Javier Espinoza – Praying for the global church while pursuing excellence and faithfulness
November 23, 2023
Global Trust Partners Awarded Grant from The Lilly Endowment
December 2, 2023
From Running a Bakery with Local Sustainability to Reaching the Lost with Missional Generosity: Manna from Heaven Center and GTP
I am a medical doctor, married to a pastor who comes from a family of bakers. As I was about to leave for the US in 1997, I heard from the Lord that I was supposed to serve in my homeland. So, I stayed in the Philippines and formed Jesus the Healer Medical Missions Team Foundation with my colleagues.
We go to parts of the Philippines and abroad where medical help is needed. We helped for 12 years in Banda Aceh, Indonesia as one of the first teams who responded after the 2004 tsunami. Locally, we provide medical care to orphans, street scavengers, indigenous people groups, and victims of calamities during the relief and rehabilitation stage. We also have a restoration ministry for drug addicts and street children with psychological and psychiatric cases.
In 2006, inspired by what I learned while I did my MBA in Biblical Stewardship and Christian Management at Asian Theological Seminary (ATS), my husband and I became more intentional in ministering to the 250 bakery employees under our care. Over the years, we evolved into a marketplace church, Manna from Heaven Center.
Now, Manna from Heaven has grown as a community. Other business people and their companies have joined our church. Through outreaches and partner churches, even our medical ministry has spread. Because I also studied counseling and spiritual direction, we now pastor pastors and their families.
Dr. Zenet Maramara and Dr. Gary Hoag have been influential to Dr. Ruth on her journey
Through the ATS MBA program, I met Dr. Scott Rodin who co-authored books with Dr. Gary Hoag (GTP President & CEO). I didn’t know Gary at that time but got connected with him through Zenet Maramara (GTP Board Chair) and Anjji Gabriel (GTP Regional Facilitator for Southeast Asia). Because I missed the Generosity Summit in 2019 where Gary spoke, I started subscribing to his Daily Meditation emails.
Praise God for Gary’s faithfulness in sending those emails! They accompanied me and my husband, Joey, during the pandemic. During the busy season when I was caring for my father with Alzheimer’s, I kept on reading the emails. Sometimes, he invited us for Zoom discussions and I attended when I could. Our 24/7 intercession ministry, Tabernacle of David Prayer and Worship watches, also started praying for Gary and GTP.
So blessed by what I read through the emails and other resources Gary shared from GTP, I discerned from God that we needed to share them with our community. We used the devotionals as a basis for our preaching and exhortation, especially those on giving and generosity. We modified and contextualized them to fit our theme. We livestreamed our worship services on Facebook and YouTube, even boosting these recordings on social media because we wanted to form a contemplative community.
Dr. Ruth, Pastor Joey, and their two children, Maranatha and Joem
The year the pandemic started, my mother-in-law gave up management of the bakery chain and my husband took over. It was a difficult time for us. We had to cut down from 24 to 13 branches. We had to settle a lot of payables, which was hard as the income decreased by half during the pandemic.
Despite all the challenges, we continued to sow in prayer and giving. We focused on the Holy Spirit’s inspiration for us to be generous, not just with our offerings but also with our time, talents, and resources. We formed small generosity teams and encouraged our senior pastors to form their own generosity teams. We regularly prayed for givers.
We witnessed generosity flow through our 15-year-old multipurpose cooperative which we administrate with God-honoring standards. During the pandemic, the cooperative manager sacrificed his time and said, “Even if it’s lonely, I will keep the office open to serve anyone who might need help.” So, the office became a place where we attended to those who needed medical help and a place where we gave away bread and rice.
Manna from Heaven Center and House of Manna Multipurpose Cooperative minister not just to Balayong Bakery employees, but to needy people in the community as well
We witnessed generosity flow through our homeschool service for the children of our employees. We used big round tables, so self-learners of different levels learned together. Older students generously shared their time and knowledge with those struggling with their studies. All the learners coped because they helped one another.
We witnessed generosity flow through our farm-to-table wellness center. Because we wanted to practice creation care, we taught the community how to have vegetable gardens prior to the pandemic. This helped us a lot during the pandemic because families had produce and even livestock at home. Members of our community did vegetable exchanges, helped each other out in times of need, and raised everyone’s quality of life.
Generosity became an integral part of our worship. It became a lifestyle for us. Generosity was not just something we talked about but something we and other families in the church lived and continue to live out. We became an anchorite community – anchored in the goodness and generosity of God. As we did this, we weathered the pandemic.
As an anchorite community, Manna from Heaven Center invited Jenni Hoag, the Soulcare Anchoress, to facilitate a retreat for their team in October 2023
Looking back, the pandemic years were our miracle years. Despite a drastic decrease in the bakery chain’s income, no one received a salary cut. No check bounced. We paid two-thirds of our multimillion peso payables. Our community never lacked anything and we were even able to give to other communities. The Lord blessed us and provided for our every need.
To this day, people we don’t know view, share, and look forward to our livestreams on Facebook and YouTube. They tell us they find the preaching fresh and “one-of-a-kind,” especially the messages about giving and generosity. They share testimonies that even when they struggled financially, God provided for their needs and gave them opportunities to share with others. They learned to give out of love, not out of compulsion.
I thank God as He continues to equip and empower me to share about generosity in my community through Journey of Generosity, a once a month retreat for outreach pastors and pastors of Manna from Heaven. I also had the opportunity to share our story at the Christian Stewardship Association Generosity Summit in October 2023 and now with the GTP global network to inspire others to administrate His work humbly with standards of faithfulness and to serve as conduits of God’s generosity. May we at Manna from Heaven Center continue to be a blessing to others.
