Andrew Ching: Salt and Light in Cebu

Haggai International trains strategically placed leaders to share the gospel with the people in their spheres of influence with the goal of “ending gospel poverty.” Andrew Ching and his wife Josephine use their business to reach out to their community with the truth of the gospel. Their story is below. For more of Outreach Magazine’s coverage of the integration of faith and work, visit outreachmagazine.com/faith-and-work.

For nearly 30 years, Andrew Ching has been the CEO of Williams Commercial Company, a printing and packaging company in Cebu, Philippines. He inherited the company from his wife Josephine’s parents when they went to seminary and his father-in-law decided to go into full-time ministry.

At first, Ching and his wife were just business owners who happened to be Christian. They strove to run their business with integrity and care and live out their faith in front of their employees and suppliers. But their mindset shifted completely when they attended Haggai International training in 2013.

“Haggai transformed our view 180 degrees. We looked at work in a different way and began to see our work as our mission field,” Ching says. “We are Christians who happen to be businesspeople.”

Ching began by inviting pastors to share a Bible lesson with his employees, but one day he felt God urging him to do it himself. So, he shared his faith with his employees, and many of them raised their hands to accept Christ.

“My wife told me to keep doing it and all the employees would raise their hands,” Ching says. “It has really been a joy to see most of our employees come to know Jesus Christ.” And it’s not just employees. One of their suppliers from China came to Cebu and left with a Bible he’s been reading every day.

Part of the Chings’ commitment to Haggai International was to take what they had learned and train 100 other leaders how to share the gospel in their spheres of influence. So the Chings held leadership training seminars, inviting Christians from their community. A pastor from a nearby city named Randolf Bayo attended one of the trainings and began meeting weekly with the mayor of his town to pray for him.

Through that relationship with the mayor, Bayo met the captain of a local battalion of the Filipino army and led him to Christ. The captain made attending a Bible study compulsory for his battalion. Since then, the Bible studies have expanded to five other regional military camps, and there is a pastor assigned to every police precinct in Cebu as well. It all started with the faithfulness of a single business-owning couple.

“Jesus’s last command should be our first concern and priority,” Ching says. “The goal is for us to be the salt and light of the workplace. If every Christian would do that, we can end gospel poverty.”

For more, visit outreachmagazine.com/faith-and-work.

Jonathan Sprowl
Jonathan Sprowl

Jonathan Sprowl is co-editor of Outreach magazine.

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