Open doors for the Gospel abound in Asia

From the 13th to 19th September Samuel Adams and Gary Boal visited the Philippines to attend the conference of CEF Asia national leaders. The following is their report -

“It was very good to be able to meet many leaders to whom we have shipped literature in the past and corresponded with. Looking at the 34 countries in the Asia region it can quickly be recognized that the countries fall into 3 groups. There are the countries that are closed due to communism and civil war, those countries which are seen as Islamic and the countries where there are no restrictions on spreading the Gospel.

Indonesia is in this region and is the country with the largest number of Muslims. It is home to an estimated 231 million Muslims. This is 86.7% of the Indonesian population and nearly 13% of the world’s total population of Muslims.

We began to learn more about many of these countries which can be considered island nations - like Fiji, Solomon Islands, Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines. It was very encouraging to hear how the work of CEF is growing in these countries - in Fiji they have doubled the number of Good News Clubs in the past year. The Philippines plan to hold 3,000 Christmas party clubs during the Christmas period - we have already shipped them the 3,000 Flashcards for this programme.

We were able to share with these leaders that shipments of literature were already en route to them - 3 pallets to Fiji - 4 pallets to Solomon Islands - 1 pallet to Vanuatu, 1 pallet to Samoa, 1 pallet to Tonga, a container about to be shipped to the Philippines and some other smaller consignments.

During the conference we talked with the leaders of countries to whom we have not been shipping literature - we looked at the problems that each one faced. With the contacts that we have built up with other missions we started to write emails to see if others could help with the importation of CEF Flashcards into specific places - we were very pleased with the positive response from others and their willingness to help. Coming home we know that we can get literature into four countries that previously we had not been able to ship to. One country is now asking for 800 of each of the Flashcards due to the number of Good News Clubs that they have commenced. All of these leaders are very happy and we hope to be able to get these supplies moving before the end of October. Due to security issues we cannot name these countries...” Samuel Adams.

CEF President Jeremiah Cho with his wife

Asia Pacific consists of 34 countries with a total estimated population of 2,430,000,000. Child Evangelism Fellowship works in 33 of these countries - North Korea being the only one where they have no ministry. For many years Revival Movement Association have partnered with CEF to print and equip their workers with teaching and evangelistic literature such as flashcards, devotional booklets and tracts. So it was a pleasure to join the National Directors, along with their new regional director, Samuel Seo and President Jeremiah Cho for their Asia Pacific conference held in Manila, Philippines.

Some facts and figures -for example Solomon Islands consist of over 900 islands with a population of 732,300. Fiji with 330 islands and a population of 924,000, of which 260,000 are children. The Philippines is made up of 7,641 islands and while only about 2,000 of these are inhabited the population is a staggering 117 million. Sadly though, there are many nations in the region which we can’t talk about, except to say that The Lord is gracious and has opened avenues by which we may filter material to His servants working quietly to reach boys and girls with the good news of the cross. For this we praise the Lord!

We also visited The Philippine Bible Society while in Manila. The Bible Society has been an invaluable partner to RMA over the years as they receive through customs all the containers and pallets we ship to the Philippines. They requested hundreds of thousands of Gospel tracts and Gospels of John in the Tagalog language so that they can supply these free of charge to churches and evangelists who request Gospel literature from them.

With ministries like Bible Society and CEF expanding and doubling their efforts it is clear to see that God is at work among His people in the Asia Pacific region. However, they need resources and tools in their efforts to obey the great commission and it is a continuous delight for RMA to print and supply these materials to them, knowing that God is using them for His name and His glory. Because of Golgotha, Gary Boal

Children praying at a Bible Club in the Philippines