Filipinos Reaching Nations

Dear FRN friends, I was thrilled recently to learn that in one of our Davao City churches, we now have a fifth-generation disciple! So I asked the fourth generation to share her story:

I am Geniel, 18 years old. Before I encountered Christ in my life, I was just a shy girl who was afraid to step out of her comfort zone. I didn’t like socializing with a lot of people, and I was more comfortable staying at home. Whenever we went out, I would always stay beside my mother and remain silent. I grew up as a church-goer, but it didn’t affect my relationship with God because, at that time, all I cared about was being there because my mother was there.
But God, in His gentle way, began changing my life when I became a teenager. Ate Bee invited me to Imago Dei (youth ministry). At first, I didn’t understand the purpose of it. I didn’t want to socialize with a lot of people.
However, God began to work deeply in my heart. I realized that I am a sinner, that Jesus died for my sins, and that I needed Him. I repented, confessed all my sins to Him, and surrendered my life.
Even though I still face many trials and challenges, I now face them with faith because I know God is always there—guiding me, strengthening me, and helping me overcome everything. God also placed people in my life who are willing to guide me: Ate Bee, my leader who leads me toward the right path, and Ate Mara, my discipler who continues to teach me and walk with me as I grow in my relationship with Him.
Through Christ, I began to discover my gifts as He helped me accept who I am. Because of His work in my life, I am now able to teach in the children’s ministry and serve in the worship team—things I never imagined I would ever do. I will forever be grateful for how Jesus transformed my life—from a shy, fearful girl into someone who now walks in courage because of His love.

(Ate–pronounced ah-tay–means ‘older sister.’ This testimony was slightly edited by me for brevity and clarity.)
Pictured: Marc teaches Geniel (middle, white shirt) and her family every Saturday morning. Marc took over that weekly opportunity from me when Gina and I moved to Luna, Apayao.

BTW, Paul mentions four discipleship generations here in 2 Timothy 2:2:

“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.”

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As you consider your end-of-year giving, please look at our ‘wish list’ at the end of this post.

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A WIDE-OPEN DOOR FOR THE GOSPEL

We took a girl in our Luna church to her high school one morning, and I was surprised to see how far it is from her home—5 KM (3 miles). We already knew she walks to and from school sometimes, even in the heat or in torrential rain. And there are hills to go up and down.

Many students walk to and/or from school every day.

Gina and I realized our afternoon schedule is usually flexible. So we decided to use the 14-seater vehicle God blessed us with—plus my experience as a school bus driver (2011-2013)—to volunteer to take kids home from school. The school’s principal (on the right) gratefully approved our plan!

We can’t do it every day, so we offered to do it every Mon, Wed, and Fri. We will teach the kids from the Scriptures on the way home every time. AND, best of all, they invited us to teach God’s word every Friday on campus to about 100 high school students!

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We’re thanking God for six baptisms here in Luna during the past three months!

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Pictured: My son Isaac’s debut playing keyboard for the Luna church’s worship team. He did great!

Isaac is 30 years old. He had been serving the Teen Challenge ministry in Phoenix, but he felt the Lord leading him to join our mission. He is adjusting well to the entirely new way of life. Isaac is not complaining about any of the many adjustments and discomforts of life here.
His 5th-grade school taught him violin. From that, he taught himself guitar, bass, and keyboard. (I taught him drums.) He’s quite talented. Also, Isaac brings a passion to reach Muslims for Jesus. Muslims make up about 7% of the population in the Philippines.
To illustrate how much Isaac loves God’s word, yesterday we spent about six hours on the road. During at least five of those hours, we discussed chapters in Philippians and Revelation, verse-by-verse. I’m thrilled at what our Lord has done in his life.

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Sometimes long-term saints (like me!) need to rekindle the fire inside us. Prescy is helping these ladies in our Davao City churches do just that. Some of them had not done public evangelism or visitation for a long time, but they’re doing it now!
To be honest, I was recently convicted about this. After a month in the USA, I realized it had been several weeks since I had given out even one church flyer. I said, Lord, light my fire again!

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Our Davao City friends are growing in boldness. These young men have been witnessing one-on-one every week in a local park for months, but now they are preaching to groups, and then openly praying for their souls! Urgency! Passion! Faith!

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I looooooove this! Seeing so many Indians in a church building! It’s a gathering designed to bring Indians closer and closer to following Jesus. Most of the people here are Indians.
(There are always more than 1000 Indians in Davao City studying medicine. What a harvest field!)
Please pray for the saints in Davao City to lead Indians to our Lord. They will host an evangelistic Christmas party just for Indian med students.

