06/03/2022
My youngest daughter says, that I put it in her to always give thanks for what God has done. I want to give thanks to God for blessing Monterey House of Worship today with a 9 year Anniversary.
The road has not been easy, but it has definitely been worth it. I remember when I was leaving my position at Richland School District, nobody could understand why. Why would you give up your home, your good job, benefits, and retirement.
I am thankful to God that in the infancy of Monterey House of Worship, we would a average one or two baptisms a month for about the first two years. I also want to thank God that at two different times in the nine years I have been able to be a full-time Pastor.
God has allowed us to use several really nice facilities. I feel like the nice facilities, came as a result from giving to Missions. Currently we sponsor 25 United Pentecostal Church Missionaries every month. That is not including Brother and Sister Harvey, and the Native American Ministry.
I am thankful to every Missionary, Pastor, and Evangelist that came through to minister to us and help us along the way. I am thankful for the phone calls in the infancy of the church from people like Sister Janie Johnson my childhood Sunday school teacher, my Sister Marilyn whose Mother raised me in Foster Care, and Sister Wilson my childhood Pastor's wife. I also want to thank Gordon Richardson for being there for us there every step of the way when we first started as a Home Missions Church.
I want to thank Richard Grandquist & Nancy Nancy J. Grandquist for taking the lead role in encouraging us and being the leader in our area by inviting us to their home for fellowship, and bible study. I feel like here on the Peninsula we have a good spirit of unity. We are not competitive with one another, as a matter of fact we refer people to each other's churches. I want to recognize those Pastors: Johnny Sandoval Michael Fisher , and Gabriel Koch .
I have not, nor will I ever forget the Financial generosity from Don Demyan , Tony Copple, John Jon Mullings , Richard Granquist, Micheal Michael Hanks , the Western District Home Missions Department, the Ladies Department, and many others.
I want to thank Pastor Paul Carrasco for blessing us a number of times. I also want to recognize Steven Steve Lopez , a Business Owner who does not attend Monterey House of Worship, but has been a childhood friend for over 30 years. Many times he has sent in a love offering for Move the Mission or Christmas for Christ. I want to thank Pastor Eddie Edward Jimenez for always calling and checking in on us.
We have had many successes, and we have taken some hits. At the moment we are not in a building due to the fact that two of the buildings we used to use will not rent two people outside of their own organization. The other facility will rent on days that their facility is available, and their facility is used by organizations for local events.
I do want to recognize that in nine years the Lord has allowed us to baptize 160 people in the lovely name of Jesus. We have had eight people healed of cancer that is documented. We have had approximately 106 people filled with the gift of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. As we look to the future of Monterey House of Worship we will continue and ask God for a Great Harvest of Revival. Thank you for your support over the last nine years. We have sent people to other churches all over the country & USA 🇺🇸 we have sent people to other churches in Australia, Korea, Afghanistan, Jordan, Texas, Maine, Arizona, and Hawaii. We will never be a church that will try to steal the Sheep, but we will plant sheep. We will always be Church that will love you until the very end. People have ask me how did you get this person to come to your church. How did you meet all these people to baptize. I tell him the same thing every single person God has sent to us. Probably 99% of everybody that we have baptized was referred by their friend. Their friend saw a change in their in their life, and they wanted to change. We have done all of the marketing strategies to bring people to church. We have done multiple newspaper ads, passed out thousands of fliers, we have advertised on television, we have went door-to-door, we have given away art pieces worth $500, we have offered to buy entire family's pizza, and many other things. The only thing that has worked is person-to-person witnessing of what God has done in their life.
I want to recognize and thank Sister Natalie Thomas (Our Assistant to the Pastor & Church Secretary) and my now deceased Father-in-Law Brother Charles Thomas for believing in us before there was even a church planted. I want to thank my wife of 34 years Stacy for her many hours of playing piano, and leading worship and overall support of the church. I want to thank my oldest daughter Natalie Koch for being there to help with worship, Sunday school, and witnessing. I want to thank my son Zak for being a giver and helping the church whenever ask & being a good sport when started the church on his birthday (Happy Birthday Zak 🎂). I want to recognize my son Will Albalos for also being a giver, and doing anything that was necessary to help the church. I want to thank my youngest daughter Morgan for also being a faithful giver and helping the church in any way that she can. We believe in growth, and we have seen this in the lives of my children. Morgan just received her AA degree in Business from Christian Life College. She feels her call to Ministry. Her Brother Will is leaving secular school and will also start to attend Christian Life College and feels his call to Ministry. My Son-in-Law and Daughter who attend Pastor Jonathan Jonathan A. Sanders church at the Rock Oahu spent 50 days in Europe last year, and 3 of those weeks was spent in Paris, France helping the church in any way they could. When they came back they felt God calling them to missions. My son-in-law is a linguist and speaks eight languages and is now learning his ninth, which is Greek was going to be a career Airman, but God has been dealing with him and now he feels God calling he and my daughter to be Foreign Missionaries to France. There are things that others reading this post might say well I know about this, and I know about that but I want to focus on the good things of God. I have always taught at our church to have a Spirit of "More Than Enough" and also that I will never use social media to promote politics or attack someone. I will use social media for the glory of God and as a tool to promote family, fun things in life, and Jesus Christ. Thank you to all who have supported us the last nine years God bless you
I want to thank Rhonda Ronda C Hurst for hosting the Western District Pastor's Retreat a number of times in Monterey. I want to thank Dinah Copple for hosting a District Hyphen event in Monterey.
I close this 9 year tribute with a picture of brother Jose. Brother Jose was homeless, was into drugs, and was a gang member from the San Jose area. Both he and his wife are baptized in Jesus name. He went from being a drug user in the last two years, to becoming a Drug Counselor here in the Monterey area. These are the kind of stories that we love to tell. I pray that we have many more just like them.
