Compelled by Christ’s Love
Church planting and reforming in the Philippines
GBM has supported missionaries in the Philippines for more than forty years, and the country remains a significant mission field for us. During a two-week visit in January-February 2024, Paul Brunning had a taste of the busy life of church planters and pastors.
It was a privilege to meet GBM’s first missionaries to the Philippines—Brian and Necy Ellis—at their home in Manila. The Lord has prospered the work they pioneered, and today Cubao Reformed Baptist Church is a large and influential church. The ministries it has spawned, including Grace Ministerial Academy and Christian Compassion Ministries (both of which I visited), are continuing to bring the truth of God’s Word and the love of Christ to hundreds of people. Brian and Necy themselves, now advanced in years, are well supported by the church and well cared for in their home.
Most of my time was, however, spent with GBM’s most recent missionary family to the Philippines—Reuben and Cathy Saywell—as well as Aries and Jodith Liboro, who have been serving in Valenzuela City since 2002.
First impressions
Having arrived from a British winter, the Filipino warmth was very welcome. The traffic less so! Reuben collected me from the airport and we began our battle through the Manila traffic (worse was to come on other days!). Santa Maria, where the Saywells live, has its own traffic issues as you crawl through the town centre—motor-tricycles and the iconic jeepneys everywhere, and the streets lined with market stalls.
‘Christian’ religion is clearly a big thing in Santa Maria and across this part of the Philippines. The town’s name points to the prevailing religious culture. The town centre was decorated for the annual fiesta, during which statues of Mary and Jesus would be carried through the streets. Reuben told me that he had known that Santa Maria was spiritually needy, but not until they were living there did he realize just how spiritually dark it is. As well as the widespread Roman Catholic influence, a number of powerful cults exert a strong hold over their members. Some have large and impressive buildings and names that make them sound like they are upholding Christian truth but, tragically, they preach a distorted ‘gospel’ which diminishes the Lord Jesus Christ and is shorn of saving truth. The rest of Bulacan Province is in much the same condition—there certainly is great need for more church planting across this spiritually bleak landscape.
Life in ministry
Reuben and Cathy, and their boys Benji, Micah and Judah, live at the end of a side street that begins with corrugated shacks and junk shops, then has a few higher-standard houses at the end. Their home, owned by Cathy’s mother, is comfortable and air-conditioned. It is not just their home, but also home to the church plant that they have been establishing. On one side is the garden where the church meets on Sundays; on the other side is a car port which is used for homeschooling, prayer meetings and wet-weather services. Their living room is the venue for mid-week Bible studies. The family have a car for longer journeys, but local travel is usually by tricycle—I had many rides on this around the town and beyond. And yes, you can fit six people on a tricycle!
Hosting the church plant in their home helps to foster a close family feeling among the group. People stay to chat long after meetings finish. The boys love playing with their friends from church families. They share food and life together. All this is a lovely expression of Christian fellowship. But the intensity of this for the Saywells as a family, and the growth of the group, highlights the need to eventually find a new long-term venue for the church.
A Sunday at Valenzuela
On my first Sunday, Aries picked me up from the Saywells’ home and we drove the half-hour to his church building in Valenzuela City—a district in northern Metro Manila. The children’s Sunday School was underway when I arrived. The ten children, mostly from local non-church families, were being taught by Leslee, a young woman who had been baptized a year or so earlier. Next was the adult Sunday School, taught by one of the younger men. They are going through the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, and that week were looking at the chapter on Civil Government. Then followed the main worship service, which Aries led and at which I preached. Everything thus far had been in Tagalog (or sometimes the linguistic hybrid ‘Taglish’); my sermon was of course all in English—slow, simple (and still jetlagged) English—which I was assured most of the congregation would understand. Aries gave a brief Tagalog summary at the end. After this we had a church lunch downstairs with opportunity to chat to church members, including several enthusiastic young men who are keen to study Reformed theology with Aries. After lunch the church hold a prayer meeting, followed by the youth Bible study—but by then I was back at the Saywells’ home for Grace Plant’s Sunday meetings.
Fellowship at Santa Maria
Sunday afternoons at Grace Plant begin with the Sunday School in the living room and a prayer meeting in the car port. It was a joy to meet this lovely group of believers and to join them in prayer. Some prayed in English, some in Tagalog, and others mixed the two. The prayers that I could understand were warm, earnest and mature. By 5:00pm the garden was a bustle of happy activity, ready for the worship service to begin. One of the men led the service, another read the Scriptures and Reuben preached on Ruth chapter 2—mostly in Tagalog. We sang a mixture of Tagalog and English hymns. The service had started in daylight, but as darkness fell the garden lights came on. We had a few short spells of light rain which didn’t interfere too much—the umbrellas came out, and we soon dried off in the warm night air. After the service we all gathered for the inevitable group photo (Filipinos love their photographs!) and then food was served—rice, small crispy whole fish (you eat the lot—bones, eyes and all!) and a salsa made with papayas from the garden. It was lovely to start getting to know the people and to hear more about them. Many explained that they come to Grace Plant for the faithful biblical preaching and the warm fellowship—often after being spiritually underfed elsewhere for years. They stayed around chatting for a long time afterwards, until eventually they spilled out of the gates to mount their tricycles and scooters and go home. It was a most encouraging day.
The fellowship shares other times together during the week—some are formal meetings like the Thursday night Bible study and prayer meeting, but at other times they gather simply as friends. Judah’s birthday fell during my visit, so that evening the Saywells took me to the home of one of the church plant families. Perhaps a dozen or so others came along as well, and as we sat outside in the warm evening air, we enjoyed a memorable evening of food, conversation and fun—including birthday cake for Judah!
