By Jun Lumagbas | Pastor | Bible Baptist Church | Cebu City, Philippines
The Philippines is known for many things. One is the well-loved and much-enjoyed mango, that oblong-shaped vitamin C-packed sweet fruit. The most luscious and most sweet mango can be found on our island, Cebu. (I am biased, for another island north of us makes the same claim.)
We all know a mango has one large seed at its core. But once this seed is planted, only God knows how many mangoes it reproduces in its lifetime. Once the seed sprouts and in time (usually five to eight years) becomes a fruit-bearing tree, some 300 to 400 fruits can be reaped in one harvest season.
The sweet mango could well be a picture of our Fellowship. Planted in aorund the world, as missionaries sent from U.S. churches, our Fellowship has seen one seed grow, and in time, sprout and bear fruit — not just a few but by the hundreds and thousands.
BBFI missionaries were sent to the Philippines just as the Fellowship was beginning in the 1950s. Hardy men with pioneering zeal and great faith crossed the Pacific Ocean on steamers to land in Manila. From there, they spread to the Philippine archipelago like mango seeds planted in different soils: L. D. Woosley in Makati, Joe Vella in Manila, Fred Null in Mandaluyong, Bob Hughes in Cebu City, Lloyd Baker in Legaspi City, Damon Woods in Baguio City, Leslie Funk in Tacloban City, David Steffy in Butuan City, and the list goes on.
Like the mango seed planted in any soil, the Fellowship missionaries began to see their works sprout and in time the growing tree began to flower and soon the fruits started to be harvested. Within a decade of its founding in 1957, Bible Baptist Church in Cebu City was on its way to constant cycles of fruit, more fruit, and much fruit. BBFI missionary Bob Hughes turned over the work to a national Filipino Pastor Dr. Armie Jesalva. This highlighted this first decade. Before the church called him, Dr. Jesalva trained and practiced pediatric medicine.
By the mid 70s a Bible college was training and raising men and women for the Gospel ministry. In time, graduates began to fan around the islands and more seeds of churches were planted. These first-generation churches laid the foundation of a fellowship of churches that would soon unite and get behind a missions programs in and outside the country. They also would soon raise enough men and women who would themselves enter Bible college and receive the same training and character-building as the first generation of students.
By the 80s, a vibrant youth ministry called Katipunan Youth Alive (KAYA) began reaching a growing population of young people. These youth were discipled, trained, and raised to be the leaders and movers of the growing work. Of these youth would come Filipino missionaries to foreign fields: Paul Tabanao, Lomer Hope delaCruz, Roy Montero, Jenefred Semblante, Josephine Nadela Mendez — missionaries in Cambodia; Jun Coronel and Elias Bancale — missionaries to Ethiopia; Peter de Jesus — missionary to China; Mark Maglasang — missionary to India; and Jonathan Guinarez — missionary to Vietnam.
By the 90s, this one seed that sprouted and started to become a fruit-bearing tree had its branches spread out. In its Jerusalem, Bible Baptist Church opened 36 extension churches around the Metro Cebu area. In its Judea and Samaria, the church sent out local missionaries who then started works in cities, town, and villages in the islands. In its uttermost part of the earth, the church sent its first missionaries to the foreign fields of Indonesia and Cambodia. All in all, since the 70s, Bible Baptist Church has started and organized 890 churches in the Philippines and abroad.
But it is not just Bible Baptist Church Cebu City. The seed planted by the pioneering BBFI missionaries in the 50s and 60s in their own localities have since grown and now are steady and sturdy trees bearing fruit in their season.
It is said there are 400 varieties of mango around the world. That very well could be said, too, of the BBFI. In around 160 countries, the seed of BBFI works have been planted. These all are the varieties but they all share the same core: the core of the BBFI remaining up to today is soulwinning, church planting, and missions.
We do know a mango has but one seed in its core. But, perhaps in eternity, God will tell us just how many mango fruits all over the world have come out of that one seed planted in 1950.