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'I Saw Boatloads' of Filipinos Going as Missionaries

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MANILA, Philippines -- The year was 1995. A young Gordon Robertson was riding shotgun in a 4-door pickup truck driving through a shallow river bed near the Thai-Burmese border.

"The joy of the Lord is my strength," sang a group of women riding in the back of his open truck. "The joy of the Lord is my strength."

Joining Robertson that November were a dozen missionaries from the Philippines.

"Bind us together, Lord, bind us together," Robertson and the group sang as they prepared to bring the Gospel to displaced Karenni refugees living in a camp.

The Role of the Filipinos

A CBN News television crew accompanied Robertson on the journey to Thailand in 1995.

"I want you to ask God what should I pray for with this family so that God can reveal something about his family," Robertson instructed a young Karenni pastor in a makeshift church in the refugee camp. "Something right now, not in the future, but a prayer need right now."

Gordon Robertson speaks at Asian Center for Missions conference in Manila.

Twenty years later, while sitting in CBN Asia's studio in Manila, Philippines, this reporter asked Robertson what it was like to be in Thailand that year.

"That trip was pretty incredible," Robertson said.

Robertson said the trip and that year in his life proved to be significant. While he and the Filipino missionaries came to bring hope and comfort to refugees, he said it also served as another divine confirmation of the role the Philippines would play in world evangelism.

"His call, which was very clearly issued in the 1990s in the Philippines, and I was not the only one who was saying this is a call. This is a nationwide call, you will be the greatest missionary nation ever," Robertson said.

The Asian Center for Missions was birthed 20 years ago when Robertson said he received a vision from God of boatloads of Filipino missionaries going from this country to the ends of the earth.

*CBN's Lucille Talusan shared more about the center and its influence in the Philippines. Watch the interview following George Thomas's report.

"The Filipino people have been uniquely crafted by him to be the vessels for carrying His love, His reconciliation around the world," Robertson said during an interview conducted in Manila recently.

Missions Conference attendees join in a powerful time of worship.

Convinced of God's desire, Robertson moved his family to Manila and started training Filipinos for the mission field.

"[Filipinos] can go anywhere and fit in and blend in and be productive in the culture, productive in the society, and with those they have a unique gifting to be able to carry the message of God's love," Robertson said.

Training to Win Souls

Since the beginning, the Asian Center for Missions has trained 1,700 missionaries, including 865 now serving in 60 countries around the world.

"I'm amazed, amazed at what God can do when you put yourself in His hands and you obey His call," Dr. Miguel Alvarez, co-founder of Asian Center for Missions, said.

Honduran missionary Alvarez met Robertson in 1994 and together they co-founded ACM a year later.

Asian Center for Missions has 865 missionaries serving in 60 countries around the world.

"The Bible is clear that the person who wins souls is a wise man," Alvarez said.

Robertson calls the Philippines his second home and wants to see more answer the call to go and make disciples of Christ.

"My goal is to teach them as much as I can, all that I can, and then release them to go out and achieve what God wants them to do," he said. "That is a great monument. That is fruit that lasts, that remains, that I'll rejoice over in heaven!"

Robertson is the reason Danny Bayasen decided to answer the call saying, "I became a missionary to answer God's call to the nations."

Seventeen years ago, Bayasen moved his family from the Philippines to serve in the Muslim-majority African nation of Burkina Faso.

Since then, he's helped plant 10 churches. In the last five years, his ministry has focused on so-called unreached people groups. He describes the results as astonishing.

"Many pastors who were formerly Muslims, they have testified that they have dreamt of seeing Jesus in their dreams and that's how they became believers," Bayasen said.

Just the Beginning

Gel Lardizabal pastored a small church in 1995 then one weekend, he heard Robertson give a message that changed his life forever.

"Yes, and by God's grace, it really is a privilege," Lardizabal said. "I went to the mission field with this big God, big, big God, who has a passion and heart for the lost souls."

Flags of some of the 60 countries where ACM missionaries serve.

On a recent weekend, Lardizabal and Bayasen joined hundreds for the 20th-anniversary of the Asian Center for Missions. Robertson joined them to honor missionaries, staff, and donors.

"You are sort of at a loss for words both in the miracle of its birth in the first place and then the miracle of how God sustained through the early years and how He still sustains it today," Robertson reflected while addressing the guests.

Is this just the beginning?

"I still think we are at the beginning of it." Robertson said. "My dream is for every overseas Filipino to get charged with 'I can be a missionary.'"

"When that happens, that's when that dream comes true," he said. "You know, 600 maybe a small crew ship! I saw boatloads and so I'm holding on to that promise and we are just at the beginning stages of it."

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About The Author

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George
Thomas

Born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and of Indian descent, CBN News’ Senior International Correspondent and Co-Anchor, George Thomas, has been traveling the globe for more than 20 years, finding the stories of people, conflicts, and issues that must be told. He has reported from more than 100 countries and has had a front-row seat to numerous global events of our day. George’s stories of faith, struggle, and hope combine the expertise of a seasoned journalist with the inspiration of a deep calling to tell the stories of the people behind the news. “I’ve always liked discovering & exploring new