“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.” — Matthew 28:19–20
The Great Commission is to go into all the world and make disciples. So out of every nation on earth, why did we decide to base our family in the Philippines?
An open door in a closed continent
About 70% of the nations in Asia are hostile to the Gospel, and most of their people have never heard it. In the middle of that, the Philippines stands with its doors wide open. We saw an opportunity for the Kingdom and took it.
The Philippines is also a natural bridge to the surrounding nations. The numbers tell the story:
- The Philippines has about 120 million people.
- Around 12 million Filipinos live outside the country, in about 65 nations — one of the largest diasporas in the world.
- About 4 million of them live in the unreached nations that are key to finishing the Great Commission.
- Roughly 3 million Filipinos work in the Middle East alone.
If the Filipinos already living in restricted nations come to know Jesus and carry Him to the people around them, the Great Commission moves faster than any missionary agency could manage. We are hopeful about this, and we are doing all we can to make it happen.
Where the Gospel is not
This map shows how often a person is offered the Gospel in a year. The darker the region, the less exposure. In the darkest places, like North Korea, a person may hear the Gospel 0 to 31 times a year. In the lightest, like the United States, 548 to 587 times.
The dark regions are also where the largest unreached people groups live. Knowing where the Church is — and where it isn’t — is key to finishing the task.
About 41% of the world is still unreached. That’s roughly 3 billion people. Not just unsaved — unreached. Most have never heard the Gospel, never held a Bible, never seen a church, never had a missionary come to their people. No Christian witness has ever entered their people group.
One million Filipino missionaries
More than a decade ago, the Lord showed several Filipino and global leaders a movement coming out of the Philippines: a million missionaries sent to the unreached nations of the world. In 2010, without knowing any of that, the Holy Spirit was already impressing the same picture on my heart — a million Filipinos deployed to the unreached, persecuted countries of Asia.
It mirrors one of the largest underground church-planting movements in Asia, Back to Jerusalem, which carries the same vision of sending a million Asians to the unreached. We believe the same word is for Filipinos.
And not only Filipinos. God is raising Christian leaders from every nation and every profession — medicine, law, architecture, teaching, writing, business. Those skills can all be commissioned into the mission field.
A launching pad
We believe the Philippines will be a launching pad for leaders of movements. While many Asian countries persecute believers, the Philippines has little or no persecution, and people are not just believers — they are proud to be associated with Jesus. People from all over the world can also easily come here to train for missions, unlike countries such as the United States, where visas are hard to get.
A nation this open to the Gospel should have a base where people from everywhere can come and be trained to carry out the Lord’s assignment well. That is what we are building.
Read more: “Finish the Mission” magazine
That vision now has a campus, a team, and a nation stirring.
See what God is doing now →
