JUNGLE TROLLS AND BEES
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| A bengkal is used to smoke out beehives. |
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September 2, 2009
by David Bell
As they sat on their porch one night enjoying the stars over their home among the Palawano people in the Philippines, missionaries George and Ginny Olson saw a pair of lights moving toward them.
"Those lights over there are moving pretty fast," George said.
The lights moved closer and the Olsons could see one of the village men with his wife and baby. A third person with them split off on a different trail.
When they got close to the missionaries’ house, George asked what was going on. The family continued to move quickly as the man said, "Oh, it’s nothing, Cousin, just a little problem at my house, so we can’t sleep there. I’ll tell you about it tomorrow."
The couple and their child spent the night in the village with someone else. The next morning George began asking what was going on.
One of the Palawano women told the story of the preceding night.
A man was in the jungle smoking out a beehive to get honey, when something grabbed him. He was convinced it was a lenggam, a type of jungle troll or spirit that kills people and sucks their blood.
The only thing a person can do when a lenggam tries to get you is to run away as fast as you can. The path the man took went right past the house of the family that George and Ginny saw the night before. They quickly gathered some things and took off to flee from the spirit creature.
The story that George got later from the man who hurried his family past his house was altered because the man didn’t want George and Ginny to think that he believes in the spirits.
His story was that the bees followed the man to his house and the family was unable to spend the night because of the bees.
The Olsons are in the process of learning the culture and language of the Palawanos and this is just one example of what they have to wade through before they can make the Scriptures culturally relevant to the people.
Please pray that they will be quick learners and continue to build good relationships with the people. |
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