A Story From Kensuli

Here is one of the articles I wrote in Kensuli November 5, 2013.

I have been in the village of Kensuli now since October 6. It is starting to feel like I belong here now. I spend my days teaching Sandra and Sheena in the morning. Then we break for lunch and have a little more school time in the afternoon. After school I go visiting different homes and learn the language. One time when I went to visit Nika, who lives just a little way down the hill from me, she asked me if I wanted to learn how to dig cassava, or kumbahang. I was happy for the opportunity to do hands-on learning so we headed to her garden. She first cut down the kumbahang plant and then carved the wooden stem into a sharp point. With this sharp stick she started digging until she hit the root. She let me try and I was definitely slower than her, but she encouraged me and I dug up two of them.
Later, when I was about to leave, she set aside four roots and said, "These are yours, but I don't have a container to put them in."
"I'll just use my hands," I said. But she found a plastic bag and stuck them in it. I thanked her and she said, "No problem, but it's very dirty."
The Palawanos are very quick to give their visitors something, whatever it may be. And when you say thank-you they usuallly are very modest and say something like, "Oh, but it's not very much," or "No problem, but it's very dirty."
There is much to learn from their simple, yet happy, way of life. It makes me wonder sometimes, "If I had only as much as they do, would I still be as happy as I am now?" I pray the answer is "yes" for all of us because we have the best reason in the world to not only be happy, but to have true joy, and that is Jesus!