From March 2 to 13, TEE Aotearoa (Ann Borquist, Jonan Castillon, and Jewel Castillon), the Institute for TEE Philippines (Rosana Longgat), and the Negros Island Region Kasapulanan of Baptist Churches (Melvin Mangana) collaborated to conduct three sessions of group leader training for trainers at three different venues across Negros Occidental and Panay, Philippines.
A total of 71 pastors and church leaders—38 men and 33 women—participated in the trainings.
The first session took place at Cosmopolitan Evangelical Church in Bacolod City on March 3–4, with 22 attendees. The second training was held at South Negros Baptist Bible College in Himamaylan City on March 6–7, drawing 25 participants. The third and final session took place at Baptist Center Church in Iloilo City on March 10–11, with 24 in attendance.
Ann shared more about the training in her Increase Association report. Read more below.
A pastor approached us on the first day of training in the Philippines, saying ‘Abaw, timing gid ini nga TEE program!’ – meaning ‘Wow! This TEE training is happening at the perfect time!’ He deeply appreciates TEE discipleship resources and especially values TEE’s participative teaching and learning methodology.We received similar feedback from each of the three group leader training courses we held in March in the Philippines. Our training team included Rosana Longgat from ITEEP, Dr Melvin Mangana, President of the Negros Island Region Kasapulanan of Baptist Churches (linked with the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches) and TEE Aotearoa members Pastor Jonan Castillon, Jewel Castillon and myself. It was a fantastic and effective partnership!Enthusiastic groups completed each of the two-day training courses. About 70 pastors and leaders from the city and several pastors from the mountain churches travelled up to three hours to participate. Discussions are now taking place about the next steps. One pastor has already formed a group of 10 to study the basic TEE course ‘Abundant Life’, beginning in April.The two biggest challenges we currently face are the cost of the student workbook and translating ‘Abundant Life’ and the foundational TEE course ‘Life of Christ’ into Hiligaynon. People from rural or mountain areas often struggle to earn enough to cover food, education and health care costs. As a result, they have very limited financial resources.If funds can be raised to help with the cost of the workbooks, the plan is to ask participants to contribute whatever they can, whether money, bananas or cassava from their farms.Church members in rural or mountain communities can read the English version; however, it is often a very slow process. The greater difficulty is responding to the questions in English. If you speak a language other than your mother tongue, you know how wearisome this can be. Discussions are underway about how to begin translating TEE resources.We praise God for generous gifts from a New Zealand donor (Hopevale Trust) and from International Ministries, ABC US, that helped cover the cost of food, training supplies, and transportation, including bus fare to help students serving mountain churches travel to the training sites.It is a joy to see ITEEP and TEE Aotearoa work together in this life-giving partnership!Source: Increase Newsletter April 2026
Our sincere thanks and appreciation to Dr Melvin Mangana, who organised the three training sessions, to his support team, and to our hosts: Cosmopolitan Evangelical Church, South Negros Baptist Bible College, and Baptist Center Church.
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