By Emilie Ng
CATHOLIC preacher Bo Sanchez is one of the Philippines’ richest people, but not because he’s a millionaire with 16 income streams.
The popular Filipino lay evangelist would much rather sit in the slums with Manila’s poorest children and elderly than invest his riches in mansions and expensive cars.
“My whole goal in life was to be like St Francis, to beg in the streets,” Bo said.
The humble preacher’s long-term work in Manila’s slums since he was 14, his mission of evangelising the unchurched through his founding community, Light of Jesus Family, and a blossoming romance and marriage at 32 changed his mind about being a full-time beggar.
“I was a full-time missionary from the time I started all the way until the age of 30,” Bo said.
“Because I was single all that time, and I didn’t really need money, at least in the Philippines.
“When I decided to get married at around 30, I knew this had to change; I needed some money, as I would not be able to live on whatever the community was giving me.
“So I started my businesses, failed in many of them, but kept going.
“Now I’m both a missionary and an entrepreneur, and that has worked out so well because now instead of receiving, I’m giving.
“God has blessed the businesses so I can fund certain ministries.”
Today Bo is a “micro-entrepreneur” owning several real estate investments; a number of small, private businesses; an Internet marketing business; and a host of financial literacy writings and talks.
He’s even written a book on how to become a “happy millionaire” and has websites devoted to teaching people about being “truly rich”.
The earthly riches he makes are his way of ensuring that the poor and the unchurched have their eternal, heavenly reward.
Bo’s dedication to the Church saw him receive the Serviam Award at The Catholic Mass Media Awards in 2007.
The awards were founded by the Philippines Cardinal Jaime L. Sin and given pontifical honour when Pope John Paul II handed out CMMA trophies during his 1980 visit.
Bo’s wealth also funds various lay ministries, including sanctuary for poor and abandoned elderly known as Anawin Lay Missions; international magazine Kerygma; and media group Shepherd’s Voice which publishes the world’s widest distribution of inspirational books.
He is the host of a Catholic radio program, Radio Veritas, and teaches home-schooling to parents through the Catholic Filipino Academy, which he founded.
The country’s top Catholic preacher found his faith in his parents’ garage 35 years ago when the family started a weekly prayer meeting.
“We started it in our garage, and there were about 20, 30 people who came,” Bo said.
“I was 12 years old when my parents brought me to my first prayer meeting when I gave my life to God.
“The first time I attended our Catholic prayer meeting, I liked it already.
“I liked the fact that you could talk to God personally, that was pretty cool for me.”
A year later, when Bo was 13, the prayer group leader said God had told her that one of their members would start preaching the Gospel, and he would proclaim it all over the world.
“And everyone was happy among that 30 people, but my mother was the happiest of them all, because the pronoun used was ‘he’, and there were only about two men in that prayer group, her husband and her son,” Bo said.
The prayer group leader believed Bo was the subject of her prophesies, and asked him to preach the week after.
“So I did, and I made everybody fall asleep,” Bo laughed.
“But she just believed in me so much, saying, ‘Next Friday you preach again’.
“I really felt as a 13-year-old kid, if God wanted me to preach, He’s going to give me the wisdom.
“It was nothing I could keep (to myself); I had to share my faith.
“I started evangelising my classmates, bringing them to the Lord.
“At 14 years old I was already in the slum area, already serving the poorest of the poor, living with them.
“My mother just allowed it – she had faith in me.”
The community that fostered Bo now boasts more than 189 spiritual gatherings, known as “feasts”, including two in Brisbane and one on the Gold Coast, whom Bo recently visited last month.
Hundreds flocked to hear and take photographs of “Brother Bo”, the affectionate term used among Filipinos for their favourite, humble lay Catholic.
Bo’s approach to life, to his entrepreneurs, and his powerful preaching, is grounded in simplicity, and is perhaps the reason for his success.
“I try my best not to impress people with my intelligence because there’s not much,” Bo said.
“But I just want to be simple and I want to use simple words.
“I think God created us to be simple.
“If I can make a Grade Four student understand me, that means the PhD, the doctorates, will understand me anyway.
“There’s this passage, I think in Ecclesiastes, ‘God made us simple. It is our own devising that makes us more complicated’.”
Bo’s most important “audience” is his wife Marowe and two sons, Francis and Benedict.
“I always prioritise family,” Bo said.
“I’ve been married for 17 years, I’ve got two boys, 15 and 10, and they’re always number one for me.
“I made that decision, even before I got married; I said, ‘This is my first mission, my first role – I’m a husband and father, before a writer, preacher and leader’.
“I always have time with my wife every day, and we always have a weekly date on Tuesday.
“And I always have dates with my sons, each of them.
“My sons know, my wife knows, that they’re number one in my heart, not my service, not my ministry.”
