Participants:
Series Code: UBR
Program Code: UBR200018S
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00:01 Stay tuned to meet a man
00:02 who went from being faithless to being faithful in Christ. 00:05 My name is Jason Bradley, 00:07 and you're watching Urban Report. 00:31 Hello and welcome to Urban Report. 00:33 My guest today is Pastor Carlos Munoz, 00:36 AFCO Director and Associate Speaker. 00:39 Welcome to Urban Report, Pastor Munoz. 00:43 Maranatha, Brother Jason. How are you doing? 00:45 I'm doing well. 00:46 It's so great to have you on the program today. 00:50 Amen. Amen. 00:51 I'm excited to be here with you finally. 00:53 Yes, sir. 00:55 I know that you have a very, very powerful testimony 00:58 because we have been trying to make this happen 01:00 for a while, and you know things 01:02 keep coming up and happening. 01:04 So I know that the Lord is going to bless. 01:09 Amen. Amen. 01:10 And just like he's blessing 3ABN, 01:13 us here at Amazing Facts 01:14 and just continue to fight for the Lord to do His work. 01:17 Amen. 01:18 Now you are also one of the panelists 01:21 on 3ABN Latino Salvation and Symbols and Signs, correct? 01:27 Yeah, that is correct. 01:28 We've been, we just finished a couple months ago, 01:31 we just finished our Chapter 17 in Revelation. 01:34 So we've been doing that also. 01:36 So that's been a great blessing too. 01:37 Looking forward to finishing that work. 01:39 I love it. I love it. 01:41 Now, this is your first time on the Dare to Dream Network. 01:44 So I want to introduce our viewers to, you know, 01:47 to you and talk a little bit about 01:50 where you were raised? 01:54 Yeah, so I was born, I was born in New York City. 01:57 My mom's Dominican, my dad's Puerto Rican. 02:00 So that's a pretty interesting combination there. 02:04 And so I was there till about we were 10 years old. 02:07 And when I was about 10 years old, 02:09 we then moved to Puerto Rico. 02:10 My Dominican family all moved to Puerto Rico. 02:12 So English is my first language, 02:14 but then I learned Spanish as well. 02:17 And, and yeah, so I've been, 02:21 live my life between New York City 02:23 because then I came back as I was an adult, 02:24 so I have to live between New York City, Puerto Rico, 02:26 lived a couple of years in Florida 02:28 here there, Colorado a little bit. 02:30 And now we're in California, here in Roseville, California. 02:33 Got you. 02:35 And now how did that have an impact on your future? 02:41 Well, it had an impact on my future 02:42 because my family was a Catholic. 02:45 And I was raised 02:47 in a Catholic family, very loving family. 02:50 You know, a lot of attention, big family too. 02:54 But, the way it was interesting is because they were Catholic. 02:58 One of the things that it really 02:59 influenced me was because 03:01 when I was being raised as a Catholic, 03:03 you know, they teach you 03:04 the teaching of burning in hell, right? 03:06 You're going to burn in hell forever. 03:08 So they, I remember that they told me that 03:10 not to in a way to scare me, 03:12 but in a way to try to get me to behave, 03:14 you know, hey, if you don't behave, 03:16 you know, this is what's going to happen to you. 03:17 This is what's going to, you're going to burn in hell 03:19 and so that instead of getting me to behave, 03:22 what that made me do is totally reject God. 03:25 I said that, that does not sound like a God of love to me. 03:27 Yes. 03:28 You know, I misbehaved a lot and my mom and my dad 03:31 had spanked me pretty hard 03:33 but they're not still spanking me. 03:35 And so I just thought that if that's the God 03:37 that everybody else thinks it is, 03:40 I said I don't want anything to do. 03:42 So what it really did with me, 03:44 it kind of gave me a distorted image of God. 03:47 And so I was young, 03:48 I couldn't understand the concept, 03:50 so I just said, you know what? 03:51 I don't want anything to do with that God. 03:52 And so, I continue to go to church, 03:56 I went through the Catholic, you know, rituals 03:58 and all the other things work because I had to, right? 