Be A Partner
The Mission that I am referring here is the mission in Leyte. Region 8 where Leyte belongs is one of the least evangelized regions in the Philippines. There are several factors that affect this evangelism status:
Lack of trained ministers
Samar, Leyte, Biliran are huge islands with a total population of approximately 3.9 million (according to NSO 2007 survey). Out of 3.9 million of people, only a handful of ministers went to this region to commit for full time ministry.
Most of those ministers are trainees and only very few workers came from seminaries and Bible schools.
Lack of manpower effort
Due to the lack of trained ministers, the more that it needs time to mature and have fully trained ministers to take over the job.
Economic difficulties also affects the job. Let us say, we already have some people trained locally in these areas, but the fact is, these new local ministers still needs a lot of time to work in their fields because that’s the only source of their income and that’s the only way that they can feed their families.
Lack of prayers
For the past decade and looking back at local missions in the Philippines, most effort and prayers has been directed to Mindanao areas and to Luzon areas. There were only a handful of people and ministers that I have seen praying for Leyte, Samar and Biliran as their ministerial target.
In Southern Baptist denomination alone, there are only 1 couple assigned by the International Mission Board for the whole of Region 8 for the past 2 decades, who has 3.9 millions of people waiting to hear the gospel.
Lack of financial resources
Region 8 is one of the greatly depressed regions of the Philippines economically. Most people are rice farmers, coconut (for copra), and sugarcane. It cannot prosper easily because this region is the usual path of the typhoons althroughout the year.
This is also the main reason that it is even more difficult for a minister who is a stranger to come and start a mnistry in Leyte without a stable source of income or at least enough mission support from their respective churches. Strangers really finds it hard to survive in these areas.
…But The Lord Have Sent Workers
As you can see the limitations above, one of the main things that any church should ask before considering Leyte is “who will be our missionaries?” This is very difficult to answer since supporting a missionary “Full Time” is not an easy task and is very costly. This is why, there should be someone from these places who will be willing to commit full time and can certainly survive economically to sustain the work and accomplish the mission of evangelizing Leyte.
The year is 1990, at last, the Lord sent more workers and reinforcements in Leyte through Ptr. Vir Olaer. He is a church planter whose province is Leyte. His parents, sisters, and a brother live in Leyte, in the town of Baybay. At that point of time, there were only very few pastors and a handful of Christians in that area.
Then the Lord also sent Ptr. Tom Smith, an IMB missionary who despite of being a foreigner committed his life for the full ministry of being a missionary. These two guys, Ptr Vir and Ptr. Tom worked together and began to form strategies for church planting and missiological work.
Paglaum Baptist Mission was born in Baybay area in 1990, and The Lighthouse Christian Resource Center was born in Ormoc in 1999. With the help of Ptr. Cleto Bacarro in Ormoc City, the Lighthouse Christian Resource Center did not remain as a resource center but became a church known now as the Ormoc Lighthouse Christian Ministry. The two ministerial areas flourished so much that more churches has been planted in several Baranggays. Today, these ministries have about 15 pastors, and more than 10 preachers, about 15 churches and outreaches. A product of about 19 years of labor and love.
Today, the ministry in Ormoc was taken over by Ptr. Vince Olaer (yours truly) after Ptr. Cleto Bacarro passed on the “baton” of ministry to this young pastor. This event took place in June of 2006 when Ptr. Vince accepted the baton and continue the race that was marked out for Ormoc. This event also implies a “Father and Son” partnership in ministerial work in Leyte. Ptr. Vir Olaer stayed in Baybay area while Ptr. Vince took over the work in Ormoc areas.
Current Situations
Though both ministries flourished so much, still the work that has to be done remains big. The church in Kambonggan, Baybay has been a mother church to all other churches in the areas of Baybay. It use to send workers out in the field to start new churches. However, most of the members of Paglaum Kambonggan were ordinary farmers which cannot out run the financial needs for their ministerial work.
The same thing is happening to Ormoc Lighthouse Christian Ministry. The Lighthouse has been a great blessing to both ministerial areas since it is the most financially stable church and is also a mother church in Ormoc area. The fact is, the ministry is in its booming stage that both areas needs more “Partnership” with other organizations, churches and people who are willing to help reach Leyte.
Partnership is a form of ministerial alliance between two Christian body who have common goals. Both parties will share together in labor and financial needs of certain ministries. This systematic form of ministerial strategy prevents dependency issues which we believe is not good for the ministry.
Why Become A Partner?
For about 20 years, the ministerial effort has become fruitful here in Leyte and multiplied several hundred times which is a proof of faithfulness of its workers who started the ministry. At the same time it is also a sign of God’s blessings and annointing for the ministry to continue to flourish.
Here’s a video from PIEI that will explain why you need to become a partner.
How Can You Become A Partner?
Just like all other mission you can become a partner in 3 ways.
1. Be a Prayer Partner – Prayer is the most important part of partnership. Thus, any effort won’t accomplish much without prayer. But please note that “prayer with out action is also dead”.
2.Be a Short-Term Missionary – We appreciate much our partners who comes to Leyte to see, experience and work in the mission field for short term missions like evangelism campaign, medical mission, church building projects etc.
3.Be a Support Partner – This can be a great help for the ministry in Leyte since it is one of the most depressed areas in the Philippines due to frequent calamities and low source of income.
There are three main ways to support our Leyte Ministry financially.
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