"Stories of Signal Communities" (53:01)
Mareva Arnaud (French Polynesia), Robert Wanga (Kenya), and Jennifer De Guzman (Philippines); introduced by Community of Christ Apostle James Slauter

Mareva Arnaud (French Polynesia)

Robert Wanga (Kenya)

A Story of a Signal Community: The Evacuees
Jennifer De Guzman (Philippines)

What a great privilege to stand in front of you, dear friends, co-ministers in the Lord. I am honored to share with you a story of a signal community that I will refer to as the “Evacuees” (or refugees).

The Evacuees is almost the second name for the Community of Christ Simimbaan congregation in the Philippines. Due to strife, the people in this congregation were relocated from one place to another.

Thirty-five (35) years ago, in 1973, their place of origin—Dingading, San Guillermo, Isabela—was threatened by Communist insurgency, militarization, and the onset of martial law, and it became necessary for the people to leave. It was easy for some to leave but difficult for most of the residents. Apart from not knowing another place to transfer to, the people could not afford to get detached from the fertile soil of their existence. Their life was dependent on cultivating the land from which they enjoyed bountiful harvests and produce. Leaving this place behind was for them like leaving their source of life. Nevertheless, they had to move out and run for their life. The Community of Christ congregation in Dingading (then RLDS) was in the same way greatly affected, and this became a church concern. Leaders sought help from the World Church. Charles D. Neff, the apostle for Asia Field at the time, came to help. Having deep concern for the poor people, he tried every way possible to help the people evacuate.

Due to the urgency of the need to relocate, almost instantly the first eight families were evacuated to Simimbaan, Roxas, Isabela, where the church had acquired land for them. Another twelve families were moved to the same place soon after. Their being in a new place made life very difficult, yet it was made easier for them by the church. For several months, food (rice, milk, noodles) and vitamins were provided for them. Each family that evacuated was given a residential lot of 750 square meters (25m X 30m or 8,000 square feet) and 2 hectares (4.9 acres) of land to farm and make a living.

Apostle Neff, driven by his vision of a sustainable community, ushered in more resources/programs in Simimbaan, not only to support the twenty relocated church families but the whole community. A kindergarten school with complete facilities (donated by Vicky Ross) was built in the area. The school provided food, health care, and nutritional learning for both children and parents—particularly the mothers. A warehouse (barn) and rice drying pavements were also built to provide shelter for their crops. A consumer store was built to keep the people from traveling to a distant town to get basic goods and commodities. These projects were organized with the support and management of Community One Resources Development (CORD), a nongovernmental organization the apostle himself established that served as the technology center for agriculture and community development. Charles Neff was an apostle who helped us start a signal community.

Time evolved and the programs of CORD had served their best years for the church and community (about a decade of providing trainings and putting up projects and facilities). Due to many factors, CORD became stale and the Simimbaan congregation, which was already thriving in membership, started to deteriorate as well. It was not encouraging to see members drifting away. Only a few of the original twenty church families continued to come for worship. For many years this was the obvious situation. The church was going down hill. And why was this so? It was simply because benefits stopped coming! The Evacuees received too much assistance and their dependency on this assistance was not addressed. Self-initiatives were not developed. People received projects even without them asking. It could also be that material assistance was only focused on the Evacuees, and the people in the community were left out and not encouraged to join the church.

It was year 2000 when CORD sought help from Outreach International for funding and technology assistance. Once again CORD was revived to help poor communities develop, but with a renewed paradigm. Through an authentic participatory approach, CORD worked in different poor communities enabling them to sustain growth by helping people help themselves. Raising their consciousness and awareness, people were guided to create their vision, mission, and also strategies to implement their goals/plans accordingly.

CORD eventually became the social arm of the church in the Philippines, and Simimbaan congregation was blessed to have CORD close by. The participation of congregation leaders in leadership trainings and workshops and exposure to CORD areas have enhanced church growth. The congregation began to acknowledge their need to look at their potentials and capacity for developing themselves as a church. They recognized that for many years they had been dependent and reliant on outside sources and did very little to contribute to their own progress.

