Philippines: Bagacay Church Plant

Church Plant for
Bread of Life Assemblies of God Church
Bagacay Eastern Samar

Background

Bagacay

Bagacay is essentially in the middle of Samar Island on a ridge dividing Eastern and Western Samar. The island’s terrain is steep mountains, valleys, and streams. Samar Island has one road which encircles the island along the shore, plus one other road which bisects the island East to West through its center. Bagacay is located at the mid-point of that bisecting road.

The Bagacay Assemblies of God (AG) Church family comprises about 50 faithful adult members in 7 or 8 individual families. There used to be an AG Church building in Bagacay, but it had to be abandoned due to circumstances outside the congregation’s control. Consequently the church members have been forced to meet outdoors by the side of the highway for the past seven years.

Several times I have taught in pouring rain, standing in mud-puddles under a small leaky tarp stretched by the side of the road in front of one church member’s house. But that did not seem to deter good attendance at the class. Nevertheless, I’m told that lack of a church building has been a strong impediment to evangelization and growth.

Bagacay class

The nearest “born again” church is in San Ysidro, 15 – 20 km away, making it effectively inaccessible. Although 20 km doesn’t sound far away, one must keep in mind that it takes about an hour of travel time if one is fortunate enough to catch a bus immediately. In addition to the travel time, one may have to wait several hours until the bus arrives.

Bagacay has a population of 5,000. It is a poor town; most inhabitants are subsistence level. The biggest local industry is making charcoal – a practice outlawed years ago for environmental protection reasons.

Most town residents are nominally Roman Catholic, but Philippine Roman Catholicism is really a blend of Mary worship and animism. Every town, every establishment, every vehicle – and every house I have visited – has its protective idol and shrine prominently displayed. Many have multiple icons, just to cover all their bases. Little room remains for Jesus Christ, the true savior and protector.

Pastor Romy Opanda

Pastor Romy and Brother Dori at newly erected church sign

The Bagacay AG Church has been pastored by Pastor Romy Opanda for years. Pastor Romy and his family live in Taft, a rough 2 hour bus ride from Bagacay. Twice each week Pastor Romy travels from Taft to Bagacay and back to hold services and conduct Bible studies. Weekly tithes and offerings from the Bagacay congregation barely cover Pastor Romy’s travel expenses.

Pastor Romy receives no external support. He and his wife operate several small businesses to cover family expenses, the expenditures associated with traveling back and forth between Taft and Bagacay, and any incidental outlays needed to support the Bagacay congregation.

Purpose

The purpose of this document is threefold:

1. Present the need for a church plant in Bagacay.
2. Describe several initiatives to be included in the church plant. These initiatives would facilitate evangelization within Bagacay
3. Secure donations for the project, since the required funds are beyond Pastor Opanda’s means to accomplish without external support.

A Great Need

Pastor Romy believes he could grow the Bagacay church to over 100 members within 3 years if a permanent meeting place were available. I’m told the church used to be much larger when it could meet in its own building.

If just 1% of the Bagacay community would become believers in Jesus Christ, the church would have 500 members! What a blessing that would be. Perhaps that’s why God has been so persistent about Bagacay. He sees a great harvest awaiting if someone will just sow some seed on the fertile ground.

Having a permanent church building centrally located within the town would offer other significant benefits: It would certainly emphasize the reality of Jesus’ saving grace and set apart and “make holy” the community of born-again believers – making it easier to for Pastor Romy evangelize the community.

With that goal in mind, Pastor Romy has identified a vacant lot on the main road near the school as a potential church plant site. The location is excellent. It is centrally located with good visibility and easy access from the main highway.

Pastor Romy has rented a plot of land  from Mana Ana with the intent of constructing a church building.  It is part of a vacant lot.  Pastor Romy secured a three year lease on a 15 meter by 15 meter (225 m²) portion of the lot at PHP 300 ($5.66) per month. The entire three-year land rent (PHP 10,800, or $251) was paid in full at the time of signing the lease. Assemblies of God missionaries provided the funding.

Proposed Church Building

Pastor Romy at proposed church site

The church building will be constructed using traditional Philippine post and beam construction. Posts will be round tree trunks to minimize cost. Beams and other structures will be dimensional sawed lumber. The building will have a raised wooden floor, painted plywood sides, corrugated metal roofing, and side window openings that can be closed in case of inclement weather. The building will have a lockable front door and interior electric lighting.

