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May 30, 2025 29 mins

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"Have you ever thought that prayer is insignificant? Well, today we look at Pastor Tony Reyes' journey from salvation to training 5,000 church planters, which reveals a prayer-driven ministry impacting Southeast Asia's unreached regions."

From a tearful decision in a Chinese restaurant to training thousands of church planters across Southeast Asia, Pastor Tony Reyes' journey showcases how God crafts extraordinary ministries from humble beginnings.

Tony's transformation began in 1981 when a college classmate invited him to a Christian service held in an unlikely venue. Coming from a Catholic background, nothing prepared him for what happened during his second visit when conviction brought him to tears: "I knew I was going to hell." This moment of clarity led to his salvation and set him on a path toward full-time ministry after graduating college in 1984.

Fast-forward to 2016, when Tony and his wife made the radical decision to leave their established life in New Jersey—selling their home, leaving their jobs and four children behind—to return to the Philippines. Armed with what he calls "the multiplication principle" from 2 Timothy 2:2, Tony began developing land and establishing what would become Calvary Chapel Tagaytay City. Seven years later, his ministry has trained over 5,000 church planters and helped establish nearly 300 churches, with Calvary Bible Institute serving as a strategic hub for reaching the "1040 window"—regions containing the world's most unreached people groups.

What's most striking about Tony's testimony isn't just the impressive numbers, but his unwavering focus on prayer as the foundation of ministry effectiveness. "The artillery of prayer," as he describes it, remains his greatest need—specifically prayers for students from Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Singapore to receive training and return to plant churches in their home countries. His vision extends far beyond personal achievement to equipping indigenous leaders who can reach places where many have never heard Jesus' name.

Ready to join this global movement through prayer? Connect with Tony's prayer team and become part of the spiritual artillery supporting this powerful work of multiplication across Southeast Asia.

CBI Luzon - https://calvarybibleinstituteluzon.org/
Calvary Chapel Tagaytay City - calvarychapeltagaytaycity.wordpress.com
CCTC YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@calvarychapeltagaytaycity

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Lord, you know you will now listen to Plays on Word
Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
It's the best.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
And share Right, and our prayer is that God would
send us students from thedifferent other countries, our
neighboring countries that arein the 1040 window, meaning the
most unreached people groups inthe world.
So we're praying for studentsfrom Thailand, malaysia, myanmar
, indonesia and Taiwan andSingapore and all of these other

(00:31):
countries that are part of the1040 window.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
You're the only thing , you're the only thing, you're
the only thing.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Hello and welcome to Plays on Word Radio, where we
discuss, analyze, work and playon the Word of God.
Thank you for joining us onthis excursion.
Today let's join Pastor Teddy,also known as Fred David Kenney
Jr, the founder of Plays on WordTheater, as he does a deep dive
into the Word of God.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Okay, we are here with our dear brother Tony Reyes
from.
Well I know you from, like NewJersey, us, but technically
you're Philippines now, I mean,but if you go way back, you're
originally family from thePhilippines, right, yes, but you
weren't born there, you wereborn here, born and raised in
the Philippines.
Oh, born and raised.
Okay, see, that shows you whatI know.
It's not a whole lot.
You are the pastor.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Tell us the name of the church Calvary Chapel,
tagaytay City.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
See if you guys can say that three times fast.
That is in the philippines, um,and we are scheduled.
We don't have the exact date,but we are planning on coming
out to do, uh, a play and andwe've already taught at cbi, uh,
which is calvary bible, uhinstitute at our church, yeah,
at the church.
And can you just tell us?

(02:27):
First of all, tell us, how didTony Reyes meet Jesus?
How did that happen?

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Well, I was in college Okay, 1981.
And someone invited me to herchurch Okay, and to make sure
that I go, she picked me up.
This is in the Philippines, inthe Philippines, in the car.
So I mean, you know, as a youngman, I couldn't refuse a pretty
girl picking me up at my houseto bring me to church.

(02:55):
God will use whatever he has toyeah, so I went, and that was
the first time I went to aChristian church that met in a
Chinese restaurant, so it was myfirst time.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Wait, wait, wait, hold on.
I got to hit the brakes.
So you're telling me thischurch.
They gathered and they met at aChinese restaurant, that's
right.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
See, and so I was a Catholic.
So I never had any otherexperience in any other church
except a Catholic church.
So that was quite a Catholicchurch.
So that was quite a differentexperience.
But then nothing happened, itwas just different.
And so she invited me again.

