Janet and her husband first traveled to the southern part of the Philippines for a short visit, but they soon felt that they should stay permanently. Their gospel-centered ministry began organically, through casual conversations.
Someone in the community would come to Janet with a problem, and she would listen intently, then ask them if they would like to hear about someone from the Bible who had a similar problem. Janet would use that opportunity to tell the person about Jesus.
“Now I’m going to tell you about someone who loves you best,” she would say. Unsurprisingly, people were often very open to hearing that story! After that, Janet would invite them to study the Word of God with her.
That’s how Janet and her husband began a Discovery Bible Study (DBS) in their new area. The couple served in various ways, teaching at the university and starting a basketball club before being introduced to a fishing community. Soon, Janet began to teach the children in the fishing community and got to know people better.
Janet soon learned that the fishing village belonged to a tribe that was looked down upon by others in the area who considered the people uneducated and dirty. Many children in the community had never been to school, and their peers teased and ostracized those who had tried to go.
Less than a year after starting to teach in the fishing community, one of Janet’s most eager students stopped attending her class. Janet went to the girl’s mother to ask what had happened and discovered that she had been so encouraged by Janet that she had started going to the nearby school. Since then, more children have followed suit, and Janet has heard that they are some of the best students in their grades.
Teaching the children has helped Janet build relationships with their mothers and other women in the community. She regularly does a Discovery Bible Study with three women, one of whom is Angela*.
At a certain point, Angela and her husband were both out of work. Angela was worried about providing food for her children. Desperate, she prayed for provision from a God she had heard about before but did not really know.
Soon after, someone knocked on their door and gave her family some food.
“And so she said, ‘God is love because He has seen my needs,” Janet told us.
After that, Janet talked to Angela about Jesus. Angela said that the whole time Janet was speaking about Christ, all the hair on her arms stood up — she had seen the man Janet spoke about in a dream before. He had a bright light obscuring His face, and there was also a big book with many names written in it. Angela said she wanted to know more about the God who is love, and she joined Janet’s DBS.
The three women in the DBS continue to develop their faith amid challenges from their community, which is traditionally Islamic with strong animistic practices. Janet trusts that “the Lord will take care of them,” and they will continue to grow. During many DBS meetings, a problem or topic will arise based on something the women have heard or experienced. These questions give Janet the opportunity to point the women back to the Bible.
Janet says, “I will always talk to them about the Word of God because I believe that the Word of God is living and active.”
Please pray for people of this fishing community in the Philippines!
Thanks to friends like you, OM has always been able to take on the toughest and hard assignments – like getting Bibles into closed nations. Your special Easter gift will help reach and disciple people just like Angela with little or no access to His Truth! Click here to give now.
You can sign up to receive our prayer newsletters here.
*Name changed for security reasons.
