This is a picture of Tubajon, the municipality that we are working in on Dinagat Island, which is north of Surigao Del Norte (at the bottom of the map), which is on the current island that we live on, Mindanao (that was a mouthful).
The area is divided into 9 baranagays. These 9 barangays are spread out through the whole of the red area on the map, with most of them actually being along the coast inside the sideways v looking bay on the left side of the island. For our purposes, we are basically calling them villages that all answer to one mayor, even though each of them have a barangay captain that is responsible to the mayor for the administration of that area.
Out of the nine that are in this area, there are four barangays (that we know of) that have absolutely no evangelical church anywhere within their administrative areas. These four areas are going to be our objective for church planting. With the contacts that we have within one of the barangays we will seek to do some training for some local church planters who will be able to get into these areas much easier than we ever could and work on planting a church through door to door evangelism and Bible Studies. We will help with teaching and leading as we need to and as we are able, but we will hope that these men will be planted there to start and lead a healthy gospel centered church.
I, Jeff, personally have big dreams about this work and this area. I hope that we can get in there and help see some revitalization of one of our partner churches and that the pastor, along with our main national parter Rudy (go send him a friend request on facebook and let him know your praying for him!) and I can start a sort of training center for pastors that can be a big help to other pastors in the area as far as theological and leadership development go. I want to have conferences that are encouraging and challenging and helpful to the leaders. I want to see solid, evangelical, gospel centered, Word and sacrament (or ordinance) churches that preach the Gospel and rightly administer the Lord's Supper and baptism.
When we go to Tubajon we are both encouraged and discouraged at the same time. We are encouraged that there are people there who want to serve the Lord and seek to do so as much as they are taught to by their churches and leaders. We are encouraged by them being so welcoming and loving towards us, which is amazing because rural areas here tend to feel like they are more suspicious of us than anything else. But we are also discouraged because people are still lost there. Hopelessly lost and trapped in sin and enslaved to dead ritualism that they are told will save them. There are people there who are not being taught the Gospel of our God but false and twisted doctrines that don't do anything for their spiritual state. We are discouraged because of the evangelical churches that are there, they are weak and discipleship and fellowship and the Bible is not really a priority that is being taught all the time and lived out by the leaders within their community. Our hearts break for these people not because we have the answers and can fix them, but because we have had the answer preached to us and we have had the truth told to us and shown to us. The answer will not come from us, but we will still tell them about Him. So pray with us, pray for Dinagat. Pray for Tubajon and the government there, and the people there and the churches that are there. Pray for the churches that are not yet. Pray for the Christians that are not yet. Pray for us, that we would teach not what we see fit, but what God sees best through His Word.