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Ep 123: The 1040 Window - Reaching the Unreached
"Have you ever thought that prayer is insignificant? Well, today we look at Pastor Tony Reyes' journey from salvation to training 5,000 church planters, which reveals a prayer-driven ministry impacting Southeast Asia's unreached regions."
From a tearful decision in a Chinese restaurant to training thousands of church planters across Southeast Asia, Pastor Tony Reyes' journey showcases how God crafts extraordinary ministries from humble beginnings.
Tony's transformation began in 1981 when a college classmate invited him to a Christian service held in an unlikely venue. Coming from a Catholic background, nothing prepared him for what happened during his second visit when conviction brought him to tears: "I knew I was going to hell." This moment of clarity led to his salvation and set him on a path toward full-time ministry after graduating college in 1984.
Fast-forward to 2016, when Tony and his wife made the radical decision to leave their established life in New Jersey—selling their home, leaving their jobs and four children behind—to return to the Philippines. Armed with what he calls "the multiplication principle" from 2 Timothy 2:2, Tony began developing land and establishing what would become Calvary Chapel Tagaytay City. Seven years later, his ministry has trained over 5,000 church planters and helped establish nearly 300 churches, with Calvary Bible Institute serving as a strategic hub for reaching the "1040 window"—regions containing the world's most unreached people groups.
What's most striking about Tony's testimony isn't just the impressive numbers, but his unwavering focus on prayer as the foundation of ministry effectiveness. "The artillery of prayer," as he describes it, remains his greatest need—specifically prayers for students from Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Singapore to receive training and return to plant churches in their home countries. His vision extends far beyond personal achievement to equipping indigenous leaders who can reach places where many have never heard Jesus' name.
Ready to join this global movement through prayer? Connect with Tony's prayer team and become part of the spiritual artillery supporting this powerful work of multiplication across Southeast Asia.
CBI Luzon - https://calvarybibleinstituteluzon.org/
Calvary Chapel Tagaytay City - calvarychapeltagaytaycity.wordpress.com
CCTC YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@calvarychapeltagaytaycity
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Speaker 2:It's the best.
Speaker 1:And share Right, and our prayer is that God would send us students from the different other countries, our neighboring countries that are in the 1040 window, meaning the most unreached people groups in the world. So we're praying for students from Thailand, malaysia, myanmar, indonesia and Taiwan and Singapore and all of these other countries that are part of the 1040 window.
Speaker 2:You're the only thing, you're the only thing, you're the only thing.
Speaker 3:Hello and welcome to Plays on Word Radio, where we discuss, analyze, work and play on the Word of God. Thank you for joining us on this excursion. Today let's join Pastor Teddy, also known as Fred David Kenney Jr, the founder of Plays on Word Theater, as he does a deep dive into the Word of God.
Speaker 2:Okay, we are here with our dear brother Tony Reyes from. Well I know you from, like New Jersey, us, but technically you're Philippines now, I mean, but if you go way back, you're originally family from the Philippines, right, yes, but you weren't born there, you were born here, born and raised in the Philippines. Oh, born and raised. Okay, see, that shows you what I know. It's not a whole lot. You are the pastor.
Speaker 1:Tell us the name of the church Calvary Chapel, tagaytay City.
Speaker 2:See if you guys can say that three times fast. That is in the philippines, um, and we are scheduled. We don't have the exact date, but we are planning on coming out to do, uh, a play and and we've already taught at cbi, uh, which is calvary bible, uh institute at our church, yeah, at the church. And can you just tell us? First of all, tell us, how did Tony Reyes meet Jesus? How did that happen?
Speaker 1:Well, I was in college Okay, 1981. And someone invited me to her church Okay, and to make sure that I go, she picked me up. This is in the Philippines, in the Philippines, in the car. So I mean, you know, as a young man, I couldn't refuse a pretty girl picking me up at my house to bring me to church. God will use whatever he has to yeah, so I went, and that was the first time I went to a Christian church that met in a Chinese restaurant, so it was my first time.
Speaker 2:Wait, wait, wait, hold on. I got to hit the brakes. So you're telling me this church. They gathered and they met at a Chinese restaurant, that's right.
