I was born and raised in a very poor family, but the ever-abiding grace of the Lord and my mother's perseverance and a prayerful life saw us through those hard and difficult times. Since I was a boy, I would wake up oftentimes very early at dawn to see my mother kneeling and crying hard to the Lord in prayer. One morning, as she told me, she dreamed of a very dark cloud hovering and coming down to engulf her, but suddenly a strong wind swept the dark cloud away and was replaced by a very shining Light with a Voice telling her to "Repent and be baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

She then woke up under the Holy Presence of God crying hard as she asked for repentance and for the Lord's guidance where should she go, and where she could be baptized. Right then, her attention was directed to the church address indicated at the back of that Message book beside her, which she had been reading that time: The Footprints On The Sands Of Time. Something was telling her that that's where she should be baptized, because she believed that everything in that book was the truth. It was one of the books along with some other Spoken Word books brought home by my father that was given to him by a friend who was a Message believer.

My mother then alone visited that Message Church that Sunday, and she was the only one that came to the altar that same morning to accept the Lord Jesus Christ and she asked to be baptized right away. Thereafter, she brought me and my sister to that church and that was when we came into Message. My father came into the Message at a much later time, but he died a believer of this Message.

I accepted the Message and was baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ in 1979, while I was still in high school. A few weeks after that, something strange also happened to me. We had several services every week in the church, and I would at times sleep in the church after the Sunday evening service, because at times it ends up at about 9:00 PM or even past than that. So I would sleep in one of the rooms upstairs with two or three brothers. One morning at about 3:30AM, I woke up feeling that great and Holy Presence of the Lord and although I could commune with God as I cried repentance for my sins, I couldn't open my mouth to speak as if my jaw was locked. I was in such a great awe of His infinite greatness that I could see how dirty and sinful I was, and how small I was even much smaller than a dot, and He was much greater than the universe. I was worshipping and shouting praises to the Lord in my heart and cried much beholding how great He was, but I could not still open my mouth. When it was over, I was all wet with tears and all the brothers that were with me in the room were already gone out, as it was about 6:00 AM already. It was an experience I couldn’t forget.

Then a few years later, education and an ambition to be successful took a great toll on my personal relationship with the Lord and I slowly drifted backwards and eventually stopped attending church. I wanted to be a successful career man and wanted to help uplift my family out of those years of poverty and hardships. I then became a successful corporate man according to the world's standard, got married and had children but had been running away from the Lord although deep in my heart, I fully knew and believed that this Message is the only Truth in this world. My mother continued on praying for us and still sending us the Spoken Word books. I began to be proud of myself and had come to love my work so much that the Lord finally took it away from me. I then kept transferring from one corporate firm to another without being able to stay in one company for a year for a number of reasons which I could not understand why. That was when the Lord started working on me and the hunger for the Word was getting intense each day, locking myself in the room and reading every Message book from Brother Branham that I could find all through those times every day. I wanted to go to a Message church then, but I couldn't find one in our place.

Then one day, my mother who was staying then in Bacolod called to inform me that she was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis, and tuberculosis, and a big stone in the gall bladder that needed to be operated as soon as possible, and she was getting weak. We asked her to come to Cagayan de Oro so we can directly attend to her operation. She came bringing with her a sister in the church, who also offered to watch over her in the hospital. Before she left her place, she was already prayed over in the church, and we too were constantly praying for the Lord's healing upon her. The first thing she did when she arrived was to ask me if there's a Message church in our place where she could fellowship with. I did not know of any one until we found out later through a number of calls that there was one which is about 35 kilometers away from our place. What unspeakable joy we had then to be back in fellowship with the Word and the brethren in that church where my wife was baptized shortly thereafter.

My mother was re-examined at a Cagayan de Oro hospital prior to the operation through another set of x-rays and ultrasound. She was found to be negative of all the previous findings on her that would have necessitated an operation. They couldn't find the stone there and not any traces of liver cirrhosis and tuberculosis in her. My mother today is a perfect witness of God's healing power confirming that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

How I Became the Office Manager

It was sometime in September, 2005 when our pastor informed me that Voice of God Recordings was looking for an office manager in the Philippines, and that if I be interested to apply. So I was excited about the possibility of working for and serving the Lord through the Voice of God Recordings, but I had serious reservations if I be worthy for the job and the difficult prospect of going back to work in Manila. I had once worked in Manila but had come to work and afterwards gone into small business in Mindanao, where I had come to like the place so much already. It was also not that long since I came back to the Lord that time. But there rings deep in my heart and mind about a serious thought of what if the Lord calls me for the job, then I will be in deep trouble if I will not make myself available. I was not sure if the Lord was calling me for it, coupled by a little reluctance of going back to work in Manila. After much prayer, it gave me a serious resolve to tell our pastor that if the Lord indeed calls me, then I will go wherever He sends me or whatever holds after that, for He will be with us all along the way. I just had to make myself available if I am indeed being called for the Lord's service.

