I have learned that my parents' supervisor, John Kent, and also David Gates, who sent the helicopter, will be visiting their project soon.  Keep these meetings in payer.  We need to pray that this supervisor will make the effort to find a way to make sure that the benefit of othe helicopter is not lost.

The following is a letter my dad recently sent me.

Dear Christopher,

I am supposed to be writing an article for the AFM magazine but I do not feel eloquent of word, so I will for the moment just drop you a line to just fill you in what has been taking place. I don't think the Devil is happy with our work here and so he has provided many challenges. However it is encouraging to know that he is unhappy.

It all starts out with the little stuff. As you know the generator gave up the ghost but we were able to get it all taken apart and after no end of hassles and expense we got the thing running again. Well that was really great to be able to start it up and hear it roar to life. Only one problem was that although it runs, it does not create electricity. So at the moment it sits in Charlie Oscar in pieces awaiting some new inspiration as to what will solve the problem.

Then the other machine that we are not allowed to talk about, didn't want to run properly. Sometimes it would roar to life but for the most part it sat there sullenly and defiantly refusing to start. Well after days of scratching our collective heads, I decided that the carburetor needed some work. I removed it and while I disassembled it inside Charlie Oscar, Jiji tinkered outside. Jiji considers himself to be the local expert on all things mechanical and several times I have caught him improving something, without my permission. Unfortunately a large percentage of his improvements turn out, not to be. Well anyhow I got the carburetor all put back together, installed it and tried to fire up the machine. Wow after a couple tries it started and ran pretty well, I figured a final adjustment of the mixture would have us up and operational and went to get a screw driver while it sat happily idling on the ground. At least I thought it was happy. When I returned it was dead and Jiji said for some odd reason, that when he pulled on the starter rope, it was like the engine was frozen solid. Strange, I pondered what could have happened. Jiji mentioned something about the new gas that he had put in. I was wondering what he was talking about so I removed the gas cap only to find the problem. The gas was yellow and not dark green. Pretty simple, huh? Yes while I was working on the carburetor, Jiji had poured out the gas that was mixed with 2 cycle oil and had put in nice new gas that had none of that ugly dark colored oil in it. He had managed to blow the engine. I had always been wondering how long a 2 cycle engine would run without oil. Well we have it as official, about one minute. Well that put a quick end to our little fix it party. No other solution but to send it out of the mountains to the intensive care unit in the lowlands and see how much money and time it would take to replace everything that had been destroyed within. Funny but it looks fine on the outside. I guess the problem is that within, it is filled with dead mens bones. So, sorry that was the end of our current work on building a house for Sunday. I guess he will just have to live as a bachelor for more time than expected and his family will be relegated to Puerto Princesa until we have come up with the right solution.

Well onto better things. A day or two later I pulled out the mower and had one of the palawanos start mowing our snake guard around the house. Later in the day I borrowed the mower for a bit of mowing in replic's domain. Well I got half done, when suddenly there was a loud bang and then silence. On further investigation I found that beneath the grease and dirt the mower deck had rusted away and the engine and blade were hanging at a cock eyed angle, attached by only a small strip of sheet metal. I had never used a mower with a bouncing engine and I found that without skill it really did not work very well. So the mower went under the house where it will stay until we can find the parts to get the acetylene torch working so that we can do some welding. Maybe even find some nuts and bolts to replace the 10 to 15 feet of bailing wire that is holding it together.

So that is a few of the small frustrations that have been going on. Now, for the bigger items.

A day or two later I got a call from Kensuli where our new school is located. Sunday Villarica was asking that we keep them in prayer. When asked what was happening, he said that the previous night, many of the students were sleeping in the school house when suddenly an apparition appeared. It was about 10 feet tall dressed in white clothing, extremely hairy, with long wavy hair on it's head. They could not see it's face but only its eyes which were glowing and appeared like they could look right through them. It advanced on one of the students and grabbed his blanket. The student tried to push it away but no matter what was done the apparition would bend away from the student but never move its feet and then suddenly it disappeared. Sunday who was sleeping in the nipa hut next door, heard the screaming and immediately came to see what had taken place. As he approached the school building he noticed a large roll of swali move away from under the building and then move back into place. He thought that maybe a pig had been scared by the noise but saw nothing the could have move the large roll. He entered the school building and said that the air was very heavy and it was hard to breathe, his face also felt numb and he felt slow and heavy. The school children began to all talk at once and describe what they had seen but as they talked the atmosphere seemed to become heavier and heavier. Sunday had them all stop and then prayed for God's protection and as they prayed the dulling atmosphere began to slowly dissipate. Later Christian songs cleared the air. Everyone was very scared and then they began to tell that before seeing the apparition some of them had felt a hand touching them. Thinking that it was a friend they had looked in the darkness only to find nobody there.

I thanked Sunday for the call and that evening the whole team got together and we prayed about the situation.

