
Fil-American Baptist Church, Chicago, Ill., was organized in 1978, when a group of Filipino Christians started meeting together. Fil-American purchased its present property in 1996. Now under the leadership of Pastor Ruel Akut and his wife, Jocelyn, the church has started an outreach in the suburbs, which meets at Book Road Baptist Church in Naperville, Ill., and has planted a church in the Philippines. Pastor Akut says Fil-American wanted to be part of the GARBC because “there’s so much history in it and there’s a lot of affinity—especially doctrine.” He says, “We are on the same page, so we believe we will be comfortable” with the GARBC. “We praise God we are with this group. We believe we can be of help to each other.” Harvest Baptist Church, Williamsburg, Iowa. Pastor John Sauser says, “God started doing a work over here in Williamsburg. People recognized it and were convinced that God was leading in such a way that someday we would be planting a church there. They just weren’t sure when.” In God’s timing, “when” was October 2001. The church started as an offshoot of Faith Baptist Church in Iowa City. Harvest Baptist joined the GARBC because that’s where its roots are. Pastor Sauser says he is “familiar with the uniqueness of the GARBC’s strengths as an association of churches working ‘together,’ as we often hear, ‘to accomplish more.’ ” He says, “We need one another as sister churches, just as we need one another as individual members of a local assembly.”