Emily Deal Habacon
Go To Nations Missionary to the Philippines
2013 Graduate of Christ For The Nations

My name is Emily Deal Habacon. I attended CFNI from the fall of 2010 to the winter of 2012, graduating from the Global Missions Major. I knew I would be a missionary since the age of 13, and I knew I desperately needed training and help but had no idea where to begin. God connected me with a couple through my youth group who told me about the Christ For The Nations Institute Global Missions Major, and I knew that’s where I needed to go.

The first two years were good but my final semester was absolutely life changing. Sitting under amazing missionaries and teachers like Jesse & Kay Landis and Rod Groomer changed my perspective and expectations of what missions would and could look like. It was the hardest semester of my time at CFNI, but it taught me how to work hard, work with others, and how to do spiritual warfare for the nations of the world. I will always remember one thing that Jesse Landis told us at the beginning of the semester. He said we would not often join the rest of the school for chapel hour and worship because he wanted us to learn how to build an atmosphere of worship by ourselves, since out on the mission field we wouldn’t always have amazing worship leaders to lead us into worship. Instead, we would have to know how to take ourselves into the presence of God. That’s how the entire semester went. Yes, we had to sometimes do things the harder way, but it taught us to push into God and find Him. 

For Field School, I chose to attend the Timothy Internship Program in Iloilo City, Philippines. It was a difficult time of preparation and I wasn’t always sure I would get the money to go, but I knew that if God was calling me to this, then He would provide the way and He did! I attended the field school in January, 2013. It was the hardest 2 1/2 months of my life at the time. They pushed us spiritually, physically, emotionally, and mentally. Whether it was conflict over trying to cook for 30 people, culture shock, or just pure exhaustion, we were stretched every day. I experienced deeper healing during that time than any other time in my life. Healing from past relationships, wounds from the church, and expectations I had put on myself. As a result of my time at the Timothy Internship, I was able to return to the States, join Go To Nations and build lasting partnerships for the ministry.

I returned to the Philippines as a full-time missionary in March of 2014. I serve the Camp Sonshine Center, and I am the Program Coordinator for our After School Program and Saturday Kids Club where we minister to 200+ children from around the city every week. I help facilitate the training and building of our Leaders In Training who are young people from the ages of 13-24. We now have 40+ Leaders In Training, with new trainees coming in each year. I have also recently begun ministering to the missionary kids on our Go To Nations team as part of my new role on the Child Advocacy Team within GTN.

I got married in 2018 to a Filipino that I met in Iloilo during my first year on the field. I am so grateful for the training, and subsequent healing that I received through the Global Missions Major and Go To Nations. I know that without it I would not have reached this far in my life and ministry, and definitely wouldn’t have met and married my amazing husband with whom my passion and vision for this city and the world has multiplied!