All articles in category South Eastern Asia
By Brian Ellis
July 2016
Philippines
Grace Ministerial Academy, Philippines
31 March 2016 was a special day for Grace Ministerial Academy (GMA), as nine men completed four years of study in the academy. They came from various locations in the Philippines, and most will be returning to the churches they are from, although some will take up pioneering work in different situations. GMA is a ministry of Cubao Reformed Baptist Church, which is located in Quezon City, a very busy and bustling part of Metro-Manila. The academy has been training men for the ministry for at least 20 years. Faculty We are greatly blessed to have Pastor Noel Espinosa as our principal and main lecturer....
Read more
By Lim Siok Hong
November 2015
Malaysia
How I got involved in Penan pre-schools
‘What do you want me to do, Lord?’ I wept, as I knelt before the Lord. I had just read the front page report, for 11 September 2009, in The Star, a Malaysian newspaper. It was about the rape of Penan schoolgirls and women by timber company workers in the Baram District of Sarawak. Seeking the Lord, the overwhelming impression upon my heart was that I had to do something. I had to go to interior Sarawak and do whatever I could to help the Penan. Hearing that the Sarawak Women for Women Society was organising a team to go and teach the Penan women...
Read more
By Brian Ellis
October 2015
Philippines
Typhoon Haiyan two years on
This coming November will see the second anniversary of Typhoon Haiyan, which left over 7000 dead and more missing in the Philippine provinces of Samar and northern Leyte. Tacloban City was particularly hit, with thousands being killed and displaced. Over the past two years, Christian Compassion Ministries (CCM), the benevolent arm of Cubao Reformed Baptist Church located in Metro-Manila, has continued to help displaced families and schools in the Tacloban. We have continued to give relief packs where such have still been needed and where families have little income, if any. Schools have been lacking books and often have had no electricity or ceilings in...
Read more
December 2013
Philippines
Typhoon Haiyan and Relief
TYPHOON RELIEF Manila was not affected by the typhoon but areas in central Philippines were terribly devastated. The worst affected areas are in northern Leyte and particularly the City of Tacloban as well as the large island of Samar. It is very difficult at the moment to get any personal news except what is coming over on the News Channels. However other areas are also affected and needing help such as northern Panay, Aklan, Capiz, Mindoro, Palaway, Bohol and parts of Cebu. There are Reformed Baptist churches in many of these areas. Some of the members of Cubao Reformed Baptist Church also have family members...
Read more
By Paul Wells
August 2013
Indonesia
Prayer for the tensions in Indonesia
Indonesia is a vast country of 17 000 islands, only 6 000 of which are inhabited. It straddles the equator from Sumatra in the west to Irian Jaya in the east. It is mountanous with several active volcanoes. In northern Sumatra 168 000 people were killed by the tsunami in 2004. The population is around 238 million, the island of Java where 58% of the population live, being densely populated. The capital, Jakarta is an impressive and polluted city of over 12 million inhabitants. Natural resources Indonesia was previously a Dutch colony and gained independence in 1945. Today it has rapid economic growth and G20...
Read more
By Matt Gamston
May 2012
Philippines
Reflections on giving
Reflections on giving One of the most difficult issues to think through for missions and missionaries is that of money. Here are a few honest thoughts and reflections from my time here in the Philippines. Poverty When I first came to the Philippines, I remember being really struck by the poverty. I’d never seen anything like it before. And yet, a few years ago, arriving back in Manila and driving down the main roads, the thing that struck me most was the riches. Cubao is one of the best examples of how poverty and riches exist side by side. Ten years ago, it was an...
Read more
By OMF International
February 2012
Vietnam
Missionary Spotlight – Christianity in Vietnam
Missionaries of the Christian and Missionary Alliance began work in Vietnam in 1911. By 1929 their work resulted in the establishment of an independent Evangelical Church of Vietnam. Over the years other missionary societies joined in the work of church-planting and by the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 there were 154,000 Evangelical Christians. Many of these belonged to underground churches, which had sprung up alongside the ‘open’ Evangelical Church of Vietnam. The government of the now-unified communist Vietnam ordered all the missionaries to leave, and for the next 10 years few foreigners were able to enter the country — until the change of...
Read more
