DOJO AGUILAR

I was born and raised in the Philippines most of my childhood and young adult life until I migrated to the US when I was 29 years old. For the majority of Filipinos, growing up as a Catholic is synonymous to our culture and heritage. So throughout my life back then, I was taught about God, religion, that Jesus died for my sins and practicing church traditions and my understanding was that, as long as I am a good person, then I should be OK with God and go to heaven when I die. As a young adult, I started to question some of the teachings of the church about Mary and praying the rosary. One day, a friend of mine invited me to a Charismatic church and I immediately fell in love with the “experience of the church life” because it was so different from being in the Catholic Church. And in a matter of 3 weeks after attending their Sunday worship service, I “professed” my new found faith in God. I became active in the church but looking back since the day Christ saved me, I lived a life of hypocrisy and false conversion. For 14 years, I was one of those who called themselves a “Christian” but my deeds and heart was so far away from what it truly means to be a born again Christian. I was a living example of those people that Jesus describes in Matthew 7:21-23 who said “Lord, Lord” but I never did the will of God because my heart wasn’t truly regenerated from the inside out.

During the summer of 2008, by the grace of God, He saved my wife and 4 months later, He saved me through Ray Comfort’s teaching on True and False Conversion, It was during that time that, for the very first time, I understood the gospel and saw how wretched of a sinner I am who desperately needed Jesus to save me. When I read the passages in Matthew 7:21-23, Romans 3:10-12 and Luke 6:46, I was so convicted of my sins and one night, I cried out to God, confessed and repented of my sins and asked God for His forgiveness and by faith, turned to Christ knowing that He alone can save me from my sins. At that moment, my life radically changed. By God’s providence, He led us to FBC and she has been the only church that my family has been a part of since me and my wife got saved.

I am SO THANKFUL to God for giving me the free gift of eternal life, so undeserving, and He continues to grow and sanctify me each day to be more like Jesus. Since then, my desire is to fully surrender my life to Christ and depend on Him in obedience knowing that my life is NOT MY OWN but it is Christ’s. I LOVE JESUS and OUR CHURCH FAMILY very much and so humbled by this privilege of being one of your spiritual fathers and elders in the church. It’s such a joy to serve alongside my fellow elders as we seek to faithfully carry out the ministry God has for us. Our heart’s desire is to seek only the one will of Jesus for His church as we care and shepherd His people.

I am married to my beautiful wife Christine for almost 20 years and we have been blessed with 3 amazing and fun daughters Kayla (18), Robyn, (17) and Zoe (16). I currently work as an Area Sales Director with a biopharmaceutical company. I graduated from our Training Center in 2013, am currently pursuing a seminary degree and so joyful and grateful to lead and shepherd our young adult/singles ministry (Doulos). I want to run hard and be spent laboring for the Lord in this life, following the example of Paul as he said in Galatians 4:19, “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you”

Contact Dojo Aguilar

Elder
Young Adults & Compassion Ministry