As the departure date drew near, I found myself unable to sleep as I lay thinking about what might happen when we took our epic journey to make first contact with the Taw’t Deram, the feared cannibals of Palawan. I was restless and prayerful, not sure if I was more concerned about being among the Taw’t Deram or about how we were going to get there.

I was concerned about the route we would take. Leaving directly from Kamantian and heading west over the mountains meant facing obstacles I knew I might not be able to cross. Driving to the west coast and then hiking in from there was an easier route and my preference, but we did not have a consensus. I needed to finalize plans with Mulus, our self-appointed guide, but he was trekking through the jungle somewhere, and no one knew how to contact him.

When we finally tracked Mulus down, just a few days before our planned departure, he had two pieces of bad news. First, he couldn’t leave on schedule because he had to plant his rice field. Second, he said he would only lead us in from the Kamantian side because he had enemies along the other routes. This only heightened my concern. I kept asking God for confirmation that we were supposed to take this trip. If we were, should I go along? Since we had first begun laying plans, I had sensed it was Gods will and felt determined to go, no matter the consequences.

The Sabbath before our departure, having handed over some of our ministry duties to others for the afternoon, Kent and I had a time of prayer. We wanted certainty that this really was God’s will. Was now the time to go to the Taw’t Deram? Mulus hadn’t finished planting his field, so we still didn’t have a guide. We also sensed there were other reasons Mulus was hesitant. Was there something important he wasn’t telling us? But after prayer, our directions were clear—proceed, and the Lord would provide. I decided to journal the trip to document how the Lord opened the way for us.

Sunday, March 14
This morning, Jilin was not feeling well. I gave her malaria medicine and prayed the Lord would deflect the devil’s attempts to thwart this trip. Later that morning as our group of 13 gathered, Rinal showed up with Antuniyu and informed us Antuniyu was interested in being our guide. I was surprised. I didn’t know Antuniyu had any ties to the Taw’t Deram. But he assured us he knew the way, knew people in the area and would stay with us through the whole trip. We recognized the Lord’s providence. Next, we discussed the route we would take. Antuniyu insisted that driving to the west coast and hiking in from there was the best plan. He said the route in from where his father and mother-in-law lived in Sumerem was the most direct and would give us a good place to sleep the first night.

Now with a clear plan, we breathed a unanimous sigh of relief. We finished dividing up the goods to be carried. Each person got an allotment of roasted peanuts for their sustenance on the trail and a couple small packs of Gatorade crystals each, rice, maggi noodles (similar to Ramen) and hammocks. We agreed to be on the trail to Bingbilang en route to Brooke’s Point and on to Sumerem via Quezon at 5 tomorrow morning.

Monday, March 15
We got up at 4:30 this morning to do last-minute preparations. We found Jilin burning with fever, so I gave her some Tylenol. We finished packing big stuff for our carriers to haul out of the mountains and waited for Jilin to feel better, pondering this new development and continuing to ask God if our going was still in His will and marveling at the blockades the devil kept throwing in our path. But we still felt confident we were to proceed, and the Lord would provide.

We had a contingency plan: if Jilin felt too weak to go on the trip, we would leave her with student missionary Kiana Binford, her high school math teacher. But her fever remained high, I was not willing to leave her. Did this mean I wasn’t to go? We had special prayer for Jilin and sent word to the others that there was a delay. We thought about giving Jilin another day at home before deciding what to do, but about 8 a.m. she
decided she wanted to go.

After we arrived in Brooke’s Point, everyone showered and ate. We left Brooke’s Point at 3:15 in the afternoon—not quite the early start we had hoped for. After five hours of driving, it became clear that we were not going to make it to Sumerem today, so we looked for a place to sleep. We visited the local kagawad (a government official), and he said all 13 of us could sleep at his place. We are glad to be off the road, and grateful for a place to cook our supper of rice and maggi and sleep the night. (The kagawad wouldn’t let us camp in the open lot across from his house because there had been a murder there not too long ago.)

Tuesday, March 16
I awoke long before dawn to loud Tagalog news on a radio. After cooking our breakfast of rice and maggi, we repacked and left. We drove a short distance, unloaded the truck, and then Kent and Jini, the youngest boy in the group, drove the truck back to leave it at the kagawad’s house. Antuniyu and his brother-in-law went to a market to look for a carabao and a karusa (sledge) to haul our things to Sumerem.

