The Great Commission

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. (Matthew 28:18-20)


Here's the larger version of my previous artwork entitled "Illustration for New Tribes Mission". In this larger version...I change the title to "The Great Commission".

This painting shows the different stages & phases that occur in the lives of christian missionaries, from bible schools & seminaries, giving prayer & financial support, going to mission fields, providing medical & spiritual needs for the natives, conversion & baptism of new believers, church planting and then the fellowship of happy believers from different tribes and races.

This painting was made a long time ago...it was year 1999 when one of the admin staff of the (NTMPI) New Tribes Mission of the Philippines, Inc. approached me to do some artwork for their calendar to be published for the year 2000.

At first, I have no idea of what images to put in the painting so I scanned through the photo albums of NTMPI and found alot of materials to be my reference. The only image in the painting without any reference was the girl praying, I choose the girl to represent the people praying for the missionaries because this little girl represents pureness, sincerity, etc. I made the girl to be the focal point of the painting because the main text or the heading of the calendar says: "Please pray with us for..." then below it was the painting.

The only materials in my possession during that time was a mechanical pencil, chinese brush, water colour and bristol board. The composition was the very tough job to do, it took several days making sketches & composition studies just to put the images in their exact places. The execution took only a night, it started at late afternoon and ended before sunrise.

I'm very happy and thanking the Lord for giving me the things I needed to finish this painting. It looks very simple, but for christians it's a BIG thing.... it's an illustration of why we are called to be christians, we are saved to serve, to be missionaries in our own field & to be part of God' vineyard.

Hope this painting might be helpful to you.
May God bless us all.