When the late Federico “Fred” Mission Magbanua Jr. he preached a radio sermon about providing his personal physique as a dwelling sacrifice, most likely not imagining that sooner or later he would hear these phrases once more with 10,000 watts of high-frequency present working by him. in a close to loss of life accident.
It occurred one night time in early 1961 when Magbanua was working within the Far East Broadcasting Firm (FEBC) evangelical radio ministry. He was fascinated with a job supply in the US with a wage a lot increased than what he was at present incomes as an engineer at FEBC and as a pastor of a small Baptist church.
Instantly, the warning lights on the 308-foot radio tower went out. Magbanua loaded some new bulbs into his bag and started climbing the construction. From his close by dwelling, his daughters and spouse Aliw watched him climb the tower.
What Magbanua didn’t understand was that the grounding system – which diverts energy to the bottom to stop surges – was not working. The radio frequency present “hit his head and used his physique as a lightning rod,” his buddy Harold Sala later instructed God Stories. “He was actually executed by a large blast of electrical energy.
This system that was being aired at the moment was this system hosted by Magbanua himself in Romans 12:1-2. “Via the spark, he heard his personal voice in his head: 'Subsequently, brothers, in view of God's mercy, I name you to supply your our bodies as a dwelling sacrifice,'” recounted former FEBC head Dan Andrew Cura.
Magbanua was miraculously launched by the present and fell onto a step that was just a few toes from the highest of the tower as an alternative of falling 300 toes to the bottom. He managed to climb down the ladder and into the workplace of the corporate nurse, the place he collapsed. When Aliw later noticed him on the clinic, he was wrapped in a towel like a child, along with his complete head burned. He ended up in hospital for months as docs needed to graft pores and skin from his thighs to cowl the misplaced pores and skin on his head.
Nonetheless, the expertise “actually put him out of his thoughts” to depart the nation, Cura stated. As soon as cured, Magbanua lived and served within the Philippines till his loss of life in 2013. He labored for the FEBC for the subsequent 33 years, together with as its first non-American govt director. He then went on to discovered a church planting motion that sought to plant “the church in everybody barangay” (or neighborhood). He additionally influenced a brand new era of Philippine evangelical leaders, together with Efraim Tender, former Secretary Common of the World Evangelical Alliance.
At a time when church scandals are all too widespread within the Philippines, many church leaders say they’ve present in Magbanua a task mannequin for dwelling an sincere life and ending the race effectively.
“He confirmed me how one can have a coronary heart that basically serves God,” Tendero instructed Evangelical As we speak tv. “He was an instance of how one can behave and never be swayed when coping with disputes.” Tendero added that Magbanua maintained this precept in ministry to remain “proper earlier than God”.
Humble beginnings
Magbanua was born in 1932 within the central Philippine province of Negros Occidental, the son of a fisherman. His household was poor and as a small boy Magbanua walked 5 kilometers (about three miles) barefoot to go to highschool. He was in highschool when he heard the gospel and devoted his life to Christ whereas listening to the FEBC program below the mango tree. He ended up finding out civil engineering on the Mapúa Institute of Expertise (now Mapúa College) in Manila whereas working odd jobs.
In 1957, Magbanua met and married Viola Aliw Cachola, then an English instructor. He purchased a marriage ring for 20 pesos (36 cents) and the marriage ceremony passed off within the missionary backyard on Thanksgiving Day.
Magbanu's first ministry task was to plant a neighborhood church in Victoria Metropolis, Laguna Province. He and his spouse acquired 35 pesos (62 cents) a month in ministry assist, which meant they often ate only one meal a day.
“You married a pastor and now you're going to starve,” Aliw remembers her mom telling her. She replied, “Don't fear, I'm comfortable right here even when we don't eat.”
As their household grew—the Magbanus would have 5 kids—the pastor was tempted to search out extra profitable work in the US. When Aliw stated the transfer would enable him to offer the cash he earned to God, she was agency: “I don't agree along with your plan,” she remembers. “We now have to remain right here.
Then, after the surprising expertise of the tower, Magbanua himself felt doomed to remain.
FEBC and past
In 1965, Magbanua turned the chairman of the newly based Philippine Council of Evangelical Church buildings (PCEC), which then had solely 11 member church buildings. PCEC, a breakaway entity from the progressive Nationwide Council of Church buildings within the Philippines, needed to emphasise evangelism over social justice. As we speak, the umbrella group has 55,000 member church buildings.
For the subsequent three many years, Magbanua labored in a gospel radio station. He was first the pinnacle of engineering and finally labored his approach as much as change into the director basic of the ministry. In 1971, Magbanua turned the primary Filipino to move the FEBC of the Philippines, prompting jealous murmurs. His colleagues have been used to “imported leaders” from America, stated his daughter Pleasure Magbuana-Huerte.
Whereas on the helm of FEBC, the ministry expanded into a number of native radio stations, together with one which reached indigenous tribes on the island of Mindoro. She additionally launched a Filipino gospel music label that produced 20 albums and acquired accolades from the Philippine press.
In a transfer some take into account controversial as we speak, the Ministry of Broadcasting remained silent when President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial legislation in 1972 and started his dictatorship. Whereas different media teams that criticized the transfer have been shut down, FEBC was allowed to proceed broadcasting.