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While I was in the USA, the work of God continued in Luna. Here Gina taught public school teachers about the parable of the sower. Gracy, who came from Davao City to help Gina, assisted here and in many other ways.

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Here Gracy ministers at a home:

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Lori Joy (grey shirt) was saved in Luna about seven months ago, and since then she has been a wonderfully joyful and grateful servant. Here she teaches our younger kids with Vianca’s help.

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I was delighted to meet with many saints during my few weeks in the USA. All of them have asked about the three small church plants, which is good to ask about. But I usually try to steer the conversation to something more important, something that those churches are subservient to:

Doing everything we can to reach unreached peoples with the gospel.

During our 12 years in the Philippines, we have

–taught in several missions-oriented seminaries and para-church organizations,

–sponsored Filipinos to study in those organizations,

–supported several Filipino missionaries in unreached cultures,
–sent out a full-time missionary to unreached peoples from one of our churches, 
–won Indians to the Lord who are now ambassadors for Christ in India,

–raised up churches that are missions-minded, and

–sent out our church members on many short-term missions.

There are plenty of churches in the Philippines. But there are not enough Filipino Christians who are reaching out to unreached people groups. Their potential is great, but the goers are few. Our calling is to change that.

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Our friend Ebi in India is doing what he does best: Public evangelism… which can be dangerous there. In fact, the government recently turned off the electricity at their church building during an evangelistic event. And neighbors have been harassing them.
Yes, per local custom, Ebi removed his shoes to preach. It’s holy ground!
If you would like to support Ebi and their church financially, that would be a blessing. Just write to me at jgapinoy@gmail.com and I’ll introduce you to him.

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What a blessing it is to see how God is using our own Mara Joy, of Davao City, as a full-time missionary. She’s with a team that travels a lot. Their mission is twofold: Reaching out to unreached people groups (UPGs), and training churches near UPGs how to reach their neighbors.
MJ gave up a career as a schoolteacher in order to advance the gospel.
I still remember MJ as a skinny kid who, with her younger sisters, gave me weekly Visayan language mini-lessons back in 2016. Now she’s in full-time ministry.
(I can’t publicly show any photos of her with the people the team serves.)

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Ministering at a memorial service for Aida, the cancer-stricken lady whom we baptized in August here in Luna. She would be pleased at the gospel being preached at her home.

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Our end-of-year list of needs:

–Our Bacalso, Davao City church desperately needs a better facility.

–A 14-seat vehicle for our Davao City churches would be a huge blessing.

–We would like to provide driver training and licenses for disciples. Then they would be able to find better employment, and they could use that skill to serve the Lord.

–We would like to sponsor more Filipino missionaries who are doing excellent work in difficult places.

We so appreciate our sponsors!
To those who give, thank you so much! 

We could never repay you for your generosity to Filipinos Reaching Nations, but certainly “you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” (Luke 14:14)

Please forward this website to others who might be interested.

Please pray that God will send more laborers into his harvest field.

Please do not write to me here. Your message would get buried in the 1000s of spam messages. Please contact me via jgapinoy@gmail.com. Thank you!

I’ll be in the USA Oct 15 – Nov 14 for…

–Giving mission reports to Bible studies and hopefully churches
–Getting some possibly pre-cancerous skin growths burned off
–Getting surgery on my prostate gland (benign growths)
And best of all, to bring my son Isaac here!
I’d love to speak at any gathering about our mission, or on the topic of missions in general. I’m waiting for your invitation! 

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In this very Catholic country, it is expected that when you move into a home or a business, you should have a member of the “clergy” come and “bless” the facility. Well, I’m not Catholic, so I don’t sprinkle “holy water,” and I don’t charge a fee. But what we do is to simply pray for the facility (in this case, a home), and we pray for the new occupants. I also wanted to preach the gospel, because Vincent and Susan invited all these guests, and our hosts were kind enough to allow me that. (Gina translated.)
BTW, this event led to us having weekly evangelistic Bible studies there!

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The Indian church where the father of our friend Ebi pastors is bold despite threats of persecution. On the left they are praying before street preaching. The men take turns preaching while the ladies hand out tracts. If you’d like to invest in their ministry, I’d be thrilled to introduce you. If you’re not able, please consider praying for them.

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People’s Park in Davao City is a great place to evangelize.

It’s always our honor to minister to teachers at San Isidro Elementary School. Gina and I go there twice every month.

𝓞𝓤𝓡 𝓣𝓦𝓔𝓛𝓕𝓣𝓗 𝓐𝓝𝓝𝓘𝓥𝓔𝓡𝓢𝓐𝓡𝓨 as missionaries!!!

