Rene Nepomuceno
My Early Life
On August 29, 1955, I was born as the youngest child to a devout Roman Catholic family in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines. Mine was a large family having three brothers and three sisters. My parents, especially my father who was a Doctor of Medicine, emphasized the importance of education and religious piety. My mother, though lacking educational attainment, was my loving guide in knowing and understanding moral uprightness. Both my parents were the first models in my life. Daddy, as we usually call him, was a living paradigm of humility and contentment. Though I could not remember sharing any intimate time with him, observing his life influenced my adulthood in the areas of success and material wealth. My mother, whom I loved so dearly, was my first religious mentor. She not only taught me about virtues, she lived it before us. Her unselfish service to all of us her children made it easy for me to believe and accept her advices in life.
Because of such strong parental influence, I grew up to be a very religious person. I tried my very best to fulfill all the religious laws of Roman Catholicism. However, as a young teen, it became apparent to me that God did not seem present in our family. In spite of our religious devotion, weeks did not go by without any problems at home. Questioning the sudden death of a brother and the breakdown of my sister, I resolved that our religious effort through the years was non-rewarding. This frustration led me to drift away from it all. I began to rebel against the religious traditions of my family. In addition to doubting the merits of being upright and obedient to God, I blamed the religious call of humility and contentment my father adhered to as the reason for being deprived of the comfort we were supposed to have in life. Frustrations led me to be drawn to vices and sin at the very young age of 12. But for fear of God’s wrath to come upon me, I made sure that I did still attended mass on Sundays, yet I indulged myself to drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco on other days of the week.
Though I admired and loved my father, a genuine intimate father and son relationship was lacking between the two of us. The 45-year age or generation gap, I would say, made it hard for me to relate to him and he to me. Similarly, being way behind in years, I found myself alone and isolated from my older brothers. The absence of a fatherly and brotherly relationship caused me to find my worth and identity outside the home, from among my peers. Yet I became determined to become successful and different in the hope of gaining recognition and acceptance from my own family.
My Education and Career
As to become different from the three doctors in the family, I chose to pursue Electrical Engineering as a collegiate course at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila. Since no one in my family was knowledgeable or experienced with this line of education, I found myself struggling and alone with my studies. However difficult, the desire to succeed drove me to study hard until I finished and earned my engineering degree in 1976. As a young 19-year old college graduate, I was full of zeal and raring to go. With extreme determination to succeed, I was brave to enter in a new phase of life.
My career began with a bang as I joined the biggest construction company of the 70s in the Philippines. I was assigned to work in a cement plant located outside the city, and for the first time in my life I had to live away from my family. In a year’s time I received my first promotion as department supervisor at the tender age of 20. After two years I was reassigned to work as a technical analyst at the company’s corporate planning headquarters. Here, I was exposed to the world of corporate games. Through such competitive environment, I was trained to always use my head over my emotions in all work-related endeavors. I began to put into practice worldly success principles such going after that which will benefit the company even at the expense of other people. In 1979, another promotion came my way. This new managerial position required a lot of traveling. But with a discontented mind of a corporate junior executive, I used my success as a leverage to move on to another company for a higher paying job, which was easy for me to find. At that point in time, I knew that I entered into the land of success. I knew that I somehow reached my ambition. With savings in the bank, with a car of my own, with a lot of friends surrounding me and finally with recognition coming from my family, I thought beyond doubt that I got it made.
However, despite all these at hand my personal life deteriorated in the years to come. It was ironic that, though I gained continued respect from all in the family, I could not find intimacy with them. Deep inside me were loneliness, emptiness, dissatisfaction and guilt. As I continued to live in the corporate jungle, I learned new tricks of bribery and corruption for the sake of business achievement. I became heavy with smoking and drinking that my drinking was going beyond limits. I was becoming an alcoholic.
