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Purpose fulfilled as God uses our café crew to minister to people in practical ways.
“Why do you say that?” Claire asked.
Varsha replied, “We’ve been studying in the Bible that when people are in trouble, when they are hungry, or need help—each time people have problems, Jesus helps them. You are like that to us, Big Sister. I know now that the BCCL family are followers of Jesus! You follow Jesus’ example!” Praise be to God! This was music to our ears since one of our prayers is that our beloved Indian friends would remember that Jesus followers loved and accepted them and shared their faith while they were in the Philippines, and let Jesus continue to do His work in their hearts and lives even after their time with us.
Indeed, God is our ever-present help in trouble. We’ve had the joy of being Jesus’ hands and feet, even more these last few months.
A Series of Helps
Help with Immigration. Ginna, one of our staff, risked her life helping Nelly (featured in a previous newsletter) to get right with the law regarding her visa. The immigration officer thought Ginna was hiding Nelly, but she bravely replied that she wasn’t and even brought her forward to help her. When asked why she was helping Nelly, she said that she is a follower of Jesus and it was but natural to help her out. The immigration officer was amazed and even mentioned that a pastor (incidentally, a BCCL student) was helping another Indian student with visa issues as well.
Help in Prayer. Our missional coffee shop is getting known locally as owned by Christians and operates on Christian values. Just a few days ago, a distraught customer confirmed if the campus cafe was indeed a “Christian café.” Then she asked for prayers as she was facing a big problem. One of our café crew immediately prayed for her.
Help with Breastmilk. Zarah, our café’s manager, just gave birth to a healthy baby girl! But lately, she has had to give breastmilk to two babies in dire need of it. One was an infant who was allergic to milk formula and was getting malnourished since the mom didn’t have breastmilk anymore. Another was a premature baby in the NICU who just lost her mom in childbirth.
Help at the Hospital. Two of our Indian friends got so sick they had to be brought to the hospital. Some of our staff took one of them for immediate medical attention due to dengue. When the other Indian student saw our staff (their BCCL family), she suddenly burst into tears. The Filipino medical personnel were neglecting them partly due to communication barrier, and sadly due to discrimination as well. When our staff came, the doctors and nurses suddenly paid attention to our sick Indian friends as they called them out for the unfair treatment.
Joyful Mentoring Time with Gen Zeds
Tim and I had a wonderful time mentoring Gen Zed believers from different nations during the Arise Asia mission event for youth held July 27-31 in Manila. We were blown away by their passion to share their faith in Jesus to their peers, as well as their desire to live their lives at the center of God’s will. We were energized by their willingness to learn from our faith journey, experiences, and advice. It was a great privilege to help guide them on their next steps in their faith and mission journey. We mentored (together and some individually) almost 20 youth from different parts of Asia (some Filipinos, too), and we will keep connected, even beyond the event, for as long as they need mentoring from us.
Mentoring Charles from Bangladesh.
Arise Asia, launched in 2023, is focused on inspiring and equipping young adults across Asia and beyond to take the Gospel to regions where it has never been heard. The organization emphasizes church planting, discipleship, and long-term mission engagement, aiming to raise a generation committed to global evangelism (ariseasia.org). At the Arise Asia we attended, there were over 4,700 participants, 64 countries represented, and more than 1,300 foreign participants. Of these participants, 68 committed to a one-year mission internship and 337 (from 41 countries) committed to long-term cross-cultural missions among the unreached.
Quite an experience for the Bicol youth.
We praise and thank God that Arise Asia sponsored five Gen Zeds from Bicol to attend this five-day event. We went with them: three of our Gen Zed staff, the daughter of a BCCL alumna, and a youth leader from one of our staff’s church. We hope to mobilize the next generation for cross-cultural ministries in Bicol and bring this event to our province. BCCL is partnering with the missions organizers to do Arise Albay in February 2027. Please pray with us about this missions event.
Mobilization After Mobilization
Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF), our long-time ministry partner, conducted a training on mission mobilization on the first week of July. As John Piper said, “Mission exists because the worship of God does not exist.” There are now around 3.6 billion people in the world who do not worship our One True God (joshuaproject.net), and sadly, a lot of churches, especially in the Philippines, are not involved in missions, with some even refusing. Thus, OMF was helping us missional believers get a handle on how to motivate churches around us to get involved in cross-cultural ministries.
By God’s providence, the owner of a restaurant that Claire and Sharla (her Christian artist friend) met a few months ago while doing a sketch walk opened their restaurant for a night of art hangout. We invited local artists to this cozy time of art and conversations at this couple’s 1917-built house that they turned into a restaurant. It became an example of an organic way to reach out to the community and what it would look like on the mission field to those who had just finished the mission mobilization training. By God’s grace, we have a budding relationship with the restaurant owners, who want to know more about our faith and how to engage more with the community.
Art Hangout at Balay Cena Una (Ancient House).
Addition to the BCCL Family!
As the BCCL ministries keep expanding, we’ve been needing more help to accomplish God’s work. Praise God for new, young staff He has brought in our midst. There’s Hans (21), logistics staff; Vicky (30), admin and tech staff; and Kyla (23), information staff. Then the cutest of all, and our resident joy, Riellah Nissiel, the one-month-old baby of our café managers Zarah and Allen. Their family lives at the campus with us, so when we’re tired or stressed, seeing the baby just cheers everyone up, as you know all babies do! It was a difficult pregnancy for Zarah. She had to go through an emergency C-section since there was almost no amniotic fluid left. There were a few close calls, but our God, who is our ever-present help in trouble, pulled them through the tough situations!