How Eli Asia Operates

Have you ever experienced a point in your bible study time when the words seem to be jumping out of the book? When you say to yourself, “I’ve read this passage countless times but it is only now that I understand what it’s saying!” 

I was at this point in my life when I met Pastor Nicky Joya and ELI Asia. I was that professing christian who was living an unbiblical life for so many years, raised in an unbiblical church I was high in works salvation. So coming out of that kind of christianity, fresh with renewed mind, eyes, and heart, I naturally scrutinized every word he teaches. I was thinking at the time I was already listening to “THE THEOLOGIANS.”

R.C. Sproul, John MacArthur, Alistair Begg, Steven Lawson, Voddie Baucham Jr., and Paul Washer. I was still too arrogant and my distrust of local ministers was such that I didn’t think I could learn anything essential from him. I have yet to see men who have the courage to stand up for truth such as “THE THEOLOGIANS.” 

How wrong I was and the Lord was quick to correct me and humble me down. My journey to finding out that I did stumble upon a minister who is at par with THE THEOLOGIANS and his mission to  develop biblical leaders for the local church began in this way. 

With every lesson I scrutinized, God showed me how lacking I was and how much more I need to learn. With every correction, I learned how ELI Asia operates and with every learning, I have begun to start pledging to support its cause because it is for the cause of Christ. I hope this article enlightens you if you are seeking to find out how you can help ELI Asia.

We need to plant biblical churches

One of my many day jobs is to research and write for advertising. The company I work for exists to build up the online presence of a certain business, so that people will find out about them. For the past two months I’ve been writing about neighborhoods around Contra Costa County in the East Bay in San Francisco. 

When I write about a neighborhood I usually write about places to go to, nearest hospitals and supermarkets but most important of all, I write about places of worship. Of course I don’t just write about evangelical churches. My work requires me to present possibilities, where people can go. So I have to write about all kinds of churches in the area. But I happen to chance upon this small neighborhood that has about ten evangelical churches surrounding it, all within 5 to 10 minutes of driving. 

I thought this was great! But as I began to gather information, the joy soon turned to brokenness.

None of those churches are biblical 

It is usually easy to spot unbiblical churches online. You just need to read up their mission statements and their about pages and you’ll be able to pretty much figure it out. But there are churches to my surprise that seem biblical in their statements but not in practice. If you dig deep enough in their social media pages and hear their preachings you’ll know. 

All of these churches say that they want people to know Christ. They want people to know the kind of love that only comes from Christ. If a person is lacking in discernment, If a person doesn’t know enough to look for a biblical church as stated in the scriptures, without understanding proper Hermeneutics, that person could get trapped just like I was. Trapped in an unbiblical church for so many years. 

So how does ELI Asia operate?

This is the reason why I have committed to the cause of ELI Asia. Its mission to reach out to pastors and lay leaders in the barrios is no easy feat. Churches in the provinces have been heavily influenced by the charismatic seeker sensitive movement and prosperity gospel for many years. To attempt at any kind of reform seemed impossible. But this is what ELI Asia is all about. Developing biblical leaders for the local churches. 

To make this change involves great sacrifice. To take pastors from the local churches to educate them yet again is not easy. They have families too. So ELI Asia does its best to make theological education affordable for pastors, lay leaders and workers, especially those in the provinces. 

ELI Asia tries to meet them where they can because they want to be faithful to their calling and mission. The desire God has given them to develop biblical leaders for the local church is so strong that they cannot simply stop because of financial hurdles.

At present, the tuition fee for every subject is at two thousand pesos. But because of rising costs of living and other concerns, students still have a hard time paying for this. So ELI Asia subsidizes with the help of their partners in ministry. Because of their financial help students have to pay one thousand pesos only and in some campuses five hundred.      

Biblical Churches with Biblical Leaders

So we pray for partners in ministry to help raise men and women who are sound in doctrine and plant churches that are rooted in God’s word. The support they get from their partners in ministry help in developing biblical ministers, church planters, and lay leaders in the local churches. It enables the staff to provide materials and produce modules. It makes it possible for the teachers to teach online and to record videos of lessons.  

Every ELI Asia student developed in the richness of God’s word is not just a pastor, not just a church leader but men and women discipling the next generation of believers beginning in the home. Fathers biblically raising their families because they have been taught how to do this according to God’s word, mothers raising up godly seeds, older men teaching younger men, and older women teaching younger women, who take it upon themselves to teach the younger generation of believers for the sake of the gospel….for the cause of Christ.

This is where every support goes and it doesn’t stop there, it extends to various outreach work that helps the livelihood of the students especially during this time when church gathering has been limited and so many people continue to lose their jobs. 

God has been faithful in sustaining ELI Asia as they have now grown to 8 campuses. 

It has a long way to go but God is faithful. If you are reading this and have been thinking about becoming a partner in ministry in any way possible please continue to uphold ELI Asia in prayer. They need it now more than ever as they press on for the furtherance of God’s kingdom and for His glory.