MAKATI CITY, Philippines – In 1994, Gordon Robertson was in the Philippines to follow up on The Answer evangelistic campaign when he had a dream of boatloads of Filipinos going out into the mission field.
“I had just come from a short term mission trip in India where God showed me a great need and hunger for God. It was like God telling me to raise this army of Filipino missionaries to save the lost. And so in ’95, I together with a Honduran missionary to the Philippines, Miguel Alvarez, started the Asian Center for Missions. It’s been 30 years since that bold step of obedience and it’s amazing what God has done,” Robertson said.
Faith and revelation helped propel the vision that God placed in the heart of Robertson to start the Asian Center for Missions, ACM, in the Philippines in 1995 even though no funds existed to cover expenses.
Robertson recently returned to Manila to celebrate that anniversary and the amazing works the Lord has done since taking that step of obedience.
“I got this great revelation, did I really think the Creator of the Universe could not provide? Of course, He can provide. He can do anything. We did an initial missions trip. One day before our second missions trip to Thailand, I still didn’t have the funds. But all of a sudden here’s this Filipino pastor who paid for everything. It was slow in the first year, and then it just seemed to snowball and God gave us the increase. Fairly quickly, it became the largest missionary training center and sender in the Philippines. And today, we are one of the largest in all of Asia,” he reminisced.
The ACM-trained missionaries, unhindered by the challenges they often face in the field, gathered in Manila to celebrate three decades of God’s faithfulness as they ministered to 304 unreached people groups in 77 nations.
Pastor Danny Bayasen, Philippine Director for ACM, was emotional when he shared, “I embraced one worker from India and you can feel the scars on his back, and this guy was persecuted because of his faith yet he continued to serve God. I shook their hands and some of their hands were calloused and it brought back many memories when we were in the field, it’s a sign of hard work. Calloused hands is a sign of the sacrifice and the hard work.”
Pastor Bayasen remembered the challenges he and his wife, Ruby, faced while ministering to the people in Burkina Faso, West Africa, for 20 years before he was called to lead ACM.
“Now that ACM is 30 years, we are more mature, more experienced, training we are looking forward to multiply ourselves. We can say ACM is pregnant and is ready to give birth to international training centers. We have a battle cry to mobilize the ACM-trained workers. We will echo what Caleb said in Numbers 13:30, ‘Let us go, let us possess and overcome,'” Pastor Bayasen added.
One overcomer is Rolyn Cadiz. For 17 years, she has been helping young refugees fleeing the war in Myanmar to find safety at the Thailand border. At the Missions Fiesta, she showed Robertson the soap and tea that their students make.
She explained, “We have a children’s home and we teach them skills training like computer, baking. This will help them sustain themselves. We teach them English and this is where we share the gospel with them. We like to start a school. Please pray for us.”
Robertson challenged the people, “Let’s just pray for this troubled region that peace would come and that messengers would be sent from God’s own heart. And the provisions these people need for just the basics of life, food and shelter will be provided for them.”
As part of the celebration, the missionaries were given free haircuts, massages, counseling, and the important care they provide others. Operation Blessing provided free medical and dental services to show appreciation to them for ministering to people in their mission fields for many years.
The 30th anniversary celebration culminated with a meaningful parade of the nations reached by the missionaries.
Robertson reminded everyone that it is God’s love that compels one to do missions. He said, “You can ask God to fill you with His wonderful gift of His love, and that He will not give you rest, day or night, until either you go or you send.”
