Patti:
While pregnant with our fourth child, I was involved in a bizarre and unsettling car accident with a taxi driver who became very upset after unsuccessfully trying to cut into my lane, thereby damaging his taxi. No one was injured in the accident, but the taxi driver physically threatened me (and swung his fist at me) before stealing my vehicle keys and running off. My wrist was badly bruised when he grabbed the keys. The policemen involved were not interested in who was in the right but asked for money and left the taxi driver (he had returned) and me to settle the matter between ourselves. The taxi company owner made threats as well, all with the view, like the police, of getting money from us. Later we learned that one of our faithful prayer supporters had woken up during the night (daytime for us in Manila) and was prompted by God to pray for us, not knowing about the challenging hours we were facing at the exact same time.
Throughout the several weeks it took to settle this situation, we were very concerned for the personal safety of ourselves and our children since the taxi company was located very close to our children’s bus pick-up point. However, God used Scripture, Filipino friends, missionary colleagues, and a wonderful mission business manager (Terry Huffman) to offer encouragement and guidance through those horrible weeks.
We cannot adequately express our appreciation to those who faithfully prayed for our safety. For a few weeks, we lost our enthusiasm for being in Manila. Still, we eventually came to understand that the Philippines is like Canada in that for every 99 good citizens, there are one or two non-positive representatives of the nation.
Rick & Patti:
We began 11 years of missionary service in June 1994 by flying to Manila, Philippines, with our three oldest children, Bethany, Ian, and Angela. Sandra was born in Quezon City in 1996. Our kids attended Faith Academy (a 30-60-minute drive east of the various places we lived in Metro Manila). We both studied Tagalog and began ministry at the Alliance Biblical Seminary in Quezon City, the city with the largest population in Metro Manila. Patti’s initial focus was a ministry for seminary women. In 1997 she began teaching English language classes for foreign students at the seminary while Rick taught Old Testament classes there. Later, as part of the commitment to the nationalization of the faculty, Rick taught Old Testament for Th.M. and doctoral students in various Asian Graduate School of Theology programs. Other ministries included regular speaking at churches, the board of directors of the Philippine Alliance College of Theology, field leadership team, and Muslim ministry focus team.
Prayer
Rick:
It is hard to describe the encouragement we found knowing people in Canada were praying for us while we were ministering in the Philippines. During our home assignment years, we would travel throughout Alberta speaking in churches and sleeping in spare rooms provided by gracious hosts. During our first home assignment year, we spoke 141 times to about 8,500 people! Many of our hosts had our prayer card displayed prominently on their fridges. As well, most of the churches we visited had a place in their church building where people could pick up missionary prayer cards, including our own. How does one adequately express our thanksgiving to God for the prayers of His people on our behalf?
About a year after arriving in the Philippines, we received a small stack of church bulletins from our home church, Rockyview Alliance in Calgary. While reading through them, I saw we were the missionary prayer focus during the first week of January 1995. Immediately I was filled with thanksgiving to God, realizing it was during the particular week when our church was praying for us I had preached a sermon during which I experienced the presence and power of the Holy Spirit like never before. Thanks be to God!
Thinking about the prayers for safety on our behalf offered by sending churches brings to mind some of the more harrowing moments from when we were living in the Philippines:
- A gun-toting wild man ran up and down our street, firing shots into the air, warning those who were driving too fast.
- Bloodstains on the street next to ours where a taxi driver was murdered for his cash.
- Having our vehicle stopped by police who were controlling traffic while firefighters from more than a dozen emergency vehicles tried to put out a raging fire as flames leapt from a five-story upholstery factory. We were about twenty-five metres from the fire for around thirty minutes, trying to decide what to do if the building started to collapse or if glass from the building cascaded onto the street.
- A neighbourhood fire destroyed the home three doors down from us and badly damaged the house next to ours. This was the day our one-year-old Sandra learned to say the word “hot.”
- Thieves breaking into our vehicles on three occasions.
- Driving through flooded streets up to a metre in depth.
- Threatening phone calls made to our missionary colleagues from those who said they would kidnap their children if they were not given money.
- Bombings perpetrated by Muslim separatists in places we regularly frequented.
- The death of our colleague’s sister while she tried to flee from an attempted kidnapping.
Join me in continuing to pray for international workers in troubled parts of our world.
