Prison Ministry – Another Initiative By JC’s Manifesto

It has been a tremendous blessing by the grace of God to serve fellow pastors in Indonesia and Philippines through the Body of Christ Fellowship and National Auxiliary Chaplaincy of Philippines respectively all these years.

I have noticed that many are already serving in prison ministry and it has been my desire to help them to have a formal bible study program in the prison they serve and to seek financial support for them as well.

By the grace of God,  Crossroad Bible Institute (CBI) USA has approved us to start the prison ministry with their blessing in Indonesia and Philippines.  CBI USA has a very comprehensive bible study program.  (http://www.cbi.fm)

Without hesitation,  we intend to start the program in one prison in Karimun and another in Surabaya, Indonesia in April 2016.

***Latest Update (28 Sept 2016)  :   Due to sudden certain development, JC’s Manifesto Ministries will not be cooperating with CBI USA on rolling out the prison ministry.***

Prison in Madura

Prison in Madura

The Student Pocket Money Ministry In 1998

In 1998, I had a nasty fall at home. I hit my head on the hard ground and I lost consciousness. When I regained my consciousness in the ambulance, I could not remember the accident at all. My skull was deformed showing the severity of the fall.
In the weeks of recuperation, I decided to take things easy and I went to Genting Highlands for a couple of days. I had another fall going headlong probably 30 feet down. As I went down, I thought this was it. Again, I survived without any injury, not even a scratch, by the grace of God.

That shook me thinking about the vagaries of life and how far I had backslided over the years.

I went back to a local church. The very first Sunday service I attended, my car was booked for illegal parking. Later I learned that the neighbours was always upset with such illegal parking and had reported to LTA.

I decided to visit the families living in the vicinity of the church as I saw the need of the church to build up rapport with them. Relations improved so much that they did not report illegal parking anymore.

I also noticed the poor neighbourhood which I felt the church could evangelize through social service. I approached the social assistance department of MCD, Ministry of Community Development , the predecessor of MCYS for the list of needy families in the vicinity of the church.

I explained that I could match donors from church giving monthly pocket money to needy students of poor families which could not qualify for the social assistance from MCD. The supervisor was so grateful for this scheme as she felt so sad for not being able to help this particular group. And the scheme was approved readily.

She gave me a list of needy families near the local church. I managed to match some 15 to 20 families with willing donors in the first 3 months.

And when we invited them to an evangelistic campfire in church for the first time, they gladly came.

Seeing this ministry was a bridge to evangelizing the neighbourhood, the church took over the ministry officially which I gladly handed over.

2 years later when the Straits Times started the same fund, I believe the local church stopped this ministry as not to duplicate the same effort.

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Another Enterprise Project

As documented in my book, The Coming Economic Flood, that as I did not know how to prepare for the coming economic crisis, the best preparation was to fulfill the Manifesto of Christ in sharing the gospel in word and in deed. As I went about galvanizing churches to share the Good News into unreached villages by meeting basic needs as a necessary bridge to entering these villages, I realized that the church clergy themselves were in need. And the quickest way to be self sustaining is to have farms breeding goats, chicken and cultivating rice and vegetables.

Some years ago, I introduced the EM (Effective Micro-organism) technology into such farm experiment. And I never expect it to be so successful today – truly by the grace of God for His tremendous blessing along the way.

The use of EM technology was initially used as an alternative to pesticides and fertilizers but it was expanded to treat water and to control the odor of waste in the farm.

http://www.em-la.com/what_is_the_em_technologyyy_en.php?idioma=2

Praise the Holy Name of our Lord God for His tremendous blessings.

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Galvanizing Churches To Double Their Church Buildings As Shelters

It has been my vision since the start of my ministry a decade ago.   I have been praying for God’s provision towards this vision since and will continue to pray for it.

Majority of the rooms and sanctuaries of the church building of most evangelical churches are closed during the week and only open for worship services and fellowship meetings on weekends.   It will be most wonderful to open up such rooms and sanctuaries as homeless shelters during the week modeled after the single night shelter operated by churches in New York City.  The homeless will queue for a place to sleep at these churches by 5 pm and get to stay for the night.

The budget and human resources for such ministry are not taxing.   A one time investment of foldable beds, bed sheets and pillows can be made for the fixed expense.  As for the operating expense,  all church members can volunteer to welcome the homeless and to wash the bed sheets.   If the church membership is large,  one only get to perform such duty once a year.  Budget for warm soup served is not much either.

As the economic flood is imminent,  many will suffer homelessness in the major freewheeling cities in China and other Asian cities.

