 |
BWA
Annual Gathering and BICTE held at
Prague, July 21 - 29, 2008 |
As part of my responsibility as the regional
secretary of the BWA, I have to attend
and to report to the Baptist World Alliance
Annual Gathering. This year it held in
the beautiful city of Prague of the Czech
Republic. Prague has the distinction of
being spared all the devastating bombings
of the second world war and so many historic
buildings dating back as much as 600 -
800 years are still standing. It is also
the home of the Baptist Union of the Czech
Republic as well as the European Baptist
Federation (EBF). I was joined by our
APBF President Dr. Chu Wood Ping in reporting
on APBF ministries. Besides attending
the BWA meetings I had the privilege of
preaching in 2 Czech Baptist churches
and also in a Russian Baptist church.
One of the highlights of
the BWA gathering was the awarding of
the BWA Denton and Janice Lotz Human Rights
Award to Mr. Denis Dutta of Bangladesh
Baptist Fellowship of Churches. Mr. Dutta
has been a champion advocate for human
and religious freedom in Bangladesh. A
former General Secretary of his convention
also.
The delegates from the Asia
Pacific also had time to get together.
(pic below left)
After the BWA meetings I
stayed back to attend the Baptist International
Conference on Theological Education (BICTE)
which were hosted by the International
Baptist Theological Seminary, is a project
of the EBF. Dr. Lilian Lim, APBF Chair
for Theological Education also attended
and presented a paper as well (above right).
 |
Cyclone
Nargis, APBF and BWA delegation Yangon
Visit, August 23 - 26, 2008 |
The visit was necessitated
by the need to sit down with the Myanmar
Baptist Convention leadership, to finalise
a plan of action for the relief and rehabilitation
of the victims to be implemented by the
MBC with the partnership of the international
Baptist family. Paul Montacute, Director
of the BWAid, Rev. Kabi Gangmei, Director
of APBAid. Bela Szelaski of HBAid and
yours truly went in. We had very fruitful
discussions and arrived at a compromise
and acceptable agreement/ MOU. We also
took time to visit some affected churches
and seminaries including the Myanmar Institute
of Theology (MIT). It was also a good
opportunity to meet the leadership of
the Kayin Self Supporting Baptist group
who are seeking affiliation with the APBF.
They have a very impressive ministry and
also actively involved in Nargis Relief.
 |
All
India Youth Leadership Conference,
Kottayam, Kerala, South INDIA. September
2 - 4, 2008. |
The conference organised
and hosted by the India Baptist Theological
Seminary in lovely green Kottayam. About
200 youth leaders and seminary students
came together for the conference. The
theme was" Overcoming your Goliaths!"
a very appropriate one for today's world
and especially the youth and youth leaders
gathered.
 |
First
National Mission Congress of the Baptists
in the Philippines. Baguio, Philippines.
September 10 -12, 2008
|
In conjunction with the
golden Jubilee celebration of the Luzon
Convention of Southern Baptist Churches,
for the first time in the history of the
southern Baptist churches, a national
mission conference was held at the beautiful
campus of the Philippine Baptist Theological
Seminary, in the mountain city of Baguio.
The unique thing about the conference
was that it was jointly sponsored by two
other Baptist conventions - the Convention
in Visayas and Mindanao of Southern Baptist
Churches and the Visayan Convention of
Southern Baptist Churches. The Women's
Missionary Union also lended their support.
Altogether, 200 plus delegates attended.
Our President Rev. Chu Wood Ping and Rev.
Dave Kwok, APBF Committee member were
the featured devotional speakers. I had
the honour of bringing greetings and also
installing the newly formed officers of
the One Sending Body. APBF Vice President
Precy Caronongan played a pivotal role
in the organisation with her husband Rev.
Lino who is acting Director of Foreign
Missions.
What impressed me was the
zeal for mission and how they intend to
do it with purely indigenous resources.
