bio.

I come from a family that is at least three generations deep in Christianity. My parents, and to some extent, my grandparents, have been great role models in regards to following God and being a Christian. Many of my relatives are also deeply involved with their respective churches.

So I grew up in Sunday school, learning Biblical facts and knowing many things about Jesus. Looking back now, I could say that I had a lot of “head” knowledge about Jesus and the Bible. However, it took an exceptionally personal experience for me to finally recognize Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I remember it was a regular day in 4th grade as I was in class doing some class work. For some reason, I had to walk from my desk to the teacher’s desk which was maybe ten big steps away. The room was really busy as the other students were also walking around doing other things. As I was walking, suddenly time seemed to slow down and a bright light came down from above, shining on me, with a voice from Heaven saying, “Hey, Jojo, I am here!” Then immediately, I snapped back into “reality” and I looked around to see if anyone heard or experienced that event too. No one was looking at me and that “break in time” seemed to have happened in a mere few seconds. But it is in those few seconds that I finally felt and experienced the personal touch and love of the God of the Bible.

I continued living my life, sometimes really on fire for God but other times just going on, until I finished college. As I was mulling over what to do with my life, I had a chance to talk with an older, mature Christian. The first question he asked me, point blank, was “if you disregarded what everyone else expects from you and you could do whatever you want, what would it be?” Without even thinking much about it, an answer seemed to just naturally flow out of my mouth, “Well, I want to serve God full-time!” I was initially shocked by the words that came out of my own mouth, because prior to that, I wasn’t even thinking along that path. After some serious contemplation, I realized that it was exactly what I wanted to do. (Of course, looking back now, I can say that the answer I gave was from my spirit, bypassing my mind, quickly agreeing with the Holy Spirit of His plan for me to do!)

That answer resulted in a series of events that eventually brought me to where I am now. From going to seminary, to graduating and becoming a youth pastor, to doing some short-term ministries in other countries, to finally starting God’s Beloved Ministries in 2007. Every experiences I had leads me to say that, “God loves you and in Jesus, we can truly experience this love all the time!”