Halfway home, that’s where I am, heading back from Manila, in the Philippines—but the amazing scenes are still dancing in me! And I do mean dancing. Line dancing!
The beginning looked bleak. The American church that wanted to come to the Philippines with us seemed to be losing, rather than gaining, participants. For a time, it was considered if this missionary trip should be called off completely.
But I knew—from many past experiences—that if we could just get started, our multi-day “country music festival” could become a powerful evangelism strategy! I’ve seen this bubbly, joyful kind of event, make a powerful impact even in stoic cultures like northern and eastern Europe. I knew it would make a big splash in the Philippines!
So I told our team in the Philippines—who are committed to planting 150 churches—“Even if I have to come alone, we will teach line dancing to our church planters, and we will do the country music Gospel festival—so that church planters can replicate it in their 150 barangays across the country!”
But we also needed tools—especially our most popular Gospel “tract” . . . which is not a tract at all, but a rubber bracelet featuring the “colors of God’s love”: gold, black, red, white, green, and back to gold.
- God had a golden plan to live throughout eternity with beings who could relate to Him, mind to mind, heart to heart, and will to will.
- We saw we had a choice, and turned toward sin—black.
- Then God, while we were yet sinners, sent His Son to die for us, shedding His blood on the cross—red.
- Though our sins were red as scarlet, and our heart was black with sin, the blood cleansed our hearts, and our sins became white as snow.
- Growth into the likeness of Christ that is to take place during the rest of our life here before meeting with the Lord in heaven—green.
- Now God wants us to grow in the Son and to be made ready for a glorious life in eternity with Him. His golden plan wins! We will walk on streets of gold!
Problems seemed to plague us. We had no sound equipment. We would also need a sound technician. And the group scheduled to join us from California was down to 8 people. But one of the pastors involved scrambled to enlist a few others, so at the last minute we had a nucleus who could kick off the line dancing as “real Americans”—that’s what people in other countries always call us when we put on the cowboy hats and start line dancing!
By the time we arrived, 14 Filipino church planters had agreed to put on cowboy hats along with us and learn to line dance—all as a means of attracting people and sharing the Gospel.
Attempting to solve our sound system problem, a church planter had borrowed a system, but it was old and weak. So we located a shopping mall where we hoped to find a system. The bigger discovery was that God, foreseeing our need, had sent a technician among the folks from the California church! Technician Titus became a key consultant in our purchases and in our operation of the sound system for the festival.
The party was ON!
When it comes to festive celebrations, Filipinos don’t need much coaxing. They hear loud music in the local pavilion, and they flock to see what fun might be there for them! On this day, they were delighted to find not only Americans in cowboy hats but also Filipinos in cowboy hats blended with the team. It was an unspoken signal to every person: This event, whatever it is, is wide open for you.
Someone even procured two small Asian horses to take team members around town each day announcing the festival. The people insisted that one member of our California team should be a rider. He’s such a big guy, I felt sorry for his horse. But his hair and beard are long, and in this culture, an actor plays the part of Jesus on traditional religious holidays. So the locals decided this fellow would be perfect for the job.
And yes, as he arrived in each neighborhood, people began calling out: “Jesus!” “Jesus!” “Jesus!” And people of all ages joyfully followed him to the pavilion.
The gathering at the pavilion was joyful from the start, because the local church-planting couple are typically there every week, sharing the Good News person-to-person. They’re familiar, and they can interact easily with their neighbors. But their neighbors had never seen anything like this!
At the end of every dance routine, we included the “chicken dance.” It’s silly! Kids and parents and even grandparents could all join in. Everyone gleefully enjoyed it.
Of course, everyone on our team was fairly new at line dancing, so yes, on that first day, it was a little disorganized! But this simply seemed to serve as a welcome invitation for the crowd to join in and learn together. By the second day, our group had dramatically improved!
Each day of the festival, after everyone had enjoyed the dancing, the Gospel bracelet was handed out, and the explanation of the colors became a simple, straightforward presentation of the Gospel. The crowds were hushed, deeply attentive, and the invitation was met every day with enormous participation, never animosity or cynicism. Everyone treasured their bracelet and the meaningful message it conveyed.
