Filipino Assassins

In this episode we meet Tom O'Brien who has spent more than 40 years living and serving in South East Asia with his family, making disciples and planting churches.

Tom shares some extraodinary stories of twenty years or so in the Southern Philippines, during which he was specifically targeted by extremists multiple times. 

We also hear about black magic practices and the culture of blood feuds/revenge killings in the mountainous tribal society where he lived.

This is a story of perseverance and faith that will inspire you to step out into mission, trusting God to be your shield and defender.

Transcript

Tom OBrien 0:02

I was helping her and they were gonna shoot me but I didn't know it They were in a house or something out a window I don't know exactly where they were but they had aim on me And then they said I disappeared I remember the day I didn't disappear And so the Lord was really good to us I don't remember all the stories but one time the rebels were there and they're gonna burn our house down And so they go over there cause we evacuated and it and they left because it was angels all the way around our house

Speaker 0:32

Hi guys. Welcome back to Raw Mission, the podcast where we hear from ordinary men and women who have heard the call and obeyed the command often with much fear and trembling to take the good news of Jesus to the ends of the earth. As you may know, I sometimes invite guests onto the show who aren't from Frontiers. There are many out there who share our passion for Muslims to know Jesus, and we want to learn from them by hearing their stories. I'm Matt, your host, and today's special guest has spent decades sharing the gospel to Muslim communities in and around Southeast Asia. he'll be sharing stories from his first 20 years of living in Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines. The stories are remarkable and include memories of black magic blood feuds, and multiple assassination attempts by extremists on his life.

Matt 1:22

Well, hi Tom. It is great to have you on the show. Welcome to Royal Mission.

Tom OBrien 1:26

good to be here Thanks for

Matt 1:28

tell us a little bit about where you come from and how you got into this crazy life of living in different cultures around the world.

Tom OBrien 1:38

Chicago and grew up there and come from a church family but my folks thought we should go to Sunday school So that always dropped us off So I didn't hear about church or the great commission even though I did Sunday school or missions until I was about 20 years old although I accepted crisis as a child coming from an unsafe family it was really at 18 Then they made an adult decision to really be a follower of Christ Then I learned how to share my faith and I used to do visitation every Monday night to people who come to the church So I was very active in evangelism and ministry community work with Children and with whomever that I met I was a big brother So I did a lot of ministry very active for those four years Uh at that time I was a carpenter by trade wasn't college bound at all I was a steer builder build circular staircases out of wood So from a very common background But then I didn't have a church background so I didn't know some church culture things And so when I heard about You need to share your faith I says oh I didn't know we had to do that Okay And then when I heard the Great Commission it was the same Oh I didn't know we're supposed to go overseas And so I just I went forward I told yes to the Lord when Kevin Dyer of international Teams invited us to come down there in my home church And just said the Lord I says well if I go overseas who's gonna tell my family about Christ And so the Lord said well you obey me and I'll take care of your family it took the Lord 16 years But my parents my siblings their husbands and wives and all their children came to Christ But praise God for his mercy and grace

Matt 3:20

fantastic. Do yeah, continue.

Tom OBrien 3:23

being from the Chicago area I was just gonna go overseas I didn't know anything about a Bible school so uh one of our elders said Tom you need to get some training why don't you go to Moody So I went there and I didn't have really any college prep or anything but they let me in I told them what ministry experience I had I was going overseas And so I came into Moody in 1981 and got married in 84 after my graduation from a diploma course at that time And after that Michelle and I went to the Philippines in 1985

Matt 3:55

So had Michelle always had a interest in global things or Did she get encouraged into that by you as well?

Tom OBrien 4:06

I had decided to go overseas and before I started Bible school I went to Australia and Michelle was on that team we dated long distance She's from Minneapolis so we did that two years And Year number three prior to our marriage she came down to Chicago and did Bible school But we went to urban band in 1981 We chose our organization and we've been happy with it all these many years

Matt 4:31

great. Now why the Philippines.

