Watching people suffer through extreme poverty can be difficult for a missionary overseas. Food insecurity is a global problem that included islands in the southern Philippines during the 20th century. Filipino farmers didn’t produce enough food for their population, while experiencing regular flooding and landslides. They didn’t have enough forestry resources, the soil eroded quickly, and they didn’t have enough usable farmland.
Missionaries there during that time couldn’t just watch quietly and accept that the people would not have enough to eat. Instead, they called out to God in prayer, and God answered in an unsuspecting way.
Southern Baptist missionary Harold Watson started the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center in 1971. The center is still in operation today. IMB Photo
Harold and Joyce Watson moved from Mississippi to the Philippines in 1964 with the Foreign Mission Board, now known as the International Mission Board. Harold studied agricultural education at Mississippi State University and served as a Southern Baptist pastor. He grew up on a farm and came to the mission field with experience. He and his wife, Joyce, prayed that God would use them to help meet the people’s needs, both spiritual and physical, while bringing glory to God.
Harold noticed that the most affordable land in the Philippines was sloped land on hills and mountains. At that time in history, sloped land was called “dead land” by Filipinos because no one knew how to keep the land from eroding and washing away their crops.
The Watsons founded the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC) September 8, 1971, with the vision of loving their community, elevating people out from poverty, and teaching the people they met about the hope they can have in Jesus.
The first problem they needed to solve was how to make sloped land productive. Through trial and error, Harold and his team at the center developed a new technology called Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT). They were able to stop soil erosion and grow food safely on hills.
Harold Watson identified a need for additional forestry resources to stop crops from being washed away. The Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center continues to use the SALT technology Watson taught to provide successful farming on hillside slopes. IMB Photo
IMB missionary Jess Jennings recalls those early days when he was new to the field and would visit the hillside villages. It’s been 33 years since Jess and his wife, Wendy, came to the region, but he still vividly remembers his first experiences with the poor people who lived in huts on the mountain and survived on potatoes.
“They would call rainy season in the southern Philippines, ‘hunger season,’” he recalled. His lip quivered and a tear fell from his eye as he remembered the condition of the people.
“I would go into these places and just feel helpless, but I would say, ‘I’m not helpless. I can actually do something about both of these problems: lostness and poverty.’”
Loving the poor
Harold and Joyce were heroes to Jess and Wendy. When they first arrived in the field, the Watsons taught lessons that still last in the Jennings’ memories.
“Harold would say, ‘We go out and help the poor because Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself. So we’ll be bold in sharing the gospel, but we’re going out because Jesus loves them, and we are going to show them love,’” Jennings said.
“Harold never lost his compassion for people.”
Missionary Harold Watson provided training, care and support for the poorest villagers in the Philippines. IMB Photo
The impact made by the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center and the Watson family was felt throughout Mindanao and beyond. In 1986, Harold Watson received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding. This was Asia’s premier prize and highest honor celebrating, “The greatness of spirit and transformative leadership in Asia.” Soon, the Watsons and the MBRLC began helping with strategies throughout Asia and the world.
They taught villagers how to grow vegetables and fruit trees, raise cattle and much more so families could have items to eat and sell at the market for their daily needs.
Locally, their vision never changed.
“The Watsons wanted every person in the village to come into a personal relationship with Jesus,” Jess said. “But even if the villager didn’t believe, we were going to help them anyway. It was an amazing thing to see people not only come to know Jesus, but also to be able to eat more than just camote [sweet potatoes]. Some of the people we helped never came to know the Lord, but they knew when we left that we had cared for them.”
Portrait of Joyce Watson. IMB Photo
God used Harold and Joyce 55 years ago to establish a work built upon loving their neighbor. Success is not counted in the number of people saved. Success is counted in simple obedience.
Harold and Joyce Watson loved the Lord, and because God’s faithfulness and their obedience, many more have come to hear the gospel and believe. The Watsons built a legacy of love that will continue long after their days on earth are complete.
Joyce passed away in 2025 at the age of 91. Harold currently resides in Arkansas.
OTHER RESOURCES:
1997 Baptist Press article on Harold Watson and the MBRLC
The post A Lasting Legacy: Loving the Poor appeared first on IMB.
| Written by Brett Highland | IMB | Read full story at Read More
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