While we waited for the others to return, we talked. There was a growing realization that Antuniyu might not really know the way to the Taw’t Deram, that he had actually only wanted a free ride over to the west side of the island. We prayed again, asking the Lord to guide us and provide for our needs.

More than an hour later, Antuniyu arrived back with three big carabao (and a baby carabao that refused to be left behind) and their karusas. About noon, we came upon two men under an acacia tree by the trail. One man introduced himself as Jinyu, a relative of Beriya, one of our church members in Ipeyu. He was very friendly and concerned for our wellbeing. He said he had heard about our trip from Beriya and was there to help us find and negotiate for guides in order to get to the Taw’t Deram safely. He introduced us to his mother who lived nearby, and she and her husband, Purung, opened their large bamboo house to us to stay the next couple days while a small scouting group goes ahead to gain entrance to the Taw’t Deram.

Wednesday, March 17
The scouts, Niksun, Pidli and Juran Gulin, left early this morning carrying minimal supplies so they can hike quickly to the edge of Taw’t Deram territory and then come back out on Thursday.

Today we met Dalti, a Taw’t Deram penglima (leader/judge). He was eager to meet us and advise us how to make contact with the tribe. He doesn’t live in the mountains with the tribe anymore, but he goes in to visit often and helps them with their legal situations. He told us where the groups of Taw’t Deram live are and how to get to them. He told us the Taw’t Deram did used to eat people—sometimes during war, but usually because of hunger. During very hard times, they even ate their own children. He told us that a foreign missionary had once tried to convert the Taw’t Deram, but he eventually left because very few, if anyone, wanted to follow the new way. The missionary had left someone in the area to work with the Taw’t Deram, and the worker was still there. We wondered how this might impact our intention to start work among them.

Dalti described the Taw’t Deram lifestyle to us, and it seemed much like Palawanos’. They prefer to eat rice and roots and building with jungle materials. Their dress is very simple—sometimes just a loin cloth. One difference is that the Taw’t Deram often build their houses way up in the tops of trees with sometimes just notches in the tree trunk or vines woven together for ladders.

Today, we also met a man named Iprahim who came with his wife and one remaining child. He told us how his twins sickened and died because he couldn’t afford dextrose IVs at the health center. Iprahim is Taw’t Batu (people of the rock). He told us the Taw’t Batu are spreading out and intermarrying with other tribes. He described how many of them still live in caves though during the rainy season. He pled with us to establish clinics and schools among his people.

This evening, we went to the nearby Ransang River. We played around in the warm water, did laundry and tried to teach Jini how to swim. There were some small huts along the river and a dam across it to divert water through a fishing net. As we were leaving the river and hiking back to Purung’s home, we met the huts owners on the trail. They had been waiting for us at Purung’s house hoping we had medicine for a young girl with ringworm over a large portion of her body. They told us they would return tomorrow.

Back a Purung’s house, we found Jinyu there to visit us. I treated his daughter for malaria yesterday, and he said she was doing better. He also told me about a constellation in which the ancestors would see a sign that it was time to have a pig feast. They call this constellation Menepuru. We call it Orion. I find it interesting that their sign for a pig feast is like the cross of Christ on Calvary, and is also the point in the sky where Jesus will appear at His second coming. Satan has truly duped these people into believing in a god of pigs that must be honored and appeased.

It has been nice to relax, sleep and chat today. Kent has cellulitis, though. I pray the medicine and charcoal poultice help soon. The toenail on my right big toe is getting in-grown and sore again. It might slow me down on the trail. Jilin is feeling better. Having a day of complete rest has given her an opportunity to rejuvenate her energies.

Thursday, March 18
I awoke early to our hosts’ loud radio and a very loud rooster crowing right by my ear. I didn’t feel well, so I tried to go back to sleep.

Later, the girl with ringworm arrived. Her ear was also in bad shape, having been bitten by a dog six days ago. I removed the scab and dressed the wound to cries of “Aya! Aya!” I gave her appropriate antibiotics for the ear and ringworm medication and prayed that everything would heal properly. I won’t be here to follow up.