Speaker 1:See, and so I was a Catholic. So I never had any other experience in any other church except a Catholic church. So that was quite a Catholic church. So that was quite a different experience. But then nothing happened, it was just different. And so she invited me again. She picked me up again the following Sunday, I believe, and I was just sitting there in the front row and the pastor was preaching salvation and as I was listening, I knew I was going to go to hell. I started just crying. I'm not a crier, but I just started crying because I knew I was going to hell. And the pastor gave an invitation whoever wants to accept Jesus, come up front. And I just found myself up front, accepting Jesus. So that's how I got saved.
Speaker 2:Praise the Lord. Man, that is amazing. You entered the family of God way back then. How did you end up in ministry from there, in ministry from there?
Speaker 1:Well, that was 1981. I was in, I think, third year or second year of college and as I was graduating college in 1984, there was a founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, dr Bill Bright, who came over to the Philippines and we were all graduating Christians gathered in this auditorium listening to Dr Bill Bright and he gave a challenge to whoever wanted to dedicate your life to full time ministry. And again, I just found myself going forward.
Speaker 3:That's amazing yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's how I gave my life to the Lord to follow Him in full-time ministry. Wow, and I didn't know how, where, what, yeah, you for sure I'm here. I just knew that's what God's calling me and that's what I'm going to. Heed the call.
Speaker 2:Wow, so you ended up at Calvary Old Bridge.
Speaker 1:Right, that's many years later.
Speaker 2:Many years later, right Right Calvary Old Bridge.
Speaker 1:Right, that's many years later. Many years later, right, right. So this is 1984, when I was graduating and I didn't get to Calvary Chapel, old Bridge, my first introduction to Calvary Chapel until 2009.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, and I had already been going to Old Bridge and I had been at that point 2009,. Where was I at? I was, I think, at Fellowship Chapel. Yeah, at Fellowship Chapel at that point 2009,. Where was I at? I was, I think, at Fellowship Chapel. Yeah, at Fellowship Chapel at that time in Point, pleasant. So, okay, our paths almost crossed, but not completely Right, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we didn't meet up there.
Speaker 2:That's amazing man. But so you're in New Jersey doing ministry there. How do you end up back in the Philippines and what is that like?
Speaker 1:Right? Well, you know, when God brought me to Calvary Chapel, old Bridge, 2009, very quickly, you know, he promoted me to be an elder, probably in a year, and so I was just serving there as an elder and then the Lord spoke to me. You know that long story short, that I needed to return to the Philippines and that's where I need to serve him. And he gave me a verse 2, timothy 2, verse 2, you know where Paul says to Timothy the things you've heard from me among many witnesses these things commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. So God told me that he was going to use that. I call it the multiplication principle. So it was a multiplication principle to multiply disciples, right, but he's told me, god told me I'm going to use that principle to multiply churches. You just do train church planters, who will train church planters? Who will train church planters, and I'm going to multiply. And that's what I did.
Speaker 1:I went back to the Philippines in 2016 with my wife. We left our four children, we sold our house, we left our jobs, we left everything, went back to the Philippines in 2016. And then just started training a few church planters and made sure that they also train others. And what now? It's about seven years now and we've trained over 5,000 church planters and probably health.
Speaker 2:Did you catch that number, you guys Five 5,000, man what?
Speaker 1:And we've helped plant maybe almost 300 churches already.
Speaker 2:Oh man as a result of that, praise God.
Speaker 1:So God did honor the multiplication of the churches.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exponentially. Yes, wow. So now, how does CBI get involved?
Speaker 1:Well, it's interesting because this place we're at Calvary Chapel, philadelphia, attending the East Coast Pastors Conference, but Saturday before there's always the Missions Conference, and so in 2022, I was privileged to be invited and I had a table for my ministry 222.
Speaker 2:I think that might be where we actually met.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes exactly.
Speaker 2:The missions, because that's the mission conference I was able to make. I wasn't able to make it Right. I haven't been able to make it since, but that was the one I was able to make.
Speaker 1:Right. So you know, god has it in my heart to start a Bible institute, but I had no idea how. I had no idea how I'm not an educator, but it so happened that my table was just beside the table of CBI. So I got to meet Pastor Jarrell and Pastor Corey Kilgus, you know, and I told them. You know I had a desire and you know, the Lord just worked it all out. They helped me, you know, and this is our third year now for our Bible Institute.
