Apex Manila

During your three weeks in Manila, you will have the opportunity to learn and serve alongside the team. Our desire is to invest in you while giving you a taste of what cross-cultural missions is like.

The team serves in the urban poor areas of Manila, Philippines, a very dense city of about 15 million people. Most of the people can speak, understand, and read in English, as the medium of teaching and learning is English in most of the schools and the country was a former colony of the United States before World War II. Before then, Spain colonized the country, thus the majority of the people are Catholics. The city (and country at large) is considered a place where “the Gospel is not understood” or “properly explained.” Thus, most in the population, though very “religious,” practice many rituals and traditional ceremonies, but need to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Animism is also most prevalent.

Our team’s mission is to catalyze God’s people (the Church) to holistically nurture others to maturity in Christ as we join Him in His work. Our vision is a transformed Manila and beyond through the power of the Gospel. A “transformed” community is made up of a group of individuals having a right relationship with God and others. How do we get there? By holistic nurturing of a community to maturity in Christ in the context of local churches working together. “Holistic” is a picture of Jesus Christ in the way He grew and served: growth in wisdom, physical growth, spiritual growth, and social/relational growth (Luke 2:52).

Our ministry focus areas are:

1. Coming alongside pastors and other church/ministry leaders to help encourage them, help with their "soul care", facilitate some of their equipping
2. Coming alongside church and ministry workers to help with discipling and disciple-making
3. Coming alongside church planters in planting transformational churches
4. Working with a Christian organization for community development to promote biblical worldview

Manila is a strategic place to reach with the gospel. The country generally has a young population, with some statistics showing that about 60% of the population is less than 24 years of age. For the most part, the country's population has not had the opportunity to have the Gospel properly taught and explained to them, therefore, most do not understand the Gospel. We are grateful for having been blessed to have formed, established and continually growing relationships with many young pastors and other church/ministry workers that we believe students can learn from, while at the same time be significant contributors in these ministries for the Lord's Kingdom-Building. We daily see the truth of God's Word, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest." Matthew 9:37-38

Our prayer is that this trip will not only help you grow in your faith, but that it will also help you to serve in God’s kingdom wherever the Lord takes you. Come be a part of what God is doing in Manila!

How you’ll serve

There will be different opportunities as you join our team in partnering with local workers:

• to come alongside young pastors (and other church and ministry leaders) as sources of encouragement for these church workers and to learn from them as relationships are formed and developed
• to be involved with the worship/music ministry of the church
• get involved in sports (basketball and pickleball) as a form of outreach to share the Gospel
• come alongside church workers in facilitating small group/bible study sessions and tutoring
• come alongside and learn from church planters
• help the church’s care workers involved in a child sponsorship program for feeding, tutoring, home assessment, and bible study for the children
• work with high school students for discipleship
• come alongside workers engaged in rehabilitating and discipling rescued girls and young women from human trafficking
• learn from and come alongside workers as they help people engage in creative artwork for sustainable livelihood programs.

Schedule

• May 21-24 – Apex Orientation in Chicago, Illinois
• May 25-26 – Arrive in Manila
• June 14-16 – Return home

Housing

You may be housed in a Missionary Guest House, AirBnB, or partner organization's living quarters

Applications are closed for 2024.

Reach out to start the conversation about applying for 2025!