04:00 There's no... 04:02 When you're raised in Hispanic values, 04:03 no question about it. 04:05 And so that happened until I stopped, 04:08 until they stopped forcing me to go to church. 04:10 And once they stopped, I said, you know what? 04:11 That's it. 04:13 I don't want anything else to do with God and with, 04:16 you know, with what they're teaching. 04:17 Yes. 04:18 Now, how old were you when you decided that 04:20 you didn't want anything else to do 04:22 with God or the teaching? 04:25 Oh, I was pretty probably moving 04:27 within the transact transition 04:29 between New York City to Puerto Rico. 04:32 So I was probably about 04:34 8, 9, 10 years old in that area. 04:36 I don't specific direct, 04:38 but I remember very clearly the thought process 04:42 that I had, so I was young. 04:43 Yes. But I didn't tell anybody. 04:45 I just kept it to myself. 04:47 Okay, so your family didn't even know? 04:50 No, no, no. 04:51 So at what point did they find out? 04:55 Well, you know what? 04:56 They really didn't find out because it's now, nowadays, 05:01 when you say that you're an atheist, you know, 05:03 in some circles, it's kind of cool, right? 05:05 You're like, oh, you're cutting into 05:06 but in those days that wasn't very heard of. 05:08 And so, it's something that you don't want to speak, 05:12 you know, it wasn't taught in school. 05:15 Hispanic culture, it wasn't something 05:18 that I had heard of either. 05:19 I just, you know, I never knew what an atheist was, 05:22 I just, now I know because of the, 05:25 how the concepts are defined, but at that time, 05:27 it was something that I didn't know about. 05:29 I just said, I don't want anything to do 05:31 with God, right? 05:32 And so, so yeah, no, I didn't say to anybody until 05:37 once I was older, once I got into university. 05:39 Got you. 05:41 Now, what was your life like as an atheist? 05:46 Well, you know, at first it was normal 05:49 when I was growing up, 05:51 you know, I did school, I went to high school. 05:53 I had a great upbringing, great family, 05:55 had a great time in high school. 05:58 But then things really started to change 06:00 when I got into college 06:01 because once I got into college, 06:02 you know, now there are expectations in the sense of, 06:05 you know, this is what you're going to do 06:07 with the rest of your life. 06:08 And so, that, as I started to study, 06:12 I started to also party, 06:14 I started to get involved in the party scenes 06:16 and working in the tourist area. 06:18 And so I noticed that I was not, 06:21 I was feeling empty, I was not, I did not have a purpose. 06:24 And I was, in my mind, I was thinking, 06:26 "Wait a minute, so do I just go to school, 06:29 get a job, get married, have kids retire and then die?" 06:33 And so, that was the mindset that I had, 06:35 because I didn't believe in anything after that. 06:37 And it was really difficult for me 06:38 because I noticed that I had that void. 06:41 I had that lack of purpose. 06:42 And so I noticed that 06:44 I was getting depressed because of that. 06:46 That depression even led me 06:47 to contemplate suicide a couple of times. 06:50 I contemplated taking my life 06:51 because there was nothing for me to live, you know, 06:54 there was no meaning and so the praise the Lord, 06:57 I didn't go through with it, 06:58 I didn't have the guts to do it. 07:00 But then when, you know, the more you use, 07:05 the more depressed you get, 07:06 the more you try to hide yourself, 07:07 whether it be in drugs, whether it be in alcohol, 07:10 whether it be in sports, whatever it is, 07:12 you're trying to find a purpose, 07:13 so you're trying to hold on to something. 07:15 So I was masquerading my emptiness with my drinking, 07:17 with my drugs and my party life. 07:20 And this was going on, you know, for a while, 07:22 for a number of years. 07:24 And, but it wasn't, it was nothing fulfilling. 07:28 I was empty. 07:29 I was just, I had nothing to, 07:32 I had nothing to hold on to except 07:34 just to have fun and party 07:35 and then wait till it's over basically. 