It was a late August day in 1980 that the Lord spoke to me through His Word: “Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again.” (Eccl 11:1) I knew what I was being told: to take a leap of faith. To commit my all to the calling of God, and go into the harvest field of gospel service. So, over the next few days I sold everything I owned, resigned my job, said goodbye to family and friends, and caught up with the Jesus People in East St Louis, where I started ministering on the streets. As if that weren’t surprising enough, only five weeks later I landed in the Philippines to serve as a missionary. I was 20, and that was 43 years ago.
I’m so glad I took the challenge! God has done more than merely match what I “cast upon the waters.” He has returned an abundance of treasure!
Out of faith and vision, the Lord raised up a ministry that has reached millions of people with the gospel, planted hundreds of churches, established a mission for abandoned children, a Christian school, and Christian businesses. God is good!
We pray you will be blessed not only in the reminder of all that has been done, but in seeing what the Lord is doing right now; and that you will be encouraged to continue partnering with us as we look to what God will yet do in the days to come!
Jeff Pessina
Founding Director
Are our dreams big enough? Are they GOD-sized? We’ve asked ourselves these questions as we believe that God is calling us to envision things that only He can bring about.
Last October 8th, our pastors and leaders came together for “Dream Week”, where we honored and prayed for one another, and shared our big dreams for the Kingdom and King we serve.
While we currently have 90 active house churches, we dream to have 1048 house churches by 2025. It’s not impossible, it’s God-sized! We believe that the Lord will bring this to fruition as we put our trust in Him, and work as efficient servants.
One of our fastest-growing churches, our Sto. Nino site, recently celebrated its 6th year anniversary. We filled the local basketball court and had a wonderful time praising and worshiping the Lord, and fellowshipping.
We are hoping to soon be able to start building a gathering site for our main campus, which currently meets in the lobby of our school. We are quickly outgrowing this space – which is a great problem! Would you pray with us for the Lord’s continued direction?
Thank you for dreaming with us.
Max Beloso
Director, Church-Planting
God is interested in the whole person -- spirit, soul, and body. The soul entails our mind, will and emotions. Within the Compassion ministry of Philippine Frontline Ministries, we are experiencing a resurgence of healing in our soul. For the past two years, Face the Children (FTC), Hospital Ministry, and Community Development Programs (Feeding Programs) had been deprived of contact with people. This has impacted how we think, how we feel and even the will to move forward. But thanks be to God... the reconnection has begun.
Our children at FTC have now returned to in-person classes at school. I cannot find words to adequately express the healing this brings, as normal interaction with others is restored.
Doors are also re-opening for our hospital ministry. Relationships between our ministry and the public hospital are being renewed and strengthened.
Community Development programs are flourishing. The hunger that people have for relationships after such a long time of isolation has translated into new initiatives–even the establishment of house churches.
As Connie and I set our sights to return to the Philippines, our hearts are excited to share in the renewal that is taking place. We are thankful to God for His faithfulness, and for the continued support from you, our friends and partners.
God bless you all.
Michael Gordon
Director, Compassion Ministries
I remember all the years we prayed for our new school (and then, the pandemic!). So we are truly happy to see this finally being fulfilled. We went from 78 students to 148 to begin this new school year. This represents the largest new enrollment ever. The beautiful location and new building has drawn many people, and we anticipate a larger student increase next year, which will allow us to teach, love and lead more children, and move closer to financial sustainability.
Thanks to a generous partner we were able to provide ten more academic scholarships that are now filled and being enjoyed by well-deserving students. And the generosity of another partner allowed us to finish up more things in and around the building, such as sidewalks, bathroom furnishings, gates, lights, fencing, and other important things.
Another important milestone: FCA has achieved full recognition by the Department of Education! Only a limited number of schools reach this status, and though it is an intense interview and inspection process, we passed. One benefit of this is the availability of government financial assistance for up to 50 students in the next school year.
We’ve hired 6 new employees this year, bringing our total staff to 29. In order to sustain our operations we need a minimum enrollment of 210 students. This means we still face a shortfall of operational revenues of $17,000 this school year. This is a great improvement over the past two years, but still represents a real challenge to us. And besides our operations, we also need $3000 a month for the mortgage payments. The Adopt-a-Class opportunity ($400 a month to sustain a class level), will go a long way at helping us through this time of recovery.
While these seem like big challenges, and they are, we know our God is up to the task. Habakkuk 2:3 says, “If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.” This reminds me that God’s timing is perfect. We will continue to improve our business model, do our best to serve, and pray earnestly that this will be the last year we have any financial “shortfalls.” I am claiming it in Jesus’ name!
Please continue to pray with us, and consider the partnering opportunities listed above (follow the QR codes!) or on our Christmas wish-list page.
May God bless you exceedingly!
In His Service,
Rhoda Pessina-Dayo
Director, Education
It took time for us to “hear” the Lord as we were led into the mission of social enterprise; but we are glad we finally listened. Strategically, there are a couple very important reasons we pursued this path. One was to develop alternative revenue streams (besides fund-raising) to grow and sustain the mission of Frontline. Another, perhaps even more importantly, was to create jobs and engage people in the important area of dignified work to earn a living for themselves and their families.
And although the past couple years have been extremely challenging, we are seeing God’s favor, and experiencing amazing growth. At Frontline Business Solutions (www.frontlinebusiness.com.ph ), our client-base and workforce has continued to expand, as we now have 40 employees serving clients in accounting, virtual assistance, data-mining, customer service, social media, and IT/web solutions. We’ve grown so much in just the past few months that we recently had to purchase and erect containerized buildings to accommodate the need for work space.
The same is true for Frontline Threadworks, Inc. (www.frontlinethreadworks.ph) where our factory is up and running again, and providing jobs now for nearly 30 sewers and support staff. The pandemic certainly hurt our progress, but we’re trusting God to grow this up to the factory’s capacity of 160 workers.
And besides a focus on jobs and profitability, we are joyfully experiencing the presence of God in our weekly gatherings for devotionals and fellowship. Many of our workers have come to experience Christ, and are now participating in our Church and ministry events. How wonderful it is to see the Love of God being both revealed and received through these strategic and spiritual enterprise undertakings!
Jeff Pessina
Founding Director
| USA Donors: | Canada Donors: | Philippine Donors: |
|---|---|---|
|
Make checks payable to: Philippine Frontline Ministries PO BOX 208 Sandwich IL 60548 |
Make cheques payable to: World Focus, Inc. (Please note "Philippine Frontline") 1399 Buffalo Place Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada, R3T 1L6 |
Direct Deposit to Philippine Frontline Ministries, Inc.
Bank: China Bank |
Jeff Pessina | Founder/President
jeff.pessina@thefrontline.asia
Mike Gordon | Director, Compassion Ministries
mike.gordon@thefrontline.asia
Rhoda Lynn Dayo | Director, Education
rhoda.pessina@fca.edu.ph
Max Beloso | Director, Church-Planting
max.beloso@thefrontline.asia
It took time for us to “hear” the Lord as we were led into the mission of social enterprise; but we are glad we finally listened. Strategically, there are a couple very important reasons we pursued this path. One was to develop alternative revenue streams (besides fund-raising) to grow and sustain the mission of Frontline. Another, perhaps even more importantly, was to create jobs and engage people in the important area of dignified work to earn a living for themselves and their families.