Grace Plant had been launched less than a year earlier, after Reuben and Cathy had spent much of their first year in the Philippines running evangelistic Bible studies in Santa Maria. Since my visit, in the Lord’s goodness, the church plant has been formally constituted as a local church (see Herald May 2024, p25). Praise God for this encouraging group that he has drawn together!
Getting the gospel out
My time with the Liboros and the Saywells gave me a taste of some of their regular outreach activities. One day, about a week after I had arrived, Aries took me back to Valenzuela to see more of the area. He showed me the streets around the church, which include some quite large houses in the immediate vicinity, mixed with some more basic homes and a nearby sprawling slum area. This is where the church used to be located, and where most of the members live. Two years ago, much of this slum district was devastated by a fire. In resilient Filipino style, the residents quickly rebuilt and picked up their lives again. But life is tough here; the houses—such as they are—are very small and basic and it is hard for people to earn enough for anything more than bare necessities. Yet the Lord is blessing Aries’ ministry and the church’s witness, and local people are being saved.
After lunch back at Aries and Jodith’s home—in a housing sub-division (gated community) a twenty-five-minute drive north and into Bulacan—it was time for one of Aries’ outreach activities. For many years now, Aries has invited the local children to come for a Bible study. They gather in Aries and Jodith’s bamboo nipa hut on a plot of ground opposite their house. Jodith hands round Bibles so that the children can follow along, and Aries teaches them from the Scriptures. As I was visiting, Aries asked me to speak to the children, while he translated. In pre-pandemic days they could have forty children present; Aries has only recently restarted this outreach after covid, and numbers are lower now—that day we had sixteen children present, which still seemed plenty to fit into the nipa hut. Afterwards Aries and Jodith gave out snacks, then the children stayed around to play football. Because of the distance from the church building, this outreach doesn’t bring children or families into the regular congregation in Valenzuela City, but it is a worthwhile opportunity to share the gospel with these youngsters, and to build good relationships with their parents.
The following day Reuben showed me one of his regular evangelistic activities. In the centre of Santa Maria is the police station which contains the remand cells. Sometimes more than one hundred prisoners are held here, in four cells (three for men and one for women). These people are crowded together in very basic conditions and may be held for years before their cases come to trial. Reuben visits every two weeks to take a short service with the prisoners—warmly welcomed by the police officers and the prisoners. At Reuben’s request (and with no ID checks or searches!) I was allowed in with him. There is no chapel or exercise area in which to hold the service—we simply stood in the narrow passageway by the cells and spoke to the men and women through the bars. Reuben began by playing a hymn through a loudspeaker, then he prayed, read the Scriptures and preached—all in Tagalog. It was very moving to see this, literally, ‘captive audience’ in such harsh conditions. Most of them seemed to be paying close attention and several added ‘Amens’ as Reuben spoke. I then gave my testimony with an evangelistic call (in slow, plain English), after which we chatted to some of the prisoners through the bars. Reuben has clearly built up a good relationship with the police and with many of the inmates. They appreciate his visits; pray that they will find true liberty in Christ.
On the second Sunday of my visit, between preaching at Trinity Neighborhood Church in the morning, and at Grace Plant in the evening, I went with Reuben and a group of others for their monthly outreach under the bridge. The bridge in question spans the Santa Maria River in the town centre and provides a ‘home’ to several families—just shelter from the sun and a place to sleep and keep their meagre possessions. I found it impossible to really imagine living in such poverty. Yet these precious people respond warmly to the interest and Christian love that they are shown. We had a short service, with singing, prayer and Bible ministry, then gave out snacks and drinks and stayed for a while to chat with the people.
Reforming and planting
Although many areas of Bulacan (a province of 2 million people) do not yet have a gospel-centred church, there are other pastors around with whom Aries and Reuben enjoy good fellowship. Some are serving Reformed Baptist churches in Manila or Bulacan and beyond; others are good men who are growing in their understanding of the doctrines of grace and are keen to lead their churches in a more biblical direction. Aries and Reuben have been trying to encourage some of these men by organizing a Bulacan ministers’ fraternal. An extra meeting of the fraternal was arranged to coincide with my visit, and although only a few could make it that day we had a good time together. I had taken a selection of Serving Today booklets, and other helpful books and magazines for them, and they gladly received these at the end of our meeting.
Both Aries and Reuben are conscious of the need for more churches to be planted in Bulacan, and had been discussing how this could be done. Not knowing this, but in God’s providence, I spoke to Grace Plant’s Thursday night meeting from Acts 11 and 13. We saw that the young church at Syrian Antioch was a missionary sending church. I wanted to encourage the Bulacan believers to be outward looking, even though their churches are relatively small and young. Aries told me afterwards about his desire to seek out a family in Bulacan who could host a home Bible study, which in time might become a new church plant. Please pray that the Lord will open the way for this to be done.
Hard but hopeful
Ministry is always hard. Ministry in the Philippines is, in many ways, harder than in the UK. Even for the Liboros, who are Filipino, living and serving in the Philippines is challenging. The Saywells’ first two years in the country have been a steep learning curve—contending with the bureaucracy, corruption, traffic, heat, language and all manner of daily hassles. Raising children in this culture and climate is hard, especially for Cathy as she educates Benji and Micah at home. There are very few places where Reuben and Cathy can take the boys to run around in relative freedom and safety.
Yet these faithful servants of God are hopeful. They draw strength from the Lord and are compelled by his love, motivated to keep going by their conviction that the Lord has called them to serve in the Philippines. Your prayerful support is greatly appreciated and, under God’s gracious hand, is bearing fruit.