07:37 Yeah. 07:39 Now, would you say that 07:40 it was a gradual, downward spiral, 07:45 like it didn't just happen all at once? 07:46 It was a gradual downward spiral. 07:49 Yeah, yeah. Yeah. 07:51 Yeah, even from high school, I was already thinking things 07:53 but, you know, you don't take, 07:55 in high school you're kind of in a bubble per se, right, 07:57 you don't really understand what's coming. 07:59 And then once you're in college, 08:00 then it's like, "Okay, now this is the real world," right? 08:02 And working, you know, 08:05 I was working already but you know, 08:06 working to sustain myself into for school. 08:09 And that's when things really started to kick in. 08:10 And yeah, it was gradual. 08:12 I just noticed, I didn't even know 08:13 I was depressed and I, you know, even when I... 08:17 I know it's depression now, but at the time I didn't. 08:19 But when I contemplated suicide, 08:21 and I even had an event where one time I was really, 08:23 really drugged up, 08:24 and I remember looking in this mirror, 08:25 I was in a hotel room with my boys. 08:27 And we were drinking, we were doing drugs. 08:29 And I remember I was, I looked into the mirror, 08:31 I went to the bathroom, and I looked into the mirror 08:33 and I don't know 08:34 if you've ever seen the video thriller 08:36 from Michael Jackson. 08:38 I don't advocate anybody seeing it. 08:40 But you know, I saw that, and you know, when they, 08:43 that's what I looked like, I saw my like my cadaver. 08:46 Man, that really just shook me to the core 08:50 and it was, and I was in the bathroom 08:53 for only a couple of minutes 08:54 but it felt like an eternity and that really shook me 08:57 when that and then you know, 08:59 contemplating suicide, I'm like, what is going on? 09:01 And so, I was searching, 09:03 I was desperate to try to find out, 09:07 you know, to fill that void. 09:09 Yes, yes. And it' amazing. 09:12 You know, the devil tries to paint this picture 09:15 like all of those other things are glamorous and you know, 09:20 it's a really empty lifestyle though 09:23 and it leads to death and destruction. 09:27 Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right. 09:29 The devil wants us 09:30 to try to fill that void in our heart 09:32 with the things of the world. 09:33 Yes. And that's exactly right. 09:35 I was traveling, I was partying, 09:37 I was doing what everybody thinks it means to live. 09:40 But it's interesting because in Romans 8:11 09:42 it says that when we receive the Spirit of God, 09:44 that's when He will give us life 09:47 and the real life, 09:49 the real purpose, but you know, you don't know that 09:51 unless you taught in especially that, 09:53 that the only one that can fill that void 09:55 that reason to be is Christ. 09:58 Yes. So yeah. 09:59 Did you have two sets of friends 10:01 or did you just have, 10:02 like one set of friends that was, 10:05 that were heading in the wrong direction? 10:08 No, yeah, yeah, no, it was my, it was us. 10:11 My boys, I had my friends from high school 10:13 and then I had my boys from my neighborhood. 10:16 So I kind of brought these two groups together. 10:18 And, so yeah, there's still, 10:22 I mean, when I go to Puerto Rico, 10:24 you know, there my boys were always talking, 10:25 we're communicating. 10:27 But, you know, that was the life 10:28 that we were going 10:30 and it was normal for us, right? 10:31 It was normal to party and they didn't even know. 10:33 They didn't even know about my depression. 10:34 They didn't even know about my suicidal thoughts. 10:38 You know, it was all a mask, right? 10:40 In front of everybody, I was happy, I was, you know, 10:42 I was the life of the party, I was. 10:44 It was all good. 10:46 But once that finished, 10:48 it all came back and that's when you know, 10:50 you got to face yourself in the mirror. 10:53 Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. 10:56 What led to your transition 10:58 in becoming a believer in Christ? 