A Day in the Life
My name is Amir, I am eleven, and my people are named after water. Maguindanao means people of the flooded plain, and when the rains come and the great river spreads across the land like spilled tea, you understand the name.
We live on Mindanao, the big southern island of the Philippines, where the Rio Grande de Mindanao loops through rice fields and marshes full of herons. Our house stands on stilts by the water, and my father’s banca, a wooden boat with bamboo outriggers like dragonfly legs, is tied below the steps. I can paddle it myself. In the wet season, the river is our road, our market, and my favorite place to be.
My mother weaves inaul, the cloth of our people, in stripes of maroon, gold, and green. A finished inaul shines like a wet leaf, and the patterns are passed from mother to daughter. For festivals there are kulintang gongs, a row of small brass kettles played fast with two sticks, and the sound skips across the water like a thrown stone.
We are Muslims, and we have been since long before the Spanish ships came. My grandfather is proud of that: while most of the Philippines changed, he says, we remained. The mosque’s call braids into the evening with the smoke of cooking fires and the smell of fish grilling over coals. Almost no one I know has ever met a follower of Isa, as we call Jesus. I have never seen the book his followers read.
Fun Facts
- Maguindanao means “people of the flooded plain,” for the great river that spreads across their homeland each rainy season.
- The Rio Grande de Mindanao is the second-largest river in the Philippines, and Maguindanao life moves with it.
- Inaul, the handwoven cloth of the Maguindanao, is so treasured it has its own annual festival.
- The kulintang, a row of small brass gongs, leads Maguindanao music and is played at weddings and feasts.
- The Maguindanao are among the largest Muslim peoples in the mostly Catholic Philippines.
- A New Testament exists in Maguindanaon, but believers among the people are very few.
How to Pray for the Maguindanao
Pray for the Maguindanaon New Testament, already translated, to find its way into homes along the great river. Pray for the few believers, that they would be protected and that their families would see something beautiful in them. Pray for peace in Mindanao, which has known long conflict, and for Filipino Christians from the north to love their Maguindanao countrymen across the old dividing line. A million and a half people are waiting on the flooded plain.
How Kids Can Help
Find the Philippines on a map, then its big southern island, Mindanao, and trace its largest river westward to the sea. Pray for the stilt-house villages along it. Listen to kulintang music together online and try tapping its rhythm. The November 2025 Wonder Letter was written from the perspective of a Maguindanao child, with a map and vocabulary for your family.
Scripture to Remember
“He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water.” (Psalm 107:35)
The people of the flooded plain know what water does to a land. Pray they learn what living water does to a heart.