I'm Matt Jasecki here from Verity Baptist Church Manila and Verity Baptist Church Pampanga
and I just want to quickly interview one of our church members, Brother Mateus, who moved
from Europe to be a part of our church.
So Brother Mateus, the first question I have for you is, when did you get saved and how
did you get saved?
Yeah, I got saved 2006, so it's already a long time ago, I think 14 years almost, yeah.
Before I was an atheist, most people in Europe are atheists, and I really believed in a strong
evolution, it really made sense for me.
But I had a friend, a very good friend, and like the course of around one month he was
talking with me almost every day about the Bible, about Jesus, and one day it truly made
sense for me.
So he wasn't the best soul winner, he wasn't a soul winner at all, but he was saved and
he told me of the Bible and I believed him.
The next question I have is this, you know, after getting saved, how did you become an
independent fundamental Baptist or kind of know about the new IFB, like-minded churches
such as that?
Yeah, that was around 10 years later, 2016.
I was actually looking for a video, for some videos of Kent Hovind, because I was like
following him before, and I was just waiting when he would come out of prison.
But while looking for this, somehow there was a connection to the video from Mr. Anderson
of his sermon, and this was really something unusual, yeah, it was really a normal church,
and I've never seen such a thing on YouTube before, and I just listened to it and it reminded
me in some way to the preaching of my old church, because it was hard preaching, it
was like forced ceremony, but the more I listened to Pastor Anderson and played out with some
other preachers, the more I realized that there was actually a difference, that the
new IFB speaks about one's safe to always be safe, I always was one's safe to always
be safe to my heart, I knew this, this was never a question to me, and so I found it
a bit awkward, while I was talking so much about it, but when I was also listening to
the sermons of my old church, I knew there was really something wrong, and I realized
that I need to leave this church, and I cannot stay there anymore, there was no chance.
And the main point also, what really motivated me to join the movement was, I tried to review
the cost of presentation, in the beginning it was also for me a bit too simple, just
telling people that they deserve to go to hell, and then the salvation, the plan of
salvation, it was too simple for me, but I just tried it, and it worked, the people got
saved, and at the same time I also started to read my Bible, and I finished after being
already 10 years saved for the first time reading my Bible, around 8 months after starting
to listen to the new IFB sermons, and this motivated me so much, this gave me really
like fire in my heart, and from this moment on, I would consider myself since 2016 like,
from the heart like a year ago.
So the next question is like, you know, how did you end up moving to go back to church
Manila, what made you make that decision, and what were the steps involved in that?
Yeah, so last year, January, end of January, so that's one year ago, I decided then completely
to leave my old church, because I couldn't stay there anymore longer, and after this,
I felt like somehow I'm in the desert here, what shall I do with my life, I had no idea,
and I thought about starting a church or something in Poland.
I knew on the one hand, I knew that it's not really biblical, protect me, but I thought,
okay, maybe it's an exception, because in Europe there are one of the churches, so I
don't like the faithful world, I wanted to get like that blessing, and really to ask
for advice, however, I received an email that this is not biblical, and they will not support
that, and then I really didn't know what to do.
I asked once more and got the advice that it would be a good idea to move in another
country, and then like sometime, like two months went past, and in March, I had holidays,
I decided to go to the Philippines, just for my holidays, and just to visit, go back to
church Manila, to go soloing there, and yeah, just to spend like my holidays.
So the last question I have is this, like what advice would you give to someone who
is thinking about moving, most specifically moving to another country, like what steps
are involved, what preparation is necessary?
At first I would say that you really need to make a clear decision, so you really must
be decided, like maybe, maybe not.
Actually after visiting the country for the first time, I still had a lot of doubts for
some months, and it took me, maybe not some months, but it took me until June around here,
so April, May, June, and once, three months, we need to make a clear decision.
But once you decide, and really once you have a strong wish, and you create about it, then
it becomes easy.
So this is like the first step that you should do.
And you should have really a strong wish, a very strong wish to join a good church,
and to go soloing, and then also level of course practical preparation that you need
to do, for example, saving up money.
Because when I went to the Philippines, before I went to the Philippines, I knew that there
was a good chance for me to get a job, but I didn't know 100 percent.
I knew that I have maybe opportunity in a call center also, but I couldn't make it
sure, so that's why it was good to save up some money, just for the case, it should not
work out.
And also for the long term, you should know that you can work here, because not everyone
maybe can work, so you really need to know which skills you have, and what kind of work
is possible for us.
Like in the Philippines, you can't just do any job, it's very expensive to get for the
company a work permit, so for me for example, not possible just to work in McDonald's,
they would just hire a Filipino.
So you need to know really also how to find a job.
And you must be ready, you must be ready to save yourself.
For example, I was in Denmark, I had a quite comfortable life, and I knew it would not
be as much comfortable anymore once I moved to the Philippines.
Alright, well thank you very much brother, this is going to be very helpful information for you.