Stories of faith, hope and encouragement
Stories of faith, hope and encouragement
Stirred by currents of the Philippine Sea, the island of Mindoro is a land of contrasts. Its rugged but fertile terrain is scarred from north to south by a crust-sutured ridgeline that is actively being formed by earthquakes.
Hidden in the lush folds of that Central Mindoro Mountain Range, live a shy, nomadic people called the Mangyan, comprised of eight distinct indigenous tribes, each with their own language and traditions. For centuries, they have shunned their Tagalog kinsmen in the lowlands, preferring their own ways of isolation to those of their Spanish-colonial cousins.
The off-grid life of the Mangyan is quite primitive and often harsh, unlike those who dwell in the relative comfort of more modern coastal communities. When illness, injury or calamity strikes, they are unfortunately on their own to face the consequences.
It was in the barangay of Marayos, Pinamalayan, Oriental Mindoro in 2022 that I met Maricel Arellano, the wife of a tribal pastor to the Mangyans. I was part of a YWAM Ships Philippines medical and dental mission to that area and Maricel was serving as a volunteer barangay health worker in the same outreach.
My curiosity about the Mangyans led me to ask locals who I should talk to and every finger pointed to Maricel. When I finally found her and introduced myself, Maricel didn’t give me facts and figures about the Mangyans. Instead, she broke down in tears. Pent-up sobs rolled out of her from 16 stoic years of trial and triumph serving the Mangyan people with her husband, Pastor Noriel.
I held her as she wept, and in that embrace, I knew their story was far deeper than anything I could glean from statistics – and it needed to be told.
Pastor Noriel came from humble beginnings, saved by God from a sordid past. It was because of his deep gratitude to Jesus that he committed himself to sharing his new found faith with others. Noriel was very young and struggling with low self-esteem when the Lord called him to be a pastor. Noriel asked the Lord in his confusion, “Who can I minister to? I am nothing and I have nothing.” At that very moment, a group of Mangyans were passing by and Noriel heard the Lord say to him, “You minister to them. They have souls that need saving, too.” He chuckled as he recalled complaining to the Lord that He had called both him and his wife to serve a people group poorer than they were.
With much reluctance yet full of faith, Noriel obeyed the call to the Mangyans. The Lord did not give him specifics, and he didn’t know where to begin, so he decided to walk into the jungle, not knowing how long it would take to find his first converts.
He prepared himself for a day-long hike but after only about an hour and a half, he stumbled onto a small cogon hut where a Mangyan family of seven lived. Recognizing the Lord’s favour, he did not waste any time and immediately shared with this family why he was there – sent by a loving God to tell the Mangyan people about Jesus. Noriel opened his Bible and shared stories from it that so intrigued the family that he was invited to come back. This was the beginning of the Arellanos’ devoted relationship with the Mangyans, showing them a love they have never experienced before.
Over time, other Mangyan families wandered in, and still more came as word spread. Through perseverance—and what Arellanos describe as the movement of the Holy Spirit—this fledgling ministry grew from seven people in 2006 to what is now a community of 250 souls (2025).
Their accomplishment came at a cost. The Arellanos gave everything they had – their time, their energy, their resources – as God directed them. When six hectares of land were gifted to them, they didn’t see it as personal gain. They donated it to the Mangyan community they were ministering to, creating permanent homes, a basketball court, a school, and a church for people who once lived nomadically.
But moving in required more than a roof overhead. Noriel and Maricel invited the Mangyan families to embrace a new way of life rooted in worship, discipleship, and the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
Harmful Habits
“When we first arrived to live with the Mangyans, the men had tobacco stuck in their mouths all day. When they learned from the Word that harmful habits like smoking tobacco destroy the life that the Lord has given them (1Cor6:19-20), they accepted the Word of God and gave up smoking.”
Wrong Beliefs
“Before the Mangyans learned that God commands His followers not to murder (Exodus 20:13), they did not know what to do with their sick. They used to offer pig sacrifices to their gods and call on witch doctors. When none of this worked, they would ‘jump’ on their babies or throw them or kick them until they die. The older sick ones, they would leave in the jungle or the river to die. Today, they pray for healing, believing that God is their healer (Exodus 15:26). They also learned to bring their sick to treatment centers in the lowlands.”
Superstition
“The Mangyans had a superstition that the birth of twins will cause a plague in the tribe. They used to resolve this by killing the weaker of the twin babies. When they learned that the Lord is the giver of life (Psalm 36:9) and that life is precious, they no longer do this, and we now have twins living in our community today.“
Idolatry
“A spirit healer called Sinon came to live in the community and did not want to attend church claiming that the god he believed in was more powerful. He became sick and could not get out of bed, and his family called me (Noriel) to pray for him. I explained to Sinon that the God I am calling to heal him is a powerful God and the One and Only true God. He nodded his head to acknowledge this and I prayed for him. A few days later, he was healed. Since then, Sinon started attending the worship services and listening to the teaching of the Word. He later admitted to me that my God is indeed the one true God and is more powerful than his former god because my God protected me from the curses he had tried to put on me before he became a believer. Sinon has since passed on and is now resting in peace with the One and Only true God.”
What makes this group remarkable is not just its seizmic growth but its diversity. Members from all eight Mangyan tribes live in community —something unthinkable in many parts of Mindoro where tribal divisions run deep. Their peace comes not from uniformity, but from a shared submission to Christ and His teachings as exemplified by the Arellanos.
“No matter where they come from, we all follow the same belief system,” says Pastor Noriel. This is how peace and unity are kept, and if at some point they think differently, they trust that that, too, God will make clear to them (Philippians 3:15).
The result? A community where suspicions are replaced by trust and cultural lines blur. A place where children play joyfully together, and men and women work side by side tending collective gardens and coconut fields. A place where caring for one another, helping each other, and walking in the way of love has become the new normal. (Eph 5:2).
The Mangyans have long been marginalized, often mocked and mistreated – dismissed as “uncivilized” – by the lowland Tagalog people. Yet in 2022, with a powerful turn of grace, the Arellanos and their Mangyan community planted a church among the Tagalog people.
We had the privilege of seeing this church being built at the time of our initial visit. What once was animosity has become fellowship. The Gospel of reconciliation is not a theory here; it is sung, prayed, and lived out.
More recently, another church was started up in the mountains, where Mangyan believers worship together under the leadership of a Mangyan pastor—discipled and encouraged by Pastor Noriel.
These Mangyan believers are fervent evangelists at heart – determined to reach their own people who still live in the deep jungles of Mindoro, while also reaching out to the Tagalog lowlanders who had chased their people into the mountains in the first place. How they have exemplified loving their enemies through forgiveness!
Noriel and Maricel continue to dream big. With eyes fixed on the future, the couple is raising up young leaders—spiritually and practically—so that their work will continue. The Arellanos’ vision is simple: to remain faithful until the Lord returns, and to hand over a legacy of integrity, unity, and Spirit-filled leadership to the next generation.
The Kingdom of God is moving quietly but surely through the hidden jungles of Mindoro. As Mangyan believers of Marayos choose faith, forgiveness, and love, it is clear that long term missions, by the power of the Holy Spirit, can transform isolated indigenous tribes to function in loving, harmonious communities.
If you would like to support the work of Noriel and Maricel Arellano among the Mangyan people, you can reach out to Lib Pulsifer @
libpuls@gmail.com or lib@rattlethebones.com.