I did make myself available when that time came. I suppose along with all the other precious brothers who had also been interviewed by the VGR brothers from the US, I was invited to a Ministers' Meeting the following day. We were four brothers in a room together with our pastor, and I was so happy to get to know a lot more brothers in the Lord who were also billeted in that pension house that we were staying. That very night, after about 3:30am, I woke up and just felt a very deep desperation in my heart to be with the Lord. I felt His awesome Presence and I wanted to be alone with Him, and how much I wanted to express my love to Him. As I went down to the ground floor with my Bible, I couldn't hold my tears, and my heart was exploding for the Lord. The lobby clerk was kind to allow me to open the light in the restaurant so I could use one table there. After prayer, something in my heart and mind told me while I was reading the Bible that I will be asked to pray during that Ministers' Meeting. I didn't mind It at first because I thought that It's just in my mind, but It spoke three times. That morning, I had totally ignored and forgot all about it. After all, who am I that I should be asked to pray there, totally unknown in the Message circles. That is something unthinkable and which I would avoid as much as possible, especially in such kind of an event. I am not even a minister and even avoid being called in to pray in our church. I also came to find out that all the known and respected ministers were all there, even including several missionary brothers from the U.S.

We came in and seated along with two other brothers at the back. I had already forgot everything that happened that morning. We enjoyed and were blessed by the U.S. missionary brothers' talk and presentation that morning. At about noontime, the brother said something like this, "I'd like to call a brother to come to the front to pray for the lunch and for our continuing activities until the afternoon. I'm calling Brother Jeremiah." I turned around looking for my namesake who may be a minister, but no one stood. He called my name again for about two more times my pastor from Mindanao, who was seated a few tables in front of us, made signs telling me that it was me who was actually being called. So I came to the front and just prayed a simple and sincere prayer. I came back to my chair trembling and seemed to have lost all my strength that I could not seem to stand again. There and then I remembered that something had told me already about it that early morning.

In the fall of 2005, of that same year, I started working for Voice Of God Recordings. As Brother Joseph had said, that “Working for Voice of God Recordings is a calling, and not a job.”

All Praises be to the Lord Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 

October 2005 was one of the most significant events in the history of the Message in the Philippines. Some brothers were sent to our country by Bro. Joseph to start the work in re-establishing the Voice Of God Recordings office in the Philippines. Since the second half of 1960s and even during the very last few years of Bro. Branham's life on earth, a few of his transcribed sermons had already reached the Philippine shores particularly in the Visayas and Mindanao area. And since then, the Message has traveled from island to island looking for every predestinated seed in every corner of our country.

At the time that Bro. Joseph re-established the office in October 2005, there were over 250 Message churches nationwide which were already being served as regular recipients of Message books and materials being sent by Voice of God Recordings. After that, the number of these churches grew more rapidly that by the end of 2013, the office was serving over 600 Message churches scattered around the country. We believe that this growth can be attributed to the missionary zeal that God has fired up into the hearts of every local pastors and ministers in spreading the Revealed Word for our day in their respective regions as VGR continues to equip and support them with much needed Message materials for their congregation and for their mission works.

The ministry in the country consequently grew also and continues to grow further as more Message churches are being added to the mailing list along with the increasing volume of translated Messages in audio and printed forms that are being produced every month, hence containers after containers of Message materials are continually being shipped to our country every year. It was on this view that Bro. Joseph saw and anticipated the need for the Philippines office to have a permanent and much bigger office than the one that we had been renting since the office was re-established. Hence, by the first quarter of 2012, the Voice of God Recordings purchased an office property located at the very heart of Metropolitan Manila which makes it very accessible to every believer that wants to come and get materials at the office. The office includes two office rooms, a conference room, a reception area, a warehouse, a kitchen/pantry room and a recording room where audio recordings of all translated sermons are being done not only for the local Philippine dialects but also for the Chinese, Indonesian and Urdu languages. The property also include an ample parking space inside the office compound plus a 1.35M x 4.4M baptismal pool freely made available for use by every Message church in the Metropolitan Manila.

This Philippines office has served and will continue to serve the Filipino Bride as a storehouse of steady supply of Message materials for every believer in need.

The year 2023 marked the completion and full accomplishment of our mission of personally handing more than 10,500 Agapao Tablets to 10,500 believer-families in six-hundred twenty three (623) Message churches located in eighty-one (81) provinces and believer-recipients that come from one thousand six hundred thirty-six (1,636) towns and cities around the Philippines.

Now, almost each believer’s home nationwide finally has access to the Voice, to the Original Word, our Ultimate. Thousands of poor Filipino believers who do not have gadgets and internet connections and who have not yet heard Bro. Branham’s Voice, finally have heard him for their very first time in each of their own homes. Message churches which didn’t have the means before, can now finally play Bro. Branham’s tapes among their congregations.

We give thanks and praises to the Almighty God for all the great end time works that He has been doing for our country and we deeply appreciate the unwavering commitment and financial support of every Message church that continue to believe in Brother Joseph's vision and ministry that in turn has allowed us to continue to make the Message free to every Message church and every believer in our country. It is our hearts' desire that before the Lord comes, we would have the opportunity to shake your hands and hug you and personally express our utmost appreciation for your love and support to the Filipino Bride. May the Lord continue to bless you richly and wonderfully.