Happy Thanksgiving!

From time to time we want to give some biographical sketches of some of the refugees we have been working with. Through these sketches I (Lem) hope to give you a chance to see what challenges refugees have to face when they move to America, get to know the people we’re working with, and give you a chance to pray for them and their salvation and for us as we work with them.

Tin and Khin are refugees from Burma, currently known as Myanmar. They arrived in Atlanta in March and Anna and I met them through Tom Spainhour, who is their case manager at World Relief. Tin & Khin were forced to leave Burma after the oppressive, militaristic government forced them to flee to Thailand, since they were opposed to the government. They lived in Burma for 30 years before they fled to the refugee camps in Thailand, where they spent the past three years.

The US government accepted Tin & Khin’s application for refugee status and they were assigned to World Relief.  They signed a promissory note for their travel expenses that they are expected to start paying back after about 6 months to a year in small monthly payments. They also received rent for about 3 months, so refugees are expected to find jobs within the first 3 months. Unfortunately, many don’t know much English and have been brought here in a terrible economy. However, Tin & Khin’s English is decent and they are fairly educated so they were both able to get jobs. Tin carpools with other refugees 2 hours down and 2 hours back to work in a chicken factory in Perry, GA  It’s a really long trek and the work is very difficult, as you can imagine. Tin is trying to find another job that is closer and a little less strenuous. Khin is a cashier at Dekalb Farmers Market, which is a lot closer and an easy commute for her.

They don’t earn much with these jobs, but Tin & Khin are great with their money – a huge asset if you are just coming to a new country with no money at all. They are big savers. Their first electric bill was $8!! They unplug all their appliances and unscrew their light bulbs. Their apartment was extremely hot this summer! With this kind of frugal behavior they have been able to save some of what little money that they make.

I really try to approach my relationships with refugees as a learner. I try to learn about their lives and also learn about their world view. Tin & Khin are Buddhist and I am learning a lot about their brand of Buddhism in Burma. They have taught me alot about their country’s political situation and their opposition to the current government. This has given me a context of how they view the world and what they think about God – a great practice for me. With Americans it is very easy for me to share the gospel since I usually share a similar vocabulary with Americans. Though many Americans don’t know Biblical terms like sin, it is easy to explain these terms in English. In a cross-cultural context it is harder to communicate Biblical terms, so I try to learn as much as I can about another person’s the culture before I share the Gospel in order to better have a context to best communicate the Gospel to those with whom I am sharing.

Please pray that the Holy Spirit will open Tin & Khin’s heart to Jesus and that I will have more opportunities to share Christ with them through my words and deeds. They are open to Christ and enjoy talking about Him.

They enjoy learning about American culture, so they will be joining our family for Thanksgiving. Please pray that this will deepen our relationship with them.

Thanks again everyone. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!! Thank you for blessing us!

It has been a long time since I’ve updated this blog and a lot has happened. Let me start with big news and it may be old news.

We’re having a boy! His name is Asher Caleb Egipto and his due date is January 29th. We’re getting the nursery ready and preparing for his arrival. Here is a picture of Anna and Asher.

In the mean time we are preparing ourselves by ministering in the Clarkston and Kirkwood communities and we feel that these are both great training grounds for us.
 
Clarkston gives us a cross cultural context to work in since there are refugees from 82 different people groups that are placed there by the government year round. I am working with my friend, Tom Spainhour, who works as a case worker for World Relief, by serving the many families that he is assigned to prepare to live in the US. Tom isn’t allowed to share the Gospel with his cases, so I am partneringwith him and building relationships with his many families so that I might be able to share the Gospel and serve them in their time of need. I am also the volunteer coordinator for Friends of Refugees (http://www.friendsofrefugees.com/) and this gives me the opportunity to connect others in the Atlanta area to the many opportunities to help in the community (let me know if you’re interested). This also has conected me to the network of believers that work with refugees and there are many that God has called to serve in the area. We try to be an encouragement and support to one another. I am still teaching refugees how to drive and trying to make the roads safer one driver at a time : ) Many of these refugees tell others about me and right now I’m pretty popular with the Somalis. I have many crazy stories involving Somali women and their burkas and near crashes that you need to ask me about. I think this service I am providing builds credibility to who we are and how we really want to serve the community. We are also working with our church, Cellebration Fellowship. We have become a home church that meets as a whole about once a month ever since we lost the building we used to meet at. It’s a unique mix of refugee and American families (most of the American families are involved in refugee ministry) and we have found it encouraging and supportive to our ministry and our walk with the Lord. Clarkston is a very diverse community and it’s teaching us how to relate with people from all sorts of different cultures.
 
