Out of the Fire: Bibles Provide Hope for a Burned Church

Bringing Redemption Out of Desolation

All was quiet at Sovereign Grace Baptist Church in Davao City, Philippines, on Tuesday afternoon January 28, 2025. That is, until a neighbor down the street started a kitchen fire that quickly spread out of control. Before the fire department could arrive, the fire ripped through homes all down the street. At the end sat Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. The last thing the fire consumed was the church and its next-door parsonage.

After the fire died down, it quickly became clear that nothing could be salvaged of the church and surrounding property. The fire utterly consumed everything in its path. For Pastor Ronald Jacutin, that meant destruction of both his home and workplace. And for his congregation, they lost their place of worship and all it held—including the precious Bibles they kept for use during church services, Bible studies, and prayer gatherings.

The temptation to despair pulled strongly at Ronald. How would they ever rebuild? But he was confident that God could redeem what seemed like a desolate situation.

After the fire, Ronald posted on social media about the extent of the damage and some of the needs their church had as they sought to start the rebuilding process as soon as possible. One of Crossway’s ministry partners saw this post and knew of a way to respond: providing boxes of ESV Bibles that they had received through Crossway’s initial One Million Bibles Initiative.

Three months after the fire, Ronald reports that the rebuilding process is well underway, and the Lord has indeed provided in ways he never could have imagined. God’s provision has come through multiple avenues, including the donation of Bibles, which has allowed his congregants—many of whom don’t have a Bible of their own—to regain access to the Bible any time they gather together.

Give the Gift of a Bible

Your gift of $3.50 will provide a Bible to someone in need. Crossway is providing one million Bibles to men and women who may not have their own copy. Join us in this effort and allow someone to read God’s Word for themselves. Would you consider partnering with us? Learn More.

Sacrifices for Kingdom Work

Immediately after the destructive fire, Ronald began to ask questions like, “How can we continue to gather as a church?” In fact, he wasn’t even sure that the church members would still want to gather. But as it was Friday when the fire took place, he quickly pulled together plans for a church gathering on that Sunday just in case anyone wanted to come. And even though the church building was in ashes, he still decided to offer a church service on their property, right in the middle of the ashes. Through God’s provision, other churches supported them before that first Sunday by donating chairs, a tent, and a few other necessities that would allow their service to take place.

What I have learned and noticed [through this experience] is that these are the times that people keep coming, or maybe even come back, to church. Our attendance has been almost at 100% since the fire happened, whereas prior there were a lot of people not coming to church. I am seeing a kind of revival happening, even though we are still gathering in a temporary tent. It has been so hard but amazing because we are really seeing the work of God.

In the past months, God has faithfully shown Ronald time and again that he is faithful to provide exactly what he, his family, and his church body needs.

The fire personally impacted Ronald and his family, since the parsonage on the church property has been home to his family—parents, siblings, and his wife and newborn son. As this family waits for the Lord to provide for their needs, they’ve had to look for other lodging. It’s required great sacrifice, as Ronald recounts:

Since the time of the fire, we have lived on a covered basketball court. For a month or more, we just slept and lived in a tent. Our goal was to do this while figuring out where we were going to live longer term, because we knew there would be a provision from God for these things. And over time since then we have received donations, which has allowed us to start to put up little by little a new parsonage so that we can move out from the temporary shelter.

Ronald recognizes these sacrifices to be worthwhile, because the Lord has provided for them in ways that he couldn’t have anticipated. This includes the provision of Bibles for his church family.

The Gift of Encouragement

Though Davao City is one of the largest cities in the Philippines, many still live in poverty. This is reflected in Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. Through Ronald’s father’s evangelism efforts in mountain villages surrounding Davao City, these men and women joined the church when they moved from their villages in hopes of finding work to sustain their families. Financial resources for these brothers and sisters are scarce.

This reality has required additional faith and creativity on Ronald’s part as they seek the Lord for funds to rebuild the church. And it also means that the church members don’t have much to spare to purchase Bibles for themselves, since they had been using the Bibles kept in the church building before the fire.

Early in the rebuilding process, the ESV Bibles donated by a ministry partner arrived at the church for Ronald to distribute.

We were really encouraged and the people were really happy when we got those Bibles. We opened the boxes after a worship service, and everyone was really happy and they felt encouraged. And we started to distribute those study Bibles to our deacons and to our leaders, so that they have their own copies to be used in their personal studies as well as to help them in their leadership.

The Lord continues to provide for this church family. Today, the rebuilding of the church and parsonage are more than halfway complete. They continue to trust that the Lord will provide what they need to finish, as he has already provided in many ways thus far.

Throughout the Global South there are many in need of Bibles for a variety of reasons. Millions of men, women, and children don’t have access to a copy of God’s Word. This spring, Crossway is seeking to continue to respond to this need through the One Million Bibles Initiative: Global South. Every $3.50 given provides an ESV Bible to someone in need in a place like the Philippines. Would you consider joining us today in our effort to distribute one million Bibles?

Praise God for the ways he has already abundantly provided for the One Million Bibles Initiative: Global South. Pray for the Lord to place these Bibles in the hands of those who are in great need.

Pray for growth for Sovereign Grace Baptist Church—both through the completion of the church building and for the spiritual growth of each member through this time.