Joe Gonzales - serving God in Philippines

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Joe Gonzales

When Joe came from abroad, he met new friends. They were so friendly despite being materially blessed. After several meetings that they had, they invited him to visit the house and Joe noticed that they have their Bibles. One of them shared the Gospel with Joe and Joe prayed to receive Christ as his Saviour and Lord just for the sake of friendship. Then, they invited Joe to attend their church and it was their Evangelistic Sunday. During the message, Joe heard that he deserved to go to hell because of his sins and fully understood what hell is all about. Joe was so afraid that he would go to hell and knew that he needed someone to save him. After the message Joe realized that he should accept Jesus Christ as his Saviour genuinely.    Several years passed by; Joe had a hard time letting Jesus Christ be the Lord of his life because he wanted to be independent from the Lord. The Pastor noticed that they were faithfully attending worship service every Sunday and the pastor thought that Joe was spiritually matured.

The pastor challenged him to be his assistant Pastor but deep in Joe's heart, he was trying to do everything by his own effort resulting to frustration. Hearing the song "Living for Jesus" during the funeral service of one of the young people who died in the field of serving the Lord challenged him to confess his stubbornness. 

Then Joe served the Lord by arranging chairs every Christian fellowship. And then their Pastor noticed that he was doing it faithfully, so the pastor asked him to be a church worker. That time without any question, reservation and hesitation as God working through his life by faith he decided to serve Him.

Now, by God's grace Joe is faithfully serving the Lord as missionary pastor of Free Christian Baptist Church and was able to know his gift that the Lord gave. As Joe walks  with the Lord, God is continually moulding him as a person He wants him to be.

In the early year of his Christian life, Pastor Edwin T. Ormeo was challenging him to be the Assistant Pastor of the Gospel Church of Manila. The pastor told him to enrol at Bible Seminary at that time but he was not yet ready. The truth about it was that Joe was not living according to the Word of God. At that time, even Joe's wife was crying every time the Pastor mentioned it to them. The first thing God did was to convict him about His Lordship. It took four years of struggle to make Jesus Christ be the Lord of his life and it was not easy for him to completely surrendered his life to Him.

Then, Joe started serving God in his own capacity through physical arrangement of the church before worship service and fellowship. Gradually, the pastor noticed it, and asked him to include cleaning the floor area of the worship service and even comfort room of the church. And Joe was so amazed that his wife was now supporting what he was doing in the church. His wife told him that the change in his life motivates her to support him to serve the Lord. Not only that, his wife never cried when Pastor Ed helped him to enrol at Grace Bible School in Nagtahan for Basic training.

Joe was on the peak of enthusiasm in serving the Lord when one of the elders of the church told him that he didn't know how he could help the church. Joe was hurt and his enthusiasm in serving Him was dampened until the teacher counselled him and told him to make sure of is calling. He also told Joe to spend more time with the Lord seeking His word diligently and that God would reveal to him His plan for him. As Joe took that advice he continued what he was doing for God and spent more time with Him. The Lord spoke to him in Joehn 5:19 in which the Lord Jesus Christ stated His purpose here and that He depended on our Heavenly Father. 

With Jesus Christ as the Lord of his life, Joe realised  that he should do God's will - not his own will or anybody else's will. That recharged his enthusiasm and he continued spending more time with the Lord, God speak to him in Joeshua 24:14 in which Joeshua appealed to serve the Lord in sincerity and truth. This was another charge to him to go on.

Then, the Lord worked tremendously as he served God by doing beyond what he expected. This is what happened. Joe had his Bible study in Makati where people lived in a squatter area near the railroad. While having the Bible study there was a riot and they were in the midst of the riot. Someone threw a stone at the building they were in. Because the shanty house was not strong the stone was able to get into the place and the owner of the house was shocked. His companion told him to pray for her but Joe lost awareness of God and anger dominated his emotion.  He was looking for a way out to get involved and was ready to hit them by the hardbound Tagalog Bible. But through God's intervention the person kissed his right and left hand saying "sorry, sorry" and Joe just lifted up his eyes and breathed deeply. 

On the same day, they would go to other side of that railroad to have another bible study and the owner of that house told them not go there because the enemy of that person was living there. So, they were so afraid to go there and they went back to Makati Gospel. 

On their way, Joe asked his companion "Are they really waiting for us" and one of them said “yes”.  Joe told them “Let us go back there” and the old woman blocks our way, told us not go. This time Joe ask them, “Let us pray and ask God's protection to be upon us”. Then, Joe said to her as they went there “Please watch us”. On the way to the house a group of men approached them and Joe put his bag to his stomach so that when someone would stab him it would not reach too much to his stomach. Reaching the house, the group still followed them and one guy went to the back. Joe was nervous that time but he continually prayed in faith that God would protect them. The woman who was pregnant told him not to be afraid and she introduced Joe to that fellow and he invited the man to attend the Bible study. The man told them that, he had another spirit and he thought that Joe was one of his enemies. 

Then Joe and his companion proceeded to the Bible study and after that the pregnant woman asked him to pray on her normal delivery and that the Lord would make this child a baby boy so that her husband would come to know the Lord was their agreement. As Joe prayed for her, Joe claimed God's promise in Joehn 15:17 and the Lord granted her desire, it was baby boy. When Joe came back she shouted to him and praised God. The husband came to him with an angry look and ask him, "Are you perfect?" Joe was tempted to say “yes” just to bring the husband to the Lord, but Joe said “no” and shared to the husband who is perfect. That day the husband accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.

