Atimonan Church exterior

This year I visited the Philippines from February 28 through March 10. The Lay Leader, Emilio Cruz, and Associate Lay Leader, Romy Sison, of the Philippines Annual Conference East, arranged three workshops in three very different locations: Tagaytay Mission Center, Atimonan United Methodist Church in the Laguna Quezon Missionary District, and Baguio City. The purpose of my visit was to train lay and clergy leaders in how to introduce Covenant Discipleship to their congregations.

Coming from a world of relative order, the first impression of life in the Philippines is a world of chaos and disorder. Life here is real; it is "in your face," stripped of all pretense, immediate, demanding; a life of unrelenting struggle and vibrancy. Life is crowded, close, shared, and hard work.

The vast majority of Filipinos live in poverty; average annual personal income is $500. Unemployment is very high; consequently, nearly every foot of roadside is occupied by shacks selling fruit, vegetables, tire repair, flowers, and so on. Many of the roadside shacks also serve as homes for families, people known as "squatters." They find a small piece of roadside public land and claim it as their home and place of business. They scrounge to find enough corrugated steel and wood to construct a shelter that may be shared with one or two other families. The people are very resourceful and hard-working.

The Filipino population is very young. Children are everywhere. Driving through towns and villages in the morning, I saw children walking along the road on their way to school. They wear uniforms and backpacks. Many walk in pairs or groups; others are accompanied by a mother or older sister or brother. I was struck by the number of children walking to school unaccompanied by an adult. It appeared to me that the community watches out for the children. They are safe during their walk between school and home. The uniforms serve an important role. Not only do they make getting dressed for school each morning very simple; they also reduce the distinctions between rich and poor (or poor and poorest).

Due to the concentration of population and poverty, personal space and privacy are quite limited. It is common to see small groups of young women and girls walking along the side of the road hand-in-hand or arm-in-arm. This is true also for young men and boys. When I asked a Filipino friend about this, she explained that Filipinos have little personal space. They live and walk and stand close to one another. They do this because, unlike Americans, they cannot afford personal space. It appeared to me that people look out for one another. The "chaos" of life in the streets and on the roads is actually ordered in its own way. It is not competitive. There appears to be respect for life.

At the end of each Covenant Discipleship workshop, there was an outpouring of enthusiasm for at least two new concepts. First, for most, the workshop was their first exposure to a presentation of the Wesleyan "order of salvation" and doctrine of grace. They found the explanation of grace — incarnate in Jesus Christ and prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying — to be empowering and liberating for life and ministry in the world. Second, the balanced discipleship offered by the General Rule of Discipleship and Covenant Discipleship groups was illuminating. For most, the emphasis of discipleship had always been on piety. They welcomed the need for balance between piety (worship and devotion) and mercy (justice and compassion). Others for whom discipleship had focused exclusively on "social ministry" or works of mercy welcomed the need to be balanced and nurtured by devotion and worship. This was new to nearly everyone.

Steven W. Manskar (smanskar@gbod.org) is Director of Accountable Discipleship, United Methodist General Board of Discipleship, Nashville, Tennessee.