Ministers of the gospel know that they are not called to success, but to faithfulness. As Paul asserts in 1 Corinthians 3, we may plant or water the seeds of the gospel, but it is God who gives growth.
This summer a region of the Oras River in the Philippines, spiritually a long-seeded, long-watered desert, bloomed with unexpected growth.
Jacob Dennison, a senior environmental biology major at the University of North Alabama in Florence who attends First Baptist Church, Florence, was part of an International Mission Board Nehemiah Team that spent the summer staying in Filipino villages along the Oras.
“I’ve always felt that God wanted me to do something like this for Him, so I forgot about work and about money for this last summer and went,” he said.
The five team members, two translators and Southern Baptist representative in the Philippines spent a week each in five villages that are only accessible by river. They bought a week’s worth of supplies before each trip so as not to be a burden on the villages.
Once the group reached a village they would do a gospel presentation at a central location in the village and then offer to conduct Bible studies through the week with anyone who was interested. They might meet with a person only once or every day the team was in the village, Dennison said.
“We had two translators, so we could do two Bible studies at any given time with people.”
Suzie Miller, who serves with her husband Carl as Southern Baptist representatives in the region, said over the course of the summer Dennison’s group shared the gospel with 400 people. But while the villages along the Oras had barely seen spiritual fruit before, this time was different.
Two hundred and twenty-one people among the five villages prayed to receive Christ this summer.
“I was doubtful originally (about the Filipinos’ sincerity),” Dennison said. But if only some of the people were sincere, “that’s an incredible work.”
Eighty people agreed to be baptized, Suzie Miller said, which is “a major step in this culture as it indicates a definite break from the established cultural religion.”
Many villagers who accepted Christ were so hungry to learn more about the Bible that they kept holding daily Bible studies after the team left or even traveled to the next village when the team did. One 19-year-old Filipino even volunteered time to serve as an extra translator in the fourth and fifth villages where the team ministered.
Currently, two Southern Baptist volunteers are following up with the new converts along the Oras, discipling them and encouraging them to share their newfound faith with others.
“We are desperately praying for two more journeymen to serve for two years to continue the follow-up,” Suzie Miller said.
(Joseph Rhea)
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