Two rookies arrived in the Philippines on 8/9/2013. Since then, by the grace of God—and with a lot of help from our supporters—Gina and I have started three small churches, fed the needy, helped train many workers for ministry, supported many Filipino missionaries in UPGs, provided everything from clothes to appliances to roofs after natural disasters, helped people start small businesses, ministered in various jails, spent many hours in schools, and sent out our first missionary from one of our churches.

When I say, “by the grace of God,” I mean it. Imagine me, not having any college degree, teaching in seminaries for a total of 11 semesters. No college degree yet pastoring three churches.

I don’t say any of this to brag, but to encourage everyone reading this: You do NOT need to be a Christian superstar to be a missionary. Ask Gina! I’m a regular guy. I hope to inspire other regular folks to offer their lives to Jesus in any way he sees fit.

Because it’s rainy season (July to February), it’s hard for Gina to ever hang laundry on the line outside. So sometimes we drop our laundry off at a place run by a long-time friend of Gina’s. I took a load, and I forgot to leave my name. I had gotten used to not needing to say it, because the lady who’s usually there knows us. But a guy was there at that time. So he simply wrote “Cano” on our bundle, which is slang for Americano. Well, at least they won’t get our stuff mixed up with anyone else’s, because surely I’m the only Cano who ever goes there. In a town of about 30,000, I think I’m the only foreigner who lives here.

While in Davao City, I was riding jeepneys again. (There are no jeeps in Luna.) Either I’m bigger than I was before, or the jeeps are smaller than they were before. Not only is my head bent over; my knees are blocking the ‘aisle’ in between rows of passengers.

A new evangelistic Bible study group associated with our Catalunan Pequeño church in Davao City. Good job, saints!

Here are some of our Davao City churches’ youth who participated in a city-wide youth camp with many churches participating. The leader of that camp ministry told us that he was very impressed by our youth. In fact, our very own Manuel won best camper. All this testifies to the excellence of the leaders God has given us in Davao City. They are making excellent disciples.
A total of 45 youths were baptized at the camp!

DAVAO CITY REPORT:

As many of you know, we have been trying to push Mara Joy out the door 😂 as a missionary for several months. Last year she was rejected–through absolutely no fault of her own–in a very cruel way by Thai immigration officials. That was a traumatic experience for a 23 year old girl, by herself, away from the island of Mindanao the first time in her life.
But MJ retained her heart for missions.
So I am joyful to announce that as of now, MJ is a staff member of an excellent missionary organization that imparts the gospel to unreached tribes within the Philippines!
Mara Joy is a missionary to those unreached cultures!
She’s on a team that directly ministers to unreached tribes, plus they train Christian pastors and leaders to minister to unreached tribes.
I have already told the missions org that by faith, our ministry will pay MJ’s salary. We’ll also help her move, buy stuff for her apartment, and—if God provides—we’d like to buy a motorcycle for her. (They are much smaller and cheaper here.)
We were blessed to baptize MJ in 2016, and we’ve seen her overcome many challenges as she’s grown in the Lord.
While our previous attempt to launch MJ into missions didn’t happen, this time there is no visa that needs approval. As the USA space program used to say, ALL SYSTEMS ARE GO!
GLORY TO GOD!!!

A public evangelism team accomplishes these things:
–It stirs the saints.
–As they observe, it teaches new converts how they can share their faith with family, friends, co-workers, etc.
–It tells a community that the kingdom of God is there. And,
–It just might lead people to Jesus.
Both Geniel and Kim are naturally shy and quiet, but God is growing a wonderful boldness in them! They just walked up and sat down with her!

Please pray for “M” and “S,” the Hindu ladies whom Prescy is ministering to, that they would follow Jesus. There are always several hundred Indian medical students in Davao City. What a mission field! Please pray for our church’s efforts there.

These young people–in our Buhangin church in Davao City–are usually bouncing off the walls and noisily enjoying each others’ company. But when youth leader Bee gives them an assignment, there’s total silence as they study.

LUNA, APAYAO REPORT:

Joy (dark t-shirt, in the middle) is only 17 years old. She was baptized only 9 months ago. But she is already very mature for her age. Joy often volunteers for various kinds of ministry. And she does a good job leading the youth small group on Sundays.
Those who give and those who pray for us, this is an example of the fruit here that will be credited to your account. (See Philippians 4:17.)

Sisters Nora and Fe pose with Gina after church. Perhaps instead I should be sharing a video of when Fe was dancing and jumping! Because her severe foot/ankle pain was instantly, miraculously healed after prayer! (We believe she had gout.) I included the topic of miracles within my Easter message. Because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, miracles of healing happen!

