Testimony
Pastor Alex V. Montañano
Jesus Our King Ministries
Im the eldest child of seven children in a troubled poor family. My father was a hot-tempered stern disciplinarian. There was so much bitterness and hatred towards my father in my heart even at my young age. I vowed to myself to take revenge when I grew up. My mother became my mentor in my education. I grew up in a Roman Catholic background, but no real assurance of my relationship with God. To get away at times from the trouble of the family, I preferred to stay in my relatives. From my upbringing in my family with the strong work ethics, I became more used to work especially that I had to raise my own school allowances by doing menial work at my relatives' home.
With the longing for peace within, driven with the desire to seek God, I thought to be a Catholic priest was the solution. I became a stronger fanatic Catholic when I attended a Roman Catholic High School run by the nuns. I remembered that during my high school I only missed catholic mass once. The more serious I was to seek God through religion, the more troubled my heart was.
Going to College seemed impossible for me since my family was so poor tosend me to college. Knowing this I applied so many scholarships as much as I could. I passed two of them. I chose to take an civil engineering course. That time there had been an increasing desire to find God. I tried Transcendental meditation, Mind Power books and even some cults. Temporarily, I got peace but still there was a gnawing hunger of real relationship with God. One time, I was invited to a Bible study in a college campus. I've tried to refuse since for me the Bible was so irrelevant and that's only for those old folks preparing to die but finally I attended. When I heard the True Gospel presented in a fresh new way, I long to hear more and I kept attending Bible studies every time there was a Christian gathering. One day I accepted the Lord Jesus as my Savior and Lord of my life. The next morning when I read the Bible, it seemed the Word just jumped off the pages and spoke to my heart. Now my understanding has been opened. Peace flooded my soul and guilt had been washed away. Bitterness towards my father was gone.
When my father knew my new experience with God, I was brutally boxed and kicked. I was disowned and persecuted. In the middle of the night, I was thrown out of the house with my all my clothes and belongings to the window. While I was persecuted by my own father, the only comfort I received was the Word of God, particularly the Matthew 5:11-12. We are called blessed when we are persecuted. I did not fight back neither talked back to him and its the very first time that I did not retaliate to my father. Months later, just before he passed away, the Lord convicted him and he accepted the Lord to be the Lord and Savior. My whole family accepted the Lord too.
As I was growing in the Lord, the Lord spoke to my heart on the blood will be required from us if we don't tell people about the Lord ( Ezekiel 3:18), I went around the college campus telling everyone about the Lord every time I had the opportunity. I organized the first recognized campus ministry in our campus. I met different cult members and fanatic religious adherents. I feel myself ill-equipped for the challenge. I decided to take a short term bible courses and night school. I was still longing for more preparation until finally, I drop off everything regarding my college. I was then a fifth year college student. My personal ambition to have an engineering degree has been override with the desire to be used by God as a minister. As for my family and friends, it was the silliest and most foolish decision I ever made. In the Philippines , if you are a the eldest child, the whole hope for the family to escape from poverty is on that eldest. I went to a Bible school. That time, there was no more scholarship grant financial allowance but totally by faith in God.
I entered into the ministry without any agency sending me and supporting me. After I got married to Emma, we went to the remote villages where the greatest needs are. We survived for weeks without good food. We've been around the ministry renting shanties. Living so poor as a rat. Our daily food survival was with just root crops and herbs we could find. Going to places most often we used to hitchhiked on trucks and trailers. Sometimes with a meager help from my own family. my wife had been disowned too by her family because of her obedience to the call of God and she can't expect much support from them even while she attended a bible school after her college education. His life had been a life to us and even until now. To live is Christ and to die is gain. The life that we live is now the life of Christ in us. Nothing can be accomplished without praying the price. Thank God Jesus Christ paid the greatest price for all men to be saved. What we are paying is nothing compared to what He had Paid. HE PAID it all to take us from darkness to His marvelous light.
Pastor Alex V. Montañano
Jesus Our King Ministries
PO Box 116
9000 Cagayan De Oro City
Philippines
NEW BEGINNINGS MINISTRY
Pastor Alex V. Montañano and his wife Emma are missionaries in the Philippines. New Beginnings Ministry, Inc. supports their ministry as we can. The Montananos are diligent in sending us frequent reports of what's taking place there. They come highly recommended by Pastor James Moss.
The main problem at this time is the lack of food available for the people. The unemployment rate there is very high, and the economy awful. Many of the people scavenge in dumps for bones with meat left on them, or any food that's able to be recooked and eaten. Oftentimes when the family is finished eating what they need, if there is any left, they sell it to their neighbors. It's a time of great famine in the Philippines since the price of rice shot up. Rice is a food staple for them.
Please pray and seek the Lord for the people in the Philippines. Ask Him what you might do to help them.
Rev. Suzanne
