It is estimated that about 7% of the 8 million Filipinos overseas contract workers (OCWs) are Evangelical Protestants (and perhaps another 15% of them are Evangelical or Renewed Catholics). They are part of the labor-export industry of the Philippines since the mid-1970s, which now consist mainly of medical professionals (like nurses, doctors, med-techs), various professionals (executives, engineers, teachers, etc.), skilled workers (entertainers, seamen, care-givers) and domestic helpers. Though this migration started mainly with men, it has already become 72% female by 2001.

Filipino Evangelical OCWs have been instrumental in the renewal of local churches in the West (incl.. North America, Europe and Australia-New Zealand), mainly due to their numbers and English proficiency. Yet more important is their role in the establishment of new Filipino congregations in Asia (esp. in the Middle East, Singapore, Hongkong, Japan and Korea), which remains to be the least evangelized continent of the world. Many of these grew with the guidance and supervision of mother churches in the Philippines, yet most of them started as outreach programs of the OCWs themselves or of local churches of their host countries. The most aggressive and creative of them are usually independent "charismatic" churches.

Many of these Filipino congregations started with effective ministries to reach out to their fellow OCWs. Those in the West who belong to denominational churches usually become active in the general ministries of the churches. But those in Asia gained more independence and learned how to share their faith with their neighbors and colleagues from other nationalities, including those from their host countries, which often entail great risks. Though some arrests and deportations may be expected, many seem to have been unnecessary, if only they received prior training in cross-cultural missions in restricted regions. This is now being remedied.

Below are five stories of such modern Filipino tentmakers in Asia. Because of the sensitive nature of their present status, names of persons and places are not revealed, and not all details can be given.

Middle East.

Mr. Y has worked for more than ten years already in this restrictive Muslim country. His contract allows him to have one month per year vacation to visit his family back home. For a time, he was able to bring his family to live with him, but the educational needs of the four children necessitated their separation.

He started as an ordinary member of one of the Filipino congregations there, but through the years he gradually rose to be the pastor of this multi-ethnic church, which is 85% Filipino and 15% of other nationalities.

They ranged from 80-100 members for a long while, until they learned about the church-planting movement (CPM) strategy recently. Since then, they were able to increase their membership to 200 members within one year!

Since he is in middle management, he has more freedom to move around the country, and give some supervision to the various Filipino Christian fellowships that have been formed. They are connected to the various ministries not just in the country, but in the entire region as well. They are also members of the Filipino International Network (FIN) that helps provide links, materials and conferences for churches and ministries in the Filipino diaspora.

Israel.

Israel gives visas for Filipinos to work as caregivers there.

Mrs. R is one of those who applied to work in a major city there. She and her husband have a thriving business in Manila, and he will continue to maintain it. But they share the same call to evangelize the people of Israel - both Jews and Arabs/Palestinians. Within a few weeks upon her arrival there, she was able to connect with one of the underground Filipino churches in her city.

Her underground church consists of 80% Filipinos and 20% expatriates, yet with a clear mission to reach out to the native residents there. They plan to disciple their converts in partnership with the underground local Messianic congregations for the Jews, and with the Arab churches for the Palestinians. She is also looking forward to working with the Chinese tentmakers (that is, construction workers) there from China's Back to Jerusalem (BTJ) Movement in the years to come!

Lebanon.

Lebanon is a less restrictive country, but evangelistic opportunities are very limited. Miss R went to work as a caregiver in a local Arab physician's home. She is a simple provincial girl who went there as a nominal Roman Catholic. Through her friendship with a Baptist Filipina, also a caregiver, she became an active member of the Filipino congregation of a multi-ethnic Protestant Church in Beirut. In fact, she has a Moroccan boyfriend who was converted there, and they have plans to marry in a couple of years.

She grew in her faith as she served in the local church. But the Filipinos found it a big problem to relate to the Lebanese pastor assigned to them; he seemed totally unaware of the cross-cultural issues, esp. those related to Filipinos who are used to a more cheerful, assertive and creative way of worship and fellowship. So some of them have started to form a Filipino church separate from the former church.

Miss R has come back recently to check on her aging mother. Meanwhile, she learned of the Philippine tentmaker movement, and received training on how to be a more effective witness for Christ. While waiting for her wedding day, she is now planning to find another overseas work and go to another less evangelized country to help in the evangelization of their peoples.

Malaysia.

Malaysia is a Muslim majority country where it is illegal to evangelize the native Malays (called bumiputra). It is with this unreached people-group in mind that Dr. H left his prestigious work in the top university in the Philippines to teach in an equally prestigious university in Kuala Lumpur some years ago Dr. H had developed his campus evangelism skills with the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship-Philippines during his student days. So one of his favorite ministries in Kuala Lumpur is to serve as an adviser and mentor to the student evangelism movements there.

Meanwhile, his main witness is to share his expertise in his field of study, and relate well with his professorial colleagues, most of whom are Muslim scholars in their own fields. He sees himself as a Christian serving a Muslim nation to help train its next generation of leaders and help develop its potentials as a people. At the very least, he has helped encourage the development of more secular and moderate forms of Islam, which is the best counterfoil to the rise of fundamentalist and radical Islam, perhaps the greatest challenge to world peace in the near future!

Cambodia.

A few years ago, Mr. And Mrs. R arrived in Cambodia with their two children with minimal provisions for their stay and without any supporting organization. They went just because of a clear call to minister in that land. Though the husband was mainly trained as a church-planting pastor, the wife had excellent training in community development.

They proved that God's resources are found in the harvest. In just five years, their holistic approach has produced 47 churches in the villages surrounding their town. These churches had social impact in their respective communities; thus they have gained connections to top leaders in their province. Signs and wonders added to the rapid evangelization of their area. Most of their leaders have been trained in their simple yet effective missionary training institute.

During one of the great floods that devastated their region a couple of years back, their exemplary relief and rehabilitation efforts were noticed by the government and secular media. Recently they received a donation of a huge property from a prominent Cambodian believer for them to develop into a model farm or the like. They hope that this will serve as a good training ground for Khmer missionaries to go to other unreached peoples in Indo-China and beyond!

China.

Miss N is one of the Filipino English teachers in China, where about 1.2 billion are still unevangelized, in spite of the revival of the past 25 years. She felt God's call to China about 5 years back, and went on a short-term teaching mission before making her decision to do it in a more permanent basis. She was able to recruit three other churchmates to go in with her, though they intentionally planned to work in different schools and regions.

Since she went in only a couple of years back, she had the benefit of being trained to be an effective cross-cultural disciple-maker. Within a year, she was able to have fifteen baptized disciples; actually ten are disciples of three of her five disciples! She was also able to present the story of Jesus Christ with her students during the Christmas and Easter celebrations of her school!

Recently, through one of her disciples who has graduated and is now teaching in a rural school, she was invited to teach English in that school, two hours by car, one day in each weekend. The government officials in the village told her that she is the first foreigner to ever step into that area! Meanwhile, she has met a Chinese house church leader in her area, and introduced six of her disciples to him for absorption into the house church networks there. All her six disciples like attending the meetings of the underground house church, and are therefore learning the Word more deeply in their own language and in fellowship with their own people! (Note: The house churches in this region have been sending missionaries to other regions of China and beyond in the BTJ movement for a few years already!)

Conclusion.