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MMP MINISTRIES
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About Us

Who We Are

Mission Ministries Philippines is a non-profit, Christian organization that targets the poorest communities in Metro Manila by planting holistic churches that meet the spiritual and physical needs of the most marginalized in the least reached slums. MMP partners with local churches to plant sustainable churches within two years.

How MMP began

Mission Ministries Philippines started in 1984 when Chaplain John A. Lindvall ( ret. Col., USA) visited the Philippines in 1984 and saw the opportunities that were open to serve the poor. He shared his vision to Dr. Stewart W. De Boer (then president of the Asian Theological Seminary).  Through Chaplain Lindvall’s donors providing the financial base and Dr .De Boer’s contacts in the Manila, Mission Ministries Philippines was born. 
In 1985, seven members from the First Congregational Church of Anaheim (FCCA) visited the poor in Manila. They were Maxine Hays, Lowell and Doris Williams, Dottie Miller and Kathy Mitchell. Subsequently, John Mark Lindvall, now President of Mission Ministries USA, Pastor Jim Schibsted, Senior Pastor of FCCA and  Mrs. Janice Bowers, National  Delegate of FCCA visited Manila. They provided encouragement, friendship and administrative support for MMP. 


In 1986, Dr. Corrie Acorda De Boer  served as the first Director of MMP.  She is a trained social development practitioner with a heart for urban poor church planting.  She envisioned MMP to become a significant social movement advocating for early childhood programs among local churches.  During this year, Ms. Chona Domingo, a qualified teacher joined MMP and taught in slum communities for several years. Through her leadership MMP has developed a curriculum for preschool and published books  in  partnership with  University of the Philippines professors. 
From a single school planted in a poor community called Bagong Baryo in 1984, MMP has established over 400 pre-schools in the poverty areas of the Philippines providing poor families with the means of educating their children in their early years of life. 


In 2000, a team composing of seven church planters led by Atty. Raineer Chu joined MMP. Today the mission had planted over twenty churches among the poorest of the poor in Metro Manila. 
Currently, MMP has livelihood programs providing job opportunities for poor families. It is developing an agricultural project teaching local communities the importance of stewarding God’s creation.  It partners with Asian Theological Seminary to provide contextual and biblical theological education for leaders equipping them to minister among the poor.  We have five full time paid staff,  two part time paid workers. We have 20 couples and 7 singles who live by faith and raise support for their subsistence and ministries.


Mission Ministries USA through its President, John Mark Lindvall and its administrative assistant, Ms. Debby Rush provide MMP the base where funds are received and transmitted.

A Poverty Profile of Metro Manila

  • There are 586 slums in Metro Manila alone. These are homes of the poor.  But they remain the frontier for evangelical mission work.
  • The United Nations says that any person who lives on less than USD1.25 (Php58) per day is poor.
  • In the Philippines, the poverty level is USD 0.76 (Php38) per day.
  • 27.6 million Filipinos (33%) live below the poverty standard.
  • 12.2 million Filipinos (15%) live below the subsistence standard.

 

Our Vision

“A sustainable church in every slum”

To make the slum church viable, we plant holistic churches that have a preschool, a drugstore cooperative and a livelihood project to help finance the church. All churches are planted in partnership with the local church to which the slum church eventually belongs.

 

Our Distinctives

  1. Mobilizing laborers to the harvest
  2. Working in teams
  3. A community that journeys in ministry and contemplation
  4. With a mission to plant holistic churches
  5. In the poorest urban slums
  6. In partnership with local churches

 

MMP’s Impact over the years (from 1984 to 2010)

  1. MMP has created a social movement of early childhood programs in partnership with over 400 churches providing quality education to over 100,000 children.  These children receive spiritual, mental and socio-psychological nurture and an environment of acceptance and love.
  2. Trained, mentored and provided jobs for over 2,000 teachers and administrators among the poor.
  3. Published preschool books for children in partnership with Christian professors from the University of the Philippines.
  4. Planted over 31 holistic churches among the poorest of the poor in Metro Manila who are able to sustain themselves. They receive leadership development training from MMP enabling them to set up their own schools and other community projects relevant in their context like livelihood and community drug stores.
  5. From the slums, MMP has mobilized dozens of workers to the harvest, workers without homes, without financial support, but full of the Holy Spirit, going out to the other slums to bring the gospel to their fellow poor. Most of the conversions in the Philippines, like the rest of the world, are happening among the poor.  For more than 20 years now, thousands of those converts have heeded the call to mission, despite their poverty. We have found that the poor have less attachment to material possessions and are easier to mobilize. Today more than 60% of our staff are from the slums.
  6. Initiated the Certificate in Early Childhood Education in partnership with Asian Theological Seminary to equip teacher and administrators in establishing their preschools.
  7. Initiated the MA in Transformational Urban Leadership at Asian Theological Seminary equipping God’s leaders on how to minister among the poor.  This program is in partnership with Encarnacao Alliance, a fraternal network of urban mission leaders.
  8. Initiated the Doctor of Ministry in Transformational Leadership in the Global City at Asian Theological Seminary in partnership with Bakke Graduate University in Seattle.

 

How Success is measured

Success means the poor not only receive but are also empowered to give and the community is transformed. Success happens at two levels:

  • At a personal level, success happens when the poor undergo a paradigm shift, moving from being the receiver to the giver because they know that Jesus (though he was poor) gave sacrificially.
  • At the community level, success happens when the community becomes more united, organized and mobilized toward a common goal.

 

Affiliates

Department of Social Welfare and Development

 

Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches

 

Department of  Education