Philippians 3:10, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his suffering, becoming like him in his death.”
Hello! My name is William Altobar. I was born in Manila, Philippines in 1963. I grew up as an obedient son to my parents. But inwardly I was engaging in sexual immorality, pornography and alcoholism. Although I was the only son, I felt empty and dark, and failed some medical school classes. In my desperation, I prayed to an unknown God that I may know him and experience his power. In 1985 Chicago UBF sent a missionary named Ron Moses Quilaton to the Philippines. When he went out as a medical student, he had no intention to pioneer a ministry, but Dr. Samuel Lee caught him and asked him to go as a missionary to Philippines. As an answer to prayer, God sent Ron Moses to invite me to Bible study. When I studied the Bible the word of God came to me from John 8:31-32,” If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Since then I have struggled to hold on to the word of God.
After graduating in 1989, Ron Moses left the Philippines to go back to America and entrusted all the sheep and the ministry to me. I thought,‘What do I do now?’ so we decided to pray according to Acts 1:14, “They all joined together constantly in prayer.” We prayed for 28 days straight and then I accepted, “I am responsible for the ministry!” We gathered Dr. Samuel Lee’s Sunday messages and put them all in a binder like precious jewels. These became the backbone of all my Sunday messages. I struggled intensely with the word of God, to accept it in my heart and delivered messages by faith. I continued Medical Studies and delivered SWS messages and taught the Bible one to one. I went to sleep at 10pm and woke up at 2 am, and prayed and studied. By God’s grace I graduated from Medical school, passed the Board Exam, and married a precious woman of faith, Sarah Mina.
I worked as a medical doctor earning only $40 a month. We could barely afford to pay rent and utilities. For food I had to ask my relatives to help us. We ate only twice a day and even shared our food with our Bible Students. We had to give our first son diluted milk and when we had no milk, we gave our baby diluted coffee. But worse than poverty was that these students whom we fed, later left our ministry. Then God opened the way for me to work in a government clinic, making $200.00 a month and with a lot of freedom to serve the ministry. I could have worked in a private clinic or leave the Philippines to make a lot of money like other medical doctors. But I couldn’t leave God’s sheep all by themselves. I decided to stay and make disciples of Jesus.
God gave us 3 children of our own, but one son died at the age of 3 years old of heart disease. In my sorrow God comforted me and gave me, Phil 3:10, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his suffering, becoming like him in his death.” God replaced my son with three more adopted children who were abandoned at my medical clinic.
God not only increased my physical children but he also increased my spiritual children. We had many sheep, but our rented center was small and termite infested. Because of our poverty we could not buy our own center. But we held on to Matthew 6:33, knowing that when we seek God first he will provide all our needs. We prayed if God would build a new center and fill it with many disciples, we would name it “A house of prayer for all nations” according to Isa 56:7b. By the help and support of God’s servants all over the world, we built a UBF Center where we held our last Christmas service with over 230 attendants.
The greatest export of the Philippines is labor power. There are over 90 million people living in 7000 crowded islands. Filipinos are poor and eager to go out to make money. But money can not save them - only knowing Christ can save them. The best way to know Christ is to study the Bible, holding on to the word of God and experiencing resurrection power. They can overcome their sinful lives and live a sacrificial life sharing in Jesus suffering. Instead of going out to make money, they now they know they are blessed because they are poor in spirit and have the kingdom of God. So, they are really eager to go out as missionaries to all the nations. By God’s grace alone, Philippine UBF has established 11 house churches and 8 of them have gone out as missionaries. One of them is Dr. Jacob Canlas who became a British Medical Doctor and a citizen. Another is Matthew and Best Sumibcay who are pioneering a new chapter in Canada. Then there is also G. and F. in Dubai. We also sent missionaries to 5 chapters in the US. The remaining 3 house churches in the Philippines are now pioneering 3 new chapters. Arlene Miranda, a Pharmacy student at the University of the Philippiness, Manila taught the Bible to about 20 students in her dormitory until she was asked to leave. Many students left due to persecution, but 7-8 of them who are young, 17-18 years old, and top students, remained and became real disciples of Jesus. These are the type of students that are now ready to go out as missionaries. So many are like this.
We pray to send out 3.5 million missionaries within 30 years. We received this prayer topic because the Bible house land cost 3.5 million pesos. We also pray to have 1 house church in every city of Europe, Middle East, Asia and Australia. May God help Philippines UBF to know Christ and the power of his resurrection so that 3.5 million Filipinos will go out to all the world as missionaries. Amen.
