Believe it or not, the man who was awarded the coveted Heisman Trophy as the 2007-08 season’s most outstanding US college football player has a special place in his heart for the Philippines.
Tim Tebow, 20, rewrote the record books by becoming the first underclassman as a University of Florida sophomore to capture the Heisman honors last December. The 6-3, 235-pound quarterback finished the regular season as the only 20-20 player (29 passing and 22 rushing touchdowns) in major college football history.
Tebow was born in the Philippines, now a widely-known fact as news of his family’s involvement in depressed communities in Mindanao has spread to inspire young Americans into seriously thinking about reaching out to the underprivileged in the Third World.
Indirectly, Tebow has brought worldwide attention to the Philippines as a country crying out for developmental assistance and religious formation.
Tebow’s parents Bob and Pam were Christian missionaries living in the Philippines when he was born. His mother suffered an infection with a pathogenic amoeba while pregnant and doctors recommended an abortion but she refused the procedure, leaving her fate to God. As it turned out, Tim was born healthy, the fifth and youngest child, and is now an All-American football star.
It was in 1985 – two years before Tebow was born – when his parents relocated to the Philippines to start an evangelical mission. For five years, the Tebows lived here, preaching the gospel, planting churches and organizing a staff of Filipino ministers to spread the Word of God.
While in the country, the Tebows laid the foundations not only for an enduring ministry but also for a family that was a living example of Christianity in action. In their formative years, the Tebow children were all home-schooled by their mother, the daughter of an army colonel and a cum laude graduate of journalism and communication. They owe their deep religious beliefs to an early introduction of Christian upbringing.
The five home-schooled Tebow children eventually received college scholarships. Three have earned college degrees, one has two graduate degrees and Tim, the football player, is a university scholar.
Since returning to the US in 1990, the Tebows continued to make regular trips back to the Philippines. They made it their unwavering commitment to preach the gospel to every Filipino family whose life they could touch. It is the key element in the Tebows’ outreach program to introduce Christianity to each remote village in the Philippines.
Two years ago, the Tebow ministry started a boat campaign where a skipper took two evangelists and a church planter to small islands in the Philippines. And at least four times a year, the Tebows lead a group of young American missionaries in “immersion” trips to far-flung barangays.
The Tebows have brought hundreds of American high school and college students on trips to the Philippines the last 14 years. The traveling missionaries preach the gospel in schools, offices, public markets, malls, barangay halls and places where people can gather to listen to the Word of God.
“During these meetings, the missionaries have had the chance to minister, preach, sing and share personal testimonies,” a brochure said. “Other opportunities include working in medical clinics, playing evangelical basketball games and conducting Jesus film showings. Individuals are trained both theologically and through field experience. The hundreds of thousands of people who have received eternal life have made these summers significant. This evangelistic trip has been life-changing for all who have been involved.”
Bob Tebow, who played a key role in starting the Campus Crusade for Christ at the University of Florida in 1965, said the trip is not a vacation and warned applicants – who must be at least 15 years old – to expect a strenuous schedule. “This trip is an intense evangelistic trip and every individual who participates will personally see thousands come to Christ,” he said. “God will not only do work in the hearts of those you minister to but He will also do great work in your heart as well.”
Tim has often come back to the country of his birth to join his father in the Bible-preaching trips.
So far, there are 45 Filipinos working full-time in the Tebows’ ministry staff. The movement has reached out to over 12.5 million people the last eight years and over 8.5 million Filipinos have been shown the way to God. The church-planting program has involved over 8,000 local churches in the last five years and an orphanage in South Cotabato has brought in 50 streetchildren.
The next Tebow mission trips are scheduled on Jan. 19-Feb. 3 and July 19-Aug. 3. Perhaps, the Heisman Trophy winner could join one of the trips and make himself available to media so he could share his experiences as an All-American football star, express his commitment to the Filipino people and inspire everyone to turn on to the Lord.