The Wagon Shed vs. The Cathedral: How a 1928 Experiment Saved a Church
History is often written by the victors, but in the case of the Philippine Restoration Movement, it was written by the survivors.
In 1928, an American missionary named George Benson landed in Mindoro with $400 in his pocket. He didn’t build a cathedral. He didn’t put preachers on a payroll. He baptized 79 people and told them to build “wagon sheds”—simple, self-funded chapels.
Decades later, in the 1950s, a new wave of missionaries arrived with a di…