My Salvation
To many my life seemed colorful, but my soul was clothed in black. As a lonely man, I thought I had to have someone to liven up my life so I longed to get married. I was attracted to a young lady in my workplace. One day, my secretary named Chit invited her to attend weekly bible studies. With the intention of pursuing this woman I decided to join the group in their meetings without fail. All along I was not interested with the studies. I was simply happy to be close to her. One evening, the group decided to attend a worship service, which was being held at a local theater. Finding the opportunity to service her, I drove the group to the religious gathering. As I entered the theater, I noticed the happy faces and enthusiastic greeting of the people at the door. It felt so different. There was a strange feeling of peace, joy and lightness that was present in that place, so different from the heaviness and tension that greeted me everyday at home and at the office doors. Then everyone started to sing songs about the Lord and to the Lord and I began to cry. My face was drenched with tears. My mind was lost into oblivion but I knew I wanted to stay put in that place. The prayers uttered and the words of the sermon were coming straight to my heart. I knew that God was in that place and He was talking to me. When the invitation was given to come to the Lord in life surrender, I walked to the stage area as tears like fountain continued to flow from my eyes. I surrendered my tired, frustrated sinful life to the Lord Jesus Christ that very night. For the first time in my life I felt so much peace as if washed within. I felt fresh and uplifted, wanting to turn my back from sin, loneliness and frustration.
From that day in October 1986, changes started to unravel in my thought life and everyday life. With the help of the teaching of the Word, I was being changed in many ways. I finally realized that God was with me in my road to success in studies and career. I learned that was He Who endowed me with gifts and abilities and that His plan for me and my family was not to harm but to give us a hope and a future. Three month later I was baptized in the Holy Spirit while I was alone in my room praying and worshipping the LORD. Never in my life did I ever feel so full, accepted and free. It was glorious.
What ever happened to the lady I was pursuing? Well, she turned me down but it did not matter much for I already found the love and acceptance that I have been looking for. It was in Jesus. I knew and believed that He gave His whole life for me as proof that He really loved me. It was His love I needed to know more and cherish because it that something I have been searching for! As I began to walk my new found faith, most of my friends, particularly my business colleagues, distanced themselves from me. They saw the changes in me for the Lord delivered me from addiction to tobacco and alcohol but they thought that I have become weird. Strangely, instead of feeling dejected and ostracized, I felt joy and peace in my heart. It was the complete opposite of my old self who would have been easily mad, vengeful, and sulking in self-pity.
In March 12, 1989 I married Rosario Tengco, nicknamed Rosanna, the woman whom I believe God has ordained to be my helpmeet. We met while we were both active in the Young Adults ministry of the church where I accepted the Lord. She was also serving as the head of the Children’s Ministry. Rosanna is eight years younger than me, but she possessed all the strengths that I lacked. Today after more than 20 years of being married God has entrusted to us three lovely children to take care of. Hannah, the eldest, a child entrusted to us by God whom we started to care for when she was 7. Sarah Abigail, our bubbly second, is now 19 years old and our only son, David Daniel is 15 years old. God has blessed me with a godly and beautiful wife and wonderful children who are all treasures I cherish so very much.
As I reflect upon my life I see the providential hands of God guiding me since the time I was born. There were people and events in my life that God used to mould me to be the person that I am today.
The Models and Mentors
My parents are my first mentors and models. As I related earlier, I regret very much not to remember any time in my life when I went out with my father just to have fun and talk, but in spite of this lack of intimacy with him, I appreciated my father with all my heart. His humility, contentment in life and his not being covetous of wealth and fame are virtues that impacted my life so deeply.
Many people took advantage of my father’s simplicity even as a doctor. I saw many great opportunities for him to gain wealth but opportunists snatched these from his hands and I dreaded this in my heart. Probably as a reaction, it was easy for me to learn to become ruthless, and arrogant in my workplace. I did not want to be abused like my father, yet deep within me I desired and emulated his virtues. My mother’s everyday love affected me so much that I believed everything she said and everything she taught me about God. Because of her, I learned to fear God. Her religious teachings echoed in my ears and held me at bay during my rebellious days.
I believe that God has even used non-Christian mentors to build strength and character in me. In my first job, I was placed under two superiors who taught me about the value of setting goals in life. The way they dedicated and focused their lives and resources in achieving their goals inspired me in the pursuit of my career. They guided me on how to draw a 10-year plan for my life. I considered the exercise silly at that time but to my surprise all but one item in it was fulfilled. When I became a Christian, God had to sanctify whatever strength, abilities and gifts I possessed. He taught me that true success is gained not at the expense of others but at my expense. Many are the humbling and breaking experiences I went through as He taught me about servant hood. To date, He teaches me more about not wanting to be served but to serve. Committed school teachers, bosses, pastors and church leaders are other people who have influenced me in life but I could never forget Chit, my secretary, who invited me to the Bible Study that led to my salvation. She died two weeks after I got saved. I used to mock and disdain her for witnessing and convincing other people in the office to accept her belief. After her death I realized that God sent her for a specific mission and that is to save me from hell. Through her invitation I was led to know about my gracious and merciful Savior, the One, True Living God Jesus Christ my Lord.
