Local missionary makes difference abroad and at home

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Published on Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Miranda Leybourne
The Neepawa Press

 Douglas Wilkinson is always busy. Whether he’s traveling back and forth from Winnipeg, taking new residents of Neepawa to appointments, working with Calvary Chapel, the church he attends, or helping to fix up the home of one of Neepawa’s Filipino families, Wilkinson is perpetually helping people. And when he you can’t find him in Neepawa, chances are he’s some 11,000 kilometres away, acting as a missionary in the Philippines. 

 Wilkinson, a Carberry native who has been living in  Neepawa for the last 12 years, has a ready smile and an abundance of enthusiasm to share what God has called him to do in his life. His passion is being a blessing to people he comes into contact with, whether locally or internationally.

Being a blessing

 “I’m a people person. I’m not a materialistic person -- people mean more to me. And that’s why I invest in people. Jesus says we’re to be His hands and feet, and that’s why I make myself available to people,” Wilkinson says. He also cites inspiration from his grandmother. “She cared for people; she cared for her mother. And I...spent a lot of time with my grandparents. And that’s where I got all that mentoring, and my morals, and all that. That’s where I find it.”

 Wilkinson became a Christian at the age of 17, and attended bible college in Nipawin, Sask. starting in 2005, where he took a three year missionary major. From there, he moved on to bible college in Three Hills, Alta. in 2007. 

 “The best thing for me was going to Bible college. It opened my world,” he affirms. “I am single, but marriage isn’t the answer to everything. God instituted marriage, but he also gives gifts to single people. My focus is on Him -- that’s why, at this point in my life, my love and passion is for the Lord. He’s given me the desire to be a blessing and he’s given me a ministry to travel.” 

This ministry has seen Wilkinson travel to many different places to bring both physical and spiritual aid to the people living there. His first missionary trip saw him flying over the Andes mountains into the South American country of Bolivia. He lived there in a missions compound house and both painted a Bible college and acted as a missionary on Sundays.

 “People came from all over. They just got on the back of a truck and came to church. And when they heard there were Canadians, people came. The church services lasted for three hours,” he remembers fondly. “I had an interpreter...I was speaking and they were interpreting. People were so...glued. And I said, ‘I’m just an ordinary guy from Canada. I came here to be a blessing, to be an encouragement and to share what God has put on my heart.’”

Wilkinson was moved by both the poverty that Bolivians live with on a daily basis and their drive to better themselves. 

“The young men, 18 to 30 years of age, had no work,” he laments. “They want to get ahead, and they’re willing...they don’t have what we have, where we have it so good here. There, they just have to work [whatever] job and then another job to support their families.”

 After Bolivia, Wilkinson acted as missionary in the South Pacific islands of Fiji. Here, he travelled 48 hours on a boat to get to the island of Rotuma, which is 18 km around and home to some 2,000 people. There, he worked with the Assemblies of God church to teach a missions course.

“People there are very warm and their hospitality is amazing,” he notes. 

They kiss the ground

Wilkinson has also travelled to Israel, where he was baptised. He says upon his arrival to the Middle Eastern country, it was a moving sight to see the joy of Jewish people returning to their homeland.

“Once they get off the plane, they kiss the ground...When I was on the plane coming in, they park it outside on the runway. You get out into the sunshine and you walk down the stairs and there’s a bus waiting to take you to the airport...but people get off the plane, go down the steps and they kiss the ground when you get there.”

Wilkinson was able to share the Word of God in a church in Jerusalem and says the Israeli culture is very rich and beautiful.

Wilkinson’s most recent missions trip was to the Philippines this past winter, his fourth trip to the Southeast Asian country. He’s usually there for four or fives months of each year and says he has a real passion for the country and its people.

Although a traditionally Christian nation, with just over 80 per cent of its population practicing Roman Catholicism, Wilkinson says there are still many in the country who haven’t been told the Word of God. 

“We went on the streets in the city, to the prostitutes...we went where there had been nothing. We went into the tribes, into the jungle, into the mountains,” he remembers. “We went into a jungle...we walked into the mountain, and there are people there that don’t come into the city. They stay right there in their tribe.”

 During one memorable trip into the jungle to visit with some tribespeople, Wilkinson says they made him and the pastor he travelled with, feel very welcome, and celebrated with a big feast.“They wanted to know where I was from, why did I come, what was my intention. And I said, ‘I’m here from Canada, and I want to get to know you as a friend.’”

 But perhaps the most memorable of all the time he spent in the Philippines was when Wilkinson ministered to men in Philippine jails.

 “I went there because there was somebody I knew in prison, so the pastor took me there on his motorcycle and the young man there was glad to see me,” he recalls. 

There, he, along with his colleagues, brought spiritual, physical and emotional nourishment to around 14 inmates.

 “They are young men -- some not married, some married -- and the wives bring food. The food is not provided for them at the cell. They’re dependant on their family to come and bring them food. And there were young men that didn’t have wives, so they were depending on others -- Catholic nuns would come,” he explains. “[Some] are accused for some things that they don’t know about -- they wonder why they’re there in prison.”

 Wilkinson says he really poured his heart out to the prisoners and spent countless hours there with them. 

Headed back

While he’s headed back to the Philippines this autumn, in the meantime, Wilkinson has kept busy helping the Filipino population right here in Neepawa -- a population that he has welcomed with open arms.

 “As a Canadian -- and I don’t speak for all Canadians in the community of Neepawa -- but for me, as a Canadian, I’d say that this has been great. I tell my new Filipino friends, ‘You are a breath of fresh air for our community!’ They’re very family oriented, they are willing to help any way they can, because they’re here and they want to make a better life for their family.”

 While he says most people in Neepawa have welcomed its new residents, there is a small percentage that seems reluctant to realize that the town is evolving and changing. 

“Sometimes they just kind of pull back. They see a lot of Filipinos working in jobs, and they think they’re taking jobs away from Canadians, but that’s not true. It’s just that we’re living now in a different time. And Neepawa is now a multi-cultural place -- the world is coming to Neepawa!” he enthuses. “I know it’s change and that’s hard, but we’re not what we were...today, it’s different. All cities and towns in Canada are becoming like this, because Canada is a multicultural country now.”

Plenty of new friends

 Wilkinson’s work with the local Filipino population has been a mutually beneficial opportunity and one that has made him plenty of new friends. 

 “When I heard Hy-Life was going to be hiring Filipinos...I made it a mission for myself to put myself into the community to help them when they get here, to know what is available. I take them to Winnipeg for appointments, because sometimes they don’t know what to do or say. And then I help to get them transferred into the community,” he notes. “I told them I was planning to go to their country, so they prepared me for what to do when I was over there in their culture and I was helping them to establish here. So I was sharing my Canadian culture with them and they were sharing their culture with me.”

 Wilkinson says he is looking forward to his future endeavours, whether they involve him travelling to more far-flung places on the globe, or see him doing his part right here at home. He says he’s thankful that he’s living out his God-given calling. 

“I love travelling and missions and I love getting my hands dirty. When I see somebody who is in need, I think, ‘What would Jesus do?’ We’re to be his hands and his feet and I’ve been very blessed. I’m just thankful that I’m able to go wherever I can for the Lord, to be a blessing,” he affirms. “God takes someone, an ordinary person, who is willing to obey the call. And God will do wonderful things. All we [have to] do is submit to them. We don’t know what’s ahead, but God has everything planned out. That’s what he is doing every day in my life -- he’s unfolding things that are unimaginable.”