Patti:
My parents became followers of Jesus two years before I was born. I grew up in Brandon, Manitoba, attending McDiarmid Drive Alliance Church. I loved going to the missions conference at our church each year and visiting with missionaries who stayed in our home. At the age of six, I sensed a call from God to cross-cultural ministry. While studying at Canadian Bible College (CBC) as a young woman preparing for missions, I was greatly encouraged by Dr. Arnold Cook. He creatively helped me see ways of moving forward within the call of God. Other mission preparation included courses at Canadian Theological Seminary, Alliance Youth Corps, church planting in Nova Scotia, and ministry in Côte d’Ivoire. Rick and I were married in 1983 and later pastored at Rockyview Alliance Church in Calgary.
Rick:
I grew up in Calgary, Alberta, attending Foothills Alliance Church. I spent the summer of 1981 in Brittany (the NW part of France) with Operation Mobilization. I was on a team selling Bibles and gospel books while distributing gospel pamphlets. One day while walking on a country road, complaining to God about how difficult this ministry was, God spoke to me. He asked just one question, “How would you like to do this for the rest of your life?” My immediate and heartfelt response was, “No! Not me! I’m not smart enough! I’m not strong enough! Get someone else to do it!” But even as I said “No,” I knew my answer had to be “Yes!” Since that day, I have known that God called me to cross-cultural ministry. Preparation for our ministry in the Philippines included studies at CBC and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois (M.Div. & Ph.D. in Old Testament Theology).
New Programs
While teaching at the Alliance Biblical Seminary, we saw growth in student enrollment as new programs were added to assist the church with its various ministries. New seminary programs included:
- Christian Counselling (1997)
- Community Development (1999)
- Applied Linguistics / Bible Translation (2000)
Bible Translation
In 2000 the seminary began to offer a Master of Arts degree program in Applied Linguistics. The program consisted of various Bible and theology courses taught by our seminary faculty and linguistics courses taught by SIL missionaries with education and expertise in Bible translation. After graduation, some of these students translated the New Testament into languages without Scripture in various countries throughout Southeast Asia. Other grads were mother-tongue translators recruited to work on teams translating the Old Testament into their own Filipino languages, which only had New Testaments. Rick had the great privilege of having these students in his Old Testament and Hebrew courses.
Tribal Youth Camp
Rick:
In 2005 I spoke at a camp for young people from four tribal groups in the northern part of Luzon in the Philippines. Not one person from these tribes had ever heard of Christ until missionaries brought the good news of the Gospel there in the mid-1970s. One highlight for me was having a visit in the home of the first missionary to one of these remote tribal groups. There are now thousands of Christians in these four tribes. One group had been known as headhunters. As many of them became followers of Jesus, they decided to change their tribal name because they no longer wanted to be known as those who killed their enemies.
Speaking at the youth camp was a linguistic challenge for me. Since many of the youth did not know English, I used all the Tagalog I had ever learned (and more!) to teach the Word of God. Six of my seminary students came from these tribes to learn how to translate the Old Testament into their own language. It is a phenomenal goal to help each people group in the Philippines have all of God’s Word in their own language.
Community Development
As they are able, CAMACOP churches (Christian and Missionary Alliance Churches of the Philippines) throughout the country have provided both spiritual and physical care for the poor in a variety of ways. To assist in these ventures, the National Church asked the seminary to start a Master of Arts degree program focusing on community development. The program began in 1999 under the leadership of Peter Malvicini. Our seminary students learned how to work with leaders in communities where poverty is often oppressive. Their work led to the poor gaining access to electricity and fresh water, job creation, medical care, school transportation, garbage removal, and other programs to help with the day-to-day needs of the poor.
The Good News is Preached to the Poor
Pastor Roger Abe was one of our seminary grads who became a pastor at the Alliance Fellowship Church (AFC), where our family regularly attended during our years in Metro Manila. While pastoring at AFC, Roger also started a church plant in a nearby community known as Marytown, a squatter area of about 7,000 impoverished people in Quezon City. Desperation and industry led people with limited resources to construct squatter residences with any materials they could find. This community was built over a polluted creek about four metres wide. Residents saw that the space above the open sewer was unused and chose this extremely poor, crime-ridden, and drug-infested area as a place to live.
Pastor Roger started the church as a Bible study, meeting in our living room. Soon our house was not big enough, so they moved to the rooftop of a nearby office building a few hundred metres from Marytown. I spoke once at the church. When it started to rain, everyone ran for the covered stairwell. They sat on the steps while I stood on a landing between floors to share the Word of the Lord. The Lord Jesus grew His church even in this terribly malodorous area without electricity or fresh water. Over two years, the church grew to more than a hundred adults.