It is said that over 8 million Filipinos
work overseas. Many of these (over 700,000)
are born-again believers, and the idea
is to challenge and equip these to go
as tent-maker missionaries.
 |
APBF
Pastoral visit to Philippines Baptists |
After Baguio I took off
on September 12 a journey to visit all
the APBF member bodies in the Philippines.
1. Davao: Davao is the headquarter
of two of our member bodies - the General
Baptist Churches of the Philippines. The
current President is Rev. Jeremias Muring.
With 252 Baptist churches and 7,667 baptised
members. While in Davao I could also visit
the headquarters of the Convention in
Visayas & Mindanao of Southern Baptist
Churches and even the Mindanao Tribal
Convention (which is not affiliated to
APBF). I am grateful for the kind hospitality
of brother Jerry Muring who also took
me to visit the famed Asian Rural Life
Center. I also stayed at their guest house
which is quite basic. I was grateful for
the fan which helped me keep the heat
and the mosquitoes away to some extent.
2. Cebu: On the 16th September
I landed in Cebu City. I realised that
this was indeed a beautiful city with
hills and the ocean around. Pastor Ildefonso
Alfafara President of the Baptist Conference
of the Philippines, received me and took
care of me for the duration of my stay
there. We visited their office, met the
President of the seminary. We also took
time to visit some local churches - including
the one where Pastor Alfafara pastors.
I was impressed to see the school ministry
and also the new plot of land measuring
6000 sq. meters which they have purchased
to accommodate the growing church of Mandaue
City Baptist Church with over 1000 members.
There is an air of dynamism and confidence
to do mission. An effort is on to reach
the yuppies and intelligentsia of the
city.
The Baptist conference has
354 churches with 26,906 baptised members.
3. Iloilo City - On the
17th November at 8 AM flew into Iloilo,
the headquarters of the Convention of
Philippine Baptist Churches Inc. which
is the oldest and the largest of the Baptist
groups in the Philippines. It has 900
local churches with 250,000 members. They
have celebrated their Centenary of the
gospel last year 2007. It is the only
Baptist convention which has a University
and a high grade hospital. I had the privilege
to visit all of these. I am very impressed
with the good leadership that the convention
has in its President Rev. Rudy Bernal
and the General Secretary Rev. Job Santiago.
I am grateful to other leaders Feraz Legita,
Director of their Development department
for her help in seeing me around - as
my chauffer. To see the cheery Tita Grace,
Director of Christian Education - full
of grace indeed! It was also a pleasure
to meet some old friends such as Dr. Nathaniel
Fabula and Dr. Joniel Gico who are both
Vice Presidents of the Baptist University,
holding important administrative responsibilities.
It was also a time to catch up with many
old friends and acquaintances. I could
visit Rev. Edwin Lopez and his wife Pat
over dinner hosted by them. Despite the
stroke he had suffered some years back
Rev. Lopez has recovered significantly
and is now able to move around. It was
good to learn of his involvement in some
church planting work and being a consultant
to the Medical establishment of his daughter
as well.
In the course of our discussions
the CPBC officials expressed their gratitude
to APBF and the Baptist family of the
region and the world, for their concern
and help during the time Typhoon Frank.
I enjoyed the wonderful hospitality and
friendship of the Illongo Baptists (people
of Iloilo region). I came away from Iloilo
with warm feelings and hoping to go back
again soon. It was a pleasure also to
have the APBYF President Jesse Ray Porras
also play part host and part APBF official
while I was there. He is also a native
of Iloilo. 4. Manila - On the 18th September
morning, I took off for Manila - which
was to be my last stop before departing
from the Philippines. I was received by
Precy and Lino, the indefatible ministry
couple. We took some time to visit Lino's
church, The Good Samaritan Baptist Church,
and also the new Luzon Convention headquarters.
From there we took time
to visit the Conservative Baptist headquarters
which are situated in the Green Hills
Church complex in downtown Makati. We
met with some of the key leaders to introduce
to them what APBF was and in a way extended
invitation to them to become part of the
APBF family. I also had the pleasure of
meeting and catching up with the creative
Roger Limpoco, who chaired the 6th AP
Baptist Congress in 2002 in Manila.