(03:35):
She picked me up again thefollowing Sunday, I believe, and
I was just sitting there in thefront row and the pastor was
preaching salvation and as I waslistening, I knew I was going
to go to hell.
I started just crying.
I'm not a crier, but I juststarted crying because I knew I

(03:57):
was going to hell.
And the pastor gave aninvitation whoever wants to
accept Jesus, come up front.
And I just found myself upfront, accepting Jesus.
So that's how I got saved.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Praise the Lord.
Man, that is amazing.
You entered the family of Godway back then.
How did you end up in ministryfrom there, in ministry from
there?

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Well, that was 1981.
I was in, I think, third yearor second year of college and as
I was graduating college in1984, there was a founder of
Campus Crusade for Christ, drBill Bright, who came over to
the Philippines and we were allgraduating Christians gathered

(04:47):
in this auditorium listening toDr Bill Bright and he gave a
challenge to whoever wanted todedicate your life to full time
ministry.
And again, I just found myselfgoing forward.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
That's amazing yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
So that's how I gave my life to the Lord to follow
Him in full-time ministry.
Wow, and I didn't know how,where, what, yeah, you for sure
I'm here.
I just knew that's what God'scalling me and that's what I'm
going to.
Heed the call.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Wow, so you ended up at Calvary Old Bridge.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Right, that's many years later.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
Many years later, right Right Calvary Old Bridge.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Right, that's many years later.
Many years later, right, right.
So this is 1984, when I wasgraduating and I didn't get to
Calvary Chapel, old Bridge, myfirst introduction to Calvary
Chapel until 2009.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
Okay, all right, and I had already been going to Old
Bridge and I had been at thatpoint 2009,.
Where was I at?
I was, I think, at FellowshipChapel.
Yeah, at Fellowship Chapel atthat point 2009,.
Where was I at?
I was, I think, at FellowshipChapel.
Yeah, at Fellowship Chapel atthat time in Point, pleasant.
So, okay, our paths almostcrossed, but not completely
Right, right.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
Yeah, we didn't meet up there.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
That's amazing man.
But so you're in New Jerseydoing ministry there.
How do you end up back in thePhilippines and what is that
like?

Speaker 1 (06:04):
Right?
Well, you know, when Godbrought me to Calvary Chapel,
old Bridge, 2009, very quickly,you know, he promoted me to be
an elder, probably in a year,and so I was just serving there
as an elder and then the Lordspoke to me.
You know that long story short,that I needed to return to the

(06:25):
Philippines and that's where Ineed to serve him.
And he gave me a verse 2,timothy 2, verse 2, you know
where Paul says to Timothy thethings you've heard from me
among many witnesses thesethings commit to faithful men
who will be able to teach othersalso.
So God told me that he wasgoing to use that.
I call it the multiplicationprinciple.

(06:48):
So it was a multiplicationprinciple to multiply disciples,
right, but he's told me, godtold me I'm going to use that
principle to multiply churches.
You just do train churchplanters, who will train church
planters?
Who will train church planters,and I'm going to multiply.
And that's what I did.
I went back to the Philippinesin 2016 with my wife.

(07:10):
We left our four children, wesold our house, we left our jobs
, we left everything, went backto the Philippines in 2016.
And then just started traininga few church planters and made
sure that they also train others.
And what now?
It's about seven years now andwe've trained over 5,000 church

(07:32):
planters and probably health.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Did you catch that number, you guys Five 5,000, man
what?

Speaker 1 (07:39):
And we've helped plant maybe almost 300 churches
already.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
Oh man as a result of that, praise God.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
So God did honor the multiplication of the churches.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, exponentially.
Yes, wow.
So now, how does CBI getinvolved?

Speaker 1 (07:57):
Well, it's interesting because this place
we're at Calvary Chapel,philadelphia, attending the East
Coast Pastors Conference, butSaturday before there's always
the Missions Conference, and soin 2022, I was privileged to be
invited and I had a table for myministry 222.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
I think that might be where we actually met.

Speaker 1 (08:22):
Yes, yes exactly.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
The missions, because that's the mission conference I
was able to make.
I wasn't able to make it Right.
I haven't been able to make itsince, but that was the one I
was able to make.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Right.
So you know, god has it in myheart to start a Bible institute
, but I had no idea how.
I had no idea how I'm not aneducator, but it so happened
that my table was just besidethe table of CBI.
So I got to meet Pastor Jarrelland Pastor Corey Kilgus, you

(08:52):
know, and I told them.
You know I had a desire and youknow, the Lord just worked it
all out.
They helped me, you know, andthis is our third year now for
our Bible Institute.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Amazing.
And yeah, I taught last year atCBI and then this past spring I
was able to take a group ofpeople, students, through the
Gospel of Matthew and I meanit's amazing.
Somebody was from Vietnam,Another person was from