In November of 2000, our family attended a joint wedding and baptismal service for the church, celebrating its anniversary. The four couples who were married were all new Christians. Three of the four couples lived together for many years; many of the poor find the cost of a wedding prohibitive. The pastor commended the couples in their decision to formally marry, thus setting a good example to their children. Wedding pictures were followed immediately by a baptismal service for twenty-five new believers. Two of the brides really had to scramble to get changed out of their bridal dresses and into something more suitable for the water! As soon as the baptisms were finished, 68 children, most of whom had never been in a swimming pool, jumped into the water, splashing and laughing and having a great time. It was one of the most joyful days of ministry we had ever experienced!
Grads
One of the greatest privileges coming from teaching at a seminary is seeing the ministries our graduates pursue when they are finished their studies. For the most part, our students became preaching pastors, youth pastors, counsellors, school teachers, community development workers, Bible translators, and missionaries.
In 2003, I (Rick) attended CAMACOP’s General Assembly in Davao. A highlight was looking through the list of official workers and seeing the ministries of so many of my former students. At the time, five had become Bible college or seminary presidents, seven were seminary faculty, twenty-two were Bible college eleven were district leadership team members, and about a hundred were pastoring CAMACOP churches.
Though most of our students were Filipinos who ministered in the Philippines, many came from other Asian countries. Former students, many of whom began their seminary studies in Patti’s English class, went on to work as church leaders and Bible school faculty in Thailand, Myanmar, Nepal, Palestine, Israel, Indonesia, India, Viet Nam, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, China, and Nigeria. It was so encouraging for us to be a part of the ministry of academic study, ministry skill development, and spiritual growth in the lives of church leaders in the Philippines and throughout Asia.
Healing
Rick:
Two of the most formative experiences for me as a child were my brother’s death from leukemia when I was ten and my Mom’s healing from colon cancer when I was sixteen. She was healed after the elders of our church anointed her with oil and prayed. When I spoke at churches in Manila, I usually talked about healing. We looked at the Bible to answer questions like, “Is there healing in the atonement of Christ? What is the connection between sickness and sin? Why are some not healed? What about physicians and medicine? Are there people with special gifts of healing? How can we pray for healing today?”
Sickness is always a challenge in any context, but there was an added burden in the Philippines because few people had medical insurance. Usually, when we were praying for the sick, we were also praying for the financial crisis the family was experiencing because of loss of income and medical costs. Therefore, when we prayed for the sick, we began by asking them to tell us about their physical challenges and let us know about their spiritual, relational, financial, and emotional needs.
I will never forget the Sunday I spoke at a church of about 75 people who had never heard about the idea of praying for the sick. About 35 people stayed after the service, and Patti and I prayed for more than two hours, asking God to show His supernatural power in each person coming to Him in faith.
Over the years, we prayed for hundreds of people and saw God heal a variety of sicknesses. One woman who worked at the seminary asked us to pray for her daughter, who had epilepsy. I had never seen someone healed from epilepsy, but we prayed with this mother who came to God in faith. Over the next month, God prompted me to ask this woman how her daughter was doing, but my lack of faith kept me from asking because I feared how I would respond if her symptoms had not changed. When I finally got up the courage to do the right thing, she told me her daughter had significantly improved. Before we prayed, she had dozens of seizures each day, making it impossible to have anything like a normal life. Since praying for her, the daughter was now having one or two seizures each week. Her life had become livable again, and her mother was filled with great joy. I was thankful to God for His great work in this pre-teen’s life, but I may never know why God did not heal her completely.
In 2001 I had a retinal detachment repaired by surgery. Three months later, I had another retinal detachment in the same eye and could no longer see with my left eye. I returned to Canada for a second surgery, and about a month later, I started to see in my left eye. I cannot tell you what joy this brought to me. Out of my experience, I planned a course called “Biblical Theology of Suffering.” The first syllabus for the course consisted of six questions and nothing else. We began studying the Scripture carefully to see what God tells us about retributive suffering, the suffering of the righteous, Satan and suffering, God’s role in suffering, meaningless suffering, sickness, natural disasters, prayers of lament, Jesus as the answer to human suffering, suffering for Christ, and Christian responses to suffering. One of the greatest joys of my life has been to work with students trying to understand what God has revealed about suffering.
Day of Prayer
While we were living in the Philippines, the House of Representatives moved to impeach the country’s president, Joseph Estrada. He was accused of illegally receiving gambling money equivalent to ten million US dollars and hiding this money in secret bank accounts, among other irregularities. He was accused by a friend of his, a governor named Luis “Chavit” Singson.
People throughout the country followed the case closely through radio and television news. On Tuesday evening, January 16, 2001, the impeachment court voted not to open an envelope alleged to contain incriminating evidence against the president. The basis for this decision was that this evidence had not been included with the impeachment complaint. The vote was 11-10 in favour of keeping the envelope closed. The 11 senators who voted not to open the envelope were friends of the president. When this happened, the country exploded politically; people started to gather in public protest of what was going on in the Senate.