We moved to Kirkwood in January and are still settling in. We love it in Kirkwood and already have  plenty of  interesting experiences to share. Kirkwood is a mixed income neighborhood consisting of African Americans and Caucasians (Im pretty sure I’m the only Filipino right now) from all kinds of different backgrounds. It seems harder to share Christ in this area since there are so many world views and ideas. Last week we went to a party of one of our neighbors and we discovered that we don’t have a lot in common with our secular neighbors, so we’re learning to understand them and befriend them as we model Christ to them. I want to be intentional in our relationships and really get invovled in evangelism and service to our neighborhood. I think as we build stronger relationships I will be able to share Christ with them and hopefully we will be able to meet more people in the neighborhood.

I’m also invovled in the Filipino community in Atlanta. There aren’t a lot of Filipinos in Atlanta, but over the past 10 years there have been many Filipinos that have moved to Atlanta and there are actually many organizations that gather Filipinos every month. I try to attend as many gatherings as I can, so I can keep in touch with the people I have gotten to know over the years. But everyone is scattered all over the metro Atlanta area, so it’s hard to always get together. I have even met some OFWs that have come to Atlanta to work and learning from their experiences has helped me understand what OFWs go through as they come to a new country.

So this is what we’re doing with our time as we prepare to go to the Philippines. We look forward to when we will be able to go to the Philppines, but we love Atlanta and where we are right now and we think our time in Atlanta will be beneficial for our ministry.

I was in the Philippines from March 22- April 16 and Anna  was there from April 2 – April 16. It was Anna’s first trip to the Philippines. We hope to be able to take several vision trips before we move to the Philippines, in order to prepare us to live there. Our goals for this first trip were to find ministry opportunities, business opportunities, estimate living costs, get Anna acquainted to the people and culture, and to spend some time praying about all we learn. I’ll follow this general outline for this post.

Ministry

From Atlanta, I have envisioned myself working with OFWs by encouraging and equipping them to share the Gospel in their arenas of influence.  After visiting the Philippines I see there are many opportunites to work with OFWs and their ministry abroad. OFWs are Overseas Filipino Workers that leave the Philippines in order to earn more wages in another country. There are about 8-12 million OFWs that currently live around the world and recent numbers have shown that about 1.5 million new OFWs leave the Philippines annually. Many of these OFWs are followers of Christ. OFWs are going to Europe, Asia, North & South America, and Australia. These Christ following OFWs are a huge potential missions force around the world and they don’t even have to raise support.

I was able to meet with several people that have a similar desire to work with OFWs or that already do. I think God is calling many people to work with OFWs since there are so many OFWs that are leaving each year. We hope to partner with many ministries to make our work more effective and efficient. I’m so grateful for my father, Joe Egipto, because he still has so many contacts in Manila. He hasn’t lived in the Philippines since the 1970′s, but the people he does know are often influential and have given us the many contacts that we need for our ministry.  One of my dad’s friends is a missionologist that has written his doctoral dissertation on OFWs! I think I have a good idea of what I want to with OFWs, but I know God will give me a better picture as we prepare and when we finally do get over there. I am grateful for all of God’s privision and look forward to what He has in store for us.

Business

I was hoping to start a recruiting agency, so I could supply jobs to the OFWs I would be training. But the recuiting industry is a tough one to get into and may take more time than I was hoping.  The government is relentless in its taxing system and often asks for bribes from companies. So many companies keep several books in order to retain their revenues. I would eventually like to start some sort of business, so that I won’t have to raise support any longer, but it looks like I’m going to have to learn the business envrionment and find a niche. Many business men were very helpful and insightful. I even met an American business man at a Kenny Rogers Roaters that was involved in an OFW start up company. He invited me to eat with him, and his much younger Filipina girlfriend, and shared a lot of wisdom about the industry.

Cost of Living

Surprisingly, cost of living was similar to Atlanta. Food (Filipinos love to eat), public transportation, and clothing are a little bit cheaper, but rent, appliances, furniture, cars, and utilites  are similar to Atlanta. My father also knew some dignitaries and they informed me that I am eligible to be a Filipino citizen since my parents were still Filpinos when I was born. Being a Filipino citizen will allow me to buy property in the Philippines. We most likely will rent, at first, but being a Filipino citizen will give us more options.