11:02 Uh, among all the party life and all that, 11:04 and all the things that I was doing, 11:06 I was still going to the university 11:07 every once in a while, I was studying pre law 11:09 in University of Puerto Rico 11:11 and I had to take this course, I was just taking courses 11:13 just so my mom can get off my back. 11:17 Because, uh, you know, they're like, 11:19 when are you going to finish school? 11:20 And I'm like, "Oh, you know, yeah, I'm taking some courses." 11:22 So I had to take, 11:23 I just took a course on psychology, 11:25 it was an elective, and, Brother, 11:27 when I took that course, in that course, 11:29 we were studying the human mind. 11:31 And it took a second to talk about the human brain 11:34 and the connection with the body and the biology. 11:37 And I was blown away with what I was looking at. 11:40 I mean, the human mind outside of God 11:42 is the most amazing thing in this universe. 11:44 And it blew me away. 11:46 And when I studied that, 11:47 and I saw how it's all connected 11:48 and how the body works and the mind 11:52 and we don't even understand the mind, that made me to think 11:55 and that immediately came to my thought. 11:56 I said, "There's got to be something bigger than us," 11:59 because you can't look at a computer, 12:01 you can't look at anything and say that 12:02 it just came out of nowhere. 12:04 There's a mind behind it. 12:05 And whatever created that thing 12:07 has to be bigger than that which was created. 12:09 So immediately as I looked at the complexity 12:11 of the human body, 12:13 and that just caught me, I said, there has to be some, 12:16 this came out of something, right? 12:18 Yes. 12:19 As I studied ecosystems, DNA, it's interesting. 12:21 It's science is the thing that made me to believe 12:24 in the supernatural being that we know as God now. 12:27 Wow! 12:28 Which is, and I'm glad that you said that 12:30 because it's very interesting because that's also, 12:33 science is also something 12:34 that creates atheists that seems like. 12:38 Yeah, exactly. 12:40 And so, it's that that very thing 12:41 that pushes people away or they try to, right, 12:44 is what draw me in because when I say, 12:46 what I saw is that science is like is explaining 12:48 the details of God's power. 12:50 It's showing us the complexity, the beauty, the deepness, 12:53 the profoundness. 12:55 Everything has a purpose, everything is ordered. 12:56 There's nothing as random. 12:58 Everything is in the system, and that made me 13:01 and then I started to study the universe 13:03 and who'll forget it. 13:04 It just opened up this whole world 13:06 and I said, you know what? 13:07 There has to be a supernatural being in the universe. 13:11 And, of course, I didn't think it was the Christian God 13:14 because remember I already had that 13:15 experience that He was going to burn. 13:17 So I said, you know what? 13:18 I don't want anything to do with that Christian God, 13:19 but I know there's something out there. 13:21 And that really started to drive me, 13:23 to push to find that supernatural being that 13:25 had created all things 13:28 where everything had originated 13:29 and so back then get me 13:31 to start to study religion, philosophy. 13:35 I studied a lot of Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, 13:40 a lot of philosophy, you know, 13:41 philosophy doesn't answer any questions. 13:42 It just gives you more questions. 13:44 And so, that started that voyage towards 13:47 that path of looking for the deity, right? 13:50 The supernatural being. 13:52 So how did you, how did you hone in 13:55 on Christianity again, 13:57 like how did you end up finding Christ 13:59 because It seems like 14:01 once you start studying all of those, 14:03 it's kind of like going down a rabbit hole, right? 14:05 So like, you've got Buddhism, 14:07 Islam, all of these other religions, 14:11 but how did you end up landing back on Christianity? 14:17 Well, like you said, 14:19 I was searching for purpose for me. 14:21 And when I was reading all of these other religions, 14:23 I noticed that it was not, it was not filling me, right? 