Rick:
Months previous to these events, we had scheduled a day of prayer at the Alliance Biblical Seminary for Friday, January 19. On that Friday morning, one of my students, Rico Villaneuva, led us through a discussion of the lament Psalms. Then he led us in a public and communal prayer of lament.
What followed cannot be adequately described with words. You know some things for which words are inadequate, like trying to describe beautiful scenery or an aroma or taste. This was a similar experience. There were about 70 people gathered together, all praying at the same time. They were declaring their lament to God because of the injustice of what was going on politically. People were standing up and pouring out all of their emotions to God. They were frustrated. They were angry. They desperately wanted God to move in their country. They spoke at the top of their voices, all at once, begging God to intervene in the political process. They talked to God about all of their country’s problems: poverty, social injustice, and the spiritual vacuum because people were not obeying God and worshiping Him. They were asking for God’s dramatic intervention with all of these problems. This was, by far, the loudest prayer meeting I have ever been a part of. It was like being at a football game or hockey game when a team wins in overtime. The intensity of these loud prayers went on for about forty minutes. After this lengthy prayer time, things started to die down, I think out of pure exhaustion. We finished our day with other prayers and then songs of worship. We ended our fast with a bowl of chicken soup.
Later on Friday, the Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Angelo Reyes withdrew his support for the president and endorsed the vice president. The next day, a Saturday, Estrada resigned as president, and the chief justice swore in Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as the new president of the Philippines.
I honestly do not know what effect those prayers of lament had on the events of that weekend. I do not know how that could be measured. But I know tens of thousands of people throughout the country and worldwide prayed about these frustrating events. God, in His mercy, listened to the prayers of His people and ended the injustice perpetrated in the Philippine senate.
Teaching English
Patti:
When we arrived in Manila, I was frustrated there was no clear path for me to begin ministry. I struggled with this, not knowing God had great plans I could not possibly have imagined.
In 1997, I started teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) classes to help foreign students at the seminary improve their English listening, writing, reading, and speaking skills. I taught twice-weekly English classes and provided individual tutoring sessions each week for those who requested extra assistance.
In my first year of teaching, I had students from Myanmar, South Korea, Nepal, Pakistan, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia. Most of these students were married men who had left their spouses and children in their homelands. Many were discouraged. They faced both financial and family pressure to learn English quickly so they could finish their seminary studies and return to their home churches.
One semester I felt frustrated by the students, primarily men from Myanmar, who, rather than taking notes, always sat in class with their arms crossed resting on their chests. I considered this a negative gesture and wondered if perhaps this was some kind of protest because they preferred a male teacher. Eventually, I gathered the courage to ask one of those in a tutoring session about this arms-crossed gesture. I was pleasantly surprised when the pastor from Myanmar told me this was a sign of respect for their teacher. It was the body position they had been taught since childhood to adopt while in a classroom.
One of the highlights of this teaching ministry was getting to know our students. We regularly invited the class to our home for a meal. Good conversation and great food created many fond memories. For example, one December, I invited the English class to our house for a Canadian Christmas dinner, traditional except for the rice. There was one supper where we served two desserts, angel food cake and devil’s food cake. For some reason, none of the students ate any of the devil’s food cake―maybe they thought it was some kind of test.
As we got to know our students, they would open up and tell us about their life challenges. One very thin student told us he was only eating one meal a day to have enough money to buy his textbooks. Another student was filled with discouragement because his church of five thousand in Myanmar was expecting his quick return to lead the church. He had been struggling with English and was still a long way from finishing his studies.
Our students from Myanmar were required by their government to pay a regular tax even though they had no income. One of our students had borrowed money in his birth country before coming to Manila to study. He was being charged an interest rate of ten percent compounded monthly on his loan. Those supporting the seminary financially helped us to address most of these very challenging situations.
While gaining skill and confidence as an English teacher, I realized there were still so many ways to develop as a teacher. In the providence of God, we were living less than a kilometre from one of the premier universities in the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University. I enrolled in a Master of Arts program in Teaching English Language and Literature. The university courses increased my skill and understanding in teaching ESL classes at the seminary and, in the sovereignty of God, prepared me for our next ministry in Canada.
Calgary
Patti:
While attending the Western Canadian District (WCD) prayer retreat in the fall of 2003, District Superintendent Ken Driedger challenged each of us to think about how we could creatively share the love of Jesus with those in our neighbourhoods. I felt like God was telling me if we ever moved back to Canada, I would want to work in a church offering ESL classes as part of a ministry helping immigrants move along a pathway to Jesus.
