PASTOR RODOLFO GONATICE

FILIPINO ASSEMBLIES OF THE FIRST BORN CHURCH
Pangasinan, Philippines

I have never entered a church nor heard any preaching from any pastor all my growing life. Therefore, I say it was God who found me through a mission group that visited our place. Due to their persistence, I accepted their invitation to attend one of their meetings. To my amazement, I found myself fully participating in the worship of their God. This led to attending the worship service on a regular basis as I felt some sense of belonging there.

In one of the meetings, I repented of my sins and surrendered my life to Jesus Christ. In one of the teaching time, I learned about spiritual gifts and the leaders helped me discover my gifts and provided me the freedom to exercise these gifts in the church. As I continued operating in these spiritual gifts, I felt like God was calling me to full-time ministry and, for His glory and honor, to exercise the gift to discern, to teach, and to heal.

OUR MINISTRIES

We started meeting as a fellowship group under an acacia tree. Later on, we cut the acacia tree and used its wood to build our own chapel and put some cardboard boxes as our walls. Praise God that, through the financial contributions of our members, our wall is now made up of hollow blocks. The different ministry opportunities and experience of service to God prepared me for this growing small church that is now under my care.

OUR MISSION/VISION

Our mission is to make Jesus Christ and His saving grace known to our neighborhood in Pangasinan through preaching the Word of God. Our regular worship service incorporates prayer and healing for the sick. As the Lord sends people to our church, I see the need to equip our members for the planned extension of our services to nearby villages. I continue to do what that ministry did to me.