And the festival could not end until the traditional merienda, a small in-between meal, was enjoyed by everyone in the audience. The most beloved merienda treat was champurrado, a sweet chocolate sort of rice porridge.
- So what happened? How did it all turn out? From problems and crises to divine provision, from “Jesus” on a horse to line dancing and rubber bracelets . . . what did God do with it all?
835 people came to faith in Christ!
But this was only the beginning.
The church planters who had gathered for this festival now held the great “country music festival” secret—a strategy they could easily replicate—along with the sharing of Gospel bracelets in their own regions.
They were overjoyed!
I was still at the airport, soon to head home, when I heard about one of our church planters who had already reached out to some friends with the message of the bracelet—and all eleven came to faith.
By the time you read these words, many others will be in their homes and neighborhoods sharing the colors—and the life-changing truth. I was sure that in the first week alone, we would cross the 1,000-conversion mark! Now, before the sending of this letter the count is approaching 2,000!
There is no question that sharing this creative high-energy strategy will set off an unprecedented wave of evangelism across the Philippines. This approach is so simple and so easy to imitate, we know that many other groups will reproduce the effort and multiply its impact and its success.
Of course, there are still challenges. For example:
- 150 church-planting operations can’t share a single sound system. Romans 10:14 asks, “How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?”—but to this we might add: “How will they hear the preacher without a sound system?”
- Transportation will be a severely limiting factor. Our lead church planter, for example, has a motorcycle, so he can bring his wife along to help him. But their teenage son and daughter won’t fit! To buy a car, a van, or a pickup truck is not feasible.
Their solution was to add a sidecar to the motorcycle! Sidecars are common in the Philippines, and creatively deployed. They can fit up to four people, and there’s a little rack to bring cargo along!
I praise God for you and others who pray, who give, who make big impacts a possibility. Look what you have allowed God to do through you! Just two years ago, these were our ministry impact statistics in the Philippines: Evangelism: ZERO. Church planting: ZERO. But friends like you laid down an infrastructure so that new churches could be established. You helped to find, to recruit, to hire, to train, and to deploy dedicated church planters.
RESULT: Today we have 155 church plants underway.
And the potential for more is unlimited. The Philippines is a 90% unreached country, with more than 90 million yet to hear the true Gospel.
Our Lord is calling us to these lost souls . . . the Lord who reconciled us and has entrusted us with the ministry of reconciliation. Most of the Philippines, and much of the rest of the world, lies waiting for us to deploy preachers so that they may hear.
In the Philippines, here’s the immediate need: Launch another 150 churches right away. Costly? Not really.
- It costs only $85 a month to plant a church in the Philippines.
- It costs just $250 per month to support a church planter planting not 1 but 3 churches
- To equip a church planter with a “strength-multiplying” motorcycle and sidecar: only $2,000.
- Add a sidecar to a motorcycle already owned: $1,500.
- A complete vehicle for hauling cargo can be as little as $10,000, no more than $15,000.
Any gift of Christ-like compassion you can offer today will make a powerful impact in the Philippines and beyond. Whatever you sense the Lord leading you to do, I invite you to do it today!
And please know that I thank you for your willingness to partner with us as you live each day for Him. Together, we are experiencing the richness, the fullness, of life in the Lord, bearing much fruit that will remain for all of eternity. When we get to heaven, we won’t be able to lead anyone to salvation in Christ. It will be over, it will be too late. But today, the fields are white unto harvest.
Please let me hear from you soon. Thank you for the privilege of serving alongside you in the harvest! God bless you!
Yours in the ministry of reconciliation,
Dr. Manny Fernandez
P.S. Every day, we see the power of your prayers and giving. You can give with confidence, knowing that we have been serving faithfully and effectively for decades. The Philippines is only the most recent place where God is moving by His Spirit through your generosity. Who knows what adventures He will lead us into next? Thank you again for forging ahead, full of faith, with me and with our brothers and sisters around the world!