Tom & Nancy Cook Missionaries to the Philippines
Join us on our journey as we serve the LORD with gladness in the Philippines since 1999. Discover the impact we are making and the lives we are touching.
About Us
Tom & Nancy Cook - Missionaries to the Philippines
Since 1999
Serving the Lord with Gladness!
Proclaiming the Good News
and bringing relief to the poor & oppressed.
Tom & Nancy are Christian missionaries, ordained and sent out, by Gateway Christian Fellowship of West Haven, Connecticut, United States.
Tom & Nancy Cook began a 10-year relationship with The First Assembly of God Church of Brookfield, Connecticut, in 1985. While there, they held various volunteer positions working with adults and children. Tom also served as the church janitor for 9 of those ten years. The Cooks received their call to serve God as missionaries to the people living around Subic Bay in the Philippines during their time at Brookfield AoG.
In 1995 Tom & Nancy joined the congregation of Gateway Christian Fellowship of West Haven, Connecticut. On October 11, 1998, Tom & Nancy received ordination by Pastor Brian Simmons and the GCF leadership team, and on January 10, 1999, the Cooks arrived in the Philippines, beginning their mission work.
Called by God and anointed by the Spirit, we pour our lives into investing spiritual understanding and power in others. Prayer, preaching, teaching, & spiritual training are the foundation stones of our ministry. Urban, rural, and tribal environments have been the settings for proclaiming God’s Word and demonstrating His unconditional love. The Lord used us to assist Christian pre-school start-ups and provide Full Tuition Scholarships to Christian schools, for children He has directed us to assist. The Lord has involved us in many areas of human need. We help with disaster relief operations, provide livelihood assistance, distribute food, medicine & medical aid, and visit hospitals and children’s homes. We have been foster care parents and have adopted a Filipino son. Everywhere sin has caused damage is a place for God’s healing and renewing, and we have committed ourselves to follow the Spirit wherever to bring God’s healing to the wounded.
In 1999, we ministered in some of the most poverty-stricken areas of Manila, where we preached the Gospel, provided meals and clothes, and, in one area, assisted a pastor in establishing a Christian preschool. We created a “Children’s Gathering” to teach Bible lessons to inner-city kids. As members of an evangelistic & prayer team, Tom & Nancy participated in medical missions to villages in Pampanga devastated by continuous flooding. We made several trips to Bacolod, on the southern island of Negros, to join in Child Evangelism Outreaches.
At the start of 2000, we departed Manila, and the Lord brought us to Olongapo City on Subic Bay. Olongapo City has been the base of our operations since that time. Immediately, we replicated a “Children’s Gathering” in our new home. “Children’s Gathering” evolved into a Christian preschool ministry to 4 local children, eventually developing into a Scholarship Granting Project. During that season, our ministry provided full scholarships for as many as ten children attending Christian schools.
Our calling has taken us to Aeta villages near Mt. Pinatubo, where we taught children and native pastors. The Lord helped us build a school and chapel for Aeta people. We arranged for and financed, the digging of two water wells fitted with hand pumps. One well located near the church/school provided water for a large and growing population around that church/school.
During that period, a school lunch program, and assistance with a fishpond project were also a part of our work. With a gift from a church in the States, we provided gas-cooking facilities, to replace wood-burning, for the Aeta Children’s Home, which significantly reduced the labor-intensive job of supplying wood for cook fires. Along with assisting Christian ministry in the province, we also taught “Biblical enrichment” courses at Whitestone Christian School in Olongapo.
In 2005, we established Mercy Ministries for preaching, prayer ministry, worship, and discipleship training focusing on small communities within Olongapo. Once the work shifted to Olongapo, new opportunities presented themselves.
Alongside regular worship services, Tom & Nancy minister to children and adults “outside” the church. Since 2010, Nancy has taught Bible lessons to deaf/hearing impaired and blind/vision impaired children in Kalalake Elementary School. We visited the children’s ward of the local public hospital, once or twice, each month for 12 years showing Christian videos and praying for children and families. The Kings FilAm Children’s Home is less than ½ mile from our residence. Over the past 16 years, we have visited the children and workers, bringing food, cash, other material assistance, prayers, encouragement, and education.
What more shall I say? Time would fail me to tell it all. God knows from the beginning until now, we have preached, prayed, taught, assisted with livelihood projects, provided medicine & medical treatment, clothing, disaster relief, hospital & children’s home visitation. We have been Foster Care Parents. We have baptized, buried, and adopted. During our years of service, we have passed through typhoons, earthquakes, floods, social/political unrest, sickness, and much more. We count it a small price to pay to see Christ transform lives, and we look forward to seeing what Jesus will do with us, and through us, in the future.