Tom OBrien 4:34

through I'd met other people with our organization and others Interested in Muslims And so I began learning about Muslim peoples And so we joined an organization because we wanted to reach out to Muslims and I could really go anywhere So I just asked the president and I says well where do you want me to go He says we have a new team in the Philippines Why don't you go there I says okay So we went sight unseen never made a trip there We knew we were signing up for life and we went I don't know if that was common in those days it seemed like a little more common than today I suppose where people have one career their whole life and have one job their whole life

Matt 5:15

Yeah, that's true. And when many of us think of the Philippines, we think of a majority Catholic country. Is that correct? But, but talk us through the areas you went to, which presumably had a lot more Muslims.

Tom OBrien 5:33

ministry after learning the ano language for about seven months in Bine And we moved over to a Ligan city which is on the island in Al which is the provinces where the au people live Marna means people of the lake They would call the ano people people of the ocean and although I did do ministry among three different people groups there in the church it was a rural ministry Primarily what we did but 90 of my time was spent with MA and Muslims helping them come to know Christ

Matt 6:04

Can you describe the culture, the geography, because most of us have no idea what that's like down there.

Tom OBrien 6:14

And a lincolnn is a typical Filipino city You know it's just got like a two-lane road things like that Lots of traffic everything's gonna be on it but we began doing ministry in a few different places We started doing ministry in a place called Tamba K which is a kind of a poor squat area in town then we also began in 1987 with my coworkers going up to the mountains And it's in the mountains where our primary ministry was So there was in the area where we were were three different languages We lived there from 1991 to 2001 we were there pre electricity so there was eventually we had two small solar panels but they were not solar panels like you have now That could generate much power it was a simple life but a very good life although a very difficult life as well culturally the marinos didn't know who we were when we went up into the villages there they thought we were ghosts they had seen white people before but at that time they said they hadn't so they were really much afraid of us in that time and they were quite innocent to the gospel although they were entrenched in Islamic as well that any 7-year-old from a Muslim family's gonna know they're gonna know all the Muslim objections against Christ So we began working with them It was in 1991 that we had our first believers

Matt 7:38

That's so interesting that they thought you were ghosts. So would they just run away or laugh at you, or, it didn't turn nasty in any kind of rejection early on. Did it,

Tom OBrien 7:48

those bit later By 1993 we had lots of problems But in those years people were kind and friendly They were afraid they were just kind of push one person forward to do the talking Uh but it was years later they opened up and kind of shared some of their true feelings of who we were at the beginning it was Very sad We had 15 kids die on one week the people cause we were helping them through that process they were so steeped in animism and so steeped in Islam that they wouldn't listen to us And even though we didn't know a lot of medical things at the time later on I would learn a lot more But at that time we didn't know much But the advice we still gave at that time was good Only one family listened to us and only one family the child lived everyone else died So it was a very sad time for us but it really endeared us to the people and there were many reasons why they didn't listen But mostly it was the spiritual bondage to unseen spirits Uh this family was very much into a lot of demonic practices We weren't amazed when we found people that were demonized It was more amazing that they weren't all demonized because of all the things that they did

Matt 9:08

tell us a little bit more about what animistic religions look like in that context.'cause you know, we hear about this maybe demonization of some sort and, spiritual practices, but in your context, what did that look like practically?

Tom OBrien 9:26

talents from the evil one and so for example so Lyman there his talent was as he could balance an egg on your stomach that was raw and they would start listing diseases And when the egg stood up on its own without holding it that's what your sickness was And then he says do I need to give a pair of pants Do I need to kill a chicken Do I need to give a Malo which is a tube shaped dress that they wore And so when the egg would stand up again that's what the people had to give to the quack doctor in order to get better And so uh other ones had talent to put their fingers on teeth So when children are teething the pain would go away and people would line up if they had a talent for those kind of thing So other people would put Quranic verses and water and wash them off and make them drink That's more common throughout the Muslim world Other people would chew something or say incantations and spit on their head So there was a lot of different things that they did and these people had many many many magic books that they used that were all written in notebooks you know nothing fancy just written on like a school notebook of a child and they would have to do yearly sacrifices Baba Amal who was there he would have everybody contribute for his yearly sacrifice of a hundred chickens or something like that in order to maintain his power and often passed on from person to person There were others as well like Anton who had twin spirits In order for her father to continue having his power he had to release his daughter to demonic powers And so she had these twin spirits would visit her at night And so it was a lot of things like that when we had to teach the story on Moses and the Exodus we had to teach them carefully about putting blood on the doorposts our people always did that they call it the Kind of means the day of the dog So if they're at nighttime and hearing dogs approaching them they'd kill a chicken and put the blood on the doorpost or on the window sills in order to stop them from coming into the house And it was also a regular practice Anytime they had a new house they would kill a chicken and put the blood on the posts and all that kind of thing they did sacrifices commonly anytime they broke new ground anytime they crossed the river they may throw a coin in the river to say Hey my ancestors I'm crossing the river I don't want to step on you so move out of the way And so they would believe that people that suddenly like drowned in the river or something that their spirits would still be there And so they didn't wanna step on them as they crossed So there were just lots of things that they did and I've seen people demonize a number of times there where we had to counsel them and help them through that process Some people believed in Christ and got freedom and then many years later got much much more freedom But in those early days it was a very big spiritual battle