Every week, Gina is a perfect hostess in church, extending friendly greetings to all one by one. With the mic, Gina is a warm emcee. Also she leads the worship of God beautifully. She often translates for me. She can teach, lead, counsel… She’s the perfect pastor’s wife. ❤

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Joanna was 11 when she started coming to our church. Three of her relatives (including Fe, pictured, plus Nora and Mark) saw her behavior change by the grace of God. They started coming to church because of her testimony.
“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:14)
Joanna lives about a kilometer away from us. She and her two girlfriends began coming to our house to hang out, and that led to Joanna being baptized and transformed.

Gina and I taught a 5-hour seminar about leadership. Why? Because the Luna church is full of new converts, and we need leaders. But I believe God is raising up some of these dear people.

Thanks to our generous donors, we were able to build a kids’ ministry room as well as improvements to the grounds such as sidewalks. Plus we’re digging a well which will have a pump and a tank. (There is no municipal water supply here.) We’re still working on a storage room.
Apple is one of our hard-working kids’ ministers.

About 110 attended our Luna 1st anniversary service, which featured testimonies from several members of the visiting team from Compass Christian Church AZ USA, and preaching by our AZ missions pastor Paul Street. We’re so grateful for all the work this team did for our mission! And they brought a ton of CCC t-shirts!

Do you need to grow your compassion? Visit a hospital and offer prayers and encouragement for the patients.

Aida was bedridden for months with various illnesses. We prayed for her, but nothing happened. Then, led by the Holy Spirit, we asked her if she was bitter against anyone. She confessed all of the details about why she had refused to forgive someone. But thank God, Aida agreed to repent of that bitterness. This time we did not see an instantaneous and complete miraculous healing, but she certainly is steadily getting better. She who was bedridden for months now comes to church most Sundays! May the Lord continue to work in Aida’s body and her soul.

We were honored to host one of the weekly meetings for area Agta tribal pastors and disciples. Gina and I want to help reach the various nearby Agta communities for Jesus. We have a lot to learn. Please pray for that.

Nineteen baptisms since our last report!
We have a baptism tank, but we enjoy baptizing people publicly sometimes. So the community knows the kingdom of God is here. (The others in the pool were swimming when we arrived.)

Life in the Philippines: A couple has a store on wheels. They often park in front of this busy drug store. Their son plays on his phone while they do business.

It was ten years ago this month when my daughter Tabitha accidentally drowned. Gina and I were still fairly new missionaries then. As sad as we all are for not having her with us now, I’m still grateful to God that he gave her to us for 23 years. Tabby, you are dearly loved! We miss you! 💗

We are Filipinos Reaching Nations. If you are somewhere in this chart, Gina and I really appreciate you! Marty, for example, has done so much work managing our affairs in the USA for almost 12 years. Sherrie and others provide care for us when we visit the USA. Some write encouraging messages that bless us more than you can know. Generous donors, wise advisors, prayer warriors…
Gina and I are quite blessed! And we put our blessings to work everywhere from some small islands near Malaysia, to Agta tribal villages in Luzon, to the heights of Nepal.

We took some of our Luna folks to observe our friend Jordan’s ministry to Agta tribe members in Cagayan. He’s planted many churches among the tribe, so I’m trying to learn from him. The Agtas here in Apayao are a key reason why Gina and I moved to Luna Apayao a year ago.

Valentine’s Day celebration. After church, we served the couples a lunch, plus had games and a short marriage sermon.

Go, Lord! We had 18 baptisms within January!
This dear lady named Incarnation is handicapped–she uses a walker to get around. But we helped her climb into the tank. I love her zeal for Jesus! She’s in church every Sunday, though it’s difficult to get from the parking lot to her seat.

Here are small groups in our Luna church discussing the sermon.
“But John, the groups are not small!”
Well, we don’t have enough mature saints. Almost all are new in the Lord.
Please pray that God would raise up more leaders, and that God would save more men.
The church in Acts 2 was able to disciple 3000 with only 120 leaders. May the Lord help us to disciple these dear souls.

A mother bird and her chicks roam around the restaurant, looking for crumbs that fall from the tables. They especially enjoy the morsels of chicken that they find.

Is there an animal more macho than this dude? That makes it all the more amazing that mankind has tamed it and put it to work. Because God said he gave us dominion over creation. Of course much of that was lost after Adam and Eve fell into sin, but still elephants, horses, and even killer whales are tamed and trained. This makes no sense in an evolutionary worldview.
This beast seemed to pose when I got out my phone. It’s a carabao, which is similar to Africa’s water buffalo. But while water buffaloes are dangerous to people, carabaos are very tame.