Speaker 2:Amazing. And yeah, I taught last year at CBI and then this past spring I was able to take a group of people, students, through the Gospel of Matthew and I mean it's amazing. Somebody was from Vietnam, Another person was from Bangladesh, yeah, and you know I'm like wow, it wasn't just local to the Philippines, although that's great too, yes, but the amazing thing is every one of these guys and gals, they were stoked and amped up to go back and share Right and share Right, and our prayer is that God would send us students from the different other countries, our neighboring countries that are in the 1040 window, meaning the most unreached people groups in the world.
Speaker 1:So we're praying for students from Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia and Taiwan and Singapore and all of these other countries that are part of the 1040 window.
Speaker 2:So there you go. That's something that everybody listening. We've been streamed in 63 countries, I believe. So there's a little bit of a global reach happening here. Everybody that's listening right now. If you say I don't know what to pray for, I don't know what to pray for, they can pray that the Lord would move in that 1040 window and create the connection so that they get in contact with you at CBI and the Lord provides a way for them to get to CBI.
Speaker 1:Yes, Philippines.
Speaker 2:Philippines. Right, there's many CBI right, philippines, but you guys, you're the Southeast Asia hub.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're right on the peripheral of the 1040 window. We're in the 1040 window.
Speaker 2:That's absolutely amazing, and so I was extremely excited just to meet the students and there's a hunger for the things of god and, uh, I remember we were going through matthew. Um, just the excitement of go, like going through the word of god, it was like we're mining these. These students were really excited. So that was a blessing to me to be able to do that, and so for me to be able to serve in that way is an absolute blessing. We'll put a link to CBI Luzon, philippines. We'll put a link on there in the show notes so people can find out. If anybody wants any more information, you can reach out to me direct and I can get you in contact with our beloved brother here. Let me ask you a question. Tell me about the church plant itself. We talked about cbi as far as you planning the church, so you just moved out to the philippines. How did you? How did you know where to go? What?
Speaker 1:you know right, well, you know we had a property in a town called talisay in the province of batangas. It's right by this lake and in the middle of the lake is a is a, an island volcano, which is the smallest active volcano in the world and uh, anyway, so that's where we, that's the only property that we have, and so that's kind of like you know the default place that we would go to and that's where we went and I started just developing the piece of land. There was nothing there except overgrown grass, started developing that for two years with the help of our church, calvary Chapel, old Bridge, you know, mission trips and stuff.
Speaker 2:What a blessing that is.
Speaker 1:Yes yes, and so in 2018, two years later I was ready to train church planters. The Lord told me you can't train church planters unless you have a church. You know, you can't train by theory or by experience. So the Lord convicted me to start a church. And so there's, up there in the mountain, the city of Tagaytay, which is a tourist city, and that's where the Lord told me to start a church, an international church, not a rural church, but the Lord wanted me to start an international church. Okay, so, um, I started. I didn't know anybody there come on.
Speaker 1:So you just, you just yeah, we just started talking to people and then, uh, love it. You know uh, seven years now, you know, and and finally, you know, god's uh, you know uh, established this church and right, we have we're four pastors in our church and we have a Bible Institute and I'm training 14 men, you know, as a pastoral interns and God's been, you know blessing and we're just renting facilities. We're renting four apartments, right now already.
Speaker 1:You know, we have a dormitory for men and women and so, yeah, God has been really blessing, you know.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. What would you say? What's the biggest need for the church and or CBI, or just you being out there? What is the biggest need? What? If somebody listening, if you could just say, listen, if you want to help out, or whatever this is what we need. Well, thank you for that. I think the biggest you want to help out, or whatever this is what we need.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you for that. I think the biggest need would probably be number one prayer, prayer that God would send us students, like I said, from these countries, see, so they can be trained, yeah, and then we can send them back to their countries to start churches there or cover Bible institutes there, because for me, that's the most effective way to reach the most unreached people who have never even heard of the name of Jesus. For me that's the best. I can't think of any more effective way than that. If there is, that's what I would do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, what you're saying. So, basically, what you're saying is that the people listening right now, if the Lord's putting it on your heart to commit to pray, that people within that window, that 1040 window would actually come out, then what God is doing is allowing them who are praying and I'm going to put myself in that group allow us to be part of the work he's doing with you guys. So just think about that. Tony said he wants people that have never heard the name of Jesus, and you know a lot of you. The Lord has not called you to the mission field, but guess what? If you're a believer in Christ, he has called you to a certain extent to the mission field.
