Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Mat 28:19-20)
The Great Commission, as given by Jesus, is to go into all the world and make disciples for Christ. So, out of all the nations in the world, why did we decide to make our base in the Philippines?
The Philippines is one of the very many countries in Asia. Asia is a continent in which about 70% of the nations therein are hostile to the gospel, and the people largely remain unsaved. Amid the hostility in Asia is the Philippines, an independent state in the southeastern part with open doors to the gospel. In it, we saw an excellent opportunity for the Kingdom and took it.
The Philippines is also a strategic hub for preaching the gospel as there is a natural connection between the country and the surrounding ‘non-Christian’ countries. These stats will explain this better:
The Philippines has about 120 million people, and approximately 12 million Filipinos live outside the country. Filipinos are in about 65 countries, making them one of the world’s highest number of people in the diasporas. About 4 million of them are in the unreached nations that are key to finishing the Great Commission.
“There are about 3 million Filipinos working in the Middle East.”
If only the Filipinos in the countries with restricted access to the gospel will know Jesus and take Him to those nations, our task of fulfilling the Great Commission would be hastened. We are hopeful about this and doing all we can to make it happen.
Where the Gospel is Not
The map shows world areas with little or no exposure to the gospel. The darker the region the less exposure to the Gospel. In the darkest regions of the map, a person per year will be offered the Gospel 0-31 times, such as in North Korea. The lightest or yellow regions can be offered the Gospel 548-587 times a year, such as the United States.
The darkened regions also represent the largest populations of Unreached People Groups. Knowing where the Church is, and not is key to fulfilling the Great Commission.
As shown on the map, about 41% of the people in the world are still unreached! This means that about 3 billion people in the world still need to be told about the good news of Jesus. These 3 billion are not just simply unsaved. They are unreached. Unreached means they most likely have never heard the Gospel, had a Bible, never seen a Church, and never even had a missionary ever go to them since their people group was formed. They have never had a Christian witness ever enter or be discipled in their people group.
1 Million Underground Asian Missionaries
More than a decade ago, the Lord had revealed to some (Christian Filipino/global) leaders a movement coming out of the Philippines; He would be sending a million missionaries from the Philippines to the unreached nations of the world. In 2010, without knowing what the Lord had been revealing to other leaders, the Holy Spirit had already been impressing my heart by seeing a movement of 1 million Filipinos deployed from the Philippines as missionaries to the unreached persecuted countries of Asia.
It’s similar to one of the largest underground church planting movements in Asia, Back to Jerusalem’s movement, of sending 1 million Asians to the unreached nations of the world. The same revelation is for Filipinos. Asides from people from the Philippines, we believe that God is raising Christian leaders from everywhere, and it doesn’t matter what occupation they are involved in; medicine, law, architecture, teaching, writing, e.t.c as their skills can all be commissioned into the mission field while working for God.
We believe the Philippines will be a launching pad for leaders of movements to launch out from. While many countries in Asia persecute people who believe in Jesus, the Philippines is a place where there is little or no persecution, and people do not only believe in Jesus. They are proud to be associated with Him. People worldwide can also easily access the Philippines to train in mission work, unlike in some countries, such as the United States of America, where visas are difficult to attain.
It is essential that a nation like this, with open arms to the gospel, should have a base where people from all over can come to and be trained on how to carry out our Lord’s assignment effectively.
Read More in our “Finish the Mission” Magazine by Tommy Manay
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