May God grant my prayer wish this year by opening doors for me to share across the Asia region to galvanize churches to take up this ministry and to encourage all to give towards such cause.

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Galvanizing Church Pastors To Start Tent-making Enterprise

Two years ago in a national chaplaincy conference in Baguio city in which I shared about the coming economic flood, I broached the idea to the needy pastors to rear pigs to supplement their income. Knowing that they would be short of start up capital, I requested that we would pray together for God’s provision.

Praise the Lord that one pastor took up this idea of starting such a farm. Instead of helping him with the entire start up funds, JC Manifesto was able to help him with the occasional lack of funds through gifts and loans for the feed or other operational needs.

(We have learned from experience in the past when we provided the whole start up fund for certain enterprise in Indonesia, the pastors were less committed.)

Today, he has about 30 pigs and piglets. Praying that he can succeed with this tent-making opportunity to be an example for other fellow pastors to follow suit.

 

A Project Of Love

Myanmar is at the dawn of a new era of change and progress. It is all God’s timing and sovereignty. May God bless this nation !

Thanks be to God that JC’s Manifesto can be a channel of blessings through Brother SJ Long to Myo Myanmar Youth Development Centre in Taikgyi Township, Yangon, an orphanage under the pastoral care of Pastor Arnold.

All thanks and glory to our Lord Jesus Christ.

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National Convention Of The National Auxiliary Chaplaincy Of Philippines (NACPHIL)

National Convention Of The National Auxiliary Chaplaincy Of Philippines (NACPHIL)

5th November 2015

All thanks and glory to God for allowing me to be a partner of this God-fearing chaplaincy to fulfill God’s given commission to strengthen a godly Filipino society with good governance through a righteous leadership.

I am so thrilled and filled with joy that the chaplaincy has prayed and acted to get an executive order to allow them to share the Good News to the whole nation – not only to all levels of government but also to schools, hospitals and other institutions.

This is a most wonderful acknowledgement that believing in Jesus Christ as one’s personal Savior and Lord is the only way to transformed godly lives.

Felt so blessed to receive the letter of recognition from all my beloved bishops and comrades in Christ.

All glory and honor to our Lord  Jesus Christ !    All praises to His holy name !

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My Open Letter To My Comrades In Christ

(In partnership with Dr Kecha Seyie, President of Nagaland Christian Revival Theological Association,  JC’s Manifesto Ministries was able to send over 200 solar lamps to the border villages of Nepal giving the missionaries a bridge to reach into the villages in Nepal to share the gospel both in word and in deed.  Due to the tense political situation between India and Nepal,  the missionaries congregated in a local Nepalese church for a seminar.  The following letter allowed me to be there in the spirit to share a word of encouragement to fellow comrades in the field.)

To fellow pastors and saints in Christ in Nagaland and Nepal,

My fellow comrades in the field,

Grace and peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God for the excellent report of your tremendous love for our Lord Jesus in carrying out His given commission in Nagaland and in Nepal.   Nagaland is completely won for Christ.  Hallelujah !   Though Nepal is a stronghold of the enemy,  we give thanks to God that so much is done to win souls there.

Whenever our Lord went in His ministry,  not only He shared the Good News but also He did so much good works in casting out demons and healing the sick.  And His disciples were also obedient in doing the same as we read in Mark 6:12-13.

Without doubt,  we are called to stimulate each other to love and good works, not neglecting to meet often and all the more as we see the Day drawing near.

I give thanks to God for allowing me to be a vessel in partnering you in sharing the gospel both in word as well as in deed.

God has enabled many Christian ministries to be established to meet such needs as orphanage,  medical clinics,  bible schools and social enterprises.   As for me, God has guided me to establish a platform in JC’s Manifesto Ministries to meet basic needs such as providing light through solar lamps,  clean water through biosand water filters and basic food staple through basic farm equipment.

Please feel free to check out my web blog www.jcmanifesto.org  where I shared the various ministries I am working on,  some important teachings to fend against the rampant false teaching and my faith journey.

If God so wills that such evangelistic outreach programs be done in India and Nepal,  He will provide as we seek His will.

I look forward to going to the harvest field with you one day if God so wills.

Right now, I would like to share an important message.

Our Lord specifically told us that before He returns,  hard times will come.  There will be spiritual deception,  calamities and persecution of unprecedented scale as He warned us in Luke 21:7-19.

We are told to observe the times and to be prepared and pray to escape the times as in Luke 21:28-36.