Niksun called at about 9:30 this morning to say the scouts were on their way back. We went to the river to bathe and found three little children there wearing nothing but homemade goggles. They were fishing with a spear gun gathering river snails. We gave them some of our trail mix, and they were very pleased. We talked with their parents briefly. They told us proudly that their oldest girl was in school. I was impressed that even though these people are obviously poorer than poor, they still realize their daughter will fare better with an education, and they are making it happen. If only more parents would sacrifice to help their children get educations.

Late in the afternoon, our scouts returned and reported. When they had arrived in the village of Beluwing, the people had vanished into the undergrowth. When the scouts called out to them and asked who they were, they answered in typical singsong fashion, “Aku!” (“Me!”). The scouts told the people they wanted to bring their American friends to treat their illnesses and establish a school for their children. The people replied that they would need to talk to the leader, Pastor Duwidi, first. The scouts saw small houses in ill repair at the tops of tall trees. They noted that some of the men had very long hair, and many of them wore old, tattered clothing.

They met Dulpi, a penglima from another village, who informed them a missionary had worked in Beluwing for more than five years. Winning no followers, he had dismantled his churches, moved them to another spot and tried again without success. Before he left, he required all the people in the area to sign an agreement that they would not allow anyone else to do missionary work among them. Dulpi expressed regret that such an agreement had been signed, but the people had been coerced, and now they felt honor-bound to abide by it. He told the scouts he would very much like a school and medicine for his village.

Niksun and Pidli found that the people had been warned that other religions might try to come in and tell them they couldn’t eat pork or do other things, and not to believe them or follow them.

Dulpi’s group, originally part of the group in Beluwing, established another village, Kebgen, to get away from these divisive and controlling requirements, though they still feel bound by the agreement. It is sad to learn how misguided evangelists have splintered this group of Taw’t Deram and weakened their infrastructure.

Every time a man named Mengkin comes to our clinic in Kamantian, he asks for us to come to his village, Lanay-Lanay, across the Kendewaga River. Perhaps we can start a school there where the Taw’t Deram will feel free to come and get medicine and attend school. Niksun is thinking he would be happy to live and teach there. We’re glad he is flexible and eager to start a new school somewhere in this area.

Friday, March 19
We are finally at Beluwing. It was a hard day of hiking today to arrive here before Sabbath. We got up at 4:30 this morning so we could be on the trail at 5. The carriers didn’t show up, so we went on ahead. Niksun waited for the carriers who arrived at 5:30. One carrier had backed out, so Niksun radioed us, and we stopped in the market at Ugis, found another one, and sent him back to Niksun. Jini is carrying a pack that is bigger and heavier than he is, I think. We did some rearranging to lighten his load. We waited at Ugis quite a while. Kent reviewed geometry with our high school students, and we saw a beautiful pet parrot.

In Ugis, we met Juran, our first guide. We took group pictures. We are quite a group. Besides our core group of 11, we have five carriers and a guide, so 16 in all. I Hope we brought enough rice.

The trail from where we had been staying was relatively flat and wide. But coming up out of Ugis, it became a little more hilly. Then the mountains began rising up before us. We climbed one after another until we got to Ginu`u where we ate our pre-cooked breakfast—rice with veggies and maggi—which has been our standard fare two or three times a day since we left.

From there, the trail got harder and steeper, and we had to take bigger and bigger steps from root to root. By the time we stopped for lunch at about 3 p.m. at Bungbung, I was exhausted and announced this was as far as I could go today. It was not a good camping place, so Juran asked if I could make it around the sides of two more hills to a cleared field.

Wanting a head start, I left the group eating their lunch. I didn’t feel like eating. I was still feeling a bit sick. Juran and Pidli decided to stay with me. As we hiked, Pidli told me all about the vegetation along the trail, probably trying to distract me from my misery. The trail was pretty rocky with lots of trees fallen across it and saw-like thorns on long stems. It seemed to go on forever, but we finally made it.
Before too long we met Pastor Duwidi. We were never able to determine his tribal origins, but he has been living among the Taw’t Deram for about 10 years. His children are marrying here, and they blend in with the locals. They appear very poor, and their children dress and smoke just like their peers. Pastor Duwidi is literate, though not schooled, and we found him to be a very humble man. He seems eager for our help as long as it is not religion. He would like us to build a clinic and a school school here.

For supper, we ate rice and maggi cooked with an edible white fungus Juran found on a log.

To be continued.

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