There isn't any Tebowing going on in Makati City.
Makati City is a sprawling municipality in Metro Manila , and is also the unlikely birthplace for the most talked-about athlete in the United States, whose name is Tim Tebow and who plays quarterback for the Denver Broncos.
Tim has had a remarkable football season in the US. His series of extraordinary fourth-quarter comebacks has added to his cult-figure status as a true believer in Jesus Christ.
His journey began 24 years ago when he was born in Makati City, but if you ask most residents of the Philippines who Tim Tebow is, they will not know. Tebow's parents, Bob and Pamela, were working as Baptist missionaries in the Philippines when their son was born in the Makati Medical Center on Aug. 14, 1987. Although Pamela Tebow was advised to have an abortion after suffering from a pathogenic amoeba, she decided to go through with the birth despite the risks of her son being stillborn.
Tebow spent the first three years of his life in the Philippines and has returned on charitable and religious missions every year since he was 15 years old.
"I will always have a special place in my heart for the country where I was born," he said recently.
Given the amount of focus trained upon Tebow in the United States, one would think that he would be known in the Philippines, especially in his birth town of Makati City, but most filipinos have never heard of him.
Makati offers a fascinating snapshot of Filipino life. Part of the district forms the financial hub of the Philippines, complete with skyscrapers and billion-dollar fiscal institutions. However, just a couple of miles away and within the same district are slum areas where Tebow's parents worked to provide aid and spiritual guidance for the locals.
Yet, even the most passionate of local sports fans in the Philippines have yet to be touched by the Tebow hype that has engulfed the U.S
Basketball is the biggest sport in the P.I., followed by boxing, and filipinos don't know much about American sports apart from those.
That may change soon, especially if Tebow's fame and form continue to surge. Two Manila newspapers are planning stories on the quarterback this week, and Filipino state television is sending a crew to the Broncos' showdown against the New England Patriots on Sunday.
Tebow continues his family's mission work, and his foundation has combined with renowned charity CURE International to build a state-of-the-art hospital in the troubled region of Davao that will provide reconstructive surgery for children suffering from deformities.
Funding for the $3.1 million project is nearly 80 percent complete, and it is expected that Tebow will be present at the groundbreaking ceremony in January.
There has been a new word coined in the English language recently. It is "tebowing". "Tebowing" is a verb, and it means "to get down on a knee and start praying, even if everyone else around you is doing something completely different." The word is a result of Tim's actions, as he often kneels and prays during the course of the game.
At the beginning of each news conference when he is asked to answer questions, the first thing he says is, "First of all, I would like to thank my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ."