(THE BENAVIDEZ FAMILY: Joshua, Anne, Lois and Josiah
- Top to bottom: By the Manila bay in 2007; in Ankor Wat, Siem reap, Cambodia in 2010)
Team Leader's Personal Testimony:
Let me tell you how we got to know the Lord. I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior in 1985 when I was still in high school, but because of peer pressure and persecution I went back to my old ways. I was a backslider for more than 5 years and I thought then that God would never accept me again. Full of vices, troubles, hatred and frustrations, I was surprised when a local church invited me in their water baptism. The only condition I had to fulfill was to finish the seminar. That started my way back to God. After my baptism, I promised God that I would give myself fully to love and serve Him. After experiencing being away from God’s love and protection in my youth, I dedicated my life to bringing as many young people to God as possible. That burden has stayed in my heart to this day.
My wife became a Christian also when she was still a teen-ager, unlike me, she maintained her good relationship with Jesus. Later on she went to Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary in Baguio City. After her graduation in 1991, she was given the opportunity to handle the youth ministry at the local church where I was baptised. It was there that we first met (I was not a full time worker yet). After a year, the leadership was passed on to me while she was given other ministries to handle. Since then, the youth ministry has been under my care until I became a full-time worker and the official youth pastor of our church. Early in my ministry I organized “Love Trips” (short mission exposure) and other youth activities such as camps, retreats and concerts.
It was in the middle of these years that we got married. Our wedding had an international attendance. A group of young people from Singapore, Indonesia, Korea, Hong Kong, the U.S., and Canada came. They were in Manila for a mission exposure organized by Operation Mobilization (OM). It came to our mind that this was prophetic sign from God, an indication that He will call us for missions in the future.
A year after our wedding, I was entrusted with a bigger task. I became the Crusade Coordinator of the There is Hope Ministry. My main task was to mobilize pastors from different ministerial fellowships and churches all over the country, and to prepare all the needs of the revival and healing crusades. From 1995 to 1996, 16 church crusades were organized and from 1997 to 1998, we spearheaded 10 citywide crusades. At the end of 1999, 3 big and successful provincial crusades were held.
In year 2000 however, the scheduled crusades did not push through. Many things hindered us and the ministry itself seemed to move slowly. Months passed and still nothing happened. As we sought for God’s answers, we started thinking that God was leading us to a new direction, and indeed He was! It was in our times of questioning and bewilderment that God unfolded His beautiful plan for us. The Lord was moving in our church to a global reach He wanted us to be in that direction too. This became clearer when Pastor Gani Sison, our Senior Pastor (also the National Director of International Teams Philippines) introduced to us the idea of working with the ITP focusing on youth development and on mobilizing the youth for missions. The rest as we all say is history. For more than six years now, we are involved in training youth leaders, exposing them to missions and then mentoring them to be a big blessing to their church so that their church can be empowered to reach out to the poor.
This truly is our passion; the driving force in our hearts. For we believe, if only young people will be given a chance to have a dynamic missions experience, they will go back on fire for Jesus. They will indeed become powerful tools in the hands of God. Not only that countless young people will have this kind of experience, but churches too will be empowered and the poor will be reached for the Kingdom of God.
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