Right now, the family is faithfully serving the Lord in Immanuel Baptist Church in Novaliches. Praise the Lord!

As Joe served the Lord faithfully everywhere God led him, people (Christian leaders, missionaries and supporters) asked for his service. He was assigned to Mindoro for six months in a weekly visit, ministering and supervising the ministry there. While doing the ministry people were responding and they were aggressive in their new faith. The supporters and missionary pastor assigned there asked him to be a partner. Joe told them to continually pray about it and he would also pray for it. They had work in Mindoro. They prayed about it and his wife focused on some negative area while Joe was concentrated on the positive area. 

During the praying period in Mindoro, Joe also handled an office Bible study in 15 office tenants of State Center Building, the Makati outreach and the Tondo outreach including William Shipping Company at Pier 14 North Harbour. God's pruning process in Mindoro was felt up to the leadership and he was warned not to go there anymore because he received a death threat. That closed the door for ministering in Mindoro.

The Tondo outreach was also praying for him to become their pastor. Joe already found his particular spiritual gift, which is evangelism and exhortation. So he prepared himself to be a missionary as long as he was still young and enJoeying being a missionary. One missionary from Singapore challenged him to start a pioneering ministry in Ormoc. The Singaporean challenged him with abundant promises and material things but Joe told the Singaporean guy that it is not the way of calling a missionary. 

The Makati outreach was thinking of becoming independent and forming another church. When they transferred to Novaliches, he was given an invitation to handle the leadership. Because of priorities and other ministry in Gospel Church, Joe was not able to respond, despite their personal visit to his home. Due to their desire, that he can minister to them, Joe was able to speak at their first anniversary service, although he was hesitating to accept the invitation because he felt that it should be their Pastor. Going back to the Tondo outreach, the leaders of the church challenged him to be their pastor. Joe told them that he was not yet ready to become pastor but if no one would take charge he was willing to take the responsibility. Then, they called his teacher Pastor Domingo Rebong to be the pastor.

Presently, Joe is also conducting a Bible study in some government offices such as PNP, DOTC, and Manila City Hall.

From that experience, he prayed to the Lord about the direction of the ministry in Tondo. As he is looked of the port area where the church was nearly located and in his time of talking to the Lord at the rooftop at the 17th floor of the State Center building. God spoke to him through II Samuel 7, he argued with God about the situation of His ministry in Tondo, where the place of worship is in the squatter area. His eye moved and focused on the old ship which was not functioning and in a moment of silence, he listened to God's sweet voice within his heart, telling him "You can use that ship for Me as a place for worship." 

Joe realized that it is a vision that God imparted to him and called it "BIBLE FLOATING CHURCH". From that vision, he was able to impart it to GCM and to his family. As David petitioned of the direction of his family and he also petitioned to the Lord (II Samuel 7:25-29). With his family, they are committed to see this thing in reality for God's Glory.

Jeffrey Figueroa

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! I am Mr. Jeffrey L. Figueroa, a third year Political Science student from the University of the East (UE) in Recto, Manila.

I met the Lord Jesus Christ last six years ago during my high school years. God used Pastor Joe Gonzales (“kuya Joe”) to deliver His message. I was hopeless and a rude young man but when the Lord came and become part of my life, I’ve been radically changed. God turns my word my world upside down and changed me inside out from a worst person into a better one. Now God is using me to touch the life of many students not just in my campus UE but also in FEU (Far Eastern University). By God’s favour he allows me to minister in these campuses, to go in and out of FEU despite of their restrictions regarding outsiders like me. I had a cell group there with 15 members, and in my campus I have a lot of one on one bible studies and trying to raise them up to be a leader like me. God puts me into authority as a vice president of UE Students for Jesus Movement, the locally accredited Christian organization in the university.

I also lead the Worship and sometimes pasturing church of college students and we called it College Students Fellowship (CSF). I have bible study in our dorm where I am living right now, with 4 members, including the landlady, and growing numbers every week. God is using me mightily in people’s live but my situation is getting harder now. I have left my own family because there are things about them which I cannot take, like their business, drug dealing and gambling, and my father is now hooked on drugs. So they are not giving me any support for the last three semesters, tuition fees and even allowances. And the problem is the time when my father wants me to buy “shabu” for him, which I cannot take and using it in front of me, and what we eat is from gambling. So I pray to God and ask for wisdom, and through my strong Christian friends and Pastors, God answers me. God provided a shelter fro me. He used my Korean Pastor friend to pay my dorm he gives me 2000 pesos every month, (dorm fee is 1500) and gave me the responsibility to their church to teach English worship and to train Korean young people to evangelize.

I’m working right now in a computer shop with a salary of 280 pesos a week ( I’m working only on Mondays and Tuesdays because of my hectic schedules of bible studies and ministry) but still it is not enough to fill my needs, and that is why I ask for financial support, pledges or one time love gift must be a big help for me and the most important of all, are Prayers that give me strength and provide for all my needs to finish my studies and to continue the ministry that God have started in me.