The Walkers: Meeting Ministry Goals During Covid

Their Call

What began as a conversation at the Flying Burger in Magnolia, Arkansas, became a ministry call for Jimmy and Julie Walker. In August of 2016 Stan and Donna Scroggins asked Jimmy about moving to the Philippines to serve at the BMA Bible College (BMABC). He had been on five short-term trips there and agreed to pray about it. After six months of doing so, he still couldn’t get the Philippines off his mind.  

As it turned out, Julie, who had been on three trips to the Philippines, had prayed about the same possibility for two years. Clearly this was confirmation for the Walker family to move to the Philippines for missionary service. Their primary goal? To take the gospel to the 648,000,000 unreached people of Southeast Asia.

So in July of 2018, the Walkers and their children Judd, Adley, Nolan, Emory, and Silas arrived in Talisay on the Philippine island of Negros. 

Their Plan

In the months before his departure, Jimmy developed a three-fold plan for what he would be doing at the Bible college and for what he would do to help in church planting:

#1 Evangelize – Take the gospel to the unreached.

#2 Equip -Train and equip pastors/church planters with God’s Word and the skills needed to plant new churches.           

#3 Engage – Partner with graduates (of BMABC) to plant churches and help them in evangelism, discipleship, and multiplication.

Because students at the BMABC are equipped and sent out as missionaries and church planters – many of them back to their own countries – the college is the epicenter of the BMA’s Southeast Asia church planting efforts. With his school administration and teaching background, Jimmy was excited to be part of equipping the next group of God’s laborers to reach the lost. 

In addition to a vision for their ministry, the Walkers also had an exit strategy and were praying for when to hand off ministry responsibilities to ChangeMakers in the Philippines. There were four things they wanted to see implemented before leaving the mission field: setting up a discipleship model, establishing a first through twelfth grade school, helping BMA Bible College be financially self-supporting, and planting new churches.

By God’s grace, they were able to either achieve or make strides toward all four goals:

– In a thirteenth-month process of weekly meetings, Jimmy and Julie discipled around 65 future pastors and church planters, teaching them how to walk with Jesus daily and disciple others. Many are already making disciples.

 – In August of 2019 the Darlene Carey Academy’s first grade began on the campus of the Bible College, then in the following year, second grade was added. The plan is to continue adding one grade per year until grade twelve, and the Bible College’s staff are now in full control of the academy’s daily operations.

– BMABC is not completely self-supported, but plans have been made for the academy to underwrite 40% of the college’s operating budget, then 40% to come from the US, and 20% taken on by Filipino churches. (Philippine churches recently gave over $1000, the largest gift they’ve ever given.)
 

 – Although the Walkers helped and partnered with other new church plants, they worked directly with two pastors: Pastor Genesis and Pastor JR are effective church planters who love their community and accomplished a lot, even during the pandemic 

In addition to working in those four main areas, Jimmy also visited and conducted outreach and evangelism among mountain tribes; taught evangelism, church growth, and discipleship classes at the Bible college; and encouraged Filipinos to implement the Mission 2:10 initiative, which is to plant 200 churches in 10 southeast Asian countries in ten years.

Their Return Home

In March of 2020 Covid and resulting government restrictions in the Philippines forced the Walkers to return to the States on the assumption that they would return to the Philippines in August, just in time for classes to begin. However, the pandemic worsened, causing additional lockdowns. So Jimmy continued teaching his classes virtually for the next two semesters, all the while communicating with pastors, church planters, students, and Bible college staff members.

As it turned out, the Filipinos they served at BMABC and in other their other ministry areas were handling things just fine without them.

Jimmy said, “Along with meeting goals, we had been praying and seeking the Lord’s direction for the right time to leave but assumed we would be on the field one or two more years. Since we planned to hand off ministry to the Filipinos, we know God closed the door on a return to the Philippines. We did not anticipate that when we returned home in March (of 2020), but we are confident that this was the Lord’s plan and we trust that He is working all things out.”

In June of 2020, Jimmy finished teaching his classes remotely at the Bible college and officially came off the field.

Their Future Plans

With twenty years of experience in school administration, in May 2021 Jimmy was hired as assistant superintendent at Columbia Christian School in Magnolia, Arkansas. He will work alongside the current superintendent until Jimmy assumes the superintendent role in the 2022 fall semester. 

He and his family plan on returning to the Philippines, taking family and students there on short-term trips, and continuing to raise funds for the Darlene Carey Academy, which now has first graders and second graders and will add a grade each year.

John David Smith says, “Jimmy and Julie Walker went to the Philippines with a clear objective and a working exit strategy in relation to the schools there. In conjunction with other missionaries, they have accomplished their goals and have seen fit to not return to the Philippines. 

“We are thankful for the ministry the Walkers enjoyed there, and we pray that God will use them mightily in their next ministry opportunity. Jimmy, Julie, and family, thank you for your service to the Lord and to our association.”