THE MINDANAO STORY

One of the most vital chapters in the history of Philippine Methodism has been the growth of the Church in Mindanao. This southern-most island of the Philippines is the inviting, challenging frontier of the country, having been opened up to heavy settlement after the war when the Government, fighting the Hukbalahap rebellion, turned from strictly military means to a more creative, permanent solution, Mindanao, rich in natural resources and lightly populated, was seen to be the answer to the unrest in the crowded northern islands. Its virgin territory was opened for settlement, just as the western territories had been in the United States a century earlier. Thus Mindanao beckoned to all the landless of the archipelago, and its ports welcomed two to three thousand settlers a month, at the height of its influx of immigrants. There were men, women, and children, with their bundles of clothing, baskets of chickens, rope-tied hogs, and most important of all, their hopes and dreams for a better life for themselves in the future…Selling their horses, their carabaos, their jewels, whatever possessions they had, whole families and even sometimes whole villages pulled up stakes and moved to Mindanao.¹⁵²

Many of these settlers who went to Mindanao were Ilocanos and not only Protestant Ilocanos but Methodist Ilocanos. A few of these Methodists joined the Christian and Missionary Alliance upon moving to Mindanao; others joined the United Church of Christ; some became inactive churchmen; and still others began banding together into tiny Methodist congregations. As their numbers grew, they sent calls to Luzon Methodists, especially the Northwest Philippines Annual Conference, to come and help them. In the 1950 Journal of that Conference, there is published a letter from a group of Methodists in Kabacan, Cotabato, asking for the organization of The Methodist Church in the vast province of Cotabato, which is equal in area to the five provinces of Central Luzon. Finally, the General Conference of 1952 officially authorized the opening of work in this new area; and the 1952 Central Conference implemented the decision. Even before this, a report in the 1951 Journal of the Northwest Philippines Annual Conference showed that there were twelve Methodist congregations in Cotabato alone, with five of the twelve having their chapels built and being under the leadership of four elders, four local preachers, twelve exhorters, one deaconess and two Bible women.¹⁵³ By 1960, there were 56 congregations and 2899 members belonging to what was now the Mindanao Provisional Annual Conference, which had been organized in 1955.¹⁵⁴

To the Northwest Philippines Annual Conference goes the credit for sending the first workers to pioneer in Mindanao. In 1953, Esteban Guillermo and Calixto Garibay were sent as traveling elders and pastors to supervise the work. The 1954 Journal reports that Calixto Garibay and Felix Telan had been made district superintendents of Mindanao East and Mindanao West, respectively.
Mention has been made earlier of the significant work of the Methodist Rural Center at Kidapawan, Cotabato. It was actually begun in 1954, as the result of a six month International Work Camp. Americans and Filipinos together gave volunteer labor to clear the land, begin construction of the buildings, plant the crops and raise the first animals for what was to become a significant experiment in rural uplift and development. The Rural Center – located at the foot of the tallest peak in Mindanao, Mt. Apo, and in an area with rich soil and year-around rainfall – has developed a four-fold emphasis in its program: health, education, agriculture, and evangelism. The Mindanao Medical and Dental Clinic is based at the Rural Center, carrying on extensive work b9th at Kidapawan and throughout four provinces of Mindanao, with its clinic jeep. Health films and lectures are given at the Center; and a UNICEF milk feeding program is maintained. The educational arm of the Center is two-fold-the Mt. Apo Christian Workers' School, which seeks to train young people for the work of the Church; and numerous conferences and institutes, which train pastors, laymen and women for their tasks in church, home, farm and community. The agricultural emphasis consists of demonstration projects in the raising of model crops, poultry and swine, and in the training of farmers for agricultural improvement and rural betterment. The raising of rubber trees at the Center, with the help of the Firestone Rubber Company, is one of the means by which the Rural Center plans eventually to become self-supporting. The evangelistic emphasis of the Center is designed to permeate the entire program and to stimulate the evangelistic concern and outreach of the total work of the Church in Mindanao.¹⁵⁵

Mindanao remains the great frontier in the Philippines. In the years ahead, as the island becomes increasingly settled and developed, it will continue to serve as a great challenge to the imagination and faithfulness of the Church.

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