Fifteen years ago, I was sitting on a pew in a small church in Kearney, Nebraska—sippy cups in the van, laundry waiting at home, three children who still needed me to tie their shoes and butter their toast—when the pastor opened the invitation to serve in the Philippines. I didn’t raise my hand. I didn’t even look up. A Stirring I Couldn’t Explain I just sat there with a stirring in my chest I couldn’t explain. I was a stay-at-home mom. I barely had enough energy to make dinn

Some callings begin with a thunderous moment. Others begin quietly in a classroom filled with children and crayons. For Johnson Li, ministry first took root in Sunday school, where his heart was stirred for kids before he ever held a camera. At the same time, he was a quiet hobbyist behind a lens, learning to see light, beauty, and story through photography. Those two loves—children and images—would one day converge in a way he never planned. It was his pastor’s wife who firs

“As long as God gives me life and media, it will be part of who I am and what I do.” Thirty-six years in, that sentence doesn’t feel like ambition—it feels like surrender. Peter didn’t stumble into media ministry. God planted the vision early, back when cameras were bulky and editing was linear, slow, and holy work. While his wife Grace first joined Asia Pacific Media, Peter was already directing television programs at their local church, drawn toward a ministry that dared to

Some callings arrive like lightning. Others arrive like a persistent whisper that settles into the heart and stays. For Grace Banzon, the desire to serve in ministry was not sudden—it was steady. She had already spent seven years working in a Christian organization, her first job out of school, when life required her to step back to care for her young child. Yet even in that season of motherhood, the longing to serve never left her. Years later, that quiet stirring returned w

Long before cameras, lights, and film sets, there was a young man in a church pew making PowerPoint slides—heart tender toward God, eyes already imagining how stories could move people toward Him. JayR Manalo did not chase filmmaking. In many ways, it chased him. “I actually did not take any film-related course in my college days. I just liked the idea of creating those slides.” What began as humble service—presentations for church camps and worship nights—quietly planted a s