Recently, the Lord has been stirring members of our team for the salvation and transformation of the remaining Unreached People of the Philippines. Presently, there are thirteen million evangelical Christians in the Philippines. In comparison, there are five million Unreached People in the Philippines, mainly of Muslim descent and Animist Tribal roots. In other words, for every 5 Christians, there is 1 Unreached person.
Three words that have been more commonly used in the last decade are Unengaged, Unreached and Unsaved.
- Unengaged means there is no Church or Mission’s organization currently targeting them with a strategic plan of evangelism and discipleship.
- Unreached means people have been targeted by Christian leadership, but there is still much work to be done for them to be self-lead, self-multiplying and self-sustaining as new disciples of the Lord.
- The final one, which is often confused with the first two, is Unsaved. Unsaved simply means an unbeliever of any People Group. For example, an American can be Unsaved but not Unreached, even if they were previously engaged.
With this revelation made known to us, we must continue to reach out and develop more strategic plans with the Holy Spirit in reaching out to the forgotten loved ones, the remaining Unreached of the Philippines.
Every country has Unreached People in them. For example, America has 4.8 million Unreached People that live there. In the Philippines, one of these Unreached People Groups is called the Mangyan Tribe. Like many other indigenous tribes in the Philippines, they don’t believe in Jesus, but instead, believe in pleasing the gods found in animals and nature.
Our belief system affects our lifestyle. In many of these Animist Tribes, babies are left for dead, hanging in trees or crying in the dirt, because they don’t have a future or a Hope in the Poverty their family is living.
One Tribe in the Philippines, commutes six hours every day, mainly by foot, to Metro Manila, to be paid less than three dollars a day, to come back to their starving family with only rice and repeats the process daily.
When people live in this type of poverty, without Jesus, sometimes they are led to believe that it’s better a kill their child than let the child suffer. In Animist Tribes, there is no future and hope called Jesus; there is no eternal wisdom and solution found in the Holy Spirit, and there is no destiny and love for women and children because they do not believe in a Heavenly Father.
According to one of Jesus’ disciples, we would never leave our child for dead, in a bag, in a tree, because we know Jesus would never do that to us. However, for the five million Unreached Filipinos, they don’t know who Jesus is. Many of them have never even seen a Bible in their language or a missionary in their mountainous jungle. Furthermore, they have never even heard about or experienced the powerful transformative love of Jesus.
For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” However, how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him?
For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” However, how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? How can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? Furthermore, how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them? How will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!” (Rom 10:13-15, NLT)
Our team hiked five hours up a mountain to find one family. We actually learned that more than five or ten years ago, Korean Missionaries actually traveled to their mountain and wanted to bring medical supplies. For whatever reason, these Missionaries never returned. One of the Tribe Members has been waiting year after year for their relief, which never returned. Our team discovered that this man needed to be healed from deafness.
The Tribesman could not hear, as our team yelled repeatedly to him. It was clear he could not hear. Our teams began to pray for his dead ears to be open in the name of Jesus!
Over a period of warring in spirit for his healing, he began to hear again! He even began to open up his mouth and slowly, with a whispering voice, began to talk!
The Lord uses medical missions all the time to bring transformation; this time, He used His holistic powerful love to exhibit the healing love He has for His people.
The Pastor that we came with was so amazed by the fruit we were having in these Unreached mountains that he came to visit us, five hours away from his homeland.
We are not continuing long-term plans of evangelism, bible distribution and compassion with the local government, rebel forces in the jungle, and Unreached Tribes to see God more powerfully breakthrough in this region. Currently, we are planning to come to this Mountain every quarter, work with the city it is a part of and develop long-term compassion plans for them such as clean water and food.
Every country has Unreached People in them. With God’s powerful love, we can see these Unreached People become passionate disciples of Jesus.
Prayer Needs
- Pray for the Unreached People in your nation to become disciples of Jesus.
- Pray for the Unreached People of the world, including the Philippines, so be prepared for a great harvest amongst their family lines.
- Pray for our teams to have everything they need to accomplish the loving work God has given us.
Thank your zeal for Jesus. We pray everything you have sown into the global harvest will be multiplied back to your family, friends, and nation.
