The Mangrove Swamp

Mike Hosey, Elder

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the island of Palawan in the Philippines.

As I surveyed one particular area with a local missionary, I was stricken with how the rows of shacks and thatch huts on both sides of a single street were nearly uninhabitable.

They sat on the edge of a mangrove swamp. At high tide, the Sulu Sea flowed in to the level of the street and up to the bottoms of the houses which were perched on feeble looking stilts.  When it flowed out, it left a muddy and wet slew of mess and muck.

And it seemed as though the sunlight sank into the drabness of those shacks rather than reflect back to my eyes. It vanished through gaping cracks in the walls, and broken doors, and dark holes in roofs. The bit of sun which did return, came back only with the colors of sadness and poverty.

 

A child stood beside the street. No parent or adult stood near him. In fact, I saw no parent or adult that might be his anywhere at all.  Another child sat peeking from her home, hidden in shadows. I trained my camera on her and zoomed in.  Her face seemed sad.

The people here existed somewhere on the spectrum of human conditions between the point of extreme poverty, but not yet quite to the point of misery. 

 

These people were displaced from other islands within the Philippines. Some were driven from Muslim territories. Some were moved here because of their poverty by governments or the economic powers that be.

It's difficult to understand a place like this without actually seeing it in person. To rise above such a place, these people will have to depend on the love of others.  And even though I've seen where they are, I know that I will likely forget about them while in the midst of the wealth in which I live. 

This is not that much different from those who don't know Jesus here in America. They're caught between the points of poverty and misery. They often don't know this because they've never experienced anything better. They'll depend on the love of others to show them the way out. But I'm afraid that we often forget about them in the midst of our own wealth of praise and worship.

Let us not forget about those people close to us . Let us lead them to a better place.