It was a delight to see much gratitude from so many people as we distributed the donated building materials around our town. And it was just as joy-inspiring to see the many volunteers who worked hard for many long, very rainy days, never asking for anything (though we did pay them well at the end).

And we’re all grateful for IDES, the charity that donated so abundantly!

We were so blessed by the Marquez family’s visit. Their acts of service, encouragement, missionary stories, skills, generosity, and faith helped us so much. Our young people love their kids—we’re so glad they brought them.

Shania had been feeling intense feminine pain for several days. Medicines did nothing for her. On Christmas Day, she decided to go to church anyway. Her best friend Keisha asked me to pray for her. I saw her bowed over in pain. I prayed over and over, but nothing happened. Prompted by the Holy Spirit, I asked her if she was bitter against someone. I have learned that bitterness can prevent healing. Shania confessed that yes, she had withheld forgiveness from someone who had hurt her very much. I gently preached a mini-sermon to her about forgiveness. She agreed to repent. I prayed with her about her bitterness. She said that while she was forgiving the one who had hurt her, all the pain left her instantly. The pain did not return. But a couple of days later she was tempted to be bitter again. She was told that the person who had hurt her before was spreading lies about her. By the grace of God, Shania chose peace with God and man instead of bitterness.

Incidentally, Jezzel was also miraculously, instantly healed in her left arm three years ago. It runs in the family.

With Jezzel, Gian, other kids from that Bible study group, and Marc, one of our leaders

I love teaching! And I have never enjoyed teaching more than the joy I felt on this Sunday afternoon. I was so blessed to see the hunger for God’s word among these Davao City youths. To see that they are all doing so well despite Gina and me no longer living here. Because they are cared for by some amazing leaders.

After I preached the morning sermon for the whole church, for this youth meeting I gave two more messages! They gave me two hours, so why not? One was a sermon about dating (Valentine’s Day was approaching), and the other an interactive Bible study on Luke 24, one of my favorite chapters.

After you go to India twice on short-term missions, you get a halo.
Pictured: our Buhangin, Davao City youth, whom Bee teaches every Sunday afternoon. On this occasion, they’re welcoming Bee back after serving for three weeks in India, which has more unreached tribes than any other country on our planet.
Pastor friends, would you prayerfully consider investing in that desperately needy country?

INDIA REPORT
Times of evangelism, worship, and teaching from our dear friends Bee and Prescy in India! It’s so good to see in the many photos they sent our Indian friends whom we got to know while they were attending college in Davao City. Especially Ebi, whom we still consider to be one of our Davao City church leaders.

Lord, may Gina and I visit India one day?

Imagine you’re in your car, going through an automated car wash. Suddenly everything gets dark, and the car wash noise pumps up 10X louder… not to mention the incessant crashing and banging noises you suddenly hear. That’s what it was like in our bedroom from 7:00 PM to 3:00 AM during the biggest typhoon Luna Apayao has seen in several decades.

Some of the devastation in our town.

Thankfully our home only suffered small things breaking, besides the messes everywhere. I thought this was fascinating:

This storage shed moved 30 feet and ended up here… without breaking the glass! Gina and I are are debating whether it slid, flew, or rolled. Only God knows!

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Most of our church members had much damage to their homes. We visited all of them, offering prayer, encouragement, and some cash.

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Thank God for this hand-pumped well! It’s a lot of work, and the water is not really clean, but it’s better than having no water. (We also have purified water for about 10c per gallon.) During the extended brownouts, our electric well pump wasn’t working, so it was my job to keep all our buckets filled with water for bathing, laundry, dishwashing, etc.

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Gracy (next to Gina in the pic) felt like the Lord was stirring her to come from Davao City to serve in our mission for a month. We are grateful to have her. She had no idea what she was in for! Besides all the ministry stuff she knew she’d help us with, she worked hard helping us clean up after the typhoon, which hit a week after Gracy arrived.
BTW, in the photo is our Sunday afternoon Bible study.

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Disciples are rising up. None of our Luna church members were born again when Gina and I arrived in January, but they are learning. Here, Jun and his wife Ances testify to some workers about how Jesus saved them.

Shania–our niece’s daughter–and her best friend Keisha are using their social media influence for God’s glory. I think they have about 40 followers from all over the Philippines. I asked the girls to send their followers to my weekly online evangelistic Bible study. It seems like most of their followers are joining every Thursday night, plus they’re inviting others who are not saved.

