The dream of planting a mission church in the Philippines was realized by the Woodley family in 1998 when Chris and Carol, together with their two sons, Christopher and Emmanuel, came back for a short vacation.  Carol is a Filipino American while Chris served in the United States Air Force on Clark Air Base for five years in Angeles City.

The 1998 vacation was a re-encounter of the Philippines and it's needs, and a revival of what was a first love for a home country they left years ago. The Woodleys kept this experience close to hear, and in January of 2001 finally arrived as American missionaries sent by Dr. Mike Mayfield of Cornerstone Baptist Church of Stockbridge, Georgia.

 

They ventured short missions first in Bulacan and then in Angeles City. In May of 2001, in a resettlement area at a distant north of Bulacan, the Woodleys found themselves ministering to the locals of Bamban, Tarlac. Bamban was one of the places in northern Philippines hardest hit by the Pinatubo eruption and continuously battered. Thereafter in the succeeding years of lava flows during rainy seasons. Soon, it was these “gaps” and “open spaces” left for rebuilding in ways financial, social, and spiritual that made Bamban the home of Cornerstone Baptist Church in the Philippines.