Every year the Subanen crafters and their families hold our annual Christmas reunion.
The occasion has its usual games and food. We crown a queen after a competition where the contestants make toilet paper gowns!
The audience always enjoys the toilet paper gown competition! One of the other games was a karaoke contest. The karaoke winter was Jemuel Rote. Jemuel is a Subanen Crafter and continues to make our Christmas cards.
In our Christmas cards we place Mary and Joseph within our Earthly homeland and its solar system. Mary and Joseph sought refuge in a stable in Bethlehem and later on an oasis in the desert. Our Christmas cards remind us that all humans and, indeed, all living things share one tiny God-given oasis in the lifeless expanse of the Universe.
The Holy Family survived their escape by getting water at a desert oasis. The mountainous homeland of the Subanen People is their nurturing oasis. After his traumatic experience in Marawi and after his long convalescence, Jemuel returned to his nurturing homeland where he has clearly benefited in mind and body by working with a group of supportive crafters.
Columban Fr. Vincent Busch lives and works in the Philippines.