14:26 It was not giving me the answers I was looking for. 14:28 So, I mean, I know we don't have a lot of time, 14:31 I could go into details of why each one of these 14:34 belief systems did not fulfill my search, 14:39 but then one day I came across a book on, 14:41 I remember, I have it, 14:43 I still have it in my library in Puerto Rico, 14:46 it was on Socrates, 14:47 Aristotle, Plato and Jesus Christ. 14:51 And so I bought this book not because of Jesus, 14:53 but because of the other four, the other three, I'm sorry, 14:55 and so after I had read through it, 14:57 I said, might as well finish the book and read about Jesus 15:00 And so this book, that's, what it talked about Jesus, 15:02 it was very interesting because it looked at Jesus 15:04 from a historical perspective, right? 15:07 And so, when I read the book 15:08 two things stuck out, number one, 15:10 it talked about, it gave extra biblical evidence 15:13 to the existence of Jesus Christ 15:15 and the confirming the accounts 15:17 that were mentioned in the gospels. 15:19 Now, before that, I had thought that 15:20 Jesus was just, you know, a myth, 15:22 cool guy that maybe lived in the Middle East, 15:24 and they kind of exaggerated 15:25 some of the things that they do sometimes 15:26 with other historical figures. 15:29 But when it said very clearly that He had gone through 15:31 those things and that He had died on the cross, 15:33 you know, immediately into my mind, 15:35 Brother, it came to my mind, 15:36 why would somebody go through that? 15:37 Yes, yes. 15:39 If He was a fake, why would He go through that 15:42 because as soon as, let's be honest, 15:45 as soon as a Roman whips you first time 15:48 if you're not, if you're not the real deal, 15:50 you're out of there. 15:51 I'm not going to put up with this. 15:52 I'm not going to take this. 15:54 And so that made me think and the other thing 15:56 that made me think was the disciples, 15:57 the disciples were all cowards. 15:59 They fled, but then when you see the account 16:01 after the resurrection 16:02 that like they all died as martyrs. 16:04 So something happened there that really caught my attention 16:07 and really started to get me thinking. 16:08 But then the other thing that caught my attention was that 16:10 it said in that book, 16:12 it said that the Sermon on the Mount 16:13 is the greatest speech ever pronounced in human history. 16:17 And so I said, "Whoa, wait a minute." 16:19 I love, I love. You know, I love politics. 16:21 I love to read speeches, and I said, 16:22 I'm going to read that speech if it's the greatest ever. 16:25 So, Brother Bradley for the first time in my life, 16:28 I grabbed the Bible on my own accord. 16:30 And I opened it to Matthew Chapter 5, 6, and 7, 16:33 and I read the Sermon on the Mount. 16:35 Wow. 16:36 And something just came over me, 16:38 this peace that I can't explain. 16:41 It just overwhelmed me is the word, 16:42 it overwhelmed me. 16:44 Yes, yes. Amen. 16:46 You had a powerful transformation 16:49 right there, powerful conversion experience. 16:52 What led you 16:53 to the Seventh-day Adventist Church? 16:57 So as I was overwhelmed with that, 17:00 with that feeling of after reading the, 17:02 you know, the Sermon on the Mount, 17:04 I said, "I don't know what this is, 17:05 but I want to keep this up." 17:07 And so I decided to continue to read. 17:09 I said, I'm going to read the Bible, right? 17:11 I'm going to read the New Testament. 17:12 I didn't want to go into the Old Testament, 17:14 because the Old Testament, you know, 17:15 the concept is that the Father's over there. 17:16 He's whipping people, He's burning, right? 17:19 And then He sends His son with mercy. 17:22 So that's the concept that I had too. 17:24 And so I said, I'm not going to deal 17:25 with the Father, right? 17:27 The Father, I can't understand it. 17:28 I said, I'm going to focus on Jesus 17:29 because I can understand Him. 17:31 And so from that moment on, I decided to start reading 17:33 one chapter of the New Testament a day. 17:35 And as that little by little as I continue to read 17:38 and read and read, Jesus was just man, 17:40 He was just like, luring me in, Brother. 