Matt 12:28

That's really interesting. Um, it makes me think about two questions. One is obviously there's a lot of fear, going on inside the people, but what effect did that have on you guys coming in as outsiders? Did you have incidents and times where you felt under attack kind of an oppression or just weird things happening

Tom OBrien 12:49

that. with a demonized person we would certainly gather people together for prayer Uh not only people praying ahead of time but even having another group of people praying during the time that we're doing the intervention with them for me personally during my years at Moody God was gracious I was able to meet Timothy Warner from Trinity I was able to meet and interact especially with Dr Fred Dickinson he gave me a good amount of experience in dealing with demonized people I so when we got to the Philippines it wasn't my first time to have to counsel somebody who's demonized or to help them through that process for me I knew my rights in Christ and I wasn't afraid even though you feel a bit of nervousness from time to time hoping that it goes well for the person So yeah by God's grace we were never attacked I mean they tried to a few times and we just in the name of Christ told them to stand down and shut up and so my previous experience was very helpful

Matt 13:48

That's good. And I suppose the second question that came to my mind was. There are some parts of the gospel that, you know, really speak into this fear, power kind of environment that you were living in. Do you have some particular favorite episodes from scripture that you would relate to them to show them the power of Jesus over these things that are troubling them? was that quite important for them to hear of Jesus as the, conqueror over, evil spirits as well as of course the savior from sins and everything else?

Tom OBrien 14:20

about the victory in Christ but go-to scriptures will be the armor of God in Ephesians chapter six but my favorite ones of course in Colossians chapter one and Colossians chapter two that really proclaim Christ Christ's victory and is parading the demons the point of his resurrection we always use those and then sometimes others you know you're sharing scriptures and Singing songs and giving praise and praying out loud and telling them how great Christ is And then once you get them to shut up and stop bothering the person then you really need to focus on the person themselves and really find out where they're at what areas has this person saved or unsaved opened the door and given these demons this much permission in their life And so there you can go all over the scriptures You know it might be bitterness and anger that they're dealing with it could be a lot of different things and Ultimately the person themselves have to repent on their sins and themselves closing all those doors that they've opened and permissions they've given for their demonization

Matt 15:26

Yeah. Repentance takes on a whole bigger meaning, doesn't it? In a context like that. Yeah. Thank you. That's helpful, Tom. So let's, let's get onto the good stuff. yeah, tell us more about those first believers and what happened with the early church there.

Tom OBrien 15:38

we 16 churches We're working in about 11 different language groups there's a business there clinics school all sorts of different things But the very beginnings back in 1991 when we had the first believers once they believed we were bringing them through the Book of Acts And as they were going through the book of Acts they're learning about sharing the gospel And They knew that we went through all the villages sharing the word of God And you have to understand this is mind now Everybody's got guns police don't like going there military doesn't like going there it's dangerous So in that kind of context we're sharing Christ openly We knew that being in a rural area You're not gonna hide anything from anybody Everyone knows what you're doing where you go what you do what you say So we were always just nice and kind and helpful to people but very upfront in what we did So I would often betray anybody in Bible study by saying oh where are you going Oh I'm going to Ahmad's house We're gonna study the you wanna come I'm trying to make it normal for them that people study the Bible We're trying to have the lies they would make up about us would always be worse than what's really happening you know and so we had our first baptisms you know the people would say oh did he hold you under the water till you saw Jesus Or what did they do to you You know so it was just better to just tell them where the baptisms are If you wanna come watch come and watch You know we did river right there And again it's in a place where people have guns and they use them And It was a lot of opposition but helped us and delivered us so many times that the church can exist openly in a Muslim area

Matt 17:32

just quickly, for those who don't know, tell us why the people there have guns and why the military and, police and so on, don't want to go down there.

