Dear Friends,

Greetings! Thanksgiving has just passed, and now it is Christmas season. Usually, radio stations air Christmas carols, and department stores begin to sell Christmas goods beginning in October. And usually there are Christmas decorations on the street and Christmas lights are glittering from November. However, this year is very different from last year. I cannot feel the Christmas spirit this year. Until now, I have heard only a few Christmas carols. Only a few houses have Christmas decorations, and they do not turn on the lights. I do not know why.

Some say that flow of U.S. dollars into the Philippines has been reduced since the United States was attacked in September. Due to this, city government has financial difficulties and cannot decorate the streets. I do not know what is the correlation between the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the reduction of dollars coming to the Philippines.

This year has almost ended, but, strangely, I feel that we live in an uncertain time. It seems that the war between the United States and Afghanistan has no end. Perhaps it will end when Osama bin Laden is captured or killed.

Political and social unrest continues in the Philippines. Misuari, who is the governor of the Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao, refused election and declared war on the government in Manila. When the government of the Philippines attempted to arrest Misuari for corruption, there were armed conflicts between his security forces and the military. There is still fighting in Zamboanga, and there is a rumor that Misuari fled to Malaysia.

Many Muslims live in southern Mindanao. One of the Muslim military forces is the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). Nur Misuari organized this force in the early1970s and concluded a peace agreement with Fidel Ramos, president of the Philippines in 1996. However, there were conflicts within the MNLF concerning the peace agreement, and Hasim Salamat separated from the MNLF to form the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The MILF attempts to secure its demands through violence, and is in a state of war with the government of the Philippines. The Abu Sayyaf bandits were founded by Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalaani in 1991 to establish Mindanao as a Muslim country. It is a radical and violent terror group. It has sown fear among the population for more than a year through assassination, bombing, and kidnapping.

According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, until October 15 of this year a total of 149 people were kidnapped by various criminal groups. This number is more than double the number of people kidnapped last year. People say the number would be much higher if it included unreported victims. According to the National Anti-crime Commission, there were 105 incidents of kidnapping and 225 victims as of October 31. Kidnap victims are mostly foreigners or wealthy Chinese-Filipinos. Some have joked with me that I should be careful because I look like a wealthy Chinese-Filipino. I do not know how to be more careful, since I wear the same stitched shirts and pants as the Filipinos do and I and live like a Filipino.

In these complex and troubled circumstances, my missionary work in the Philippines continues much as I have described it in my previous letters. I was invited to be a guest speaker at a family cluster of the Silliman Church and lectured on church history three times. Last September, I participated in a seminar on child labor and prayed in the meeting. I learned through this seminar that many children do hard physical labor and are exploited, a sad reality in the Philippines.

In September, some professors from the College of Arts and Sciences and I led a leadership training workshop for the engineering students at Central Visaya Polytechnic College, a state college here. I also gave a lecture on "Vital Leadership" to nursing students at Silliman University on this November.

I meet five students bi-weekly for theological reflection and counseling. I meet another student for individual counseling and guidance. Silliman University had intramural sports beginning November 20. I attended each game and encouraged divinity school students. I have always realized that divinity school students are not good in sports. Silliman Divinity School had an internship seminar. Students who serve local churches and church organizations for six months gathered to report about their ministries. As chair of the social life committee, I planned a fellowship for them and encouraged them.

Whenever the school has an event I am often faced with the awkward situation of someone asking me for a donation. Some even say, "You receive your salary U.S. dollars and have more money than we do." Students have often told me that their churches do not have enough funds. I ask them why they don’t make plans to be self-supporting by carrying out fundraising campaigns. I do not know what is the best way to make them self-supporting, but I want them to stop being dependent on donations. This is my prayer and hope for them.

It will be Christmas in just a few days. I hope that you have a time to experience Jesus Christ, who came to us as the Prince of Peace. I hope this Christmas will be a good, joyous, and peaceful season for you. Merry Christmas!

Sincerely,

John Eunsik Cho

The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 188