People and Culture

Filipinos are a very kind and friendly people. Maybe too nice. The problem in Manila is the traffic and pollution. Atlanta traffic is nothing. It’s hard to describe, but we even got stuck in traffic at 2am after picking up Anna from the airport. Why are people even up at 2am? The pollution makes it hard to breathe. And the combination of traffic and pollution makes it even harder to live in Manila. This was really hard on Anna. She’s been to many countries and experienced a lot of poverty, but the traffic and pollution in Manila was like nothing else she has ever experienced. She also put a lot of pressure on herself to love the Philippines.  We did enjoy spending time with my family and meeting with several families that were unbelievably hospitable to us. I love the food!! Anna’s not too keen on fish for breakfast, but she definitely loves the mangoes! Best in the world.

We still have a long way to go in learning the culture and having a God given love for the people. We will make a few more visits and be students of the culture and continue to ask God to give us hearts for the people. Please join us in this endeavor.

Praying and Listening

The next few months we will continue to plan and prepare for our move to the Philppines. We think our work in Clarkston and Kirkwood will be good preparation for us. Please pray that we will have eyes to see and ears to hear what God has planned for us. That we will have discernment and wisdom and that we would seek Godly counsel from our friends, family, and from God’s body. We look forward to our next trip and can’t wait to see what God has in store for us.

7 Ministries is a non-profit organization that is a vehicle for my (Lem Egipto’s) personal ministry. I created this vehicle because it will allow me to do vocational ministry in Georgia and give me the opportunity to take my ministry to the Philippines, where I want to serve as a missionary. Eventually I would like the Philippines to be a base and send out lay missionaries to China, the Middle East, and around the world through a for profit business. It is estimated that the Philippines has about 11 million overseas workers in the world based on 2003 data and I  want to send out trained lay missionaries to closed countries around the world. Many of these countries often recruit Filipinos because they are educated, speak English, and  able to blend into many different cultures.  Let me explain my philosophy of ministry, so that you can better understand what I am trying to accomplish.

The basis for my ministry is the Great Commission and there are a few verses throughout the New Testament that I think is our mission or task as followers of Christ:

In Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus says to His disciples,

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

In Acts 1:8 before Jesus ascension he tells his disciples,

…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

In Ephesians 3:10-11 Paul writes about the purpose of the church saying,

His (God’s) intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In Mark 16:15 Jesus says,

Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.

This is our task as Christians and this is the basis for my ministry to proclaim the Gospel, make disciples of Christ, and teach them to obey Christ’s commands. All my work will be towards this goal. As I build relationships and meet people’s needs I have this eternal perspective in mind.

I believe the best way to complete the task of the Great Commission is through multiplication. Let me illustrate this principle through Paul’s second letter to Timothy. Paul writes,

The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

In this verse we can see four generations: Paul, Timothy, faithful men,  and others. If I lead 100 men to Christ this year, but they were not fully trained to reach and train others I would be only using addition to complete the task. But if I can fully train a man to know God and disciple others I will not only be using addition, but muliplication to complete the task that Christ has given us.

My Approach

In Matthew 4:19 Jesus says to Peter and Andrew, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” I want to be a fisher of men and I want to use this ministry as a tool to accomplish that. So this leads me to who and where I will be fishing. For illustration sake lets call the who and where, my pond.  What ponds will I be fishing in? Well my current pond will be a five mile radius of where I live. These areas include Decatur, Clarkston, Kirkwood, and Filipinos in Atlanta. My future ponds may include the Philippines, China, and the Middle East. In my ministry the ponds may change, but the ministry will always be the same.

7 Ministries’ Mission Statement is,

Living for eternity by serving and investing in people.

Through this statement I want to emphasize the importance of people and my relationships with others.  God has commanded all his followers to love and serve others. We don’t want to build programs, but build  relationships and invest in people. I believe this is an eternal perspective that I want this ministry to always have. 

We hope to take this understanding of ministry and apply it to the different endeavors that we felt called to do.

7 Ministries now has a blog!! I hope to use this blog to update what we are up to, how you can be involved, explain our purpose and beliefs, and facilitate discussions. I hope it’s helpful. Please feel free to help me out with this process.

Lem Egipto