Tom OBrien 17:44

they have roads now people have cell phones People have video you if you do something wrong But in those days there was no electricity The forest was the forest If you kill somebody you just run up into the forest and go away So it's not that way Now I don't wanna mar now still feud with one another and kill one another But it's not at all like it was in those days It's it was really like living there in the 18 hundreds I suppose with the blacksmith shop and everything else it was it was very very different

Matt 18:14

is the reason they have gun something to do with a secessionist movement against the government of the Philippines? Do they want their own political entity, you know, some kind of province down there? Is that why, or was it just the fact that they have guns for each other?

Tom OBrien 18:33

that want from the and that's still now and they got worse and worse In those days kidnapping was very popular and it was just kind of a business and not too many people were killed But later on as Abu and ISIS and other terrorist groups came in there that it ever wasn't serious but it became much more serious But then there's also people that are feuding because there aren't police If my family's mad at your family and your family kills somebody in my family then we're good to kill anybody in your family up to your third cousin And so feuding is a huge problem there Every month there's another new feud happening And when you have people that are all interrelated to each other by marriage it's messy who to be mad at and who to kill and all this kind of stuff And it happens never didn't happen So that's the other reason They all have guns and then there we're the only Americans up they assume we have money And they had this myth that when the Japanese were there they had these big cement things and they would hide their gold in there while the Japanese soldiers would bring gold them into now and hide it there Who knows But that's what they believed time they broke in you know we were on furlough we had a cement box behind our house Of course we were the only toilet in the village so they didn't know what that cement box was so they broke into it and send somebody down into our septic tank to find the gold

Matt 20:04

Wow, that's hilarious. But did you actually live in fear of kidnap yourselves or have any friends, coworkers who went through

Tom OBrien 20:14

back in 1986 He was living up at the Minal State University and was kidnapped He was held for five days hid his wife in a closet they brought him to an island on Lake Lana where the center where the Maral people live And he was held for a number of days his wife Carol Ann And they became our team members they eventually sheltered in our home in a league and during this crisis So that happened to Brian but beginning in 1993 our people started teaching the word of God we started preparing curriculum We got training from friends from new tribes then uh the mar now started getting very mad It was bad enough that I was teaching God's word they started teaching God's word to other Mar nows they got very upset so they started sending people to kidnap us people to come kill us which was a continual problem over and over again for the next 20 years but particularly the next 10 years while we lived in the mountains was constant actually least three to four times a year we would have another not general threat like we're gonna kidnap somebody It was we're coming O'Brien It was all very very specific So we weren't gonna be foolish So sometimes we evacuated sometimes we didn't And it just depends on the situation the believers leadership when they came to Christ they looked me straight in the ices Tom you gonna stand with us If we make this decision our lives are in danger And you know I lived up there long enough that I knew their lives was in danger and they tried to kill them too Anyway so I says yeah I'll stand with you I couldn't turn my back on them you know they're my spiritual children and I had little kids in the house at that time In 1991 We had you know Amanda was five and Stephanie was newly born uh when in our worst time Michelle was pregnant with our third Colin in 1994 where we had groups after us We had four different heavily armed groups looking for me in 94 so it just kept escalating over and over again Sometimes we were with the kidnappers we could talk em out of it Other times I don't know friends around other times I just went and talked to em I didn't realize they're kidnappers and my people are trying to get me outta there But eventually when our leadership got to know the believers and they could say what does Baah think What does Siano think What are the believers saying What should we do So when we got their advice I felt good because I'm not abandoning them I'm doing them what they're telling me to do and so sometimes we evacuated and sometimes we didn't there's so many stories but you know one time we were up in the mountains I was showing the Jesus film on a little VVHS player And I was doing that And there were a group of terrorists who were coming to kidnap me And so we evacuated and went back to a ligan which a ligan wasn't that far away It was only an hour away but it was like night and day I mean they had electricity and modern people and up in the mountains we didn't So we left we get to town our lights flickered wonder what happened Well the rebels were mad because we left they blew up a high tension tower cut out the electricity for the whole island in now kind of like the state of Ohio for four or five days And in that instance We didn't evacuate a long time They blew up the tower They had to leave So we went back home other times like in 94 when we had the four groups after us we evacuated to 17 different safe houses over two months time And they kept following us kept finding us We'd go to Manila be with the embassy all kinds of stuff come back down A few hours later they find us again We're evacuated again it was very hard because some in the in the worker community of whom we serve with Uh most people thought these people should leave because they're putting all of us in danger and they followed us to different cities and things like that too but no one else really was in danger They really were looking for me but I talked about the curriculum earlier I'm not a desk person I'm a person that's outside teaching God's word Uh I was good at it I knew Marano very well I didn't like writing curriculum but I had to write curriculum And so God really used that very difficult time to give us a safe place where I can write curriculum So I really thought that's what his plan was to set me aside to write curriculum to get caught up And so during that time I got all our curriculum caught up and I did our hymnal I did our farming books everything And I did a medical manual in Marl So God was very gracious in that to bringing us through those years but praise God they continued teaching the word of God I would go back and visit during that six month period of time encouraged the believers give them more curriculum Switch things out keep them going and go back again Our leadership wanted to keep us out that long because Michelle was pregnant with Colin And a side note I don't know if you know Martin and Gracia Burnham who were kidnapped in the Philippines in 2001 and Martin was then killed by the Rebels A year later They were held by the Abu And has been a spokeswoman for voice of the martyrs and new tribes and other groups All this time it was Martin and Grisha who took us in When we had nowhere to go would still had to evacuate says you can be here