Meanwhile, Pastor Ian Trigg was shopping at a grocery store, and God led him to think about the fact that those in the store did not look the same as those in the church building next door. This eventually led to me becoming pastor of Intercultural Ministries at Foothills Alliance.
We returned to Canada from the Philippines in 2005, and I started working at Foothills Alliance in 2006. I began this ministry with over one hundred interviews of people in the church and the neighbourhood, trying to determine what kinds of ministries would be of most significant interest to immigrants. I discovered that, though immigrants are, of course, looking for help finding a job or learning English, their biggest desire is social connection. So we started asking the question, “What can we do to create a situation in which immigrants in our community could have a conversation with a loving Christian?”
At our first ESL class, we had five volunteers and two students. Every week we wondered if anyone would show up. Over the years, we have developed a ministry model for new Canadians made up of three stages.
- Stage 1 has little or no spiritual content. Instead, it is all about showing kindness and friendship while helping new Canadians adapt to life in Canada. It includes a focus on ESL, employment, citizenship, public speaking, “Life in Canada” (finances, parenting, health care, and education), and immigrant transitions, normalizing the emotional challenge of moving to a new country and culture. Activities include farm trips, camping, curling, hiking, Easter egg hunts, banquets, and potlucks. We offered a regular gym night with ping-pong and badminton for six years before adding basketball, volleyball, games and crafts, movie nights, and a scrapbooking club.
- Stage 2 is a pre-evangelistic class for the spiritually curious. This is our Bridges class because it bridges the gap between settlement classes and events (stage 1) and spiritual classes (stage 3). Those who attend the Bridges class are not usually interested in becoming followers of Jesus (at least not yet), but they are curious about Christianity or about Jesus. Many come from countries where they were not allowed to ask questions about Jesus or the Church. People from various faiths (including atheists) learn about the life and teaching of Jesus while studying the English language and Canadian culture. Immigrants learn about the Gospel gently and respectfully.
- Stage 3 of this pathway to Jesus is the spiritual classes, like ESL Bible studies and Alpha. The students who attend these classes are usually close to faith or have already decided to follow Jesus. They ask heartfelt and profound questions, and we pray together for our physical and spiritual needs.
On average, we have found, for every ten who attend settlement classes (stage 1), four will attend Bridges (stage 2), and two will participate in spiritual classes (stage 3). We are overwhelmed with thanksgiving to God for how He has used His people volunteering in this ministry to reap a spiritual harvest. At our church, when everything is functioning, about 250 attend settlement classes each week, 80-90 attend the ESL Bridges class, and 40-50 come to one of the spiritual classes. Our goal is to increase the variety of settlement programming we offer so that a broader range of immigrants will enter onto a pathway to Jesus. The more students attending settlement classes (stage 1), the more will come to Bridges (stage 2), and the more who will attend Alpha and ESL Bible studies (stage 3).
While writing this chapter, I met with a former student who has become a follower of Jesus and wants to get baptized. We love seeing God at work in the lives of those new to Canada.
Rick:
With the growing nationalization of the faculty at the Alliance Biblical Seminary in Quezon City, the Alliance mission chose to close the field in 2005. So we transitioned to Calgary, and I became the Associate Professor of Old Testament at Canadian Theological Seminary. I thoroughly enjoyed the ministry of teaching, preparing the people of God for the various ministries to which God was calling them.
In 2014 we started Love New Canadians to help churches develop their own pathway to Jesus for immigrants. We encourage churches to experiment with the three-stage ministry model we have used at Foothills Alliance Church since 2006. Love New Canadians serves churches by “holding hands” while we walk together through details such as advertising, choosing classes and events, selecting curriculum, finding and training volunteers, and troubleshooting when problems arise. As of June 2021, we have worked with 343 churches and ministries from twenty-five denominations in eight provinces of Canada and fifteen countries around the world. We focus on coaching, curriculum, and seminars for volunteer training. We like to help others avoid some of the myriads of mistakes we have made over the years. Our seminars focus on
- understanding immigration in a local community,
- the needs of new Canadians,
- each church’s role in helping new Canadians,
- common challenges in this venture,
- creating values to guide this ministry,
- explaining the three-stage pathway,
- the ideal intercultural church,
- beginning to learn how to teach ESL classes,
- and the equipping of church volunteers for ministry with immigrants.
The twenty books of the curriculum we have written are designed for churches to use at each part of the three-stage pathway: 1) settlement, 2) transition, and 3) spiritual focus.
We thank God for using us to help churches throughout Canada as they each develop their own pathway to Jesus for immigrants.
This is an excerpt from the book, On Mission Volume 3. Download your free copy today.