Asia

This enormous region includes the nation that (outside of the U.S) has the most members - the Philippines. Eugene Guzon is the National Director of Grace Communion International in the Philippines and Missions Director for northern Asia and Micronesia. He coordinates the day-to-day administration and missions and outreach activities in the country. The Philippine church is keen on church planting, missions training and deployment. In 2007, the denomination held its first World Missions Congress, attended mostly by Filipino tentmaking missionaries working in other countries, church pastors, and church members who are already involved or waiting to be a part of missions work. The congress also had delegates from India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Pakistan, Nepal, and the United States.

Mr. Guzon is the Missions Director for the Philippines, East Asia and the United Arab Emirates. He is responsible for promoting the missions work of the denomination in the region. This includes missions awareness programs, identification and development and mentoring of indigenous leaders, pastoral supervision, ensuring biblically sound teaching, and networking for the gospel.

The Philippines

The Philippines one of the countries with the most members of the Worldwide Church of God. The church in this nation began as a Bible study group in 1962. From that small group, God led it to grow to more than 75 churches and about 45 outreach Bible study areas scattered in major towns and cities, with about 7500 members nationwide.

In the past few years, we have seen significant growth in terms of churches and membership through holistic evangelism, missions and church-planting training, and leadership development and the role of prayer in the personal and community life of the brethren. Every year, our churches reach thousands through youth ministries, summer camps, medical missions, evangelism training, crusades, medical missions, relief and rehabilitation work during natural disasters. By the grace of God and the commitment of our brethren, God adds several hundred members per year in the church in the Philippines.

Most of the Philippine churches are led by bi-vocational pastoral teams. Many of the members have also undertaken missions training, which has led to more people who have participated in short-term missions trips abroad or have chosen to become tentmaker missionaries. Currently, more than a dozen have been deployed as tentmaker missionaries in Asia and Europe. Some have spent a few months on short-term mission trips in various countries in the region. There are dozens who are trained and willing to be deployed as tentmakers but are still raising funds for their deployment or applying for jobs in host countries.

China

China was the world’s largest economy for most of recorded history in the past two millennia until about 1800. Because of the collapse of the Quing Dynasty and the resulting chaos, China fast declined in the world scene. It was during that time that the United States rose to become the world’s largest economic power. In recent years, because of its competitive labor force, a strong economy, and a more open-door economic policy, China is fast becoming an economic force to reckon with.

The "official" orthodox faith system held by most dynasties in China until the overthrow of the last dynasty is panentheism, which is centered on the worship of Heaven as an omnipotent force. Taoism, which is centered on "the way," is also considered a folk religion in China. Buddhism was introduced in China during the Han dynasty and it is the largest organized faith in China; China has more Buddhists than any other nation in the world, followed by Japan. Many Chinese identify themselves as Buddhist and Taoist at the same time.

In recent years, because of its greater openness to outside influences, Christianity is making good headway as we can hear of many new believers. The challenge is how to train and support pastors and leaders to disciple them.

United Arab Emirates

About 96 percent of the population is Muslim (80% Sunni, 16% Shiite), with the remaining 4% composed of Christian, Hindus and other faiths. The country is relatively restrictive, although not as much as Saudi Arabia and others in the Middle East. Christian churches still find a way to worship during Fridays (the regular holiday) in private villas, restaurants and hotels. Some gather in small groups in Christian households for Bible studies. For the past 18 or so years, we have had a thriving church in the Dubai. The congregation had a major setback in the mid 1990s, but the work in Dubai has begun to grow in the past few years. It is a vibrant community of about 40 people in attendance composed of about 35 baptized members and their families. Almost all the members are Filipinos who are in Dubai as overseas contract workers. We previously had expatriates from Europe, but these have returned to their home countries.

Japan

Over the years, we have had scattered members living in Japan for job contracts and business. But their tenure in Japan usually lasts for only a year or a few years. We now have a small church composed mostly of Filipinos. They are ministered to by a Japanese bi-vocational pastor. Because of its homogenous culture and language, strong traditions and relatively and costly financial requirements for setting up churches, Japan poses a real challenge for missions.

Guam and Micronesia

The work in these islands consists mainly of giving pastoral care to scattered members. Eugene Guzon recently visited to meet with members and leaders of other churches for possible networking opportunities. The trips this year have been more of listening to the needs, challenges and opportunities, networking with some religious leaders, and meeting national labor officials who are involved in the deployment of Filipino workers to these territories. There are also initiatives of partnership for leadership training among pastors in the area since they have expressed desire for more training in preaching and other leadership issues. Mission opportunities in this area will mainly be the promotion of tentmaking ministries, leadership training, and pastoral care visits.

Rod Matthews helps coordinate activities in nations from Afghanistan in the west to French Polynesia in the east; Nepal in the north to New Zealand in the south (although the church is not involved in activities in every country in this region). He is responsible to the denominational president for overall supervision of the activities of the church in the region, except for Australia.

Pakistan, Nepal & India

There is ongoing communication with a number of church groups who have requested contact, assistance, and association with us. The process is slow and incremental as we get to know one another in order to determine their needs and what motivates their requests, and match that with what we can offer within our limited resources. In Nepal we have developed a working relationship with a small ministry and have jointly established a medical clinic for the poorest people, especially those working in the brickyards on the outskirts of Kathmandu. In Pakistan we are assisting an established ministry develop biblical and vocational training facilities and meet the social needs of minorities.

India

In Bangalore, we publish a free national magazine titled Living Light, which is designed to appeal to people of Hindu origins. In Hyderabad we have a counseling center, support orphanages for homeless boys and girls, as well as youth development camps.

Sri Lanka

We operate the Worldwide Educational Institute teaching English and business skills to high school graduates. This enables them to gain better employment or be equipped to enter tertiary educational courses. We are also expanding our congregations and pastoral support in the poor rural areas in the mountainous central region.

Bangladesh

The church’s presence in Bangladesh is through an energetic and active ministry offering humanitarian, vocational, educational and Christian outreach initiatives that works from a base in a village in southern Bangladesh under the name of the Bengali Evangelical Association. The facility includes a classroom and assembly building funded by the Canadian churches, and a three-story concrete building that was recently completed as a disaster refuge in the event of cyclones, storms, tsunamis and floods. Vocational, self-employment and agriculture projects strive to lift the people from poverty while sharing the good news of God’s message for them.

Malaysia

 We publish a free magazine that targets the non-Muslim population in Malaysia and Singapore.

Thailand

We provide pastoral and humanitarian support for a congregation of Karen refugees in an internment camp in the western region bordering Myanmar. We offer personal support for a Christian Thai couple in their English language schools in Chiang Mai, where God’s values are being taught and churches have been formed.

Myanmar

We have two congregations in very remote areas where we provide humanitarian and pastoral support.

More About Asia

Outside of Australia, the church directly employs only five people —two in India, one in Malaysia and two in New Zealand. Activities in other countries are guided by either local partly funded or non-salaried pastors or congregational leaders, and sometimes include designated supervisory and support pastors from other countries who make annual or bi-annual visits. Therefore, there is much individual communication between the Missions Director and the leaders in other countries involving the coordination of resources and events, in addition to the need for routine pastoral supervision and care. Training and pastoral education and development is important, but especially for those who have very limited contact with colleagues during the year. Therefore, the provision and organizing of conferences, seminars and training weekends and personal visits are part of the annual calendar.