Matt 25:59

Wow.

Tom OBrien 26:00

And I had flown with him In some of our areas I'd flown with lived in an even Also dangerous but he told me Martin told me he says Tom no matter where you're at I'll come get you

Matt 26:13

That's amazing. True brotherhood. And he paid the ultimate price one day.

Tom OBrien 26:19

yeah he was a He celebrating their anniversary wedding anniversary one night at a hotel And that's when they obviously have came and got them and the other tourists

Matt 26:31

Wow. So did you often fly up into the mountains or the jungle? I'm trying to picture how you'd get around.

Tom OBrien 26:44

could get there but our coworkers at those days had to fly into their area So when I went in to help them I would fly or sometimes assisted other people I would fly into their area So we knew each other that way And then because it was pre electricity and all the kidnapping things eventually by 96 or seven got a radio in the house And so we could check in every day and let people know that we're okay This was of course before phones in the Philippines

Matt 27:13

So tell me more about the church there. What did it look like? The expression of following Jesus, gathering together? Would they meet in homes and what were the forms that they used?

Tom OBrien 27:25

The church was difficult to plant because we have now a multiracial church from different villages We would try our best to have people study in groups Maybe it's a family group maybe it's a couple of families but it would always be a group of people Even though it may not be a large group but it's at least a group of people So we found people that are open to the gospel We went there we stayed there we hiked up there I mean there are people that I started bible study with You know you make a commitment I'm gonna hike up this mountain that takes me two hours to get there and an hour and a half to get back down Every week you know that was our norm but people came to Christ They'd get baptized they start gathering together They would start singing they would start worshiping at that point in the home once we had groups that were kind of one another then we would often combine those groups and then they would build maybe a meeting hall or a church building or something like that These were also very simple you know they'd get logs out of the mountains and just them up and either put a thatch roofed on or we would give them some nails and it would be like a group Venture to put up some sort of simple building for the people to gather in And so that's how the churches formed at that time and from that point on everybody who's a obedient believer teaches evangelistic Bible studies We don't have anybody that doesn't do that If you don't know how to read we teach you to read we'll let you go with other people But we're gonna develop that skill where you can teach other people about Christ and help lead these evangelistic studies whether with children with adults with whatever village you're going to So that was the culture of the church that they would do that and everybody would teach And they have that culture until now these 40 some years later We were wearing a Malone which is a tube shape thing that they wear But my coworker and I are bowing and things like that trying to be contextualized We look around the believers are just sitting there told my coworkers they're not interested so we just won't do it we didn't for many years And then probably three or four years later they met another group of believers who are maral Maybe it was even almost seven years later And then They said oh I like this They didn't know the word contextualized but I like the way that they're worshiping They're bowed down That's what we used to do think we should do that And I says okay if you want to go ahead but they weren't interested They still never did it and then about after the eighth year of the church the Maral believers came up to us and said had a conviction And they said you know when we worship we really need to bow and we feel like we're not honoring the Lord by not bowing and then after they did that kind of formal part with the men in the front and the women in the back all bowing and things like that using the Marna language You never used any Arabic except for maybe a few phrases that were in the Marna language as well from their background So yeah it worked out that way And then they continued on to do it those years there was a lot of animosity because in the seventies the Sanos and the Manos were killing each other and kidnapping each other's children They had just had a war that ended in 72 It was very serious Everybody had family members who had been killed by the other group so it took a long time for the different races of Filipino languages to love and trust one another But now 40 some years later they're all one in Christ the marinos don't get together with just the marinos anymore They get together with the whole church and they're all intermingled and they all love one another and care for one another So that's kind of how it's panned out for us these years

