Seniors Serving in the Philippines Cauayan Mission: Christmas in the Philippines

In the Philippines, Christmas Carolers don’t take treats to their neighbors. Children and youth in the Philippines go Christmas caroling house to house with the expectation that they will be rewarded with the customary donation of pesos. Many residents keep a jar of coins or a stack of 20 peso bills by their front door in preparation for the holiday carolers. Others ignore them so they don’t feel obligated to pay. Also in the Philippines, you don’t knock on doors. Visitors stand on the street or path in front of the home and call ‘tao po’, until someone comes out and beckons you to approach or come in.

We live on a narrow two-lane street next to an entrance to the SM Mall, so we don’t have many neighbors. There is one home directly across the street from us and two others on the other side of the mall entrance. Prompted by the ‘Light The World’ initiative, I thought it would be a good idea to meet our neighbors. Christmas caroling seem to be a natural way to do it. We planned to go at 5:00 PM on the Monday before Christmas and invited the other Senior Missionary Couples to join us. I baked brownies and put them in little containers decorated with ribbons, a small bag of chocolates, and a picture of the Savior that had a handwritten message on the back.

View of Burgos Street from our second story kitchen window

As the appointed time was approaching, I noticed that the noise on the street was deafening with large trucks, cars, buses, motorcycles, and jeepneys all waiting in line to turn into the mall for last-minute shopping. Negative thoughts were creeping in my mind. Maybe our neighbors wouldn’t come out of their houses to meet us because they would not be able to hear us singing and if by chance they could hear us sing, they might think we wanted a donation. I remembered praying that morning that our neighbors would be home and that we would be able to meet each one of them. I decided to press forward in faith. As we gathered together and crossed the street, I noticed that the traffic had eased up quite a bit. That was the first little miracle. We gathered at the gate and started singing “O Little Town of Bethlehem”. I wondered if anyone was at home and if they would be able to hear us and then I looked into the house and caught the eye of a man walking into the front room and motioned to him to come out. That was the second little miracle that he came into that room and saw me at that quick moment. He opened the gate and warmly welcomed us in. He told us that he had retired from teaching at the university two years before and was often lonely. He also told us that he had watched the building of the mission home, office and church in 2002. He told us about the first Mission President and the caretaker of the property. We all made a new friend.

The next home we approached, a woman was inside the fenced yard watering her plants. When we started to sing, she disappeared. We thought she was avoiding us, but she soon reappeared offering us some money for our songs. She was surprised that we had a gift for her and wanted nothing in return.

As we sang at the last home, we could see a man inside and finally coaxed him with our motioning hands to come out. When we reached through his metal fence and tried to hand him the wrapped brownies, he refused to take them. Fortunately, the two young missionaries could speak Tagalog and explained to him that we were his neighbors and wanted to wish him a Merry Christmas and give him a gift. We only spent about 15 minutes caroling to our neighbors, but we made three new friends and left our testimonies of the Savior. It wasn’t a big deal, but it left each of us with a warm feeling in our hearts.

Other Photos from the Week: