Brother Eduardo "Eddie" C. Villanueva, Servant-Leader and Spiritual Director of Jesus is Lord Church Worldwide, is a geodetic engineer by profession and a real estate developer in business. Among his real estate developments are the Moonwalk Subdivisions in Parañaque and Las Piñas, and the Bricktown Subdivision and Multinational Village, located in Parañaque City, near the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Actually, he had neither planned to lead any charismatic community nor dreamt of proclaiming the Good News of Salvation. However, God's thoughts are not man's thoughts, neither His ways are man's ways. Here is the story on how God called him to be a "fisher of men for Christ Jesus" and how the Jesus is Lord Church Worldwide started.
A Visit by an Angel
Sometime in February 1975, at the age of 34, Bro. Eddie was confined at the Philippine Heart Center for Asia Hospital due to heart enlargement and heart blocks. He was scheduled to undergo a major heart operation, but none of his five doctors could guarantee that he would survive the operation. One night, an angel in the guise of a nurse came to his room and told him, "Mr. Villanueva, I've been watching you for the past three weeks. You are very depressed and always in fear of a heart attack. Allow me to open that Bible beside you and show you a way out of your predicament." Then the angel opened the Bible on 1 Corinthians 10:13 and gave it to him, saying, "Read this and contemplate on it and I assure you, it will help." The verse read, "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." After reading the verse a number of times and meditating on it, his fear disappeared completely and he felt a peace of mind. That night he was able to sleep soundly. The next morning, he felt a new kind of strength and was filled with joy. His doctors were surprised when they saw him walking along the corridors of the hospital. They examined his heart thoroughly and was amazed to find out that his ailment had been healed! The operation was thus no longer necessary. A week later, he was discharged from the hospital. Further examination of his heart by doctors in a hospital in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. gave him a clean bill of health.
Once, while he was meditating on the miracle that had happened in his life, he asked God, "Lord, what must I do to live according to Your will?" The Spirit of God replied, "My son, bear witness to the salvation, love and miracle that you've experienced. If you continue to do this, your fellowmen will know that the God Whom you serve is indeed alive and faithful!"
Purchase of DWRV Radio Station and First Financial Miracle
In 1977, at the height of his real estate business expansion around the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Bro. Eddie bought the DWRV (860 kHz) AM Radio Station from its owner-operator Philippine Radio and Educational Information Center, Inc. for P2 million, because he needed the parcel of land on which it stood. Besides, the owners would not sell the land unless the radio station was included in the deal. Later, the radio station alone would cost him millions more to sustain its operations.
That same year, Bro. Eddie became a born-again Catholic. In his eagerness to know more about the Lord Jesus Christ, he attended various prayer-meetings and studied the Word of God diligently. Thus, he learned about the practice of giving tithes and miracle-seed-of-faith offerings. He began to give financial support for the Mass and Healing Rallies of some charismatic groups that had started to flourish in the Philippines. One of these was the first Catholic Charismatic Mass and Healing Rally held at the Araneta Coliseum, which was organized by the Quezon City Catholic Charismatic Secretariat. Brother Eddie gave P50,000 as a seed-of-faith offering for that activity. That amount was his last "cold cash" in the bank because his real estate business then had come to a standstill due to the downward trend in the real estate industry in the midst of economic crisis in the Philippines. Worse, his bank loans had snowballed to over P200 million because of runaway interests and penalties.
After giving the P50,000 seed-of-faith offering, with in God's Word, he prayed for a financial miracle. A week before the rally was held, a group of businessmen approached him and bought part of his real estate holdings for P60 million! With joy in his heart, he shared about the miracle during the Araneta prayer rally and started telling people about that testimony in other prayer-meetings where he was invited to attend. He recounted to them how God had returned his P50,000 seed-of-faith offering a thousandfold!
A Mysterious Voice
Once, at DWRV Radio Station, Bro. Eddie heard a mysterious voice telling him: "Build Me a center, and I will give rest to you and all who will go with you." He thought God was calling him to build a church or a basilica made of concrete, similar to many other religious structures. He immediately called an architect to design a basilica with a seven-thousand seating capacity and set aside a piece of land at the Multinational Village for that purpose. Then, he had the plan blessed by His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, at the Vatican and prepared for its construction. However, his plan did not push through, inasmuch as his creditors and financial institutions started to foreclose most of his assets and real estate properties. Only one of his assets was not mortgaged the DWRV Radio Station. But this was a non-performing asset which instead ate most of his savings.
Nonetheless, in the darkest moment of his financial crisis, Bro. Eddie remained steadfast in his faith. He thought that if the radio station could not help him rise above his financial troubles, he could have at least used it in spreading the Word of God and by bearing witness to the miracles that God had done in his life.
This would provide him a way to reach more people and draw them to the Lord Jesus Christ. He soon found himself actively sharing the Word of God in his radio program "To God Be the Glory." After several months, however, he decided to quit broadcasting and thought of hiring others to do the job. But before he could do so, he received a letter from a woman which read: "Bro. Eddie, don't ever give up. Please continue with your radio program. One evening, when I felt I could die of migraine, which I had been suffering from for the last seventeen years, I happened to tune in to your program. As you prayed, I joined you and asked God to help me. Praise the Lord, at that very moment I got healed! Now your radio program has become a part of my life. Glory to God! Keep on, Bro. Mike!" The woman's testimony inspired Bro. Mike to continue with his radio program. He read her letter on the air and, soon, letters from other listeners giving their testimonies on miracles they received from God, and some were asking for prayer and counseling flooded his office.
To deepen his commitment to the Lord, he issued a memorandum instructing the treasurer of his real estate company to set aside ten percent of every sale and collection as tithe for the support of the work for the Lord through DWXI Radio Station. Miraculously, after this, offers were made on his foreclosed real estate properties, with the banks allowing him to sell these on his own terms and repay his loans out of the proceeds. Soon, his loans had been settled and some of his foreclosed properties were recovered.
After sometime, people from all walks of life were trooping to his office asking for prayer for the healing of their ailments and counseling for their financial and spiritual problems. Then, the Spirit of God finally revealed to him the real meaning of the mysterious call, "It is you whom I need to be built as a holy temple and to serve as a living sacrifice to renew the Church. I have called you to share with everyone the Good News and the joy of Salvation, to strengthen the faith of God's people, to set on fire their love for God and neighbor, and to bring them into a family that cares and shares in each other's burdens and blessings while waiting for the joyful second coming of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ of Nazareth."
Establishment of the DWRV Prayer Partners Foundation International
On October 5, 1978, Bro. Eddie invited his listeners for a Thanksgiving Holy Mass and Worship and Healing Prayer Rally that was held in Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Manila on the Thursday nearest his birthday, October 6, 1978. About one thousand people attended the affair and experienced the miracle-working power of God!
Encouraged by the success of the rally, Bro. Mike scheduled a monthly Mass and Healing Rally at the DWRV Compound in Pasig. Some time later, as more people came to be led back to the Lord Jesus Christ, the rally was held weekly. A monthly Catholic Life-in-the-Spirit Seminar (CLSS) and a weekly fellowship were also held at the 22nd floor, Strata 2000 Building, Emerald Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City.
