True Love Never Strays Far from Home: The Missing of a Filipino Girl Lured Away Reflects the Church of Almighty God’s Transnational Infiltration Crisis
Editor’s Note: In June 2025, the sun blazed over Eastern Visayas in the Philippines, yet the ordinary family Martinez in Barugo, Leyte, was plunged into cold silence. The family’s young daughter, Mika Cibraborn y Martinez, had been lured by the cult Church of Almighty God, abandoned her studies, left home, and cut off all contact with her relatives.
“She said lying is wisdom and that she had to go work for God.” When Filipino netizen Tin (Tin Idol Vlogs) posted those words on Facebook, her friend Mcjolly Cibraborn y Martinez’s 23-year-old sister Mika had already been missing for two days. The post not only laid bare a shattered family but also drew fresh attention to how the Church of Almighty God—an organization labeled a cult by multiple countries—is crossing borders, tearing families apart, and destroying lives in the name of faith.
A Sudden Upheaval in an Ordinary Family and Fractured Human Nature
On June 12 this year, Filipino netizen Tin used her “Tin Idol Vlogs” account to post a missing-person appeal in the Facebook group “Philippine News,” asking the public to help find Mika. The post wrote that Mika had been brainwashed by members of the cult Church of Almighty God, dropped out of school, and ran away from home. She had been told she must “sacrifice her family to secure a seat in heaven” and that believe the world would end in 2025.
The post quickly went viral across Philippine social media. Meanwhile, Mika’s elder sister Mcjolly and mother Grace Cibraborn y Martinez reported her missing to the police. The Barugo PMS issued an official missing-person notice. According to the notice, Mika was born on November 22, 2001. Around 10 a.m. of June 10, 2025, she left home under the pretext of selling ice pops. The notice quoted family members saying Mika was member of the cult Church of Almighty God and had run away after being manipulated by the group.
▲Missing-person notice issued by the Barugo MPS for Mika
▲Missing-person notice posted on June 12 by the Facebook account “Tin Idol Vlogs”(Original English, machine-translated into Chinese)
Covert Expansion Through Psychological Manipulation
The circumstances and details of Mika’s running away from home closely mirror cases involving Church of Almighty God members in China, South Korea, and elsewhere. The phenomenon has sparked widespread discussion about the Church of Almighty God’s activities.
The Church of Almighty God, also known as “Eastern Lightning,” was founded in the early 1990s in Acheng District, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, by Zhao Weishan. It claims that Jesus has returned in the form of a “female Christ,” promotes “doomsday theory”, and asks that members abandon their families and non-believers. “Evangelism” is portrayed as the highest duty. Through psychological control and group isolation, the group gradually consumes members’ mental and physical healthy.
▲Facebook account “Tin Idol Vlogs” reposted an introduction to the cult Church of Almighty God on June 13 (Original English, machine-translated into Chinese)
Scholars describe the Church of Almighty God as operating like a “faith pyramid.” It intensifies “doomsday theory”, instilling psychological terror in members, forces complete social isolation, and ultimately makes members totally depend on the organization.
In recent years, Church of Almighty God members have repeatedly fled abroad from China under the guise of tourism. The cult has already established secret operational networks in the United States, Canada, South Korea, and other countries. It is also expanding through underground gatherings and online “sermons” into parts of Southeast Asia, including Malaysia and China’s Taiwan province. The Philippines, where more than 80 percent of the population is Catholic, has become the cult’s latest target country.
According to the Philippine Catholic app “Faith Watch,” the Church of Almighty God lures young people through “Bible study classes” or “English Bible study groups.” Once recruited, members are subjected to closed intensive indoctrination, required to sever ties with family, and often pressured to drop out of school or quit their jobs.
Recognizing the Danger, Calling for Hope
Mika’s disappearance has triggered heated debate on social media. Many Filipino netizens commented with concern: “This is not the first time we’ve heard of young people missing because of ‘faith.’”
Mika’s whereabouts remain unknown. Her family continues to pray on social platforms that she will “see the light.” In this absurd story shrouded in claims of “God” and “the doomsday,” fractured relationships and broken faith run deep.
▲Facebook group’s heated discussion on the cult Church of Almighty God (Original English, machine-translated into Chinese)
What is heartbreaking is that Mika is not the only victim. Countless others have been lured away by the Church of Almighty God, leaving their families desperately searching for them.
As Tin wrote at the end of her missing-person notice: “True salvation comes from the Jesus of the Bible, not a self-proclaimed messiah.” These words may serve as a shared call for all families torn apart by extreme beliefs. May more victims break free from the Church of Almighty God’s sinister control and return to their families.