A day or two later rumors began to float in that the the son of Mami, one of the local head haunchos around here had become devil possessed and that others in the village of Narahungen and Bulnu' were also becoming possessed. Since this area is considerably farther away and is not as accessible, we waited to see what other news would come to verify whether this really was true or just some idle gossip which often floats around these parts. Thursday, I hiked out of the mountains with Jilin.. Leonda has been in Puerto Princesa for several weeks working on translating Bible studies and it would be a nice break to go and visit for the week end. Well as soon as I arrived in PIADP Chris said there was a call for me on the radio that was important. I radioed Wendy who said that the Demon possession problem was true and that it was getting worse and worse. Well to speed up the story we never went to Puerto Princesa. However it was late in the day and I didn't really have the time to hike back into the mountains. Of course there is the helicopter but since we have been prohibited from riding in the helicopter no matter what the situation, it was sort of like our hands were tied. Talk about discouraging. So I asked for volunteers in Kamantian who felt called by God to go and investigate the situation. David Aguilar, Dwayne Harris and Rinal all agreed to go. Turni the young man who was afflicted was sometimes totally insane and at other times was back to his normal self. When he was possessed he was filled with anger and was convinced that he needed to find Nurgina and attack her. It seemed obvious who was behind the antagonism, the Devil cannot stand the example of Christianity that Nurgina has displayed in Narahungen. Well the tough part was that the local folks had just hit upon a wonderful solution to the problem. They all showed up at about the same time David and team arrived. However their approach was a bit different than ours. They came loaded with tuba and were planning on having a big drinking spree. Yeah, right, lets fight the attacks of Satan by getting dead drunk. It doesn't take a lot of thought to figure out who was behind this solution. David made it clear that either they let us help without them drinking or if they insisted on trying to drink their way to a solution, then we were out of there and would have nothing to do with it. Well in the end they gave us the responsibility. From what I have gathered it was not a restful night of sleep. Early in the morning I called and Turni seemed to have come out of it but as we talked it became evident that he was not completely delivered. He himself asked to be taken out of that environment. Due to the precipitous trails and his condition there was no way that he could walk to Kamantian. However, a solution was at hand. The helicopter made the 5 minute flight, picked him up along with Rinal and returned them to kamatian. That left David with the privilege of slipping and sliding his way home on the trail.

I hiked in that morning and visited with Turni and Mami. We talked and prayed and although Turni seemed fairly normal it was still obvious that he was not back to his normal self. The next day at church Tami came to get me. She said Turni was getting worse again. I went on over and he was sitting in the hut furiously washing himself. The only thing strange was that there was no water, no soap, no wash clothe. He was just going through the motions, incessantly washing. You could speak to him but he replied in a falsetto voice that was rather flippant and would laugh at ones attempts to help with a rather condescending giggle. He was not himself. We called for the whole sabbath school class to come and pray and sing and in the name of Jesus to cast out the evil spirit. However it is interesting to note, that in all those stories about demon possession that it seems very simple. You just cast it out in Jesus name and it goes. However it never seems to happen that way here. It is almost always a gradual thing that happens over several days. Even in those cases when there is an obvious point where the spirit leaves, there is still a fairly long amount of time in which recovery takes place. I find it is much easier to be an expert on exorcising demons when it is just in theory. In practice, at least here, it is not as cut and dried. As we sang, there were times when we could feel the walls of the building shaking and at times Turni would go into a martial arts routine. It was incredible. I have asked the palawanos if anybody knows about the martial arts but they all have no idea what I am talking about. Well, here was a guy who was doing an incredible martial arts routine that could not be an accident. Todd the other pilot who knows something about the martial arts, says that what he was doing could only be done by somebody who had spent a long time practicing and learning. It became in my mind very obvious who the father of the martial arts is. I know there will be folks who will take offense at this but after seeing that routine done by a possessed individual I have no question that it is of Satanic origin.

Rather than have church at the school we moved the service over to the grass in front of the hut where Turni was and had church there. As time passed he calmed down and became more submissive. I thought it a little out of the ordinary to have a church service with a demon possessed individual in attendance but obviously it is not the first time.

In addition to all this, I was told that Angelina a little girl from Bingbilang had become devil possessed at about the same time that Turni had. However we had not heard word of it previously and after two days the spirit had departed.

When talking to Leonda via cell phone she mentioned that when all these spiritual manifestations began, she was in the process of writing the Palawano Bible study on the state of the dead. At the time I had told her that this lie is one of Satan's greatest deceptions and we had prayed that this lesson would be blessed by God.

As we talked about all this and more with the palawanos it was amazing to realize that the creatures they describe that have haunted them are creatures that most of us have all seen before. Their descriptions match very closely with the pictures found on many video games and when Sunday was trying to describe the creatures he had been told about he was at a loss for words but could only say. They were like the creatures you see on “Lord of the Rings” and “Star Wars.” Makes you sort of wonder who has been inspiring those folks who make those films and video games.

It seems as if he is targeting all sorts of areas but the places he chooses are significant. Kensuli is our latest school with almost 70 children in attendance. In the past Kensuli had the reputation of the place to go to get drunk and get demon possessed, but now it is a new village. It is clean, organized and growing in its interest in Christianity. Narahungen, is the home of Nurgina and her family and Leonda with the help of the helicopter had just begun Bible studies there. Obviously the Devil was not pleased with that development and proceeded to put a stop to that. It is also the home of the Big chief of this whole are, Mami. Mami is interested in Christianity so of course the Devil will do all in his power to keep us out of narahungen. What about Bingbilang. Well just two months ago they asked me if they could build themselves a church so that they could worship like the folks in Kamantian.

Anyway that is a little snippet of what has been happening here. The Devil wants to discourage us. Believe me he is an expert in such things. Sometimes I struggle with discouragement as people, circumstances, and life seems to throw road block after road block in our way. However as I look at the smiling faces of our Palawano brothers and sisters, there is a deep joy in just knowing that God is using us to accomplish a task that will make a difference through out the ceaseless ages. Wish that you could be here with us.

Love, P A