We are so excited about what God is doing in the Philippines! Instead of sending out a normal newsletter, we wanted to send you the enclosed brochure that tells the whole story. Read it through and share it with your friends. Additional copies are available upon request.
It is not often that God gives people an opportunity like this to impact an entire people group with the Gospel. The need is great and the time is short. The eternal implications are staggering, especially when you consider the Philippines’ strategic location in Asia. It is an important key for reaching all of Asia with the Gospel. Please read this brochure prayerfully and then do whatever God lays on your heart to do. Together we can change the destiny of nations.
In His service,
Howard & Barbara Gard
Church Triumphant Ministries, Inc. is an indigenous outreach to the mountain tribal peoples of southern Mindanao in the Philippines. It is a fellowship of tribal pastors and workers committed to the common goal of providing training for tribal workers who have a burden to plant churches among their peoples and neighboring tribes who are unreached with the Gospel. The official languages of the Philippines are English and Filipino (based on Tagalog) so all the Bible schools require a competency test in English. The problem is that these tribal peoples live in remote areas where the schools only go to fourth grade or don’t exist at all. Therefore these people do not know enough English to be accepted at existing Bible schools. Church Triumphant Ministries was established to meet that need by providing Bible school training in the Cebuano language (the principal language spoken on Mindanao) for those who have a burden to become church planters but don’t know enough English to pass a traditional entrance test.
The vision of Church Triumphant Ministries is to bring quality Bible school training to those who need it most in a language they can understand so they can take the Gospel to tribal people who are still waiting to hear the Good News for the first time. Howard and Barbara Gard, veteran missionaries from America, will be training a ministry team of twelve people with proven leadership ability and a heart to reach out and train others. The Gards will be using an intensive Bible training program that has proven successful in equipping church planters around the world. The leadership team will study under the Gards for three days a week and then spend three days a week traveling in pairs to six teaching points in six different tribal areas where they will teach what they have been taught to others who will then go forth as church planters among the Dibabawon, T’bole, Manobo Ata, B’laan, Mansaka, and Mandaya tribes. As of August 1, 2001 there are already 150 students enrolled at the six teaching points. The ministry team has been chosen and are eager to begin. The materials are translated and ready to be printed. The only thing lacking to begin this outreach is the finances necessary to get it off the ground. That is why we need covenant partners.
The goal of Church Triumphant Ministries is to become a self supporting indigenous work. To this end small tracts of land have been purchased in each of the six tribal areas. These tracts of land will be used to grow rice, corn, or vegetables. Because our students come from some of the most economically depressed areas of the Philippines, they cannot afford to pay tuition to support the school. Instead they will work the land and grow the crops. When the produce is sold, the profits will be used to pay the expenses for the twelve full time workers on the leadership team and to expand the ministry into other areas. Two of the pastors on the leadership team are trained in the field of agriculture. In addition to teaching the Bible courses, they will also train the rest of the team and the students in modern agriculture and animal husbandry so that the students can learn to be self supporting and their home villages will benefit from learning improved farming techniques.
The problem comes from how to provide for these twelve full time workers from the time that they begin training until the time the farm produce is ready for market, a space of six months. That is where covenant partnerships step in. A covenant partner is a church or individual who agrees to support one or more of these twelve leadership team members with $200 a month for a period of six months. This $200 will supply the leader with enough money to provide food, clothing, and shelter for his family and himself as well as provide for transportation between the Bible school in Tagum City and his teaching point in a tribal area. The covenant partner will receive monthly updates on “his” or “her” ministry partner, including their name, a photo, a brief biographical sketch, and specific prayer needs. If someone wants to continue supporting their ministry partner with a larger amount or for a period of time longer than the six months, that would be possible but we are only asking for a six month commitment.
If you would like to adopt one or more of these full time workers, please contact Church Triumphant at the address, phone number, or website listed below. We look forward to helping you become a covenant partner with someone who is impacting an entire tribe with the Gospel. If you do not feel that you can commit to $200 a month for six months but you would like to help, a gift of any amount will be received with joy and thanksgiving to cover the additional needs of the Bible school, the churches being planted, and the tribal pastors as those needs arise.
Together we can reach this region which is 40% Muslim and cause it to become a testimony to the redeeming power of the precious blood of Jesus Christ who is not willing that any should perish, not even those living in remote areas at the ends of the Earth.