The Philippines is a country in Southeast Asia, constituted of about 7,000 islands (of which some 700 are inhabited). All combined, the inhabited islands are about the size of the state of Arizona, and yet about 88 million people live in the nation; so despite having only 3% of the area of the United States, the Philippines has nearly 30% of the U.S. population. The terrain of the Philippines is mostly mountainous with narrow, long coastlands. The nation is just on the edge of the Pacific typhoon belt, with about 5-6 typhoons hitting the nation every year.
The largest city of the Philippines is Manila containing about 11 million Filipinos. About six out of every ten Filipinos live in these bustling, largely poor cities; the rest live scattered throughout rural communities.
The Philippines began as a 16th-century Spanish colony, was transferred to U.S. control in 1898, and gained its independence in 1946. It is a democratic nation, with the President elected to six-year terms by popular vote; like the U.S., its legislative branch is composed of a Senate and House of Representatives, and its judicial branch has a Supreme Court appointed by the President.
The Philippines' culture is a fascinating mixture of various cultures: the indigenous cultures within the Philippines (Tagalogs, Ilokanos, Visayans, Bikolanos, Lumads in Mindanao, etc.) have assimilated over the years with Chinese, Hispanic, and even American culture to create a truly unique society. The unique history, combined with Hispanic influences to religion, Chinese influences to cuisine, and American influences in language (English is spoken widely), all make the Philippines a fascinating culture.
Though once the second-wealthiest country in Asia, the Philippine economy has undergone several crises over the past three decades, leaving the country ranked 118 out of 178 countries in GDP per capita. Political corruption, the Asian financial crisis of 1998, and a reduced demand for Philippine products has hurt the largely agriculturally-dependent nation.
Religion in the Philippines
Prior to colonization by Spain, most of the Filipino tribes practiced varieties of animism, the belief that the natural world is inhabited with good and bad spirits and supernatural beings. Animistic religions vary greatly, but often focus on magic, chants, and prayers. Its "priests" were highly respected and feared in the community, acting as healers, midwives, shamans, witches and warlocks, historians, and elders. The Filipino animism religions tend to be matriarchal, with women acting in the leadership roles; this influence still exists in modern Filipino women, who are strong leaders in the community. About 1% of the population worships animism and nothing else; however, animism has been blended into the daily life of all other Philippine religions.
Christianity first arrived in the Philippines in the form of Roman Catholicism, in 1521, when Magellan landed. Catholicism has remained the dominant faith in the region, with over 83% of the population professing to be Catholic. However, folk religion and traditional animism still have a major role in the Christian churches in the Philippines. For example, in the Visayan regions--despite professing Catholicism and Christianity publicly--virtually all of the Filipinos still accept the existence of mangkukulam (witches practicing voodoo-like sorcery) and aswang (local superstitious monsters, including ghouls and, sometimes, shapeshifters, lycans, and other monsters). So even those proclaiming Catholicism in the Philippines often find the religion mixed with pagan roots. The "Old-Catholic Philippine Independent Church" is an offshoot of Catholicism, and is in full communion with the Anglican church.
At the present time, aside the existence of the mainline and large churches who have been doing mission and based their convention in America and other foreign lands, there are less propagation and multiplication of independent/indigenous churches in the villages of the Philippines. This is where the JC-TOWHM Center Churches (Christ's Body of Believers/ 1 Corinthians 12:27) called to minister to Filipinos until the taking up of All Believers at the clouds by our Lord Jesus Christ (John 14:1-3; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).
Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
Matthew 9:37-38.
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