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. Still not a word about appointing a pastor in Samaria. And there’s no mention of Philip returning to Samaria.

TITUS: Paul had started several churches in Crete. But he left those churches before any of the converts were ready to be appointed as pastors. 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.”
(“Elders” is also rendered as pastors, leaders, or presbyters in other translations.) Then Paul gave instructions about pastoral qualifications in the following four verses.

JESUS: Several years before Philip, the Lord also left Samaria when it was starting to have a revival.
And after the Gadarene demoniac was set free, Jesus sent him to his hometown to spread the message, but certainly we could not call that new convert a pastor.
In fact, we don’t see much evidence at all that Jesus left any pastoral leaders to care for converts in the many places he preached.

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.