While I write this article the sound of roosters crowing echo with the voices of children singing Christmas songs nearby. The Barangay where I am living with my wife’s family in Talisay is a peaceful place even though it is filled with much activity.
The people of the Philippines are a gentle and peaceful people. They treasure the joys of being with their family members on a Sunday outing to the beach, or an afternoon of laughter around the songs they sing in their living rooms.
Not far from the peace and serenity of a simple life, Al Qaeda lurks nearby. In the southern part of the 7,200 islands of the Philippines there is an evil that threatens the way of life that Filipino’s love. An evil that does not care for family, the love that is felt and shared, nor the simplicity of a humble and loving people.
Those demonically inspired men who have turned other quiet neighborhoods of the world into war zones would like nothing better than to bring their brand of terror to all the streets of these peaceful islands. The people of the Philippines will not have it here though. They fight hard against the efforts of these selfish men. Brave soldiers and private citizens die for freedom from evil, just as Americans have died for their freedom in past and current battles. I pray that my amigo’s here continue to be successful in eradicating Al Qaeda from every corner of this lovely place.
Even in the midst of the joyous season of Christmas in which every man woman and child of this tropical place of peace worships the coming of the Savior, there is a darkness that lurks nearby.
On Christmas day in a nearby Provence, a bomb exploded during a church service, miraculously no one was killed. The details of this article follow my own. The sound of this explosion on such a beautiful day, is a reminder that it is just as dangerous to follow Jesus today as it was during the early days of Christianity when calling on the name of the Lord meant certain death.
Americans have so far been nearly immune from this lethal virus of religious terrorism on American soil. Let no one forget that the reason that Al Qaeda leveled the twin towers and murdered 3,000 precious people, was because those who took their lives hate Jesus and all those who follow Him. It was not as much for the financial prosperity and way of life that Americans enjoy as much as it was for the demonically directed hatred of men who want Jesus kingdom to topple.
Jesus said that if they hated Him, they would hate those of us who love Him also. If they crucified Jesus when He sought to pour out His love upon all men, then they will try to kill all those who love His name and a peaceful life.
Until the Price of Peace returns to the earth and brings everlasting righteousness, there will be no real peace on the earth. I look forward to the wonderful day when the Lord will part the clouds with a mighty shout and the image of His glorious face will shine on the lives of all men.
Until then, remember in prayer your fellow believers here in the Philippines who have as a southern neighbor, the terror of Al Qaeda and the constant threat of his knocking at the door any moment.
Rob Robinson
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Bombing Wounds 11 at Christmas Mass
MANILA (AP) — A bomb exploded during Christmas Day Mass at a chapel inside a police camp in the volatile southern Philippines, wounding a priest and 10 churchgoers.
The device was hidden in a ventilation window near the ceiling of the chapel, which is on the compound where the provincial police office is located in Jolo town on Jolo Island, Sulu provincial police said.
The island is a stronghold of al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militants, but it wasn’t clear who was responsible for the bombing. Investigators recovered parts of a cell phone they believe detonated the device.
All of the wounded were civilians. One woman remained at a hospital for observation later Saturday, but police said one did not need hospital treatment and the others had been treated and sent home.
The Rev. Romeo Villanueva, 72, said a newly ordained priest, the Rev. Ricky Bacoldol, who was assisting him, was thrown off his feet by the blast impact and suffered a slight leg injury.
“I was reading the Gospel. I was not yet finished when there was a loud explosion,” Father Villanueva told the Associated Press by telephone.
The roof over the front of the church collapsed, and wooden beams and other debris flew in all directions. A portion of the ceiling shielded the organist from the blast, Father Villanueva said.
About 50 people were inside the church, but many more were arriving at the time, he said.
President Benigno Aquino III’s spokesman, Edwin Lacierda, said the bombing “violates the basic tenets of respect and peace of all who hold their faith dear.” He said there could be no religious or political justification for the attack.
The Philippines is predominantly Catholic, but Christians are a minority on Jolo and nearby island provinces that are majority Muslim.
A bombing at the main Jolo cathedral last year killed two churchgoers, and the cathedral has been attacked in the past with grenades. The Abu Sayyaf, notorious for high-profile kidnappings and beheadings, has been blamed for those attacks.
The military estimates that battle setbacks, arrests and surrenders have reduced the group’s strength to more than 300 from more than 1,000 guerrillas during its heyday in 2000.
The Abu Sayyaf is on a U.S. list of terrorist organizations and is suspected of having received funds and training from al Qaeda.
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