Matt 31:20

That's amazing. And you said early on there was opposition, especially when they started teaching the scriptures, not just you as the outsiders. What did some of that opposition look like and how did they persevere through some of that what was the impact on the whole society?

Tom OBrien 31:34

very serious are in the past people had hid on a hill and started taking crack shots in the village of the Maral believers and tried to shoot them Fortunately they missed them there were other times where they just abducted a young man and claimed that he had kissed their sister or something even if they didn't do it And then in the Marna culture if you do that sort of thing it affects their pride They literally string them up to a tree They hold the arm alight to their head until the family pays a ransom for the person So that happened a number of times over different families

Matt 32:19

Sorry. just say, what did they hold to their head?

Tom OBrien 32:21

like an automatic weapon so the brothers would their honor was Violated because they had kissed the And sometimes the have a real beef that something happened Other times if they liked somebody they would just say that so they can get married to them And so it's quite serious But the problem is is when that's the case no one believes you if it's not true And so you have to pay more so our believers would've to pay more money just to get their person released even if a wedding didn't happen and often in that case it didn't happen but they'd have to pay money the other times they could take revenge on the Christians even if they're in the other family because they're Christians and the other family won't mind so much that they've been killed So they suffered a lot over the years for being Christ followers Fortunately there were farmers and they had their own land so they couldn't take away their livelihood But there were times that unbelievers should come by and burn the house down in all the belongings of a believing family There are other times where they stole their water buffalo or stole their cow or other stock that they had had stole their chickens stole their clothes off the line It was just a constant victimization And they couldn't do anything and it was hard for them because they're in a culture that takes revenge So we had a lot of discussions of what you can't go back and kill them one of our elders was a mass murderer You know some siano person in town said something bad to him and he didn't like it and he just went into another siano house totally unrelated to this thing and killed everybody inside So that's the kind of people that we had as early believers Now he did that when he was unsaved but that's the background they came from

Matt 34:17

Right.

Tom OBrien 34:17

it was quite quite difficult Yeah

Matt 35:07

Yeah. Did the Christians begin to get a reputation as those who didn't take revenge, so the culture was beginning to shift then?

Tom OBrien 35:14

it did shift but the Lord has killed over 17 people on their side so I even had on two occasions rebels come up to me and say we're supposed to kill you And I was by myself They were them all their guns and everything uh but I told them I don't think it's safe for you to try to kill me Do you know this person And that person I don't remember their names now but I mentioned them to them It's just they're dead Do you know that I'm a child of God I am a son of God and God loves me And if you try to kill me God is gonna kill you And I don't want him to kill you It's dangerous for you to try to kill me And they thought they thought oh we better not we won't kill you then I said okay me know if you change your mind and they did Three years later they came back and they said Tom we're in such trouble We're supposed to kill you before And we didn't So now they're sending more people And I says thank you so much for telling me God providentially at that time it was 2000 We were still in the mountains and some rebels who we have believers from now all these years later there's believers in these villages but at that time nothing they attacked a town of Calgon in the Philippines And the president who was a former movie actor Israel drunk he was a horrible president didn't last anyway he did an all out war so all the people that were hunting for us now had to fight the government And so we were able to finish our term and do all the work that God had given us to do And so God really saved us over and over again We had other times where people gonna shoot me One time I had my son on my shoulders and they felt bad They says let's not kill him Now he's got his son with them Then they had another time that I was and this happened to believers too but a occasion when I was helping a lady with tb uh and she was very sick Another miracle is that I never got tb I did so much sputum slides Anyway I was helping her and they were gonna shoot me but I didn't know it They were in a house or something out a window I don't know exactly where they were but they had aim on me And then they said I disappeared I remember the day I didn't disappear That's what they said And so the Lord was really good to us I don't remember all the stories but one time the rebels were there and they're gonna burn our house down And so they go over there cause we evacuated and it and they left because it was angels all the way around our house And they were afraid So they left So yeah praise God