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While Gina and I were in the USA, our dear friends Jayr and Chona did a great job caring for the Luna church. Here are Chona and Jun doing evangelism…

…and here the saints are ministering to Agta children.

In the Ilokano provinces, many people use Mountain Dew bottles to decorate outside or make signs. As they say, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do,” so… “Naragsak A Paskua” means “Merry Christmas” in Ilokano. Later I will put Christmas lights in each bottle.

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My favorite part of visiting the USA was seeing my son Isaac. Here, he’s downloading sermons into a flash drive. I’m so blessed by his hunger for God’s word.

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We’re thankful for the people who showed so much kindness and hospitality while Gina and I were in the USA. For example, Joe and Rosie allowed us–Isaac, too–to stay in their Colorado ranch for a week. Very cool (literally)!

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Our Buhangin Road church in Davao City is doing well.

They recently had an evangelistic event wherein our many young people brought their (mostly unsaved) parents to church to honor them. What better way to honor your parents than to wash their feet?

I remember when Marc was a shy kid who only used to come to our home for the food. But he was gloriously saved, and nine years later, he’s preaching a sermon in a multi-church Davao City meeting. I wish I could’ve been there.

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It’s been about six years since the Catalunan Pequeño church has been meeting in this venue. We have been trying very hard to find a better-yet-affordable location. Not only is this place too small, it’s subject to the weather, and it’s very hard for visitors to find. Please pray for a better venue for this church.

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One of the missionaries whom we’re trying to send out was rejected by the country’s immigration officials. She did nothing wrong, but she was betrayed by the employer she hoped to work for. The other missionary has learned that the country she is aiming for has cracked down on immigration, so that the couple who was supposed to ‘sponsor’ her is no longer qualified to do so. Obviously I can’t say much publicly about those situations, but if you want to know more to guide your prayers, ask me at jgapinoy@gmail.com

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On most Sunday afternoons, the church in Apayao has Bible studies at my mother-in-law’s house, because she is often not well enough to come to church, and my sister-in-law Mimi needs to stay home and care for her mom. So we bring the Word to them.

We were especially blessed during this meeting because Frances translated—the first time someone other than Gina translated my message into Ilocano—and she did a great job!

Most of our people are fluent in English, but we need translation for the few who are not. When God gives us more people, we plan on having separate English and Ilocano ministries.

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Our cats had four kittens on Philippine-American Friendship Day (July 4). They are a happy family.

MINISTRY IN ANGELES CITY

Long-time friend Phillip Blair, who is an evangelist with a worldwide following (Torch of Christ on YouTube), invited us to join him in Angeles City. After the 14+ hour drive there, we ministered to prostitutes and their customers for some days.

At age 62, I was the bodyguard. 🤣 My job was to protect the preacher, the translator, and the videographer. One of the problems while preaching to prostitutes, pimps, and patrons in Pampanga: This tipsy American passer-by was peeved. He was nit-picking our theology.

Sinners often try to change the subject and find fault with the messenger to avoid conviction of sin. (See John 4:16-20 for a biblical example.) He should have repented of drunkenness and fornication, but he was too busy looking down on us.

“God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” (James 4:6)

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THE CHURCHES IN DAVAO CITY

I visited Davao City for ten days so that I could join the anniversary, plus make the big announcements. I was delighted to see a ‘full house’ in our new Buhangin church facility.

While it’s true that the room was made more full because our Bacalso congregation was also there for the event, still, I wonder if it won’t be long before we’ll need to move again to a bigger Buhangin building. A good problem to have!

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Also while I was in Davao City, our churches joined with several others for a youth camp. There were over 60 baptisms!

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I really loved seeing our dear friends in Bacalso and in Buhangin again. I taught as many Bible studies as I could during the ten days, including this one in Nathan’s home.

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…And I taught this group on the night before my early-morning flights back to the north of the country. These fine young men are the future of the church in Buhangin.

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When dealing with other cultures, Rule Number One is:

If it’s not a sin, think very, very carefully before you correct it.

In the Agta church I had to practice this rule, big-time! As you can see from the photo, the tribe’s church building has no walls. Four dogs were wandering around during the worship time. I was horrified when—in front of everyone—the adult male urinated on a table leg, and then on a potted plant, and then ON THE PULPIT, and then on a pillar! Westerners, of course, would have angrily chased the dog away after the first incident. Actually before the first incident! But the dear people assembled yesterday didn’t even seem to notice it. Because it’s not a sin. And because they were focused on worshiping God.

Despite my Western sensibilities, I realized you can always wash that stuff later. So I went with the flow (no pun intended) and tried to ignore the dogs. I focused on worshiping the God who created the dear Agta people for his wonderful purposes.

