Station of the Cross, Bataan, Philippines

One day a friend told me I should go to the Philippines and shoot a story about the Bataan Death March that occured during World War Two.

I had absolutely no idea how I was going to achieve a shoot like that since I didn't have any contacts in that area whatsoever.

But I started planning ahead and by a miracle I was in a chatroom on yahoo or something, I really can't remember, and was talking to a lady.

She asked me all the standard questions about what I do and where I live.  Then I asked her about herself. 

It was like a true miracle.  She happened to live right in the heart of Bataan, Philippines.  

As we continued chatting over the course of several weeks she began sending me photos of that region.

I was completely surprised with each photo she sent.  

She had told me she was catholic but when I saw the photos I thought she was muslim.

I knew that people wore headscarves and stuff during religious ceremonies but I had never seen the entire audience do this before.  

After chatting for a few more weeks and gathering as much information as I could I booked plane tickets and headed to Bataan.

When I arrived they met me at the airport and drove five hours to the final destination.  

The first thing we did was take a tour of the neighborhood and I met hundreds of people.  

The people you see in these photos were who I met.  

It was such a sureal experience to meet everybody.  Many of them were dressed like you see in the photos.

What I didn't know at the time was that the entire neighorhood was populated by members of Apostolic Catholic Church and they were very very very dedicated.

The neighorhood had adopted rules like "men don't wear short pants, women must wear skirts, no smoking, no drinking, etc."  

Nobody really enforced those rules but people generally kept them, at least in public.  I know some people did smoke and drink but they did so inside their homes.

Every friday afternoon at 4pm the entire population gathered in the courtyard of the church.  From there they walked along a very very worn path up the mountain to 12 stations.

Each station was devoted to one of the 12 Apostles,  St. Peter, St. John, St. Luke, etc.  Attending this Station of the Cross is optional for neighorhood folks but most people attended by choice

I was welcome to take pictures, video and interact with people in any way I saw fit.  

It was a real privilege to witness their devotion to their faith.

I learned a lot about faith, devotion, dedication and humility from these people.  

They don't have much of anything in terms of material possessions but what they have is worth more than money.

They have faith, hope, charity for each other and belief in God.

While there is human drama that happens in their neighborhood like anywhere in the world, I can truly say that they do love each other.  

They're like a huge family made up of people with shared experiences and a faith that has guided them for most of their lives.  

I am thankful that I was blessed to meet everybody there and experience "Family" in a way that I had never known it before.