By Rich Danzeisen,
Executive Director of
OMS Global Ministries
“So would you say you are now a church planter or a missionary?”
I asked my new Filipino friend Mar. He looked off into the distance.
“I guess I would say ... a missionary.” He continued to ponder the
question, even as he answered. As I met
with our Every Community for Christ lead-
ership team in the Philippines recently,
they explained the incredible opportu-
nities the Lord is giving OMS to prepare
overseas foreign workers from that nation
who seek work in more economically ad-
vantaged nations such as Singapore and
Hong Kong. These Filipinos live away from
their families for the majority of the year
to earn better wages overseas and send
financial support home. More than 2.3
million Filipinos work in places like Asia,
Africa, and the Middle East, places that
can be difficult for Western missionaries
to enter.
Mar leads a team of church planting
trainers to plant churches throughout the
Philippines.* Now, they also train over-
seas workers in evangelism and church
planting. This renewed vision of equip-
ping Filipino workers to have a kingdom
impact in the nations where they work
thrills us. The initial testimonies are ex-
citing to hear as these workers minister
cross-culturally to see others come to
Christ and meet together to worship as
new believers.
One Mission Society has always fo-
cused on raising up leaders among the
sons and daughters of a nation to be
equipped to reach their own. Now, they
join us in reaching their own nations and
beyond. Areas that once received OMS
missionaries now send missionaries of
their own to other cultures and nations in
a new wave of missionary movements.
Saturating Colombia and Beyond
I listened excitedly to the plans that
Juan Guillermo Cardona was putting to-
gether to expand the ministry in Colombia.
His vision was to reach not only his home
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