ELI Asia’s Partnership with the Local Church of Siniloan, Laguna

Pastor Joel Calzar is the Senior Pastor of Siniloan Baptist Church, the President of Siniloan Bible Training Institute, and the former Chairman of the Siniloan Ministerial fellowship with 16 churches in Siniloan, Laguna. As there are four districts in CBAP Laguna, he is also a district elder in 26 churches there for more than 20 years.

Pastor Joel met Reverend Nicky Joya, the founder of ELI Asia, at a training course he was teaching at in Calamba, Laguna. During their meeting, Pastor Nicky shared his insights on the pressing need for additional training for pastors in the region. 

However, the distance of 60 kilometers from Calamba to Siniloan posed a significant challenge for the ministers of Siniloan Baptist Church, making it difficult for them to get proper Bible training. In response to this need, Pastor Nicky generously offered to travel to Siniloan to establish ELI Asia there, which led to Siniloan Baptist Church becoming its very first campus.

With ELI Asia being brought to the province of Laguna, and with God’s blessing, many pastors have now finished their studies and are active participants in the ministry. Ever since Pastor Nicky started this training there from 2012-2016, ELI Asia has also guided their church membership as well as training in evangelism. ELI Asia offers the courses of Hermeneutics, the Old Testament Survey, and the New Testament Survey.

Pastor Joel shared that what is special about ELI Asia as a Bible class series is that students don’t need to go to Manila to take this series, since ELI Asia was brought to their church instead. Pastors and other students in training didn’t need to leave their work just to relocate elsewhere. This allowed the pastors to gain continuous learnings and grow more confident in their teachings. What is also wonderful was to see pastors from different Christian denominations come together to learn under ELI Asia, truly learning accurate biblical doctrines while seeing God work through them in fellowship with one another.

For Pastor Joel, as the Senior Pastor of Siniloan Baptist Church, ELI Asia has also helped him become more confident in his teachings as he can now be certain that what he preaches is based solely on the word of God. Seeing as he is also a leader in many churches, ELI Asia helped him with church management and how to govern and make various decisions in the church.

ELI Asia also aided four pastors in the Siniloan area to become ordained. Three of these four pastors have also been deployed in outreaches, and all of them finished the ELI Asia courses. Pastor Joel continued to praise God for the good results that have come out of ELI Asia in guiding the pastors in their ministries.

There are still many pastors, especially in provincial areas, who are under trained or do not have the opportunity to obtain any formal Bible training. With ELI Asia, the Bible class series that actually goes to the local church, this provides continuous studies to pastors and church leaders, allowing them to grow with a strong foundation of biblical doctrines. With God’s blessing, may ELI Asia continue to grow its community to reach more people who are eager to share the gospel and make God known.

by Reena Mendoza