Philippines
Saturating the
(and beyond)
With the
Gospel
By Larry Freed, Church Multiplication Director,
Every Community for Christ
What would you do if you realized that, despite your
best efforts, you would never fulfill the vision God
had placed on your heart? This reality faced the Every
Community for Christ Philippines leadership team two
years ago. We spent the next four days in intense indi-
vidual and corporate prayer. Slowly, God revealed The Juan
Project to us, a 10-year Gospel saturation initiative to reach the
Philippines. The name comes from Juan dela Cruz, the national personification
that has come to represent every Filipino individually and all Filipinos together.
The need for The Juan Project arises from the Philippines being in a state
of social turmoil. Three million Filipinos are drug dependent. Human trafficking
and corruption are common. Families are divided as members move to other
countries to work as overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). OFWs sacrifice daily to
support their families while facing potential abuse, loneliness, marital unfaithful-
ness or divorce, and years of absence from their children. More than 90 percent
of Filipinos have never experienced a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
And 40 percent of the barangays (districts) in the targeted provinces of The Juan
Project do not have any churches, let alone an evangelical church.
But God has a solution. History shows that when a healthy church is planted
in a community, the entire community experiences transformation. And so, God
gave us The Juan Project. Over the next nine years, by God’s power and grace,
and for his glory alone:
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