17:43 He was just luring me in, and the closer I got to Him 17:47 without noticing, unconsciously, 17:49 the further I was moving away from the ways of the world. 17:52 I wasn't drinking as much, 17:54 I wasn't smoking as much, drugs. 17:56 All of those things were starting 17:57 to diminish little by little as I got closer to Him and so, 18:01 it got to a point where He just grabbed me. 18:03 And I said, you know what? He was filling my heart. 18:05 He was giving me reason 18:06 and purpose even though in my, you know, 18:08 in my beginner stage of understanding Christianity, 18:12 and I said, "You know what? 18:13 I'm going to be a Christian." 18:14 I said, I'm going to be a Christian. 18:16 And so from that point on then the question is, 18:20 well, what church do I go to, right? 18:24 So the same process now, first from 18:27 with all the religions of the world. 18:29 Now the process was okay, I want to be a Christian. 18:31 What church am I going to go to? 18:33 And so again, since I didn't know, 18:35 all I knew was Catholicism. 18:38 I've never been to any other church. 18:39 So I said, you know what? 18:40 I'm just going to start visiting 18:42 every church that I find, and that's exactly what I did. 18:45 I would go to church, man, three, four times a day. 18:48 Different churches. Yeah. 18:50 And a lot of people were telling me, 18:52 "Oh, you're so confused. 18:54 You're losing your mind." 18:55 I'm like, "No," I'm like, how do you... 18:58 I said, "You must be confused, 19:00 because you've been in your church, 19:01 you've been in the church that they raised you 19:03 your whole life, how do you know that 19:04 they're not lying to you? 19:06 How did you know that 19:07 they're not telling you the truth?" 19:08 You don't know until you compare 19:10 what other people are saying about the Bible, 19:12 why are there so many denominations, right? 19:14 And so that began my journey in Christianity. 19:17 And that also took a number, a couple of years, 19:20 as I was doing that, 19:21 and then one day I was on an airplane. 19:23 I remember like it was yesterday, 19:24 I was on an airplane from Tampa to Puerto Rico. 19:28 I'm sorry, the other way around, 19:30 from Puerto Rico to Tampa, right? 19:31 And next to me sat this gentleman, 19:35 very interesting gentleman, he was African. 19:37 He had an Egyptian beard, tailor made shoes. 19:40 I mean, the guy was, he was tight. 19:41 He was on his game. 19:43 And when we started talking, 19:45 he was, we talked about religion 19:47 and the flight's like about three and a half hours. 19:49 And the whole time we're talking about religion 19:51 and all this and it was a great conversation 19:53 and he was like, you know what? 19:55 I can see you're a sincere seeker of God. 19:57 And he told me, he said, you know what? 19:58 I believe that the Seventh-day Adventist are the closest ones 20:02 to the truth to the Bible truth. 20:06 And I was like Seventh-day. 20:07 I know I had visited a lot of churches, 20:09 but I had never visited 20:11 the Seventh-day Adventist Church. 20:12 I didn't even knew it, 20:13 it didn't even fall on my head who they were. 20:16 And so that's how that started. 20:18 And so, as soon as I'm sorry, you're going to say something? 20:21 Yeah, no, I was just going to say, 20:22 you know, it's interesting how you got on that flight. 20:25 I don't believe that things happen by coincidence, 20:28 it's divine providence. 20:29 And so, that's amazing that you sat next to that guy. 20:34 Amen. Amen. 20:35 And I don't even know 20:37 if he was Seventh-day Adventist. 20:38 He gave me his card. 20:39 And I called him and said, hey, let's get together. 20:41 And I called him later, never answered. 20:43 So you know, some people say maybe 20:45 it was an angel and I'm like, I don't know. 20:46 That would be incredible. Yeah. 20:49 Yeah, that would be cool. We'll see. 20:51 We'll find out in the millennium. 20:52 But that, when I saw, when I got back to Puerto Rico 20:57 after that, uh, I started to investigate 21:01 the Seventh-day Adventist Church 21:02 and so I had a friend 21:04 that I remember I used to play basketball, 21:05 and baseball, and track and field. 