The building will be sized to accommodate a congregation of 30-50 adults. A small CR (bathroom) will be constructed as part of the building, and a septic tank will be installed to handle the waste.

At least that was the original plan.  Lately a cinder block house has come on the market for comparable price.  This is an interesting opportunity that must be explored in more depth.  That task will be accomplished by Mark, Jun, and Pastor Romy in my absence.

Well

The town is located on the peak of a ridge separating Eastern and Western Samar. There is no running water nearby. Water must be obtained and carried from the valley below to the top of the hill, a steep climb exceeding 1 km. Many of these families are born-again Christians and members of the Bagacay AG Church.  In the summer months they are not even permitted by Barangay (town) officials to fetch water from the Barangay community faucet in the valley due to limited water supply.

Hence these families are forced to find water wherever they can, typically from a stream in the forest.  They have no assurance that the water they bring home is safe for cooking and drinking. In fact, the chances are good that the water is polluted due to residues from past mining operations in the area.

The installation of a deep well next to the church would provide great benefit to the entire community. It would allow the church to minister to the surrounding families living at the top of the ridge by providing living spiritual water and physical water to all who need it. This could be accomplished easily with the installation of a single public pump well on church premises.

Livelihood Initiatives

The community of Bagacay is quite poor.  Its main source of income, the mine, has been closed for decades.  Its second main source of income, charcoal production, has been outlawed but nevertheless continues.

Residents subsist off the land or go to work elsewhere.  Cash is scarce.  What will happen once we build a church?  How will the congregation maintain the building and support a pastor?

This is a serious problem that needed to be addressed, so I posed it to the congregation.  They presented several ideas for starting small businesses; several have experience running such small businesses, but none have the capital to start anything.

After discussing the situation with them, we decided to start a rice business.  Rice is a staple everyone needs; several members have experience selling rice; and it’s a relatively inexpensive start-up:  Buy a 50kg bag of rice, a scale, and some small plastic bags and you ‘re ready to go into business.  So I provided some business guidance and operating rules, the cash needed to start, and challenged them to try and double the investment money by the time I return.  Mark, Jun, and Pastor Romy will oversee the project’s progress.

Other ideas included selling fish (rice and fish are staples) which also is a low investment venture, and raising pigs – a very profitable but more difficult venture.  We’ll tackle those possibilities when I return.  Perhaps when we have a church building, we can even start a Christian day care or school…  Why not?  After all, I always tell my students,

“Dream big enough for God to participate!  If your dreams are small enough for you to accomplish by yourself, you haven’t left any room for God to participate in the project.  Make room for Him!  He wants to work alongside you and participate in fulfilling your dreams.”

Garden

A well-tended vegetable garden would make the church much more appealing and also set the born-again community apart from the neighbors who generally have no gardens. The garden would exemplify God’s bounty and love to Bagacay’s residents, and provide food for the congregation at minimal cost. It would also allow church members to provide tithes in kind for the Pastor and his family.

However, recently I learned that the Department of Natural Resources appears to have some sort of community garden project in mind.  That’s why the “new” church location has been disapproved: It is the site of a planned community garden of some sort.  But even if the Department of Natural Resources starts a garden, two gardens are still better than just one…

Tricycle

Tricycles are the most common form a public and communal transportation in the Philippines. However, there is no motorized public tricycle service available within the Bagacay community. Pot-pots (pedicabs) are impractical due to the steepness of the terrain. Providing Pastor Romy with a used motorized tricycle would accomplish several important objectives:

• Provide for transportation of elderly members to and from church services, facilitating church growth (this capability has been found to be an essential element of church survival and growth in other locations)
• Provide for another potential income stream for Pastor Romy to support his family
• Set the born-again community apart as “special” and blessed by The Lord.

Funding Need

Pastor Romy has obtained a formal signed contractor’s estimate for constructing the church building. Brother Dori has obtained a materials quote based on a materials list I compiled.  Based on these preliminary estimates and information I have gathered informally, the entire project – including the building, well, garden, and used tricycle – could be completed for a total of $7,000. What an amazingly inexpensive and wonderful investment!

If you wish to make a donation, please send it directly to

Assemblies of God Worldwide Missions
1445 N. Boonville Ave.
Springfield, MO 65802

Checks should be made out to “AGWM.” Please write “2397800 (77), Steve Toth” in the memo field so it’s properly credited to this project.

Thank you for your prayerful and generous support.

István

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