(09:21):
Bangladesh, yeah, and you knowI'm like wow, it wasn't just
local to the Philippines,although that's great too, yes,
but the amazing thing is everyone of these guys and gals, they
were stoked and amped up to goback and share Right and share
Right, and our prayer is thatGod would send us students from

(09:50):
the different other countries,our neighboring countries that
are in the 1040 window, meaningthe most unreached people groups
in the world.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
So we're praying for students from Thailand, Malaysia
, Myanmar, Indonesia and Taiwanand Singapore and all of these
other countries that are part ofthe 1040 window.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
So there you go.
That's something that everybodylistening.
We've been streamed in 63countries, I believe.
So there's a little bit of aglobal reach happening here.
Everybody that's listeningright now.
If you say I don't know what topray for, I don't know what to
pray for, they can pray that theLord would move in that 1040

(10:28):
window and create the connectionso that they get in contact
with you at CBI and the Lordprovides a way for them to get
to CBI.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yes, Philippines.

Speaker 2 (10:39):
Philippines.
Right, there's many CBI right,philippines, but you guys,
you're the Southeast Asia hub.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
Yeah, we're right on the peripheral of the 1040
window.
We're in the 1040 window.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
That's absolutely amazing, and so I was extremely
excited just to meet thestudents and there's a hunger
for the things of god and, uh, Iremember we were going through
matthew.
Um, just the excitement of go,like going through the word of
god, it was like we're miningthese.
These students were reallyexcited.
So that was a blessing to me tobe able to do that, and so for

(11:15):
me to be able to serve in thatway is an absolute blessing.
We'll put a link to CBI Luzon,philippines.
We'll put a link on there inthe show notes so people can
find out.
If anybody wants any moreinformation, you can reach out
to me direct and I can get youin contact with our beloved

(11:37):
brother here.
Let me ask you a question.
Tell me about the church plantitself.
We talked about cbi as far asyou planning the church, so you
just moved out to thephilippines.
How did you?
How did you know where to go?
What?

Speaker 1 (11:52):
you know right, well, you know we had a property in a
town called talisay in theprovince of batangas.
It's right by this lake and inthe middle of the lake is a is a
, an island volcano, which isthe smallest active volcano in
the world and uh, anyway, sothat's where we, that's the only

(12:13):
property that we have, and sothat's kind of like you know the
default place that we would goto and that's where we went and
I started just developing thepiece of land.
There was nothing there exceptovergrown grass, started
developing that for two yearswith the help of our church,
calvary Chapel, old Bridge, youknow, mission trips and stuff.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
What a blessing that is.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
Yes yes, and so in 2018, two years later I was
ready to train church planters.
The Lord told me you can'ttrain church planters unless you
have a church.
You know, you can't train bytheory or by experience.
So the Lord convicted me tostart a church.
And so there's, up there in themountain, the city of Tagaytay,

(12:56):
which is a tourist city, andthat's where the Lord told me to
start a church, aninternational church, not a
rural church, but the Lordwanted me to start an
international church.
Okay, so, um, I started.
I didn't know anybody therecome on.
So you just, you just yeah, wejust started talking to people

(13:17):
and then, uh, love it.
You know uh, seven years now,you know, and and finally, you
know, god's uh, you know uh,established this church and
right, we have we're fourpastors in our church and we
have a Bible Institute and I'mtraining 14 men, you know, as a
pastoral interns and God's been,you know blessing and we're

(13:40):
just renting facilities.
We're renting four apartments,right now already.
You know, we have a dormitoryfor men and women and so, yeah,
God has been really blessing,you know.

Speaker 2 (13:51):
That's amazing.
What would you say?
What's the biggest need for thechurch and or CBI, or just you
being out there?
What is the biggest need?
What?
If somebody listening, if youcould just say, listen, if you
want to help out, or whateverthis is what we need.
Well, thank you for that.
I think the biggest you want tohelp out, or whatever this is
what we need.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
Well, thank you for that.
I think the biggest need wouldprobably be number one prayer,
prayer that God would send usstudents, like I said, from
these countries, see, so theycan be trained, yeah, and then
we can send them back to theircountries to start churches
there or cover Bible institutesthere, because for me, that's

(14:29):
the most effective way to reachthe most unreached people who
have never even heard of thename of Jesus.
For me that's the best.
I can't think of any moreeffective way than that.
If there is, that's what Iwould do?

Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah, what you're saying.
So, basically, what you'resaying is that the people
listening right now, if theLord's putting it on your heart
to commit to pray, that peoplewithin that window, that 1040
window would actually come out,then what God is doing is
allowing them who are prayingand I'm going to put myself in
that group allow us to be partof the work he's doing with you

(15:03):
guys.
So just think about that.
Tony said he wants people thathave never heard the name of
Jesus, and you know a lot of you.
The Lord has not called you tothe mission field, but guess
what?
If you're a believer in Christ,he has called you to a certain
extent to the mission field.
Maybe you don't have to go onthe mission field, but you can
be part of his work becauseTony's out on the mission field

(15:26):
right there, and you heard whathe said.
You know, please pray, pray,and you can do a blanket prayer.
Oh Lord, I just pray for thatguy, tony, out in the
Philippines.
Okay, that's fine, the Lordknows.
But you also can pray specific,lord, I pray for the young kids
in Singapore that you knowmaybe doesn't have a mom or dad

(15:48):
or whatever, but you find a wayto get him to CBI.
You make that kind of nowyou're interceding.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
And we have a prayer group for people who really pray
for us, who actually care topray for us.
You know, regularly, and that'sone another way, you know, if
anyone's interested, they cancontact me and we can put them
as part of that prayer group.
Oh and, and that's, for me, isthe most important group, that's
it, yeah, because these are the, the people who really care for

(16:16):
us to pray for us, yeah, yeahand I, I just told, uh, my buddy
accent cow, he's from zambia,um, and it's amazing because I
asked him what, what's hisnumber one need?

Speaker 2 (16:27):
and and he said the same thing prayer.
We need prayer, first andforemost we need prayer.
And I told him, you know thisconference that we're at this
Calvary, east Coast PastorsConference.
There's a group of people thatduring this entire conference
they're just praying.
There's a dedicated group ofpeople that are praying for the

(16:51):
conference.
As we're sitting there, beingministered to and being blessed,
prayer is going on, and that'swhen you're stepping into Paul
in Ephesians.
He talks about in the heavenlyrealms, you know, in the
heavenlies.
He says it like four or fivetimes in the book of Ephesians
and there's stuff going on,there's battles going on.
We don't even see it, but weare to engage in firing the

(17:18):
artillery of prayer.
That's what I call it Like theartillery of prayer and the
enemy, one of his most effectivelies or tactics, is to make you
think your prayer is really notthat important.
Don't bother.
You've prayed a bunch of timesand God hasn't really answered
you yet.
You just give up, don't pray.
Why do you think the enemycomes at prayer like that?

(17:40):
Because it's effective and Ithink that if the believers in
Christ got started got reallyserious.
There are many that are serious, but if everybody got serious
about prayer and the artilleryaspect of it, then now you've
got artillery coverage goingbefore you, behind you, around
you as you're moving through andjust walking in the in the path

(18:02):
that he's already set.
Yeah, as far as prayer, we'llput a link in the missus.
Is she still good with themission you guys are on all
these years later?

Speaker 1 (18:13):
Oh, absolutely, absolutely.
She's a gift.
Yeah, she's a gift, andactually that's another thing
that people can pray for,because the enemy has tried a
few times to take her out.

Speaker 3 (18:25):
Yeah, I bet.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
And because he knows that if he could do that he's
going to really damage me.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
That's his tactic.
Look, he couldn't go directlyto Adam, yeah.
So he said, let's go to Eve,let's attack.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
Eve Right, so pray for her health.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
Yes, yeah, so okay, well, we know how to pray.
We got our marching orders,amen, and we'll hear more from
you, because it plays on word,even though we haven't come out.
We were supposed to come outbut the Lord said hold on a
second, hold on.
But I look at it the way Paulwanted to go into Asia Minor and

(19:04):
the Lord was like wait a second, no, not yet, not Asia Minor.
And the Lord was like wait asecond, no, not yet, not yet.
And the Lord, the Holy Spirit,said no, but he ended up getting
there.
You know, he ended up gettingto Ephesus.
Ephesus is in Asia Minor and hegot to Ephesus, not when he
wanted to, and I feel like thatsame thing.
I was like we plan on going.
Okay, the Lord said hold on asecond, but we want to come out
there and do a play for you guys.

(19:25):
That's right, yeah, and ministerand see that beautiful life.

Speaker 1 (19:29):
And we're God's guys.
He provides.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
Well, there you go.
So well, on that note, thankyou, Tony Reyes.
My brother, this is a long timecoming and, yeah, anybody, just
reach out to me and we'll putyou in contact with this guy.
And, like I said, I'm expectingthis group, everybody listening
.
I'm expecting please, lift upthis brother.
The Lord is charging you.
Lift up this brother in thework God's doing through this

(19:53):
guy here.
Amen, Alright, Thank you, bro.

Speaker 3 (20:19):
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