Johnny Pabia

For our fifth term, I had been assigned as Director of Evangelism and Church Planting in Greater Manila, an area then with ten million people, composed of four cities and thirteen municipalities. The Protestant population was only two to three percent, and many sections had no gospel witness or church. In 1975, Johnny Pabia was a second-semester student at Asian Theological Seminary. He came to live with us for a year and a half in Kamuning to help us start a church and receive practical training. He is not my son in the faith since I was not the one to lead him to Christ, but I claim him as my adopted son. I will let Johnny tell his story, not for any glory for me, but to emphasize our discipling process:

In my thinking, my mentoring relationship with Pastor Chuck began when he asked me a crucial question: "What makes you most happy?" Without hesitation since I was passionate about preaching, I answered, "I want to be the best effective preacher in town."

Patiently, Pastor Chuck opened his Bible to Psalm 17:15, "As for me, I shall behold Thy face in righteousness; I will be satisfied with Thy likeness when I awake." I learned that my greatest satisfaction is not my best performance for the Lord but my being like the Lord. From that perspective, he drilled into me the fundamentals of the means of transformation:

First, he taught me and showed me how to journal my Quiet Time every day.

Second, he taught me the importance of Scripture memory, using first the Navigators' memory system of 72 verses, and progressing to memorizing the whole book of Ephesians.

Third, he taught me and showed me the meaning of intercession. He did this by praying systematically for the people he cared for and loved, namely the sinners and the saints. I remember he and his wife always had lists of people in their prayer notebooks to pray for.

He was constantly interested in my own development. He planned and sponsored my trip to Poland and on to the States to be able to share my experience and expertise in doing church planting in a Catholic society. His continuing interest in my life and ministry made me his friend forever. My perspective in life and ministry after 31 years in the gospel ministry are rooted in my mentoring relationship with Pastor Chuck.

He also taught me how to love and treat a wife and how to have a godly home, something I never experienced with my own parents. So I asked Mom Jo to disciple my fiancée, Tessie, and make her a good pastor's wife. We married when I was 24.

Since ministry expressions are simply an outflow of my experience of transformation, Pastor Chuck started to mentor on the basics of ministry.

First, he taught and showed me how to share the gospel using Evangelism Explosion. As a result, I became a lifestyle evangelist.

Second, he took me to people whom he was following up and discipling. As a result, I became a disciple maker. I trained 12 men while in Kamuning.

Thirdly, he taught me and showed me how to passionately communicate God's Word in public. He even took me to Tagatay City where I was to preach, and I preached to him on the way the message that I would be preaching that Sunday. As a result, I enjoy expository preaching of the Word.

Our mentoring relationship did not stop when he and his wife moved to Makati for another church plant ministry. He continued to relate to me and whenever possible met my needs spiritually and otherwise.

Spiritually, he committed to pray for me and my family. That explains my continuing growth.

Our 5 major journeys in 31 years: 

1. We pastored in Kamuning, 1976-1983.
   
2. We pastored in Kamias, 1983-1985.
   
3. We did missionary work with Overseas Missionary Fellowship, including teaching in their Bible School in Singapore, 1985-1991.
   
4. We were missionaries in Davao City, 1992-2001.
   
5. We have been with SEND International, 2001-2007, training Filipinos to be sent out as missionaries.
   

My present vision and burdens include:

1. Spiritual parenting and reproduction for church members. I have designed and field tested training materials.
   
2. Spiritual mentoring for pastors and spiritual leaders.
   
3. Missionary mentoring for cross-cultural overseas missionaries. I designed this for the missionaries with the Sending Council of SEND International.
   

My mission is to send as many Filipino missionaries to the harvest fields as quickly as possible.

Johnny, once the student, has gone far beyond me, his teacher, as an effective, humble servant of God! Lord, give us more men like these three [Florentino Santos, Alfredo Olavidez, and Johnny Pabia]!

CAH