21:07 So I had a friend that he never participated 21:09 in any events on Sabbath on Saturdays. 21:13 And so, and I had another friend 21:14 that used to work with me, 21:15 and he didn't work on Saturdays either. 21:17 So I just asked him, "Hey, I want to go to the church." 21:19 And he's like, ah, you know, 21:21 I'm not, I don't want to go because he had left the church. 21:24 But I came across his father who was an elder in the church. 21:28 And I told him, I said, "Hey, 21:29 you're this guy's father, aren't you?" 21:31 He's like, "Yeah." 21:32 I said, "I want to go visit 21:33 the Seventh-day Adventist Church." 21:35 He's like, "Hey, so come on." 21:36 So he invited me to show up on Wednesday, 21:37 it was about five minutes from my house in Puerto Rico. 21:40 And I went and I'm telling you the truth, 21:42 Brother, you know how those Wednesday services are, 21:44 there are not a lot of people go, you know. 21:46 Uh-huh, prayer meeting, yep. Uh-huh. 21:49 My church in Puerto Rico specifically was like a little, 21:52 it was little like a retirement home, 21:55 all old people. 21:57 The lady was, the lady that was singing, 21:59 you know, I wish she couldn't sing too well. 22:02 And you know, I'm coming from clubs and parties. 22:04 And I'm like, this is like a funeral. 22:06 What's going on here? But you know what? 22:11 I got there and this lady came to me. 22:12 She says, "Oh, you know, if you come on Saturdays, 22:14 there's more young people, there's more people out." 22:16 And I looked at her in her eyes, 22:17 and I said, "Listen, 22:19 if I was looking for young people 22:20 and trying to entertain myself, 22:21 I would be in a bar and club right now." 22:23 I said, "I don't care about all of those things. 22:24 I'm looking for Christ." 22:26 And so God knew exactly where He put me. 22:29 And the sermon that night, 22:31 I remember it was a, it touched my heart. 22:34 And I said, you know what? 22:36 I like these Seventh-day Adventists, 22:37 they're little weird, they're little odd. 22:39 But I'm going to continue to come, 22:42 I like how they preach the Word of God. 22:43 I like how they, you know, 22:45 everything else wasn't impressive, 22:47 but the Word of God was impressive to me. 22:49 And so as I began to go, you know, 22:52 I started to get, I didn't stop going 22:53 to the other churches. 22:55 But that's how I came to know 22:57 the Seventh-day Adventist Church. 22:58 Wow, that's incredible. Praise the Lord. 23:01 Now, let's talk about what you're doing now. 23:04 Tell us a little bit about being the AFCOE Director. 23:08 First off, what does AFCOE stand for? 23:11 All right. 23:13 AFCOE is the Amazing Facts Center of Evangelism. 23:16 And so, I got baptized in 2008. 23:20 In New York City, in Puerto Rico, I'm sorry. 23:23 Then I moved to New York City, I was there for five years. 23:25 And then I decided to go to AFCOE, right, 23:27 which is to serve. 23:28 Amazing Facts has three to four-month course, 23:31 what's evangelism training, how to do evangelism. 23:33 And so I came to this course thinking, 23:35 "Okay, I'm going to go to this course and you know, 23:36 I'm going to, I'm going to get to see Pastor Doug Batchelor 23:40 and read all the Amazing Facts." 23:42 And I was already giving an offering to the ministry. 23:46 And when I got here, they didn't let me go. 23:50 They said, "Brother, what are your plans?" 23:51 And I'm like, "You know, 23:52 I might still do this and go study masters and this." 23:55 And they were like, "No, we want you to stay with us." 23:57 And so that's how they asked me to become an associate speaker. 24:00 So I'm also the bilingual 24:01 associate speaker for the ministry. 24:03 And I did that for five years. 24:05 And then after five years, 24:06 Pastor Doug and Pastor John Ross asked me 24:09 if I was interested in becoming the AFCOE Director. 24:13 And so I was like, whoo, couldn't wait. 24:15 That was a... That's a huge responsibility. 