A New Church in Dasmariñas City, Philippines
An update from Jeffrey T. Jo, Senior Pastor of Cross of Christ Salvation Gospel Ministries (CCSGM) in Manila, Philippines, and National Leader for our work in the Philippines...
I remember it clearly when, 5 years ago with my fellow pastors, we were thinking about planting a church either within or outside the Philippines. One location which the Lord placed on our hearts was Dasmariñas, a city in the upland area of Cavite. We only knew one family there who used to be members of our church in Kawit (a municipality, in the lowland area of Cavite and almost 20kms away from Dasmariñas city). Nonetheless, that day we decided to entrust our hearts to plant a church in that area to the Lord. While waiting, we were constantly equipping others to do the works of ministry, raising more workers to serve His people for their joy, and at the same time training church planters. Last year, we started planting a church in Imus and we sent four families to work there which has now grown to a regular attendance of 50 adults.
On the 9th of July, God was so kind to us in answering our prayers to make His name known in Dasmariñas city. During the pandemic season, I had begun doing an online bible study and out of this group of people some were requesting a Sunday worship service. We saw this as God's green flag for us to start one. We rented a 90 square meter space on the second floor of a commercial building just in front of a public market and near residential houses for P18,000/month or $333USD. We also renovated the place to make it suitable for ministry functions. Half of it is currently being used as our sanctuary and the other half is being used for children’s ministry.
We had our first Sunday gathering on July 23rd, bringing with us an 8-man team from our Kawit church. It was a well attended worship service and my first sermon was about the significance of the gospel in our church gathering. We now have a regular online Bible study every Friday evening studying Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, we offer pastoral care through home visitations every Saturday and in the afternoon a face-to-face prayer meeting in the ministry facility.
It’s been more than a month now and we are seeing the grace of God in the lives of the people whom we are ministering to week after week. We emphasize in our conversations the importance of people living out the gospel in their marriages, their family and in their workplaces, for most of them are ''career women". For this reason, every Sunday before the preaching of the word, we have assigned couples from our Kawit church to share their life testimony about how the gospel of Christ saved them and changes their lives.
Our elders have been training and preparing Jomarie and his wife Nica to shepherd this new church plant early next year. Jomarie, or Jom for short, is one of our intern elders and soon to be a candidate for SGC ordination. Jom resigned from his US based work last May in the midst of a promotion into a junior vice president role. Now, he is one of our full-time staff members who has been a fruitful co-laborer in God’s vineyard here in Cavite. We hope that in these next six months of ministry here in Dasmariñas city, this would introduce and encourage Jom and Nica in all aspects of church life, solidifying not only their soteriology but also their ecclesiology.
All honor and praise be unto God who has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Please continue to pray for our new church plant here in Damariñas city, Cavite, Philippines. As what Hudson Taylor once declared, “God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.”
For the glory of the gospel of Christ!
