Pastor Gary and Grace Visitacion are missionaries of OC International based in the Philippines. They handle the Sports Ministry program of the mission. Pastor Gary is the director of the Ventures for Victory/Sports Ambassadors in the Philippines whose main objective is to assist churches in reaching their community using the sport of basketball. They have been leading sports teams in reaching all parts of the Philippines and Asia. Ptr. Gary & Grace really enjoy doing sports ministry - not just basketball but other sports as well. Gary is also a military chaplain, serving the Coast Guard. Though Gary lives on the Philippine island of Mindanao, he serves other islands as well. (The Philippines is a country consisting of over 7,000 islands.) Gary has been instrumental in developing church basketball leagues in various cities in the Philippines and has been using CSI’s Shepherd-Coach training material to help churches understand how to make basketball a ministry. Most recently, Gary has been successful in stimulating pastors to consider developing a Sports Ministry within their own churches and he is currently responding to dozens of invitations to equip the local church and initiate the ministry. Pastor Gary & Grace have been married since 1984 and are blessed with three (3) wonderful boys: Brian Christopher, John Paul and Stephen Christian. For more information of what they are doing in the Philippines, you can visit their ministry website: www.visitacionjournal.blogspot.com.

 

Contact Information

Ministry: OC International / Sports Ambassadors / Philippine Challenge, Inc. Website: www.visitacionjournal.blogspot.com Email Address: glvisitacion@yahoo.com

 

Country Information

The Philippines is an island country located in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. The Philippines comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean, sharing maritime borders with Indonesia, Malaysia, Palau, the Republic of China (Taiwan), and Vietnam. The Philippines is the world's 12th most populous country with a population of 90 million people. The Philippines is one of only two predominantly Roman Catholic countries in Asia-Pacific, the other being East Timor. Pre-Hispanic indigenous rituals still exist; and there are also followers of Islam. Spanish was an official language of the Philippines until 1973. Since then, the two official languages are Filipino, and English.

 

Ministry Information

Philippine Challenge, Inc.: Since Sports Ambassadors has partnered with Church Sports International (CSI), Pastor Gary & Grace Visitacion has been conducting sports ministry seminars with different churches in the country using CSI materials. They are also involved in organizing different church leagues in the country. One of which is now the popular Inter-Church Basketball League (ICBL). The ministry has been effective in leading people to Jesus Christ. View Pastor Gary's website for more information.

 

Testimonial

Last June, 2008 Typhoon Frank hit the Philippines. One of the provinces that was greatly damage was the Province of Panay. After talking with some contact pastors in the area, we decided that this is where we will focus our sports ministry activities for 2009. This coming October 6-12, I will be travelling to the Visayas and visit San Jose, Antique in Panay which was one of the provinces that was greatly hit by the typhoon. I will be setting-up a sports trip for the Western Australia Sports Ambassadors headed by Greg Beacham who will be coming on January, 2009. Please pray for me during this time as I travel and meet with pastors in the area to discuss with them the sports trip.