“If papers and money weren’t a problem, would you migrate to the USA?”

Philippines 🇵🇭

Spiritual Changemaking in the Philippines

Hi. My name is Najee Chua from Manila, Philippines.

I've been working in the social sector for nearly a decade – professionally and personally. I've helped raise over a million dollars across all my global nonprofit clients, and I've continued to work closely with local nonprofits serving low-income communities in the Philippines. Despite its many problems, I love my country and my kababayans (countrymen), and I can’t imagine being anywhere else.

But where I am today is a far cry from where I thought I wanted to be. When I was in university, my dream as an educated, middle-class Filipina was to leave my country. I wanted to leave partly because of the limitations of my nationality – why was I Filipina, when my life would be “better” if I were Japanese, French, or American? Wouldn’t my standard of living be higher, my passport stronger, my opportunities grander?

Migrating for prosperity is a common aspiration, but I was determined to transform my dream into reality. At the tender age of 15, I secured my parents’ approval to migrate, selected an appropriate college course with a student exchange program, and applied for a master’s degree abroad immediately after graduation. I couldn’t wait to leave and start a new life in a different country.

“Afterall,” I rationalized, “if God blessed me with little, isn’t it my responsibility to grow my blessings, and then bless others when I’m rich?”

Everything was going according to plan until all the graduate schools I applied to rejected me. It might seem shallow now, but I had a serious crisis of faith then: Why didn’t God affirm my dream? Didn’t I pray hard enough? Wasn’t my involvement in church enough? Don’t I have what it takes? Wasn’t I enough?

Questions and doubts hounded me. I wish I could say that after a night of intense weeping, praying, and reflecting, I had peace. I didn’t. I wish I could say that I knew where He was redirecting me, but that would be a lie. Why? Because despite the rejections, I never lost my desire to leave my country. I tried to do so several more times, not realizing that God was already redirecting my desire. By 27, I finally got my teenage dream: I was taking my master’s degree in Social Justice at a seminary school in the USA.

Something was different though, and it became clearer to me when a Filipino-American friend asked, “If papers and money weren’t a problem, would you migrate to the USA?”

“No,” I answered, surprised, “I want to be in the Philippines and serve my people there.”

That’s when I knew I’d changed, and that God was far more interested in the faith He was refining (and the person I was becoming) than the dream I was pursuing. He helped me reclaim parts of myself I wished weren’t mine – my birthplace and nationality. He succeeded in steering me away from thoughts of 'my lack' to thoughts of 'His abundance'. He showed me that my ultimate treasure was not something but Someone: Himself. 

Today, spiritual changemakers are diverse. Some are whisked to new continents and cultures, while others like me are closer to home. Not one is better, but all are blessed to honor God by caring for one another and serving each other. My spiritual changemaking journey in the Philippines is still beginning, but I never dreamed of serving as a global nonprofit professional at work, a deacon at my local church, and a part of the Board of Trustees in a local nonprofit working with low-income Filipino communities taking ownership of their futures.

Praise God!