Church planting within the barangay
Magbanua resigned from FEBC in 1992 when he reached the retirement age of 60. “However I'm nonetheless younger,” he stated originally of the twenty first century. “I believe I can nonetheless be helpful in advancing God's kingdom.
He seemed to the agricultural areas of his nation, the place most of the estimated 42,000 barangays—the smallest administrative unit within the Philippines overseen by a neighborhood metropolis or municipal authorities—didn’t have an evangelical church.
Picture: Illustration by Mallory Rentsch Pill / Supply picture: WikiMedia Commons / Portrait courtesy of FEBC
Official portrait of Fred Magbanua within the Eighties as CEO of FEBC.
“I promised the Lord that I might search for barangays with no church and assist the pastors who work there,” Magbanua stated within the video. He defined that pastors serving in distant areas normally go away and quit due to hardships. “In these barangays, you’ll be blessed for those who had a month-to-month providing totaling 500 pesos,” he stated, an quantity round $10.
Magbanua-Huerte, who served as her father's govt assistant after he retired, stated her father needed to start out holistic church buildings that might not solely preach the gospel however present well being care, training and monetary help. Rising up in poverty, Magbanua understood the difficulties pastors and their households face when planting church buildings in impoverished areas.
“Individuals [there] they don't have jobs,” he stated. “They might give rooster, eggs, banana, pumpkin and fish. Sure, clergymen ought to have one thing to eat, however when their kids get sick, they don’t have any cash for medication. When their kids have to go to highschool, [there’s] no cash for charges.”
Nonetheless, in line with Magbuana-Huerte, the thought of planting holistic church buildings in unreached barangays didn’t sit effectively along with his fellow Baptists, who have been extra targeted on discipleship. As an alternative of inflicting battle, Magbanua determined to depart the denomination and with their blessing, in 1992 he began the Christ Jesus Our Life Church Planting Motion.
His motion established a pastoral assist fund impressed by 2 Corinthians 8:15, the place 40 p.c of the native church's earnings went into a typical fund, which was then distributed amongst all of the pastors throughout the motion. This was to assist church leaders serving in additional economically depressed areas.
He urged Filipino church leaders to prioritize church planting and was additionally conscious of the situation of the church, stressing that it have to be not more than a ten-minute stroll from the place the members lived in order that they’d not need to pay for public transportation to get to the church.
“His want is [that] each barangay, each Filipino who must know the Lord may have entry to a spot the place they’ll hear the gospel,” Aliw stated. “Though they’re deeply impoverished, they’ll nonetheless afford to go to church.”
As we speak, Christ Jesus Our Life has about 160 church buildings. Magbanua-Huerte is a pastor within the Philippine province of Palawan and oversees about 40 congregations, half of that are in indigenous communities. A number of church buildings commemorate the place the place her father first heard the gospel, holding his companies below a mango tree.
Mediator and spiritual statesman
A number of folks near Magbanu famous the consistency of his testimony. For instance, he maintained the identical rigor and self-discipline in getting ready for his sermons effectively into his 70s. On a sheet of paper folded in thirds, he wrote a top level view that crammed every part with a starting, center, and finish. His spouse stated he normally ready not less than per week upfront for his sermons.
“My dad actually preached from the Phrase,” stated his oldest daughter, Grace Vowell. Whatever the matter of the sermon, he at all times ended it with an invite to give up your life to Jesus Christ.
Because the founding father of a rising denomination and an elder amongst evangelical leaders, Magbanua supplied recommendation to different church leaders who got here to him to mediate inside conflicts. Rey Corpuz, former head of the Philippine Mission Affiliation, remembers a time when evangelicals and Pentecostals didn’t cooperate.
“Manong Fred has a humorous aspect,” Corpuz stated, utilizing the title for an older or taller particular person. “He was baptized as a Baptist.” A conservative Baptist, Magbanua actively constructed relationships with Pentecostals, which drew criticism from his friends.
In July 2012, household and mates celebrated Magbanu's eightieth birthday with the theme “From Fisherman's Son to Fisherman of Males”. Vowell stated her father prayed he would reside one other ten years as a result of he hoped to see Christ Jesus Our Life plant 300 church buildings by 2023. But she additionally remembered him saying: [God] he needs to marry me, that's high quality—I'm prepared.'
A number of months later, Magbanua went for an endoscopy and docs instructed him he had stage IV abdomen most cancers. He died three months afterward January 21, 2013.
“He began sturdy, he began effectively within the ministry and he anointed a brand new, youthful chief till his final breath,” stated Noel Pantoja, who seemed as much as Magbanua as a second father. Pantoja served with Magbanua founding church buildings with Christ Jesus, Our Life and later based a number of Filipino-American church buildings in Washington, DC.
“If you happen to … rely by yourself energy and your personal knowledge, you possibly can't do it,” Pantoja remembers Magbanua telling him from his hospital mattress. “If you happen to really feel that you’re not able to it, that you’re not certified, that’s the first qualification, as a result of you’ll rely upon the ability of God, the ability of the Holy Spirit.”
