"Taking an adventure with God" -- by Craig Cole

When I was in seventh grade, I sat next to a girl named Thea. The entire year I had a crush on her. She pretty much ignored me even though I thought she was gorgeous. Finally, in the spring we were sharing our summer vacation plans. I pointed to Honduras on a map and told her I was going there for two months on a mission trip with others my age. She looked at me with her beautiful blue eyes and said, “That is so cool.”

As my heart melted, I knew right then and there I wanted to do cool things!

Missionary work is about doing cool things. It’s about taking an adventure with God and taking a risk like Peter did when he got out of the boat and began to walk on water. Notice what happens when Peter begins to doubt and begins to sink. Jesus is right there to pick him up and make sure he didn’t drown.

When we take the risk to follow Christ, we need to know that He will always meet us at the time of our greatest need. Or, he will reveal himself in unique and profound ways.

I was recently in the Philippines and I looked up a friend of mine, Fr. George, who until recently was the priest at Holy Spirit Episcopal Church in Taguig, a poverty-stricken community in Metro Manila. He is a person I will never forget.

During my first visit in 2001, he was just starting out in his ministry at Holy Spirit. Taguig is a rough area where drugs, gangs and prostitution replaced several large industries that had closed. He told us he had lost his niece to the local gangs and was almost killed in the process of finding her. He also told us he had just started a daycare and had allowed children from other faiths and denominations to join. He was being criticized for this decision. However, he was committed to vision of combining both economic and spiritual development to build a stronger community

I asked him, “What’s your response to the gangs, to those who doubt you and criticize you?”

Fr. George simply responded. “When Christ died on the cross He died with his arms wide open.” And with that, he raised his arms wide open and gave a big smile. This gesture sent chills through me. I knew I had met Jesus in a new profound way at that very moment.

Since that time, his church has grown and he has become a pastor to the community. He counsels families with alcoholism, marriage problems and other issues. Meanwhile the loan program Five Talents established with his church has prospered benefiting thousands of community members.

Mission work is worth taking the risk because Jesus will show His face in so many exciting ways. And, by the way, He wants us to do cool things as well.

Craig Cole is the xecutive director of Five Talents International, an Anglican microfinance nonprofit. He is also a member of the Diocese of Virginia's Mission Commission and an EGR board member.

"Greetings from the Philippines" -- by Craig Cole

Greetings from the Philippines. It is March 6th and I have just arrived in Santiago City in the northern part of the island of Luzon about 7 hours drive from Manila. Tomorrow, we will be participating in a business skills training with about 60 of the local clergy, development workers and managers of credit cooperatives.

Earlier this week, I was privileged to be part of a joyous event with the Episcopal Church in the Philippines (ECP) and its worldwide partners to celebrate its financial autonomy from the Episcopal Church in the United States. For more than 110 years, it has relied on grants from the US church to pay for its operations. Almost 20 years ago a decision was made to eventually eliminate those subsidies.

The church leaders admitted that many in their pews thought the church would die without the outside support. Instead, it has flourished and in the last three years alone, it has grown at an amazing rate building the most number of churches, highest number of seminarians, etc.

It is a significant story and it is a remarkable achievement. So, how does this roadmap to autonomy relate to the Millennium Development Goals? One of the important aspects of the church’s self-sufficiency is tied to directly to their vision and implementation of community development projects. The outreach to the poor through 130 community projects nationwide including agricultural, irrigation, water, microcredit, advocacy and many other projects directly resulted in the growth of the church. The projects had the affect of empowering and mobilizing them to take collective actions for the improvement of their lives. This in turn resulted in more members coming to church and those members giving rising significantly.

The other part of the story of this road to autonomy is that partners came alongside to assist in these community development projects including organizations from the UK, Australia, Canada, US and even Sweden. Now that autonomy has arrived what happens to those partnerships? The relationships are in the midst of changing because the Episcopal Church in the Philippines has a different view of itself, a more confident view because of its financial independence. The partnerships are still welcome but the nature of the relationship has now changed and that is profound shift from what was once a “Mother-Daughter” situation to one of equal footing.

The lesson simply put is that by empowering the poor, the church itself becomes empowered.

Craig Cole is the executive director of Five Talents International, an Anglican microfinance nonprofit. He is also a member of the Diocese of Virginia's Mission Commission and an EGR board member.