Matt 38:08

That's amazing.

Tom OBrien 38:09

we weathered the 10 years of that intense persecution and they just stopped And I think they just got tired These people aren't gonna quit We tried to kidnap them they wouldn't stop we tried to kill them through feuds or whatever it was They didn't stop We've threatened them their lives We put a contract out on them So many people came hunting for me But I had helped so many people through our clinics you know wherever I went I had my medical bag my stethoscope my everything else arranged surgeries for people And so because of that had a lot of loyalty in the villages And so there were people that are neighbors that were our enemies cause of Christ But there were a lot more that really liked us because all the people we helped And so they accepted that we can be Christ followers in those villages

Matt 39:00

So to wrap up that particular episode of your life in the Southern Philippines, what would you say now that there are hundreds of believers now in that area and they're continuing to grow as as a church?

Tom OBrien 39:17

cause we're human Muslim peoples mostly But um and many of those that are saved are from the ano andan peoples animus or Catholic background But the to Christ probably somewhere around a hundred or so that came to Christ through the churches that we did that stayed on You know there are other people that didn't stay on but there was about that many including the ones that have believed now we did some infrastructure I would just fast forward over the years One thing we did in 2000 we began a bible training school before that the Anos of course hated the maranas They thought it was great that they're going to hell even if they were believers And we did prayer meetings over the years and other things to educate them But by the late nineties Filipinos started becoming workers sharing the gospel with Muslims And so we started a bible training center by my suggestion With coworkers called the Life Resources Foundation Our churches didn't need a bible school to plant churches They already knew how to do that but we needed that to teach others cross-cultural ministry And so that school is open till now And that's where many of our workers who have joined our organization come from that school And they come from our churches They come from our churches and they go to that school and then they're sent out with our organization The next thing that we started was are people really poor They didn't eat three times a day so how are they gonna send out missionaries You know when we earlier on we had we haven't touched on so many things we even talked about where I'm living now But they you know at a month at a time they're gonna eat boiled bananas want to eat rice but they have no money Or a month at a time they're eating casava or you know and so just boiled stuff and weeds and that's their food How are they gonna send out missionaries So we started businesses we did a bakery we did a halfway home we did a corn mill We did a lot of different things our goats lasted about 15 years We made bricks as well We did a lot of smaller businesses to support our mission's work and that was okay when we need to buy another horse or you know give something a supplement to their income Nobody was really called the missions it was more like oh I've got 10 bible studies now I don't have time anymore to farm You know so just as their Bible studies multiplied they got the calling to be full-time and then when they had to start moving took more money So eventually we started a business in 2003 called Perfectly Natural Herbs through the help of business people we grow and manufacture Medicinal herbs we dry them in our plant and we make food supplements And so perfectly natural herbs have been supporting our workers Now we built the plant in 2005 the first year was testing then I raised money on a furlough And then when it came back in 2005 we built our manufacturing plant So from 2005 we began and in earnest in 2006 anyway there's a lot of stories behind doing that business but now these poor people still spend money like a poor person They're very generous but they have more than a million dollars in the bank I think I haven't seen their balance for a while they're very generous They're supporting over a hundred workers They support them at the rate that they live on They don't give them tons of money but they give what they live on the church has the goal to be the most generous church in the world generous because you know they don't ask for raises know the business has gone for 20 years They all still make about what they made 20 years ago They have money in the bank They could give themselves a raise but they want to send out missionaries So I moved to my current place here in Indu Mae World sharing the gospel so that I'm not close anymore same time zone but they really have to do everything themselves And I always spread out over the years But I don't do anything where I'm not also a good example So we're teaching them to go to the ends of the earth already in their Samaria They need to go to the ends of the earth So I went to the ends of the earth to show them how to do that So yeah have work among nine different Muslim language groups in the Southern Philippines There's 14 altogether We're nine of them from our church and from the workers that have joined our organization It's really neat to see people that were poor you know before anytime in church Yeah The lady sharing we're still alive You know I had two kids sick this week no money to buy medicine Prayed to Jesus he healed them miraculously and we're still here And now they've come where they can dream They have money to say what are we gonna do in the future Let's build a playground for the camper let's let's do this and that And they have a lot of creative ideas and so praise God for them they're they're doing really really workers now who are sent out when they're 22 they weren't that effective They were too young to really have an influence on The leadership of other villages and other places but now that they're in their thirties they're doing a fantastic job They have great influence They've helped a lot of people They've seen Muslims come to Christ from these different groups and churches planted as well So they're doing a really good job So praise God

