Seven hundred Former Rebels Baptized

The Philippines was mired in conflict with rebels on Mindoro Island for 52 years. Land and money were offered to the rebels in exchange for peace, but nothing seemed to work. A seemingly endless cycle of ambushes and counterattacks left 40,000 people dead.

In 2017, Adventist World Radio (AWR) began broadcasting in Mindoro as part of a world church initiative known as TMI evangelism. TMI stands for Total Member Involvement, a program that encourages every church member to bring someone to Jesus. AWR leased time on local radio stations, and local church members got involved by giving Bible studies and inviting neighbours to evangelistic meetings. About 1,400 people were baptized at the meetings, and the broadcasts continued.

In 2019, rebels holed up in the lush green mountains of Mindoro began to listen to AWR. As COVID-19 swept the world in 2020, a number of them decided to surrender to Jesus.

Rebel leader Ka Martin could not understand what was happening, and he started to listen to AWR.

When he was just 19 years old, Martin had joined the communist rebel forces on the island of Mindoro, Philippines, and had known no other life. For the next 19 years, he built a reputation as a cold-blooded assassin, fighting the Philippine government and becoming a commander general in the New People’s Army.

 But in 2017, when AWR became a dominant broadcast on the island, Martin, along with his fellow rebels, began to listen. A year passed, and Martin grew aware of a gradual change in his men. One by one, they were coming forward, asking permission to be baptized—they wanted to join the church of Adventist World Radio!

“He was hiding in the jungle, watching and trying to figure out why his fighters were leaving him,“ said AWR president Duane McKey. ” So he started listening to the radio.”

Martin was responsible for the deaths of dozens of people, including 21 soldiers whom he ambushed while they slept and shot them dead with one of their own machine guns. But as he listened to AWR, Martin also felt that burning desire in his heart. He’d listened to the broadcasts and longed to give his life to Jesus and surrender. But there were 13 warrants out for his arrest, and he was on the “most wanted” list. Would AWR be able to negotiate a surrender to the authorities for him?

A bloodstained chapter of Philippine history drew to a close when about 700 former rebels, including Martin and his wife, laid down their weapons and were baptized at AWR-led evangelistic meetings. In all, over 60,000 people were baptized during the “Earth’s Final Countdown” meetings across the Philippines.

“What bullets couldn’t do, God has done,” McKey said.

The Philippine government has granted amnesty to the former rebels. AWR is working with the government and a nongovernmental organization, to help the former rebels earn a livelihood through farming.

“We won’t stop the AWR broadcasts,“ said McKey, who also serves at assistant to the General Conference president in charge of Total Member Involvement. ”The local churches are now running the broadcasts, and we provide the sermons. The laypeople make this happen. This is a perfect example of Total Member Involvement.”

AWR is part of a global network of communication dedicated to reaching hard to reach areas of the world. AWR broadcasts the Advent hope in Christ through the most effective media to the people of the world in their own languages. Radio overcomes the barriers of government restrictions, cultural opposition, illiteracy, and geography. AWR uses shortwave radio, national radio networks, local FM stations, on demand, podcasts, and solar audio players with pre-loaded content. AWR’s powerful flagship shortwave station on the island of Guam broadcasts programs thousands of kilometres across the Asia/Pacific region, in more than 30 languages. People can listen privately to the voice of hope in places where evangelism is prohibited by law and sometimes punishable by death.

Watch the full story here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-nLsxhKxis