→ Headlines in 2026 July 24 issue
¶ Osprey tiltrotor aircraft: “It’s what they’re engineered to do ¶ Advice for future data center projects down the road ¶ First Tuesday in August, vote up or down on the “Wayne County Public Transportation Millage” ¶ International impact of Canadian wildfires and numbers here in the Tri-Community ¶ Sumpter Township to vote on “Police Protection Millage Renewal” proposal August 4th
¶ One church that bridges from Van Buren Township to the Philippines
The third edition of Water Under the Bridge: A History of Van Buren Township dates the building at 960 East Huron River Drive to 1962. It was a new construction begun the year prior by the congregation of Emmanuel Baptist Church, a 1958 mission of North Prospect Baptist.
In 2014, an unrelated Baptist startup based in Canton had raised enough money to acquire its own building. As founding pastor Aaron Tanap recalled to the Tri-Community, “We were praying for guidance, and thought we should be looking around there.
“But God had different plans for us.”
At a State Convention meeting, Reverend Tanap and a few members of his leadership team were seated with Reverend Doug Sarver, then-current lead pastor of Emmanuel. His congregation was older, but steadfast in their attendance and stewardship. This weighed heavily upon Pastor Sarver, who felt himself past the point at which it appropriate for him to retire, but unable to see a path for that.
Hence, when the two clergy and those at their sides met around that table a dozen years ago now, both saw the clear answer to what was revealed to them as a mutual prayer.
Pastor Aaron and his congregation would purchase the most generously-priced building and bring its “Bethlehem Baptist Church” congregation here to worship on Sunday mornings and hold prayer gatherings on select weeknights between. The remaining members of Emmanuel would become a part of his flock.
“I did not know if they would be our stepchildren,” he mused. “Maybe we were their stepbrothers and stepsisters. But I know certainly that it was not very long before no one could ever tell the difference. It was as if we had always been one church family in The Body of Christ.”
In most other circumstances this might be taken as gracious sentiment. Cynics could insist it cliché.
But substantive critique requires more than either. Aaron Tanap is himself a native of the Philippines, came to the America as an adult, and subsequently naturalized as a citizen of the United States. Moreover, the majority of his congregation was (and is) Filipino. And they are not alone here.
For the past four decades, area Philippine International Churches in this part of the Michigan area, along with some in Windsor, have gathered for an annual family camp at the Bambi Lake Retreat in Roscommon, a facility wholly owned and operated by the Southern Baptist Convention.
“It began very informally,” Bethlehem Baptist Deacon Ronald Sarmiento told the Tri-Community. “It was like a simple picnic, with very few people in attendance. The idea came from Pastor Juanito Lesada, who started the original church in Taylor. The next church from that was planted in Windsor, and then we (Bethlehem) came as the grandchild, to Canton in the beginning, and then to Belleville after that.
Like many of his peers in this local congregation, Mr. Sarmiento remains committed to helping those who have remained in the Philippines — to grow in their personal walks with Christ and to make outreach to others.
When he, himself, was in-country just last month, he was given the opportunity to deliver a sermon before one of the local congregations, in Tagalog, a national language of the country and, along side English, an official language.
“We continue to support them as well,” he added. “We help bi-vocational pastors with monthly stipends, where as little as one hundred dollars can help establish churches where congregations are too poor to provide financing. Free Saturday night classes are offered; they cover compressed topics like homiletics and Bible history to train layman pastors who cannot afford a formal theology degree.”
Back here at home, of course, all Sermons and studies are exclusively in English — “because that is the way in America.”
As it continues to grow, so, too, does its new culture of a blended church. “We still always have a full lunch after services,” Reverend Tanap assures. But the food choices continue to expand.”