Important Events
Aside from my salvation experience there are three important events that impacted my life and have made the way I am today. The first happened three (3) months after I got saved. I had a dream, which I could never forget. In my dream, I saw myself walking along the edge of a mountain where everything was dark. As I climbed that mountain, I reached a place where darkness was separated from light. I stepped into the lighted place (as if I entered in to another room) and suddenly bright rays of light coming from an unknown source above me rained on me. To my amazement the rays of light were penetrating my body and I felt an indescribable joyful feeling within my soul. I continue my ascent until I reached the mountaintop from where I looked down and saw a giant cubical crystal with an inscription name “WORD” written on top of it. Again, I felt an unspeakable joy in my heart as I saw it. Then two heavenly beings came out of the rectangular cubical crystal and they flew towards me. Both were wearing robes. One had a white robe on and the other red crimson. I could not find any word or words to describe the heavenly being but it again I felt delighted to be in their presence. Then I heard a powerful and authoritative voice telling me, “Follow them for later you will do it alone”. The voice was full of awesome power that it my heart seemed it was melting and my body trembling, yet my soul delighted as I listened. I was awakened after I heard the majestic voice in my dream. This experience has always served as a reckoning point of my calling as a minister of the gospel of Christ. I am reminded of these vivid scenes every time I am faced with trials as if wanting to give up my calling.
With regards to my self-sufficiency, here is how the Lord dealt with me. Soon after resigning from my job, I excitedly set up a company with whatever money I have saved through my working years. I declared proudly before God, “Lord, I will serve you with my own sweat!” After one year, our business became unsuccessful. It went bankrupt. Again in tears, I came before the Lord in sweet surrender. He cleansed me from my self-sufficiency and pride. After God rid of those hindering sinful attitudes, His calling upon my life started to become clear. He was preparing me to reach out to the unlovely people in the world with the gospel of grace, repentance and forgiveness. We experienced hard times in the few years of transition period in my life, but through it all God pulled us through and out we came as more Christ like and more Christ loving. I thank God for Rosanna and the children who stood by me through those hard times. There are more persons to mention, events and facts in my life to site, who and which have influenced me life and ministry, but due to lack of space more about them cannot be written here.
My Principle of Ministry
As I begin to write about my understanding of the principle behind my ministry, I would like to make mention that I am coming from contrasting experiences and context of ministry on the one hand, that is in the midst of a Middle Eastern Islamic society a life with limited freedom of Christian worship and on the other hand in a Western Post-modern society that value and protect freedom that one’s right at times has to curtailed in order to give way to other people’s rights. If I were to describe my ministry in one word I would use the word kerygmatic. What do I mean by this? As a minister of God I believe my main responsibility is to faithfully proclaim the Words and the Works of God through my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! God, from the time of Noah to that of the apostles, has called great men and women to proclaim what He has to say to the people. The word or the concept of ‘kerygma’, as used in many instances in the bible, connotes several things: a) Urgency of the message; b) It is not the proclaimer’s own idea or message but of God; c) It poses a challenge to the hearer to respond to the message. With this in mind, I believe that a minister must always see the urgency, the importance and seriousness of his call. Many ministers speak of Christ’s love and forgiveness but ignoring the reason why the world needs love and forgiveness. There is too much triumphalism preaching today so much so that the people of God miss to realize that millions and millions of people will die without the Lord. The second thing is that we must remain to be faithful to the eternal message of the Gospel because our message is not ours but is God’s. We cannot afford to minister in our own human level and power. To minister in the power of the Holy Spirit is expedient. Thirdly, the message, we proclaim and the Christian community life we live must bring the presence of God that challenges the world around us. This is the embodying principle that I follow in every teaching, training, lesson and activity I do in my sphere of ministry.
I also believe that everyone in the Body of Christ is gifted for service. For this is the very reason why the church is empowered by the Holy Spirit to become His witness. The greatest witness that the church can give in a hostile world like the Middle East and the post-modern westernized society is Love manifested in sincere social concern and caring. The church is the community of God’s people and this community is distinct and separate from the world not because of piety but because of Christ’s love that permeates among the people. Every member must be able participate and be given a chance to serve the Lord within and the community of believers in the hope of edifying the body. Finally, the end results should be a witnessing community in action and words, where the goodness and kindness of the Lord is made manifest into the world.
