Sharing the Gospel in a Youthful Country-August 7, 2009- Intercede International

Sharing the Gospel in a Youthful Country

PHILIPPINES (INS)—Reaching thousands of students and young people with the Gospel is the main focus of two indigenous ministries partnered with Intercede in the Philippines—Student Missionary Outreach and Good Shepherd’s Fold. This is important work in a country in which half of the population is under 21 years old, according to the Philippines government.

A presidential decree in 1992 in the Philippines opened the door for Student Missionary Outreach to do evangelistic work in schools, colleges and universities across the country. As a result, hundreds of young people are coming to Christ. Eleven churches have opened in recent years largely due to the efforts of campus ministries such as SMO.

SMO began in 1977 with evangelism clubs on Philippine high school and college campuses. SMO wins students for Christ and teaches them to be witnesses for the Lord. “Every Christian student, a campus missionary” is SMO’s motto. And some, indeed, become fulltime missionaries. SMO has about 11 fulltime and several part-time and volunteer workers operating from 17 SMO centres on the major Philippine islands.

In one recent year, 19,528 students on 64 campuses regularly attended SMO Bible studies. Of these, 3,248 received Christ as Saviour, and 867 joined Bible-believing churches. The work clearly is fruitful, and the opportunities are limited only by SMO’s lack of finances.

SMO missionaries persevere despite financial limitations. They believe that reaching millions of high school and college youths now will affect the spiritual direction of the country. Many students will later hold positions of influence in the nation and can help advance the gospel. Also, hearts reached while young will have many years to serve.

“We got our accreditation from one of the most powerful offices of the government—the office of the Ombudsman,” explains Luis Faller, who has been a missionary of SMO for 16 years and is SMO’s Luzon co-ordinator. “There is a law, Presidential Proclamation #62: All government institutions and schools under the government will undergo this kind of seminar. We take that opportunity, we take that law as a springboard to share the Gospel. We are allowed to share the Gospel of Christ using Moral and Spiritual Values Formation seminars as tools for evangelism. Right now we are authorized anytime to enter campuses, sharing the Gospel, using the Philippine law.” Faller helped to develop SMO’s Moral Values Program, which is a Bible-based teaching curriculum used by SMO workers in seminars and special meetings at high schools and colleges.

“Maybe the Lord used this so that we pastors would be authorized moral value teachers, because we know the Bible, and morals must always come from the Word of God,” says Renato Del Mundo, director of SMO. “At first you will teach them how to have good grades. You don’t need drugs, you have a life to live—tell them that this is the alternative that we are offering: Christ is the alternative. Christ is the only thing that can change your life. We first share something about Christ, and something about moral values.”

Many young people have come to Christ as a result of SMO’s work. “Hundreds of young people have been saved and baptized and they are now in different local churches in Luzon, in the Visayas [islands] and in Mindanao,” declares Faller. “In Luzon, we have statistics that 500 young people are now attending regularly in different churches. Eleven churches were born because of campus ministry. They used this campus ministry for their pioneering work. Some of the pastors will testify to that—how effective this ministry is.”

But even with the accreditation, SMO workers sometimes encounter resistance from principals of schools who do not want evangelical missionaries bringing the Gospel to the students.

SMO has its own Bible Training Institute, based in Bacolod City, with five full-time and two part-time instructors. “The reason we put up this Bible School is in order to produce our own campus workers who will be well-oriented with our ministry,” says Del Mundo. “They will know how we run the ministry. We can send them to different parts of the Philippines. We started in 2000 with only one student. Now we have 14 students. So we thank the Lord for this Bible school. The Lord is truly using this Bible school.

“I believe that the Philippines is an open field right now,” observes Del Mundo. “Many young people are accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. Many people right now in our country are receptive to the Word of God. You can see in their eyes as you mingle with them, as you work with them and talk to them—you can see that these young people really are now prepared to accept Jesus Christ. All you have to do is go there and guide them and preach the Gospel, teach them the Bible.

“I think the biggest needs and challenges are to expand the work, and to reach out to more cities in the Philippines. If we can open works where the big universities are, we’ll be able to reach more students for Christ.”

Recently, SMO received a special blessing. “For years, the ministry has asked God to look down on our desire for a lot and building for the SMO Student Centre and Bible Training Institute,’” reports Del Mundo. “He has in fact shown us the shadow of His approving smile through an American brother who left a considerable sum of money to ministry like ours in his will. Our God provides in His pleasure and according to His will, nothing is impossible for Him. The fund that has been granted to the ministry is $18,600. We are only $12,500 away from purchasing a half hectare agricultural land we have been praying for in Bacolod City.” Praise God for His generous provision for SMO.

Graduates Become Leaders

Since it began more than 60 years ago, the Good Shepherd’s Fold orphanage has cared for more than 6,000 children in Buenavista, Iloilo. Many of these now work at GSF as teachers, house-parents or workers caring for another generation of younger orphans. Numerous others have gone on to hold leadership positions in various sectors of Filipino society. GSF has produced up to 400 pastors, missionaries and workers who labour in respected ministries throughout the Philippines. Their witness for Christ, developed at GSF, is a positive testimony to the life-changing power of the gospel.

One well-known graduate of GSF is Rudy Fernandez (left), a national sports hero in the Philippines and celebrity member of the Filipino TV show “Pinoy Big Brother.” Back in 1967, he was a work student in the GSF Academy. Recently, he came back to visit his old home at GSF, and donated his prize money of $1,250 from the TV show to GSF.

Other GSF alumni are playing a prominent role in community life in Buenavista. Examples are Buenavista Mayor Dr. Samuel Gumarin (a 1979 graduate), and Councillor Dan Elby Habana (a 1975 graduate). Buenavista’s Chief of Police, Orly Gabinete, graduated in 1985, and Thelma Pagsuberon, recent director of GSF, graduated in 1955. New interim director Roberto Tabuena is a graduate of the GSFA Secondary School.

GSF has grown to include a Christian school with an enrolment of 500 to 600 students each year. The school offers instruction from kindergarten up to the junior college level.

In GSF’s centre-based program, orphaned, destitute, and voluntarily committed children live in the GSF home, where they live a normal life with time to worship, play, work and study. In the outreach program, the children live with their parents or guardians. They receive free elementary and high school education, and some of their primary needs.

GSF also runs a Bible college—the Good Shepherd’s Fold Academy—to provide education to centre-based and outreach children, and to some students from nearby communities. The college provides opportunities for these young people to prepare for full-time Christian service. Bible students receive hands-on experience in church-planting work while they are in school.

GSF maintains the GSF String Ensemble as part of its music ministry in church worship and evangelism. The long-term goal is to prepare the children for future college degrees in music education. The ensemble director, Mrs. Rosario Galila, used to live in the Fold as an orphan. Some Intercede-supported children are members of the GSF String Ensemble.

For more than 25 years, Intercede has assisted GSF. Donors connected with Intercede support 39 children. This ministry’s ultimate reason for being is to further the cause of Christ and His Kingdom by presenting to children and adults the person of Jesus Christ to be their Lord and Saviour.

Missionaries with both GSF and SMO have a heart to share the Gospel with the youth of the Philippines, and need your prayers.

For more information on Intercede’s work and partner agencies, please check out: www.intercedenow.ca.

Photo 1: Morning devotions on the beach at SMO’s annual Camp Forever. (Intercede International Photo)

Photo 2: Well-known graduate of GSF Rudy Fernandez. (Intercede International Photo)

801GAP

August 7, 2009