I was asked this good question recently.
First, because we believe that’s what God was guiding us to do.
Second, because there are many thriving churches around the world that don’t have onsite pastors. They are cared for by pastors who constantly go from church to church, or by distant stationary pastors.
Third, just because it’s not something normally done in our culture does not mean God would forbid it.
Fourth, because there are biblical precedents for this…

PHILIP: In Acts 8, we see Philip being the leader of a great revival in Samaria. It was an important work: The very first place where non-Jews were born again! But God suddenly sent Philip away to a desert in 8:26. Not a word about any transfer of leadership. When Philip completed that desert mission, the Lord sent him to Azotus and other cities.

TITUS: Paul had started several churches in Crete. But he left those churches before any of the converts were ready to be appointed as elders. Some time later, Paul wrote this to Titus in 1:5:
“The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.”

By the grace of God, I am continuing to pastor the churches in Davao City. If Paul could lead churches from a distance in an age of slow communication and difficult travel, then I can do that today.

I happened to see Paul Barcena–pastor of God’s Light Seekers Ministry–-and I told him we would visit on Sunday. He said OK, we could, if I would preach. Of course I jumped at the opportunity!

This is Zumigui Assembly. We were delighted to see a few Agta tribe members joining. The church graciously allowed us to speak for several minutes about our heart for missions and our plans for October, and a couple of weeks later I preached there.

Sadly, many Filipinos (and many Americans) think of the Lord Jesus Christ as a good luck charm. Put his name on there–next to the shooter–and maybe he will keep you from accidents.
Crossing the intersection? Do the sign of the cross, or else touch your rosary.
God wants prayer, not rosary touches, not statue touches, and not candles.
This reminds me of when the Israelites brought out the Ark of the Covenant during a battle. They were not living right, but they wanted the ark to be a lucky charm. God made sure they lost that battle.

Back in Davao City, Bee makes disciples better than anyone I have ever seen. Part of her connection with her young ladies is their Weekly Monitoring, as she calls it. For about three years they have faithfully encouraged, corrected, and prayed for each other. If Bee is traveling on one of her frequent short-term missions (either to unreached tribes, or else in training others to reach such tribes), they simply do it via their phones.

BTW, she has more disciples besides the ones pictured.

Not to mention how gracefully Bee also discipled several Indian women while they were studying in a Davao City medical school.
Gina and I think Bee is a treasure, one we’ve been blessed to have for over a decade. And I know God will do even more wonderful things through her in the future.

I’m so thankful for other amazing leaders whom I can trust to oversee the churches we left in Davao City. Prescy “is a fruitful vine” (Genesis 49:22). She starts evangelistic Bible studies in the unlikeliest places. Here’s a group of moms that Prescy encounters at their kids’ school, so she started a Bible study there. Pictured is that group in two recent meetings. Most of these ladies have not yet been to our church in Catalunan Pequeño.

As we have gone from place to place for the gospel during the past decade, I have told many people that I wish I could be in two places at once, because I miss them. Well, last Sunday I preached in two places at once! I made a sermon video that was played at our Catalunan Pequeño Davao congregation, and I taught at a church here in Luna at the same time. (Tomorrow they’ll play that video at our Buhangin Davao location.)
Gina did a great job translating. She’s kinda new at it, because we always used Visayan translators in Davao City. But here she can speak her first language, Ilocano.

A small college’s parking lot. Compare the number of motorcycles with the number of cars. In the USA, I would guess there are 50 cars for every 1 motorcycle in a typical college parking lot.
We just obtained permission to set up a ministry within this college! And it’s only one mile from where our church facility will be.

Look at this road! There is no road this big and wide and beautifully empty in Davao City! But there are many roads like this here in Apayao. Gina and I dearly miss our friends in Davao, but we don’t miss the traffic!

However, there’s a trade-off: We have to spend a lot of time on these big roads to find some things. The nearest department store–or big store of any kind–and the nearest American-style restaurants are about three hours away in Tuguegarao. That’s six hours on the road if I want a Big Mac!

BUT Gina and I have learned to enjoy the long drives together. We talk about perfecting our marriage, or about the ministry, or about our loved ones, or we just tell dumb jokes to each other.

We were delighted to interact with this group of Agta kids for about 45 minutes.
Sometimes I miss kids’ ministry, which I did for 16 years before we moved here. I realized later that God used my kids’ ministry experience so that I would be well-practiced in communicating truths in simple English, because most Filipinos speak English as their third language.