God has graciously given me visions to make me better understand  the judgment of Babylon in Rev 18.   In Rev 18,  God revealed He will destroy all the wealth in one hour.   All the kings of the earth, merchants and those who make their living by the sea will weep at the demise of Babylon.   This is unmistakably the present global capitalistic system of governments,  multinational companies and supporting small and medium enterprises and the global seaports cum financial centres like Singapore, New York, Hongkong and Shanghai.

Today,  the other 2 aspects of the Babylonian system, the religious and political systems,  have also reared their heads.  The different faiths are close to form one world religion.  Same sex marriage have been legalized in many countries already which openly oppose God’s laws in an unprecedented and blatant way.

The financial system today will collapse very soon.   The stock markets around the world has collapsed in September this year wiping out  USD 11 trillion already which is so much larger than the loss of USD 2.5 trillion in the aftermath of the US subprime loan crisis in September 2008.   The sovereign debt of all major economies has gone off the point of no return and is beyond even service of interest payment.

God’s people are told to rejoice at God’s judgment in Rev 18:20.  So if we are vigilant,  we have nothing to fear.  As long as we seek His righteousness first and come out of Babylon,  we will not face the plagues of mourning, famine and death.

God is not telling us to quit all commercial activity.  On the contrary, we are to warn the idle among us.   All the more we should be hardworking and to provide the relief for those who are suffering from famine.

The book of Acts in chapter 11:27-30 gave us a good example.  The prophet Agabus predicted a global famine and the Antioch church started saving the relief and later provided it to the Judea church through Paul and Barnabas.

Let’s stay watchful and prepare as exhorted in 1 Thess 5.

Encourage one another and build up one another.

Warn the idle.  Encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, and be patient with one another.

Rejoice always and pray without ceasing so that we do not lose hope.

Do not despise prophecy but test everything carefully.

The church must start to save and prepare for this day.  Like in the days of Joseph in Egypt,  Joseph saved the grain during the 7 years of bountiful harvest in anticipation of the 7 years of famine.   Command the rich in the church to be generous in good works as exhorted in 1 Tim 6:17-19.

When trouble comes,  there will be many falling away due to lack of root but there is also a great harvest at the same time.   Many will seek God when they realize how helpless and mortal they are.   Let’s all of us pray to be the vessel in bringing in this great harvest.

As for personal physical preparation, seek wisdom from God as He will gives it generously to those who ask.  Noah,  when being warned of the impending judgment, with reverent fear built an ark to save his family.  Pray for God’s wisdom to build this “ark”.

Let me end this letter with this exhortation from Zeph 2:3

Seek the Lord, All you humble of the earth Who have carried out His ordinances; Seek righteousness, seek humility. Perhaps you will be hidden In the day of the Lord’s anger.

Your brother and comrade in Christ,

Pastor Anthony Ho

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Current Ministry At A Halfway House

Due to my commitment in pastoral ministry in two churches here and in Batam,  I can only commit to the sharing of the Word of God at a halfway house once a month.

Every time I worship with these brothers, I thank God for the repentant change in their lives wrought by the grace of God in Christ Jesus.  Only by surrendering their lives to Christ as their personal Savior and Lord can they come out of the bondage of drug addiction.   Everyone has an unique and amazing testimony of how God has touched his life.

I am so grateful to God for allowing me to be a vessel in the Christian journey with these brothers.

As much as I encourage them with God’s word, they encourage me with their living testimony of surrender and trust in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Praise the Lord for His goodness and mercy !

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Pastoral Ministry In Johor Bahru In 2012

Sometime in September 2012,  I happened to patronize a fruit stall in Johor Bahru together with a fellow pastor and we had a conversation with the Vietnamese lady owner.  She was in her mid 30s and she had two children aged 8 and 4 then.

When she realized that I was serving full-time in Christian ministry, she asked if both of us would be interested to pastor her small congregation of 25 people.

Without hesitation,  we agreed as we did not want to see the church without proper teaching.  This sister was responsible for the leadership and oversight of the fellowship.

After we had finished the worship service in Singapore at about 12 noon,  we would rush into Johor getting there in time for the 2 pm worship service and returning at about 5 pm.

And together with this same fellow pastor, we rushed again to conduct another Chinese evening service together in a Korean church.

Eventually this Vietnamese fellowship joined a bigger church nearby in mid 2013.

Just want to reminisce the wonderful fellowship I had with this Vietnamese congregation.  The ministry had helped me to brush up my Mandarin.

May God our Father uphold the faith of these Vietnamese brothers and sisters steadfast in our Lord Jesus Christ.

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