Countries Where We
Assist Native Ministries
Overview
Southeast Asia is home to an incredibly diverse population. The island nation of Papua New Guinea alone is home to more than 1,000 people groups who speak more than 800 languages. Christianity has taken root and continues to grow among ethnic minorities who face increasing persecution from oppressive regimes.
Islam is another challenge to native believers in Southeast Asia. Christians in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, face high levels of persecution from radical Muslims, who are pushing Sharia-inspired laws in more communities. Meanwhile, a growing Muslim population on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines continues to breed radicalism and hatred for Christians. In both of these countries, however, Christianity has sustained continued growth.
With the growth of Christianity in Southeast Asia comes an enormous need for trained church leaders. Thousands of rural congregations languish without adequate leadership, falling into unbiblical teaching, moral failure, and syncretism.
In addition to persecution from radical Muslims and hostile governments, native missionaries in Southeast Asia are challenged to minister to unreached people groups in regions of extreme poverty and where there is rampant drug usage. The countries of Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand comprise Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle, one of Asia’s two main opium-producing areas. Myanmar is also the world’s largest producer of methamphetamines.
How You Can Make a Difference
Ways To Give
Evangelism & Discipleship
Through the work of one indigenous ministry in Vietnam, more than 3,000 house churches exist in the country’s Central Highlands. A ministry on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines has shared the gospel and planted churches among the island’s 13 Muslim-majority tribes through carefully trained native missionaries. Though ministry inside North Korea is impossible under the present regime, native missionaries established underground churches in six locations in northern China among North Korean women who were trafficked across the border. GIVE NOW to help evangelistic and discipleship ministries like these in Southeast Asia.
Community Engagement
In Indonesia, several Christian Aid Mission-assisted ministries are providing business training to desperately poor pastors and equipping them to start microenterprises to support their families and fledgling churches. GIVE NOW to help community engagement ministries like these in Southeast Asia.
Compassion
In Myanmar, where multitudes fall prey to drug addiction, a ministry is sharing the love of Christ through its two addiction recovery centers where addicts are cared for and discipled in God’s Word. GIVE NOW to help compassion ministries like this one in Southeast Asia.
Exclusive Stories from the Mission Field
Send the Salvation Message in Laos
A stagnant house church increased from seven families to 22 families after native Christian workers gave members 10 radios for sharing electronically loaded gospel messages. “They love it very much and listen to it every day, even when going to rice fields to work,” the ministry leader said. “They let other people listen too.” The electronic messages helped three Christian families who had strayed into native rituals to return to faith and drew six other families to put their trust in Christ for the first time. Workers need donations of $25 or $50 for these and other outreaches of evangelism and discipleship. They request prayer for wisdom, spiritual strength and guidance by the Holy Spirit.
Gospel Interest Grows in Post-Pandemic Philippines
Native Christian workers in the Philippines are taking a more holistic approach than they did five years ago, making gospel outreach even more effective, a ministry leader said. The coronavirus crisis of the past three years accelerated the new emphasis as workers were compelled to meet more physical needs. “Poverty and sickness are prevalent,” the native ministry leader said. “Addressing these needs together with the gospel is effective.”
Help Plant and Grow Gospel Seeds in Laos
After three years of COVID-19 pausing a native ministry from holding seminars, local Christian workers were overjoyed to resume the meetings with 60 pastors and other leaders to advise and encourage them. At another seminar where 106 attended, 46 had been persecuted, including one who was imprisoned for traveling to unreached people.
Support Evangelism and Discipleship in Indonesia
New Christians learned to share their testimonies and pray in house churches spread across several villages, with local Christian workers using MP3 players to convey Bible passages to those who cannot read. Workers identified a “person of peace” in each village who helped them make contact with other people.
Help Spread the Word of Salvation in the Philippines
Among tribal people attending recent gospel presentations were former communist rebels. Local missionaries also taught witnessing as a lifestyle to church members who then began proclaiming the gospel to many others; one shared Christ with relatives and friends at a graveside vigil during All Souls Day.
Enable Local Workers to Share their Faith in Burma
Meeting only during the day because of gunfire and rockets at night, local Christian workers held a six-day event that 100 people attended daily, strengthening their faith. “There were testimonies by people saying, ‘Only now I’ve come to see the real Christian life,’ or, ‘Only now do I know the victorious spiritual life,’” the ministry leader said.
