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HISTORY

The Wavemakers Story: From A Tiny Ripple To A Mighty Wave
By Aimee Lim (2008)

Wavemakers traces its roots from Youth@111, the youth ministry of Capitol City Baptist Church (CCBC) in Quezon City, Philippines.  Before 1997, the youth group was struggling to keep a handful of ten young people in the church.  Ptr. Randolph Velasquez, from being a campus minister of Student Venture, the high school ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, sensed God’s calling to leave the campus to work with young people inside the church. God led him to CCBC. Equipped with his prior training of Youth Ministry Strategy under Sonlife Ministries and Youth Ministries Australia, he diligently studied the life and ministry of Jesus Christ and prayerfully applied these principles in the ministry of Youth@111 (“… walk as Jesus did” I John 2:6). And God blessed the work of his hands. Today, Youth@111 has grown to an overwhelming pack of more than a hundred teenagers and has a thriving campus outreach ministry in at least five high schools in its vicinity.  Alongside Ptr. Randolph is a team of youth leaders and youth workers who share the same passion to make disciples. Inevitably, the youth ministry, by God’s grace, has influenced the church, slowly bringing back into its heart the Great Commission.

Beyond the walls of the church, Ptr. Randolph and his team have been helping other youth ministries through YouthSENTral, the youth ministry arm of Conservative Baptist Association of the Philippines (CBAP). Since year 2000, several trainings and seminars were conducted to meet youth ministry needs. Just as God has flourished Youth@111, the team hoped to share the same fruitful experience with other youth workers and youth leaders, starting with the churches within the CBAP denomination. As a result, discipleship groups have been jumpstarted in youth ministries that used to dabble with programs without a clear goal in mind – make disciples.  

Opportunity to influence other denominations was made possible through a partnership with Alliance Graduate School.  With Pastor Randolph as a teaching fellow in the Youth Ministry Module, youth pastors and youth workers of different churches and denominations are being trained to follow Jesus’ strategy of multiplication. To date, the team has been coaching a handful of pastors, church leaders and youth workers on a regular basis.  

After more than a decade, more and more young leaders, from within and outside the church, are being trained under the life and strategy of Jesus Christ. The ministry already existed even before it had a name. Yet God was paving the way for Wavemakers. 

Word went out that something was happening in the youth ministries here in Manila. Jesus Strategy Seminar, a training based on the life and ministry of Jesus Christ developed by Sonlife Ministries, was creating waves in Philippine shores.   Someone who knew a Sonlife person told about Randolph and how his ministry has been an offshoot of the Strategy. All of a sudden, people from all parts of the globe were looking for Randolph. Unknown to him, he was a link in an unseen web connecting God’s workers all over the world – the Sonlife Connection.

Bill Hodgson, director of Youth Ministries Australia (YMA) and a Sonlifer, rediscovered him through Anne Ardina of Alliance Graduate School (formerly Alliance Biblical Seminary) in 1998. Randolph and Bill met way back Randolph’s Student Venture (SV) days, when Bill was training SV staff with YMSS. When Bill was invited to teach modules in AGS, he learned that Randolph was the sole remnant of the batch of trainees in Manila who was still applying the Strategy. Seeing this fruit, Bill has since been coaching Randolph. In 2004, through YMA, Bill invited Randolph to Australia for a month-long training. This gave Randolph the opportunity to see and experience different models and ministries outside the Philippines. 

In 2004, Dr. Mark Hoeffner, director of Conservative Baptist Northwest and one of the forerunners of Sonlife Ministries in America, came to Manila. He touch based with Randolph through Cheryl Forster of YouthSENTral. Cheryl also shared the news to Gene Poppino, another Sonlifer based in the U.S., who in turn told Dr. Dann Spader, the founder of Sonlife in North America. Late 2005, Andrew Tay of Sonlife Singapore, came to Manila for a mission trip in Southern Philippines. He then met and trained Randolph. Finally in 2005, Dr. Spader found Randolph through a simple electronic mail. And that was the beginning of God’s grand plan unfolding before the team.  

The year 2006 marked a milestone for God’s humble servants in this part of the globe.  Dr. Spader, together with Andrew Tay, invited the team to the Asia Pacific Healthy Church Conference in Malaysia and Global Youth Initiative in Singapore. This gave the team a wider perspective of God’s global work.  There, the team got connected to a larger network of God’s workers from Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, and US. That same year, the vision documents for Wavemakers were drafted. Dr. Spader and Andrew Tay have generously guided and encouraged the team since then. After a year of planning and praying for God’s direction, the team has taken the step of faith to go fulltime and heed God’s clear calling. Wavemakers was finally born on September 2007.  

Today, Wavemakers finds its home in the center of the Manila metropolis, strategically located in the heart of the Philippines. With two fulltime staff, a roster of competent Board Members with a heart for the emerging generations, and a rich pool of certified volunteer trainers, Wavemakers  is well on its way to shape and reshape the landscape of churches, denominations, Christian organizations and their youth ministry. 

Just as a mighty wave is born from a tiny ripple, Wavemakers was a God-given dream which started with an individual, then shared by a team, and now shifting ministry paradigms all over. Indeed, a wave of revival is waiting to happen in our churches today. And it’s starting with the youth.