Matt 44:42

It's an incredible story. As we wrap up, what would be some tips that you could give people who are thinking of perhaps going out into the Muslim world, some remote areas perhaps, or even into the cities, the urban centers, you know, what would be some encouragement for them, as they maybe are starting out on this kind of mission journey? I mean, do you still see there's a place for Westerners going to places like that?

Tom OBrien 45:05

yes they do have opportunities to go and I really fought against that because People were saying that from other organizations like it's too dangerous Foreigners can't go there they can't do these things And I would disagree it is better to have near culture people That principle is still true but not as true as you think You know some of our Filipinos didn't learn the language as well as I did or they're not able to teach as well as I do and all of that sort of thing So we kind of made the assumption like well they already know two languages in the Philippines just learn another one They without studying it they'll learn it but they didn't so for people going out Number one can't serve the Lord anywhere If you have any will of your own You really have to get to the point that I was as a young carpenter I had my dreams I was very very good at stair building I would carve circular staircases out of wood people would pay a lot of money for the things that I made not that talented as a church planter you know other things But God used us because I was fully yielded to the Lord You say it God I say yes that's it whatever it is And that's why you know praise God we weathered the storm and planted the churches We could have quit at any time and nobody would've questioned us for quitting but then the church would never have been planted So praise God so perseverance give up your own will but God can use you a man of faith who believes in God and doesn't say no to him God will use you greatly Get someone to mentor you we're here Happy to help And that's a lot of what I do now even though I'm still doing direct church planting and even in the years to come as we'd relocate to the states to take care of my father and mother-in-law we're still gonna be out there helping training encouraging younger people to do the work so yeah we need more workers I guess the numbers are down from when I went out you know there was 1.2 million workers overseas Now we only have 430,000 so we've had a decline in workers going out I know other orgs like yourselves are maybe are growing and we're kind of growing too But overall there's been a lot of workers that have been lost People aren't giving their lives

Matt 47:32

Brilliant. Tom, thank you so much. It's really encouraging to hear just the many, many years, decades even of your family's perseverance out there through tough times. So encouraging to hear of the amazing things that God is doing up there in the mountains and the Southern Philippines and that that was a lifetime ago in some ways for you.'cause you've been now many years in another part of Southeast Asia and we haven't had a chance to hear about that. But thank you so much for sharing with us today. And yeah, we pray the Lord will continue to use you in your family in many, many ways.

Tom OBrien 48:04

yeah we've been here 12 years the urban ministry a lot different about it different context but God is still faithful

Matt 48:10

Great. Thanks, Tom. All right. God bless.

Speaker 48:14

Thanks so much for joining us today, guys. Do get in touch if you want to share how God is speaking to you through the podcast, or if you want to partner with us in any way raising up more workers for the harvest, and don't forget to check out the excellent momentum. Yes, mission and discipleship course You can go through individually or with a small group. It is free online and recommended by lots of mission agencies. See the show notes for details, and you can always email me personally, matt@frontiers.org.uk. Here's a quote to end with from one Corinthians 15, 17 to 19. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins. Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life. We have hope in Christ. We are of all people most to be pitied. Have a great week and do join us next time to hear from more ordinary people serving our extraordinary God in some of the toughest parts of the world.