Our Missions Trip to Southern Palawan, Philippines
Matt Recker
Our church, Heritage Baptist Church in New York City, recently sent an eight 
member team on a missions trip to Southern Palawan, Philippines to serve with Pastor Jethro and Jane Malacao of the Brooke’s Point Bible Church. Dr. Malacao is a graduate of the Bob Jones Memorial Bible College in Manilla and has an earned doctorate from Bob Jones University. His wife, Jane, was a member of Heritage. She and Jethro grew up together in Brooke’s Point, Palawan. While Jane was living in New York City, Jethro led her to Christ, and Jane began attending our church in New York City. She followed the Lord in baptism, became a faithful member of Heritage, and graduated from our Heritage Discipleship Institute before Jethro married her.
The heart of our missions trip was to encourage Pastor Jethro and Jane along with many faithful servants who lead the various ministries, church plants, and Gospel outreaches they have. Brooke’s Point Bible Church is in the heart of Southern Palawan in the city of Brooke’s Point. Surrounding this city are very remote areas unreached by the Gospel, filled with rice fields, coconut trees, and mountains. We were privileged to be the first missions team to hold revival meetings in each of the seven churches planted by Brooke’s Point Bible Church. The ultimate goal for these church plants is for them to become indigenous and to plant other churches in unreached areas beyond them.
We had Philippine Marine escort to two of these revival meetings because of potential Muslim influence. (It was in Palawan that Missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham were kidnapped in 2001). One of our revival meetings required a strenuous hike up a steep and often slippery mountain.
We also had a three day MISSIONS CONFERENCE for the pastors, lay preachers, and members of these church plants. The theme of our conference was taken from Acts 16:9: HEAR THE CRY, ANSWER THE CALL, and BE INVOLVED. It was thrilling to meet and challenge so many young men and women of God with a passion to preach Christ.
A third major element of our missions trip was the overall support of our church to not only prayerfully send us out but to raise funds and supplies for our ministry on our arrival. We raised $1,500.00 for their library which will be used in their newly formed Southern Palawan Bible School. There was a ribbon cutting and dedication of their library. We also sent medicines and clothes in boxes four months in advance of our arrival. The boxes arrived just two days before we did. We distributed the medicines in the various revival meetings we held in the church plants. Our Children’s Ministry made a couple hundred wordless books to distribute that helped explain the Gospel in simple language to the many Filipino children who came to the meetings with their parents.
Other ministries included speaking to their Bible School students and our ladies counseling with their ladies. We presented the Gospel to over 500 public school students in both an elementary school and a high school, and the administrators have asked for the pastor of the local church in that area to return to speak more to their students. Finally, we had Gospel outreaches in two markets where all sorts of fruits, vegetables, and fish was being sold. We sang, passed out tracts, and the local pastors did some street preaching.
This missions trip was a great blessing to each team member and to our entire church family. We saw God bring souls to Himself in salvation and surrender. God answered many prayers. He stopped the rain more than once so that our ministry could continue. We were stuck in mud and had to cross flooded roads on numerous occasions, and God heard our prayers as we pushed and towed our vehicle through those difficult passages, making it to the other side. He brought healing to two teenage girls that had been possessed by demonic powers. We thank God for His protection we received, we enjoyed the fellowship with the Filipino people, and we rejoiced in spectacular views of God’s creation in the mountains and in the islands.
Please pray for Pastor Jethro and Jane Malacao as they take an uncompromising stand in Biblical Fundamentalism in their thriving and vital ministry of Brooke’s Point Bible Church. Pray that God will use them to train many more men and women to serve Christ and make Him known so that churches will be planted to proclaim the glory of Christ’s gospel.
Matt Recker is the pastor of Heritage Baptist Church in New York City.