By Tom Choy
Vancouver, British Columbia
“Never focus on your problems. Focus on your possibilities. The problems will pull you down. The possibilities will push you up.” Bo Sanchez
Bo Sanchez, a Filipino lay evangelist, author, and entrepreneur, is looking to hold simultaneously 1,000 feasts worldwide in the future. They do 200 now. A feast is a weekly prayer and fellowship meeting a month among their members.
Sanchez was awarded Ten Outstanding Young Men(TOYM) of the Philippines in 2006. He won the Serviam Award, the highest award a lay Catholic may receive in 2007.
On his spat with the Catholic Church, Bo says in his Facebook post, “By the way, just so people don’t get me wrong, I love being Catholic and I love my Catholic faith.” Bo continues, “ We complicate our religion too much when we love our religion more than we love people; we need to keep religion simple so that we can focus on the core of what Jesus is all about.”
Bo started preaching since he was 14 years old. An unfortunate thing happened to him when he was 8 years old. An older cousin sexually abused him when he was 8 years old. He suffered a second sexual abuse by a youth leader in his religious ministry work. Bo was down and depressed.
In an interview with Mel Tiangco of GMA TV, Bo said, “People can block the painful memories but they remain planted in your mind.” Sanchez continues, “ I got addicted to pornography and masturbation.”
Angelo Siglos told ET Manila Online, “ That honesty to talk about a shameful and embarrassing episode in one’s life is a naked truth.” Bo will soon identify his way out this morass. He knows “that any addiction is a hunger for love, looking for a substitute for love.”
Tiangco concludes that Bo may not have found God, had he not experienced deep pain. Bo found God’s love and soon he was healed.
ET Manila asked him who his role model was when he was developing into a lay preacher. He answered, “It was Aida Manondong who encouraged me to spread the word of God.” She was not a nun. She had some psychic powers too. Since Bo was 14, he has been spreading the Word of God.
Bo is not your average preacher. He also wants to uplift people he comes across to get out of poverty. He has books and seminars to get the smarts to become rich. But then when you focus on money, isn’t money the root of all evil? Bo answers, “It is not money but the love for money which is the root of all evil.” He quotes 1Timothy 6:10: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil…” Bo wants money not to be your master but your servant.
On his spare time, Bo does Tai Chi and loves being with his family eating, shopping and playing together like ordinary folks. Bo does not drive fancy cars or live in mansions. He leads a simple life like St. Francis Assissi.
His mantra is to live within your means and the secret of financial success is your passive income exceeds your expenses. The opposite is poverty.
Sanchez has ways to make passive income as advertised on the internet. He offers free membership, books and tapes to his TrulyRichClub if you create a link to his websites in your Facebook or websites. You will be paid commissions on two levels. He is a foremost passive income coach and trainor. He posts motivational videos in FB as well.
“I hold prayer meetings in the PICC(Philippine International Convention Center) in Manila for over 14,000 people,” Bo declares. “But I love smaller prayer meeting of 10 to 20 people held in several places in the world,” Bo continues.
Bo does not look 50 at all. He looks more mid-30s. Even if he wrote a book about “halftime” which half of a century of your life. He likens it to a halftime during basketball games when the coach analyses what went wrong in the first half and make adjustments and corrections. Bo does the same and expect more from Bo as he lives the other half of his life. He now teaches people how to be financially successful. Tomorrow Bo will not only preach about God’s Word and love for man and reach 1,000 feasts worldwide but will have more ways to make everyone rich.
Photos by: Angelo Siglos