzato i volontari. Nelle foto in basso vedremo la predicazione del messaggio della Buona Novella prima della distribuzione dei cibi e indumenti, si può notare anche lo striscione di benvenuto con la sigla Acap. Ultime notizie in alto, notizie meno recenti in basso.

* April 08, 2007 : Acap Mindoro organised in Italy a fundraising trip to Mirabilandia (an amusement park similar to Disneyland, but much smaller) to help the Mungyans, offerings have been sent over there to purchase clothings and food. Acap Asingan (through its founder, Mae Malou) helped in organising the trip and keeping an eye on the group. In the photo below left you can see only a small part of the group as the rest were roaming around the amusement park; almost 50 persons participated, white arrow 1 is Tessie, white arrow 2 is Mae Malou. In the photoe below right is Tessie (with sunglasses) along with Mae Malou, they both made a joint effort of the two Acaps for this trip.

Nella foto quì a destra Aireen e altri 2 membri dell'Acap (anche loro con l'Acap T-Shirt) assieme a due suore benedettine (Sister Pet e sua collega) , quando hanno ricevuto i cartoni con gli alimenti da distribuire ai bisognosi.A sinistra Aireen e Tessie con Sister Pet.

Possiamo vedere in queste due foto in alto da un lato la gioia dei volontari dell'Acap nell'aiutare i bisognosi della loro zona, dall'altro lato vediamo la tristezza negli occhi di chi riceve aiuto, sono poveri e spesso analfabeti, preghiamo che il Signore li rallegri attraverso i Suoi umili servitori, e sopratutto li avvicini a Lui per avere la vera gioia.

In queste due foto i volontari Acap con una nativa anziana, in basso mostrano la scatola vuota dopo avere finito di consegnare, notiamo tutti i volontari con la T-Shirt Acap Mindoro.

Stiamo pregando di poter mandare ogni 2/3 mesi un cartone di generi di prima necessità, per la tua offerta di cibi e indumenti chiamaci. Grazie e Dio ti benedica.

Questa foto mostra il gruppo dei credenti di Oriental Minodoro (Baco), si occupano di aiutare i più bisognosi con gioia nel cuore, preghiamo che il Signore continui a bene-dire sempre, e aggiunga sempre più anime a Lui attraverso l'aiuto pratico congiunto alla predicazione della Parola di Dio, notiamo in ques-ta foto la presenza di tre suore benedettine.

Sister Tessie and a Catholic Layman on her right distributing food after preaching the Good News of Christ. A lot of needy people facing the Acap car, see here below how many people, we ask you to pray for their salvation and that God might provide also to their daily needs. We must have compassion as Jesus did ... "when Jesus saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd." (Mat 9:36).

We can see here the house of a Mungyan, just plain bamboo, totally exposed to sun, rain and all the rest, support us in prayer.

Questo è un articolo apparso il 1° Aprile 2005 su un giornale filippino di vasta diffusione che parla dell'apertura di un Acap nelle Filippine, le foto mostrano la gioia dei volontari dell'Acap nell'aiutare i poveri, e in alto a sinistra vediamo la foto di Teresita (Tessie) Albo, la coordinatrice dell'Acap.

Un ringraziamento al Sindaco di quel paesino, Brgy. Captain Dulangan, che ha indossato anch'egli la maglia dell'Acap e ha distribuito le buste, lo possiamo vedere nella foto in alto a destra (un'altra foto di lui appare in alto, su un articolo di un giornale). La prima spedizione è stata inviata nel mese di Dicembre 2004, la seconda spedizione Febbraio 2005.

E' stata organizzata una gita invernale con il gruppo romano che sostiene Acap Mindoro, ed è stata raccolta la somma di duecento euro per l'acquisto e l'invio di alimenti ai "Mangyans". Nella foto mancavano altre otto persone, che erano a passeggio in giro.

In the photoe above Sister Tessie (center) with Elena (on her right) Founder of Acap Tarlac, and Malou (on her left) Founder of Acap Asingan Pangasinan ...picture took in Italy during a trip on the snowy mountains.

(Acap does not permit to women to preach from a pulpit because the Word of God in 1°Corinthians 14:34 - and many other parts in the Bible to that effect - clearly state that "women must keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak" ...but we can of course see the very important role of women in the overall biblical context, so they can sometimes share their personal spiritual testimony, but only from the central part of the hall and not from a pulpit. Eve came from the central part of Adam's body, not from his head [pulpit] and neither from his foot, because she has equal dignity as man but with different role).

The preaching of the Good News of Salvation through Jesus is preached also to children.

Tessie with Mungyan children, although very poor they are very happy, and parents filled with dignity.

Acap always wants to organise an entertaining and spiritually educational moment for the children.

Tessie with some bible students, Acap Mindoro is praying about supporting them in their schooling fees.

Tessie at the age of 18 volunteering in a medical center, she has always had a heart for needy people.