How We Work
We believe kids themselves are a big part of the solution.
They are transformed as they work to help their own communities.
Emerge works with national leaders in SE Asia to develop innovative ways to help kids and young people find freedom through Christ.
Together we help young people break free from:
Generational poverty oppressing their families
Exploitation of their bodies for sex or bonded labor
Spiritual darkness
Anxiety & Depression
How we’re different: Our founders have been living full-time in Asia since 1990. This has allowed Emerge to develop a broad network of vetted national leaders. These leaders develop bold, lean approaches to intervention. Building Big People is at the heart of all we initiate and help sponsor.
The future of missions is empowering local heroes to rise up in their own communities. Emerge acts as the bridge between western world partners and rising heroes of the unreached nations so all can hear of Jesus and find the freedom he brings.
We believe that there are three keys to achieving breakthrough in these young lives:
Spiritual transformation through Jesus. Following Jesus changed all of us and we know it’s the door to freedom for these kids too.
Creation of a freedom mindset: “I am a child of promise empowered to help others.” Then they begin to live accordingly.
Ongoing personal and professional development ending in a university degree, a career, and a permanent place on the outreach volunteer team so they can help the next generations of barrio kids.
REACH
We go to them in the streets and on campuses in Laos, Thailand, and the Philippines. Initiating action is the crucial first step. Everything begins here.
NURTURE
At every age Emerge kids enter into discipleship, then leadership. They grow as believers in Jesus and believers in themselves. Skill-building programs make them valuable in the marketplace.
SEND
Kids rising up to help other kids find freedom is the key to their own transformation. It causes them to live as an example. They take authority over their lives, work for opportunities, and they soar.
Level 1: Kids Clubs
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Batang Sidewalk is an Emerge partner ministry offering outreach, feeding and scholarships to kids who grow up along railroad tracks and riverbanks in some of the toughest barrios of Manila. Sidewalk has 100 sites in Metro Manila and has begun to open additional sites in other urban areas across the Philippines and in other nations as well.
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Each year over 50 kids graduate college from scholarship programs. They get a good job, join the 100-member, all-volunteer ministry staff, and begin leading their families and lots more kids out of poverty and into the good life Jesus purchased for them.
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Most of these kids will be the first in their families to finish high school. We commit to get them through college if they make good grades. It costs $500 per year, per child.
Millions of children grow up along railroad tracks and canals in Metro Manila. The process of transformation begins on the first day a child attends the noisy Sidewalk kids club in their barrio. They get food, hugs, friends and caring young adults who were sidewalk kids just like them. They meet Jesus and get a new mindset about who they are and come to believe in God’s big plans for their lives as His children of promise in the barrio.
Level 2: University Mental Health Events
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Medialight Thailand created the Lift event to address growing mental illness in college students. It has been widely accepted and is now being standardized so it can be duplicated as an innovative form of outreach in other nations.
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Lift is an innovative outreach event that meets a practical need in the lives of college students. Most of these students know very little about Jesus. Lift is a powerful introduction to his power to help humans become overcomers. It is an effective first step in discipleship.
Asian society is famously secretive, yet the Lift exercises help them to open up and find love and acceptance from their peers. Many continue to attend Lift Saturdays and come to know Jesus.
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Lift has an overhead cost of US$25,000 a year. This covers costs for a staff of six, two vans to ferry students to the meetings, and food and supplies for weekday and weekend meetings.
Universities are concerned about the rise in depression, anxiety, and suicide on campus. “Lift, a Celebration of Joy!” is a two-hour workshop that focuses on developing healthy habits of play, gratitude, a supportive friendship network, and prayer as means of improving mental resilience in a world of anxiety. It’s called “Lift” because that’s what it does. In just two hours students report a marked change in their level of anxiety.
Through this event, we are able to share what Jesus, the Lord of the sound mind, has done for us and we invite them to talk with him by writing their first prayer on a balloon. The workshop ends outside as we launch our prayers together. All Lift graduates are gathered into an online community and invited to attend a weekly discipleship event to continue on their journey to gaining a sound mind.
