“A Meditation on a ‘Centralite’ Journey”
                                                                                      Rev. Elmo D. Familiaran

                                                A Sermon Delivered at the Sunrise Service of the CPUHS Class of 1972 Global Reunion
                                                                                     August 4-6, 2006
                                                                                   Las Vegas, Nevada

“I lift up my eyes to the hills – from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.”
         Psalm 121 (NRSV)

As I immersed myself in these last two days of our reunion, it occurred to me that I have not seen most of you in almost two generations (a generation being 20 years) – that is a very long time!

In that thought it is not surprising to me to see that life has cut a path for each of us that has led us in different directions in our life’s journey. We left high school with our full lives still ahead of us. Now we see each other again 34 years hence, and we find ourselves in different stations in life.

Now we are in our 50’s (and those of you who say you are not, is not telling the truth!) and we stand on a vantage point in life that gives us a vision of the past full of lessons learned. Our lives have taken their own twists and turns, their own peaks and valleys.

However, in all of the multiplicity of experiences that have shaped our lives since, there is and always has been a constant steady stream – a “river” – from which we all have drank, some of us know it and some of us don’t.

On this special morning I want to remind all of us about this one constant stream from whose waters we have drank as Centralians. This “flowing stream” is CPU’s Christian missionary heritage.

CPU was birthed by the Spirit of Christ who compelled missionaries of the American Baptist Churches USA to seek the distant shores of Iloilo. There, more than 100 years ago (as CPU celebrated its Centennial last year), they established what was first a school for orphan boys. This school was called the Jaro Industrial School. As the school grew it also established a School of Divinity, a theological school fed by the great Baptist tradition brought by the missionaries from ABCUSA. My grandfather, Rev. Delfin Dianala was one of the first graduates of this theological school. After he graduated he founded a congregation in the foothills of Capiz, and called this congregation “Katipunan.” In the years to come the educational institution evolved into one of the country’s top Universities and into what we now know as Central Philippines University.

A decisive point in this history occurred during the Second World War, when the Japanese Imperial Army invaded the Philippines. At the height of the war, Americans all over the country were arrested and interned in prison camps. Some of those Americans were ABCUSA missionaries. There was a group of  ABCUSA missionaries in Iloilo who chose not to surrender and fled to Capiz to join their colleagues who where assigned at Filamer Christian College, another ABCUSA mission school. At that time, the Japanese Imperial Army was already being beaten back by Gen. McArthur, and they no longer took American prisoners alive as they retreated.  A group of these Japanese soldiers entered Capiz.

As the word reached the missionaries, they fled to the foothills where they knew my grandfather was pastoring. When they reached Katipunan, my grandfather took them around the neighboring jungle as they looked for a safe place to hide. They finally chose a location at the bottom of a ravine surrounded by lush forest. They called this place Hopevale. They built a makeshift chapel there, made of stone and fallen trees. They called this “church” the Chapel in the Glen. The 11 missionaries stayed at Hopevale in relative security for almost 2 years, protected and supported by the people of Katipunan, until their location was disclosed by a captured American pilot who had passed through Hopevale and was tortured.

James and Charma Covell were part of the 11. They were ABC missionaries in Japan who taught at the Kanto Gakuin School who were transferred to the Philippines by ABCUSA headquarters in Valley Forge, PA., because of their open and vocal opposition to the militarization of Japan. They spoke fluent Japanese. The orders to the platoon were to execute the Americans. But the Covells, through their Japanese, were able to plead with the platoon commander, indicating that they were not part of the war, and that they were missionaries. The platoon commander was moved enough to make several appeals himself to his commanding officer to not execute the Americans but instead to just bring them in as prisoners. But the orders stayed. And so when death was inevitable, the Covells requested for a time to pray and they were given all the time they needed. After almost an hour, they finally came to their captors holding hands and singing a hymn, and Dr. James Covell said, “We are ready.” They were each taken to separate places and executed. My grandfather related to us that unlike the others, the bodies of the Covells were wrapped in white cloth – the Japanese way of indicating that the one who died was a person of great honor.

Many powerful stories of God’s powerful presence through that tragedy came out of the Hopevale experience. One of those happened during peace time, in Japan. One day the General Secretary of the Japan Baptist Union was riding the train to work holding his Bible on his lap. An elderly Japanese man seated across him was staring at his Bible and making eye contact. Finally he asked the General Secretary, “Are you a Christian?”, to which the General Secretary responded, “Yes, I am the General Secretary of the JBU.” The old man then asked if he knew Dr. James Covell. The General Secretary responded, “Yes, he was a missionary of the ABCUSA and was executed by the Imperial Army in the Philippines.” The old man replied, “I know…I was a member of the platoon that executed him and the others!” Then he went on to say how he was moved by the way they asked for a time to pray, and to return to face their death in peace. This moved his soul so, that after the war he sought out to read the Bible to learn about their God, and later on became a Christian!

I share this story with you not to call attention to the ties of my personal history with the Hopevale missionaries, but to remind all of us of our great heritage as Centralians. We were educated by a school built by God’s love that summoned a group of servants to Iloilo, and on whose soil whereupon it stands is soaked by the blood of martyrs for the faith!

Look at the beautiful muscular hills surrounding us this morning, the quiet majesty of the desert. Look at how ordered and beautiful they are. Even in the harshness of the barren hills and arid sand, God brings forth order. God’s creative love brought forth nature into being; and because it is from God’s love, nature has beauty and order even in its seeming chaos.

So my dear classmates remember, and never forget, the creative love that created the river from which we drank as Centralians. Let us continue to learn from God’s faithfulness by continuing to strive to order our own lives and decision-making in the journeys that yet lie ahead, according to that suffering, self-giving, other-centered love – a love that is ever faithful.

May God continue to hold us together in that love. God bless you all!