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
Share The Grace Of Christ in Sierra Leone
When ministry workers with one ministry met a pregnant teenager who lived on the streets, they learned she had fled her home to avoid marriage and female genital mutilation. They presented the gospel to her during an outreach event, and she joyfully accepted Christ. The church became her adopted family and even helped her with her medical bills after she gave birth.
Support Missionaries’ Gospel Work in the Philippines
To establish effective church plants in new villages, native Christian workers first integrate into the communities through helping the people create sustainable economic ventures. Missionaries provide farmers with fertilizer, seeds, beans, and tools, as well as livestock such as hogs, goats, or chickens.
Assist With Community Evangelism in the Philippines
Native missionaries established a friendship with the leader of a local tribe, which enabled them to conduct door-to-door evangelism throughout the community. Many people chose to follow Christ, and the next day, the missionaries organized a fellowship with all the new believers.
Refresh Missionaries With Peace Of Christ in Indonesia
The leader of a native ministry travels on his motorcycle through villages tucked into the mountains and through cities and towns to preach in the name of Jesus and to train new believers as Christian leaders. Some of the places in which he and his team work have been devastated by natural disasters such as floods and volcanic eruptions.
Share The Lord’s Mercy in Myanmar
The civil war in Myanmar continues to inflict terror and tragedy, with soldiers now going door to door demanding that men ages 18 to 35 join the military. A native ministry’s building that housed more than 60 children and young people was destroyed by a bomb, and one of its churches in another village was also destroyed during fighting.
Deliver Hope And Healing in Southeast Asia
A man who attended a ministry’s medical outreach clinic heard the gospel and chose to follow Christ. The pastor in his village was overjoyed when he heard the news because not only had he already discussed Jesus with the man many times, but he also has built a friendship with him.