Level 3: Action-based Discipleship
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The Jesus Quest is an innovative obedience-oriented discipleship solution that has been tested for ten years in Asia with powerful results. Try it for yourself—it’s free, of course.
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Jesus did not approach discipleship as an educational activity. It was about developing and demonstrating loyalty to him and his kingdom from the heart. Only action can do this. Apologize to those you have hurt. Forgive everyone for everything. Sacrifice something precious to you for the poor. These are the things that bring gospel change. JQ works.
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We’ve proven the power of the Jesus Quest approach in the Philippines and Thailand. Now we want to share it with five other nations in their own languages with a small team to demonstrate it and launch it in local church networks until actions become the normal way to make disciples again. Just like Jesus did. Cost $50,000 for staff, operations, and native speaker re-shooting of all eight quest videos so it will be a locally produced initiative, not a foreign import.
GIVE
Jesus never used books or classroom study as a method of discipleship. We’re developing the Jesus Quest to return to the action-discipleship method used by Jesus. Those who want to follow Jesus join Quest groups to actually do the seven ancient practices of Jesus in their daily lives. According to Jesus, disciples are those who do, not those who study. The JesusQuest works and this year we want to open it up to the world! Our first goal is to translate and reshoot the JesusQuest in five languages and open physical training centers in five nations to roll it out in churches nationwide.
Level 4: Sexual Exploitation Rescue and Prevention
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Project Justice International is a registered non-profit ministry partner of Emerge Missions. The ministry and its leadership are highly respected by law enforcement and civic officials. They have a proven record of effectively rescuing children as young as 11 years from sexual slavery, and helping them become reintegrated into their families. These girls receive scholarships to complete their education.
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We celebrate each rescue, but just as importantly, Project Justice has developed a powerfully effective program of prevention that spots at-risk children and intervenes before their lives are damaged by the agents of darkness who run trafficking and exploitation rings in the Golden Triangle.
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Project justice International has a staff of six, a sponsored prevention home in Thailand and a rescue home in Laos. There are plans to expand the reach of this ministry but we are constrained by operational costs. Estimated costs for next year are $90,000 USD
For the past 10 years Project Justice has been building a quietly powerful Golden Triangle network to prevent and rescue children from exploitation and sexual slavery. The network begins in the mountains of northern Thailand where children are often “sourced” and stretches across the borders into Laos and Myanmar where some of the most horrible systemic abuse occurs. The nature of this work requires prevention programs, safe houses, vetted caregivers, counselors, and vocational trainers. It takes a long-term commitment to deliver children out of the personal hell they’ve fallen into. They cling to the chance for escape and pursue their education from the safe houses with inspiring diligence, ever grateful to the ones who sponsored their rescue.
Level 5: Leadership Development
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The home campus for Medialight is in Northern Thailand where we’ve trained leaders from 40 nations. English is our language of instruction and we have housing for 65 people, training labs, a recording studio, fitness center and even our own coffee shop.
Beginning in 2023 Medialight will be establishing hubs in other nations
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The purpose of young adulthood is to step into your own life’s mission. At Medialight we help young people unlock their own abilities and find God’s calling on their lives.
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Project justice International has a staff of six, a sponsored prevention home in Thailand and a rescue home in Laos. There are plans to expand the reach of this ministry but we are constrained by operational costs. Estimated costs for next year are $90,000 USD
In the end, we have to see a new generation of leaders rise up around the world. Medialight develops leaders from 40 nations with spiritual depth and leadership ability to serve as God’s new messengers in their nation. Leaders in today’s media era must have strong communication skills so they can take advantage of the amazing opportunities of the media age.
Make a donation.
What can happen for a dozen kids, can happen for hundreds with your help. We need partners to scale things up. The systems are working and in place. We just need help to scale to the next level of capacity.
You can literally rewrite a life story by donating to Emerge Missions, Inc. Please join us. Our joint efforts are making a difference here … and it feels good! That’s an added blessing.
A gift to the Golden Triangle Initiative supports all the ministries mentioned on this page.
