Pray for the local church in the Philippines

In the lush landscapes of northern Philippines, something amazing is happening. People are stepping out of their comfort zones and into prayer and serving movements, showing the love of Jesus in their communities.

We caught up with the inspirational Pastor Jag to hear how his congregation are responding to the Great Commission and his vision for these communities.

The mission field

“I’ve been here for seven years. I came to the Casiguran mission without knowing anything. I came here alone and I prayed to God to give me a partner and He gave me one, then two and now we have three churches and still counting, for God’s mission.

“When we first came here, we did the mission work in the tribal areas as that was the place we were praying for. There is real need and there was no church at all. After ministering in the tribal area, we now have a church there and a pastor living there.”

Raising up servant leaders

“What we are doing is we are making disciples, as said in the Great Commission. It’s the basic thing to do, gathering of many people, training and equipping people, selecting people with a good heart and they are the ones who are touching the community because they come from here.

“First we pray to God for disciples we can train. There are people who God is giving us and we start training them and equipping them, eating what they eat and sleeping where they sleep. We are expanding and there are hundreds of people who are changing their lives because of this mission.”

How you can pray for our global partners

At Activate International, we’re passionate about the power of prayer! You’re invited to join our Global Prayer Community as we pray together as a community of spiritual warriors.

Below you’ll find a list of prayer requests. You can use them as part of daily prayers, pray with your small group, or even share them with your church. However you feel led, know that your prayers have power, and we appreciate you standing with us.

Here are some of the prayer requests from Pastor Jag:

Prayer for discipleship

• “Please pray for the people we are training right now. They are excited! There are eight people who are out there right now, doing church planting.
• Pray for those waiting for training. Pray for our provision to them. We are a mission minded church so we are preparing a place for them to expand, not only inside the church.
• Pray for how we can activate our missions.”

Prayer for the local church in Casiguran

• “Pray for how the churches here can work together as a unified body of Christ and how we can connect with each other.
• Pray for us to harmonize and to have a very good hand-in-hand ministry of the Lord. We believe that the greater the work, the better it is when there are many heads working together instead of being alone or being one.”

Prayer for Pastor Jag

• “Please pray for spiritual growth, to grow deeper in the word of God.
• Pray for our personal growth including my family, as that’s my first ministry. When I came here, I came here alone but now I have my two-year-old son and my wife. Because of them, they are supporting me to get bigger.”

Prayer for protection and multiplication

• “Please pray for the work we are doing right now including the Casiguran Youth Organisation.
• Pray for the ministry to the government because they really need it, the officials. Sometimes we can be shy to share the Gospel with them because they are high officials, untouchable. But the truth is they wanted to hear it but no one dared to step out and share it with them face to face. We need that so please pray for us to be bold.
• Pray for our student arm, for this group of leaders we are helping to mobilize for the Gospel.
• Pray for new mission sites as we have three more places to go this year and three more leaders who will rise up and go there.”

Looking to the future

So what keeps Pastor Jag going? In the face of so much still to do, we asked him what his hope for the future is.

He smiled. “My vision is impossible to happen as a visionary but my vision in Casiguran is to go to each and every family and share the Gospel with them. I need to saturate it before I say it’s okay.”

Edited by Roz Walsh, Activate International