Should I try their chicken? Maybe Gina is over there asking if the food is any good.  (Kantong means “corner” in Tagalog.)

I think the “island” surrounded by the green ‘sea’ of rice (in our backyard) is almost as beautiful as the island in the blue sea.

Marconi apparently is the only pastor in the entire Agta tribe that’s situated near Luna. We would like to help him however we can to shepherd his flock and make it grow.
See the cool bolo knife by his left hand? So he can get through the jungle, I presume.

Gina, are we in Texas? Actually, this was here in Luna, Apayao.

Gina and I are so blessed to be sent out from Compass Christian Church of Chandler, AZ! They believe in our mission!
“How much?”
I’m glad you asked! Not only do they send us a generous check every month…
Not only did they buy us a brand-new people-mover vehicle in 2018…
They gave us a check for $25,000 toward the construction of a church building!    
Second blessing: This donation coincides with a nice plot of land that was just donated to us! Which of course will save us a lot of money!
The total cost of the building project should be under $30K. (Nothing fancy. No air conditioning, floor tiles, or glass in the windows [only steel bars, like so many buildings here have]). Therefore, probably less than $5K will come from our funds.
Are we blessed or what?  
PICTURED: A church building where I recently preached. We hope to build something like their facility, except smaller.

I’ll be in the PHX area from October 17 to November 10. I’d love to speak to groups of any size about our mission, or missions in general. Also, if you have a spare room for me to stay in for all or some of those days, please let me know. jgapinoy@gmail.com Sorry, my sweetheart Gina has to stay in the Philippines.

We’re excited that our brand-new Bible study had so many visitors! Only six people shown here are church members. Interestingly, the owner of the home is not a church member (though two of her kids are). She doesn’t seem to be born again… yet. But this is by far the biggest living room in the neighborhood that I know of. So I asked if we could meet weekly here. So far, so good!
This is our third weekly Bible study in Gem Village, each one well attended. God is doing great things there!

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When you pray for and/or support Filipinos Reaching Nations, you are blessing the several Filipino missionaries whom we financially support every month. (One of them is in these photos, shepherding former Muslims.) All those missionaries are in difficult places, doing amazing work.
We would love to support more like them. Many Filipino missionaries are very under-funded, because churches here don’t have the wealth that American churches have. Would you please consider helping us to help them?
Or, if you would like to support any of these missionaries directly, I would love to introduce you!

We are a very small ministry, but in just the past three years, we have sent more than $11,000 to support Filipino missionaries in unreached cultures.

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The pandamic restrictions ended here much later than in the USA, and even after they ended, many were hesitant to attend church in our Buhangin congregation*… especially parents of small kids. So we opted for a small, cheaper one-room facility because of the lower attendance then. We have had no kids’ ministry for years… until a few weeks ago. Even now, we don’t have a room for the kids, but we had to do something—kids were coming to church anyway. And our room is always packed. So we’re having kids’ ministry on the stairs. Thankfully we’ll move into a bigger building in a few weeks.

*Our Pequeño congregation meets in a neighborhood, so kids aren’t an issue there. Long story. 🙂

Literally standing room only in one of the two Sunday services at our Buhangin location. We usually have young men standing in the back during the service.

We have almost as many people in the 1:00 PM service.

The air conditioning is overwhelmed with that many people–so hot.

I’m sure our numbers will go up as soon as we get that bigger building. More room, a kids’ ministry, and it will be cooler.

These young men were first-time visitors at a Bible study I recently taught. But the one on the right didn’t want to enter the home during the study, because he was not wearing a shirt. We insisted repeatedly, “It’s OK, please come in.” But he remained sitting outside the door… and he listened to every word. Then, when we said “amen,” he entered.

I appreciate that he was trying to respect the teaching of the Scriptures.

The evangelistic parenting seminar I mentioned filled the house we met in. The many kids of these parents were outside participating in a kids’ ministry.

Most of those who attended never go to an evangelical church, and many expressed a desire to follow Jesus. So far, some are attending church and/or our new Bible study there.

This was the second time JR has been miraculously, instantly healed right before church.* He had hurt himself on the job and was wearing the Ace bandage on his wrist to facilitate eventual healing. But God wanted to hurry the process along!

Child of God, you too can lay hands on the sick and believe for miracles.

If you–like me–see nothing happen 90 or 95% of the time, trust me, the 5 or 10% will make all the prayers worth it!

*About three years ago, he was limping badly into the meeting. I laid hands on his ankle three times. After the third, he was completely healed! I made him jump up and down on his formerly-hurt foot. After church, he played basketball!

Along with those seven, our mission has had three other baptisms since our last report.