Speaker 2:Maybe you don't have to go on the mission field, but you can be part of his work because Tony's out on the mission field right there, and you heard what he said. You know, please pray, pray, and you can do a blanket prayer. Oh Lord, I just pray for that guy, tony, out in the Philippines. Okay, that's fine, the Lord knows. But you also can pray specific, lord, I pray for the young kids in Singapore that you know maybe doesn't have a mom or dad or whatever, but you find a way to get him to CBI. You make that kind of now you're interceding.
Speaker 1:And we have a prayer group for people who really pray for us, who actually care to pray for us. You know, regularly, and that's one another way, you know, if anyone's interested, they can contact me and we can put them as part of that prayer group. Oh and, and that's, for me, is the most important group, that's it, yeah, because these are the, the people who really care for us to pray for us, yeah, yeah and I, I just told, uh, my buddy accent cow, he's from zambia, um, and it's amazing because I asked him what, what's his number one need?
Speaker 2:and and he said the same thing prayer. We need prayer, first and foremost we need prayer. And I told him, you know this conference that we're at this Calvary, east Coast Pastors Conference. There's a group of people that during this entire conference they're just praying. There's a dedicated group of people that are praying for the conference.
Speaker 2:As we're sitting there, being ministered to and being blessed, prayer is going on, and that's when you're stepping into Paul in Ephesians. He talks about in the heavenly realms, you know, in the heavenlies. He says it like four or five times in the book of Ephesians and there's stuff going on, there's battles going on. We don't even see it, but we are to engage in firing the artillery of prayer. That's what I call it Like the artillery of prayer and the enemy, one of his most effective lies or tactics, is to make you think your prayer is really not that important.
Speaker 2:Don't bother. You've prayed a bunch of times and God hasn't really answered you yet. You just give up, don't pray. Why do you think the enemy comes at prayer like that? Because it's effective and I think that if the believers in Christ got started got really serious. There are many that are serious, but if everybody got serious about prayer and the artillery aspect of it, then now you've got artillery coverage going before you, behind you, around you as you're moving through and just walking in the in the path that he's already set. Yeah, as far as prayer, we'll put a link in the missus. Is she still good with the mission you guys are on all these years later?
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely, absolutely. She's a gift. Yeah, she's a gift, and actually that's another thing that people can pray for, because the enemy has tried a few times to take her out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I bet.
Speaker 1:And because he knows that if he could do that he's going to really damage me.
Speaker 2:That's his tactic. Look, he couldn't go directly to Adam, yeah. So he said, let's go to Eve, let's attack.
Speaker 1:Eve Right, so pray for her health.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, so okay, well, we know how to pray. We got our marching orders, amen, and we'll hear more from you, because it plays on word, even though we haven't come out. We were supposed to come out but the Lord said hold on a second, hold on. But I look at it the way Paul wanted to go into Asia Minor and the Lord was like wait a second, no, not yet, not Asia Minor. And the Lord was like wait a second, no, not yet, not yet. And the Lord, the Holy Spirit, said no, but he ended up getting there. You know, he ended up getting to Ephesus. Ephesus is in Asia Minor and he got to Ephesus, not when he wanted to, and I feel like that same thing. I was like we plan on going. Okay, the Lord said hold on a second, but we want to come out there and do a play for you guys.
Speaker 2:That's right, yeah, and minister and see that beautiful life.
Speaker 1:And we're God's guys. He provides.
Speaker 2:Well, there you go. So well, on that note, thank you, Tony Reyes. My brother, this is a long time coming and, yeah, anybody, just reach out to me and we'll put you in contact with this guy. And, like I said, I'm expecting this group, everybody listening. I'm expecting please, lift up this brother. The Lord is charging you. Lift up this brother in the work God's doing through this guy here. Amen, Alright, Thank you, bro.
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