24:18 Yeah. 24:20 Yeah, indeed, we had talked about maybe starting, 24:23 because you know, we have different AFCOE schools 24:26 in different parts of the world. 24:27 We have in Africa and Asia. 24:29 And so we had talked about, 24:31 I had already dabbled about the interest 24:33 that I had in opening an AFCOE for in Latin America, 24:36 we don't have any presence in Latin America. 24:39 So we had talked a little bit about it, 24:40 but never in my wildest dreams 24:42 were they ever going to tell me, 24:43 "Hey, you want to come?" 24:44 Come join us for 24:47 and direct the ministry headquarters 24:50 here in Roseville so. 24:52 That's, yeah, that's incredible. 24:55 What can someone expect from AFCOE like if, 24:59 if somebody wants to go to take the classes, 25:01 what can they expect? 25:04 You know, a lot of people think that 25:07 sometimes they say AFCOE's theology. 25:08 Now you want to go theology, 25:10 you can go to, you know, go to study theology go. 25:13 You have a number of other schools 25:14 that focus theology. 25:15 What AFCOE is about is taking people 25:17 that have a desire to dedicate their lives 25:19 to serving God in whatever different ways 25:21 whether it be Bible working, public evangelism, preaching, 25:26 starting your own ministry. 25:27 And so what you do here is we, 25:29 when I came, right, I didn't know what I was, 25:30 I wanted to do, 25:31 I knew I wanted to work in ministry. 25:33 And so it comes here and it gives you a sense, 25:35 it gives you direction and says, listen, 25:36 these are all the... 25:38 AFCOE's like a platform where you can come 25:40 and you can see where is God wants to guide you. 25:43 What does God wants to do and you find a mission purpose. 25:46 And then you hold on to that and to that mission, 25:48 so we train you and prepare you. 25:50 Yes, there is theology involved, 25:52 but it's, you know, 25:53 you should already have at least a basic understanding 25:55 of what we believe when you come here, 25:58 because here it's about hands on ministry, 26:01 is how to do the work, how to you know, 26:03 knocking on doors, how to get Bible studies, 26:05 how to start, how to get, 26:07 how to organize a prophecy seminar 26:10 or evangelistic campaign, 26:13 how to make appeals, how to preach, 26:15 everything that has to do 26:16 with winning souls and nurturing, 26:18 and helping you to learn how to train 26:19 and prepare other people also 26:21 to do the work so, you know, go back to your local church 26:24 and start your own local ministry in your church 26:26 and let's, you know, get that evangelistic fire 26:31 into the fiber of your church too so... 26:34 Absolutely. 26:36 There's so many ways, it opens your eyes to see 26:39 all the ways that you can develop 26:41 and dedicate your life to the Lord. 26:43 That's great. Give us some websites. 26:46 We've got like a minute and 10 seconds left. 26:48 Give us some of the websites like AFCOE.org? 26:52 Give us some of those? 26:53 Yes, we have AFCOE.org. 26:56 We have AmazingFacts.org too. 27:00 And we just opened up also our AmazingFactsLatino.org. 27:04 So we're starting to expand to our, 27:06 also our brothers and sisters in Spanish speaking countries. 27:08 And so, yeah, that's a lot all the ways 27:10 that you can reach us and get in contact with us. 27:13 I love it and if somebody wants to send you an email, 27:16 what's your email address? 27:18 My email is CMunoz@AmazingFacts.org. 27:24 That's my personal email here at Amazing Facts. 27:27 Wonderful. 27:28 Now in about 15 seconds, 27:29 what would you say to somebody who is searching like you were? 27:35 I would say you know what? 27:37 It says in Isaiah 26:3, 27:39 you will keep him in perfect peace 27:42 whose mind is stayed on you. 27:44 So what I tell people is, you know what? 27:46 Give God a chance. 27:47 You got nothing to lose. 27:49 Just give Him an opportunity 27:50 and let Him show you what He wants to do 27:51 with you and be blessed. 27:53 Amen. 27:54 Thank you so much for coming on and sharing, 27:55 and thank you for joining us. 27:57 Join us next time, until then, God bless. |
Revised 2020-09-04