Rey Taniajura, GCI-Philippines missions director, recently led a group of Filipinos on a journey around the U.S. exploring opportunities to plant GCI churches focused on reaching Filipinos living in the U.S. In this update, Rey reports on the final leg of the journey.
Together with Joe and Gie Manzano, my wife June and I were guests of Bart Baril and his wife Teresa who pastor GCI’s congregation in Port Orchard, Washington. Bart had arranged for us to meet representatives of the Pacific Northwest Ilocandia Association (PNIA), a group of more than 100 Filipinos living in the area. We gathered at PNIA’s building (where the GCI congregation meets for worship).
Bart and Teresa’s congregation and PNIA have partnered in various outreach activities in the area. Also, one of PNIA’s members, Josie, had been trained as a missionary by GCI-Philippines and sent to the Northwest. She has been connecting with various churches in the Port Orchard-Bremerton area and has raised up a small group. Josie will be connecting some of those she is working with to Pastor Bart.
This is a bit strange coming from GCI. Can’t most of us who reside in the United States trace our ancestry back to another country? Why then would missionaries from other countries like the Republic of the Philippines want to focus on reaching only on people of their own nationality? I suppose it is because they are more familiar with them BUT this just further segregates the Church of Jesus Christ in the U.S.! Why is GCI promoting this in the U.S.? Why can’t a foreign missionary come to the U.S. and focus on reaching all the people living here instead of just a subset? This is biblical missionary work it seems to me.
We in New Zealand have a group of migrant workers who have very little oportunity to worsho God in their own heart language, they find that a church service in their language fills that need and also draws that community together when many of them are here on their own.
Brian – in Southern California, several GCI congregations have worked together to bring Filipino missionaries (Angie/Saddie Tabin) to the US to reach out to the Filipino community. They certainly do not ONLY reach out to Filipinos – after 1 year of having services they have other Asians, Caucasians, Blacks and Latinos. However, the reality is that people who are not believers tend to be drawn to their own culture. Paul said he was a Jew to the Jews, a Roman to the Romans, etc. He didn’t expect them to all give up their background – until after the believed in Jesus. Once they are part of the church, now they begin to see the value of connecting with people of other cultures. Your thoughts are “ideal” but usually do not actually work out in practice until AFTER people become believers.