The congregation is now willing to share resources for the benefit of everybody (both in the church and the community). They are willing to give up their role as merely receivers and become givers, realizing that no one is too poor to give.

The generosity of the congregation is exemplified in many areas:

• In 2004, the first year Disciples’ Generous Response was implemented in the Philippines, the giving was beyond expectation. The tithing goal in Simimbaan was PHP 50,000.00 ($ 1,000+) and total collection was PHP 103,685.50 ($ 2,000). (Normally an average rural farming family will earn $ 100–200 per month.) People positively responded to the call of the church to share their tithes for the congregation fund, mission center fund, and even World Church (for oblation). Up to this time Simimbaan congregation is in the lead in giving.
• More members are giving donations (in kind and monetary) not only for Simimbaan but for the other congregations as well.
• More members are committing their time and efforts in helping accomplish projects and develop ministries. By their own capacity they are in the midst of building a two-classroom multipurpose structure that could be used for Sunday school for children, discipleship studies, and small group meetings.
• Through the evangelism program of the congregation, the church has been able to plant another congregation made up of reactivated members and ten new baptized members. Adapting the process of Participatory Human Development or Authentic Participation in organizing, this new group (the Damsite congregation) has successfully started. Simimbaan, as the mother congregation, supported Damsite in terms of ministries and resources for one year. Prior to becoming a fully independent congregation in July 2007, their chapel was nearly completed without any help from the mission center.
• Church members in Simimbaan are beginning to do community development for the whole village. They are actively involved in community affairs and filling elected and assumed leadership roles.
• The Simimbaan congregation has an intentional program of social ministries. It is mandated in the structure of the Philippine church, and in every congregation, that social ministries be a part of the church’s mission.

This is the story of Simimbaan congregation. They are a people who evacuated not only from one location to another but, more significantly, from one social approach to another: from insurrection to a dole-out/social welfare system to community project development to participatory social transformation. They have been a people tested by these various situations, yet they have proven themselves to be determined and committed to pursue what they firmly believe to be their call as the light of the world.

For them, what is important is not so much the accomplishments that they see now but rather the wisdom and knowledge they have acquired along the way. It is not so much the destination but more the journey itself. The best learning for them so far is that building authentic participation and involvement of people (i.e., in situation analysis, dialogues, planning, goal settings, decision makings, mobilizations) is the key to a sustained journey as a community of faith towards accomplishing their mission of building Zion for this generation. From the place they began to where they are now, they have indeed become a signal community.

Brothers and sisters, this whole journey is also my personal journey. I was born in San Guillermo, Isabela, during the battle in the early time of martial rule. I, myself, am an evacuee, part of the twenty relocated families. I am a witness of the blessings and pains of the Simimbaan congregation. Growing up in the church, I felt discontentment and was agitated to explore and search for ways to truly empower and transform people. I thank God for my calling to serve the church in the Philippines. My search began, and I connected with people of other faiths, organizations, and schools. It was not easy at all; I exposed myself to risk, being vulnerable to criticism and discrimination both inside and outside the church. I was looking for solutions. Indeed, I found some, but I also validated and became overwhelmed with more weaknesses and needs in the church I serve—for leadership development, theology education, systems and mechanisms, and focus of mission. Thank God, all of this happened when CORD embraced a new methodolody of transforming and sustaining communities through the Participatory Human Development Paradigm. It is through this approach that we became more conscious and aware of who we are as a people, as a church, and as a congregation. We recognized and accepted our weaknesses and needs, our strengths and potentials, and learned how we could build upon them.

At this juncture, I want to recognize also the enabling support and trust of our World Church leaders: the apostles and mission center presidents assigned to the Philippines who have allowed and freed us to adapt locally, becoming more appropriate in our context to the principles of the World Church. We have barely taken the further step, and we see both excitement and challenge ahead.

As I reflect about Simimbaan congregation, a lot of people still label them as the “Evacuees” intentionally, to undermine them. But the congregation, on the other hand, has gained pride, somewhat, with the name. They have actually been evacuees—from being exclusive as a community to being inclusive, from being dependent to being interdependent with others, from being resistant to change to openness with transformation, from being insecure as a church to being confident.