Each year, Lancaster Bible College’s student-led Student Mission Fellowship selects a mission to support as its Project of the Year. For 2025, the leadership team chose to raise money for Every Tribe Philippines.

“The ministry of Every Tribe focuses on bringing the gospel to unreached tribes within the Philippines, helping them hear the gospel, and then discipling them to start a church,” explained SMF President and Intercultural Studies major Emily Kocher (’26).

Jordan and Yan Yan (James) Dolilasa are the founders and directors of Every Tribe Philippines.

Joshua Salvatore (’25), the SMF Vice President and also an Intercultural Studies major, had the opportunity to meet Yan Yan (James) and Jordan Dolilasa, the founders and directors of Every Tribe Philippines, while on a trip to the Philippines through Youth With a Mission (YWAM).

“Yan Yan and Jordan began a ministry in Mindanao, the southern Island of the Philippines, after Yan heard that there were tribes on the Island that had still not heard of Jesus Christ,” explained Salvatore. “Yan formed a team with his local church that goes into these tribes for a week or so at a time to conduct evangelism and compassion ministry.”

Added Kocher, “Since we began our leadership within SMF, we have been praying about what ministry we would want to support, and we both felt called to support a ministry overseas as SMF has been supporting ministries in the local area of Lancaster for the past couple of years. Josh brought up Every Tribe Philippines, and we felt like this was what God wanted us to raise money for this year.”

SMF Treasurer Dillon Roth (’27) and President Emily Kocher (’26) helped man the SMF bake sale table in December 2024 to benefit Every Tribe Philippines.

SMF hosted a pre-Christmas bake sale to start the fundraising ball rolling, which raised money for a village in the Philippines called Nasinabong. The proceeds from the bake sale will help with a church building project and provide school supplies to the children in the village.

“SMF is partnering with them this year to help build a church in a village named Nasinabong,” said Salvatore. “Every Tribe recently visited and witnessed to some of the first people come to Christ. The money raised is going toward planting a church in the village on land donated by the tribal leader as well as sending the 80 or so children from the village to school next year!”

SMF will also be raising money for Nasinabong during Missions Conference, set for Feb. 4-6, 2025.