Back from the Crocodile’s Belly: Christian Formation Meets Indigenous Resurrection Redux

In this chapter, the author grapples with the question: What happens when the “One True Story” encounters other faith stories? Riffing off her co-edited book titled, Back from the Crocodile’s Belly: Philippine Babaylan Studies and the Struggle for Indigenous Memory, the author narrates her personal journey growing up as a Methodist pastor’s kid, becoming a born-again believer and an aspiring Christian missionary trained by Philippine Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, and belatedly coming to grips with her relationship to her country’s colonial history and its consequences for her and her people’s struggle for wholeness and authenticity. Informed by a rich cultural memory bearing shades of Jonah’s story in the belly of the whale, she traces her faith learnings from encounter with deep ancestry in the “belly of the beast” and its larger significance for today’s struggle for sustainability and global co-existence.