DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Chris Cook, pastor of Parkade Baptist, Columbia, didn’t know what to think when Pastor Mayinto Ganzon reached out to him on Facebook in November of 2023.
Cook was a little skeptical at first, but he replied.
“I wasn’t going to just delete the message, he said, “So I responded to figure out if he was real.”
He was real. After some messaging back and forth, he agreed to lead an online Bible study for Ganzon’s congregation on the other side of the world, Grace Baptist Church.
DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Levi Henry of First Baptist, Diamond, tells the Bible story of Jesus healing a paralytic man in Luke 5:17-26 at a Children’s Festival here. (Photo courtesy Chris Cook)
“It was truly a modern-day ‘Macedonian Call,’” Cook said.
A little later, Tivis Boothe, pastor of First Baptist, Diamond, also heard from Ganzon. He was skeptical as well, but he couldn’t say no to the request for Bible studies, so he began leading sessions for them as well.
“I had no idea what to expect,” Boothe said. “I Zoomed into a home with a small congregation just eager to study the Bible, and it was a great time. They were excited, enthusiastic, and desired more from the Word of God.”
That one turned into two, to three, then four. Boothe eventually learned about the connection with Parkade, and then he and Cook began to explore how they might help the church further in its desire for more teaching and discipleship.
Rather than just teaching from afar, the Missouri churches decided it was best to travel to the Davao City in the Philippines in person to help teach and train the congregation and its leaders.
Cook is a volunteer with the Future Leadership Foundation, a ministry that develops Christian leaders globally to help reach people for Christ and equip them for ministry. With that group’s backing, two people from Parkade and four from First Baptist – including a native Filipino – travelled to the Philippines, Jan. 27 – Feb. 4.
The Missouri Team exchanged the frigid temperatures at home for sunny days in the 80s as they landed in Davao City. There, they began an intensive discipleship training at Grace Baptist for their church members and its two pastors, as well as three other pastors from other parts of the Philippines.
“They had planned well,” Boothe said of their hosts. “The discipleship training was intense, and they were ready for it.”
Across, six three-hour sessions, they taught a survey of biblical discipleship, spiritual disciplines and the inner life of a disciple, evangelism, one-on-one discipleship and hermeneutics and basic biblical interpretation principles.
One of Grace Baptist’s goals was to foster a thriving children’s ministry, so church and the team conducted Children’s Festivals at two different locations. The first was on Saturday morning in a jungle region where the congregation has planted a church, and the second was at Grace Baptist itself. They also led a youth event, teaching on dating and relationships from a Christiaan worldview.
The Missouri team also got to participate in 21 baptisms, including eight people in the Bay of Davao in the Pacific Ocean.
“This was a trip that allowed us to fulfill the Great Commission to a greater extent,” Cook said. “We were making disciples of other nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe what Jesus taught us.”
But beyond just a one-time meeting, the three partner churches believe the partnership can and will go on. Ganzon requested mentorship from Cook, and both Missouri congregations are planning on three-to-five-year partnerships and future trips.
“I foresee us heavily investing in their leadership and in their core group so they can then go and invest in others as they assimilate into the church,” Boothe said.