The Ministry God Entrusted
Two weeks after God dealt with me in the area of loving the unlovable and self-sufficiency, Word for the World Christian Fellowship requested me to develop a pastoral care ministry and training for local missionaries. I served in these ministries and as an itinerant preacher until 1992. In January 1993, I was sent to Dubai, U.A.E. to pastor a pioneering church work of about 50 to 60 people. Though experiencing rough sailing at the beginning of this mission work, the mighty hands of God moved in this church in Dubai and it grew to about 800 attendees in a span of 7 years. Through this church seven more were planted in the United Arab Emirates. In 1996, I was assigned to oversee the church planting works of Word International Ministries-COG in Europe, Med. and Middle East. Churches were planted or added to the work in Cyprus, Israel, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Italy, Lebanon and Athens and Greece.
After a torrid pace of ministry, in June 2000 my family and I moved to the United States of America in Cleveland Tennessee to pursue a Masters in Divinity for two years at the Church of God Theological Seminary. This also served as a welcome furlough for my wife and myself as we were beginning to feel the brunt of fast pace ministry. My family and I spent two years in the USA, indeed a time to refresh and stay obscure away from the playing field of ministry, although I was indulged to travel to Europe and Middle East from time to time to stay in touch and do some supervision to the churches.
Ten months before I finished my studies and return back to Dubai, I had a trip to the UAE to look into the situation of the ministry and do some planning for our return. During that trip I was urged to pass by England and visit Paolo Sison and his family and to check the possibility of having a ministry in the United Kingdom. The trip to Dubai went well as well as my visit to the Sisons. As the plane was accelerating to take off from the tarmac of Gatwick airport, I felt a strange feeling within me. As I gazed through the window to behold the beautiful landscape of England my heart was filled with uncontrollable mixed emotion of joy and sadness and began to cry and sob. I felt ashamed as the old lady seated beside me look at me with bewilderment. As the fusion of emotion was building up I heard this powerful familiar voice within me saying, “This is where I want you to go!” I cried all the more realizing the Lord’s voice.
I kept this matter to myself, for the simple plan of picking up our luggage take the plane to Dubai has now become a very complicated matter! Will Rosanna agreed with it, how about the kids they are all excited to continue their interrupted friendship in the UAE? How about the leadership in Dubai and the people will they agree with this change of plan? In England, will we be given a visa? Where will we live? What added to the scare is that except for the Sisons who were committed then to another church I knew not a single soul in England.
I decided to inform my family about this new call of God and as expected it was not received well. I broke the news with the leadership in Dubai and they don’t like it. But strangely the leadership of Word International Ministries and Church of God were open to this move.
There are three Biblical characters that serve us my model of ministry. David the man after God’s own heart, Daniel the prophet who would stick out his neck for the Lord and John the Baptist who did not perform any miracle but was the greatest prophet as proclaimed by the Lord and who led many people to repent without the usual antics of today’s ministers.
I believe that the key to a successful ministry that will last is to have a contrite and humble heart before the Lord. It is easy to fall into self-sufficiency once God gives a minister the privilege to see His glory. The minister must continue to pursue God in a daily basis and not only in times of need. The minister needs not to be ashamed of the Lord even in difficult situations. It is easy to turncoat when one’s life, security and reputation are at stake. Finally, the minister must seek the purity of what we preach and not the manifestation. God’s power, signs and wonders will follow when His unadulterated Word is preached. Thus, a minister must devote more of his time in seeking the pure Word of God rather than seeking methods and formulas on how to bring supernatural manifestations into light. John the Baptist never made any miracles but he brought the heart of many to conviction.
One of the most powerful conversion stories that I witnessed happened during my ministry in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.). This man led a homosexual life since he was a child. He went to the U.A.E. as grown up man scouting for a job but ended up being caught up in the wicked pleasures the world. He became a pimp, a bootlegger, got involved in abortion, usury, witchcraft and sorcery. When he got saved five years ago I never believed in my heart that this man could ever be changed. But God, in spite of my indifference toward this man, led me to show him His Message of forgiveness and His power to release him from his entrapment in the chains of darkness. After a long struggle, and in series of counseling and discipleship in a cell group he was finally released from wicked practices, God delivered this man from the demonic powers that had him bound for many years. Through God’s miracle in his life many homosexuals heard the Gospel and were also saved, delivered and transformed from the bondage of sin. Such life changing events done by God that I have the privilege to witness as His servant is parallel to the recurring theme of God’s love and mercy I learned in the Bible.
This, my life testimony, is the story of God who had shown mercy and love to me. I will proclaim Him as long as I live.