My Journey From Medieval Assisi to Present-Day Manila

I always like enumerating the significant moments of my youth:
I wrote my first book at age 20.
I founded my first organization at age 14.
I began preaching at age 13.
I had my spiritual conversion at age 12.
And I was toilet trained at age 1, but that has nothing to do with what I’m about to say in this book.
As you can see, my teen years were slightly different than most people. While boys my age were busy playing with the primitive versions of videogames (Pacman), I was going to the barrios organizing small prayer meetings and giving retreats to schools.
Yes, I was a freak.
Especially when I read the story of St. Francis of Assisi.
I was only 13. All of a sudden, Superman was no longer my hero. Francis was.
I wanted to love like Francis, serve like Francis, look like Francis, and smell like Francis. I remember my favorite attire–old brown sandals, tattered jogging pants, and a dirty-white T-shirt. To be consistent with that look, I rarely took a bath and gave up the use of any kind of underarm deodorant because it was vanity.
So you could imagine the powerful impact I had on people’s lives.
Whenever I entered the room, people knew.
If you read the biography of some Saints, you’d read that some of them had the odor of sanctity–a beautiful sweet smelling fragrance that made people feel God’s Presence.
Well, I had odor all right and I brought people to their knees.

By age 15, I was already living in the slums, befriending the poor, eating their food, sleeping in their dilapidated homes, and celebrating life with them.
I also worked on filthy sidewalks, playing with street kids and befriending old drunk homeless men. I’d lead them in prayer, giving them bibles and a piece of bread.
I was ready to do anything for God.
During those years, I didn’t think about money, I didn’t care about money, and I didn’t desire money.
Why?
I figured that I’d be a lifelong celibate for God.
I was going to serve others as a single man for the rest of my life.
So living hand-to-mouth and sleeping on the sidewalk was actually a sweet fantasy in my mind. Saints lived this way, and I thought to myself, “So why shouldn’t I too live this way too?”
I owned nothing except what was in my pocket: A small New Testament Bible and a wooden rosary. Oh yes, my toothbrush too.
You see, I also had this incomplete belief: That the only way to love the poor was to become poor myself. I didn’t understand that this was only half of the equation. I forgot that the goal of loving the poor is to help them stop being poor.
But that’s going ahead of my story.

When I finished college, I never got a regular job.
I kept on serving and shunned all material things or it’s pursuit.
I built communities, wrote Christian magazines, published spiritual books, and organized a Home for the Aged.
How did I survive?
My lay community, Light of Jesus, gave me a small salary–which was more than enough for a single man with simple needs. I never bought clothes, wore whatever was given to me, and walked all over the place.
To make travel easier, I bought a homemade, garage-assembled WWII jeep.
It was perfect.
Perfect for growing my hamstring muscles because I had to push it almost everyday–because it usually didn’t like to start.
Each day, I lived by faith.
Faith that my jeep wouldn’t explode into a thousand junk pieces all over EDSA.
Faith that I had enough gas to bring me home each night.
Faith that I wouldn’t die of hypertension because of my jeep’s surprises.

At that time, I basically gave my money away.
One day, someone gave me P50,000.
After a few days, I met a friend and I asked him, “Do you need P50,000?” He said yes and I gave it to him. Just like that.
I also never saved anything.
I figured that saving for tomorrow meant that I wasn’t trusting God.
I was a complete ignoramus about money, and proud of it. In my mind, I asked, “Why study the devil? Why bother knowing his instruments?”
Basically, I saw money was evil.
Business was greed.
Thinking of money was sin.
Wealth was excess baggage that prevented people from going to Heaven.
And I really pitied businessmen!
Imagine: All they do is think about how to make money the whole day.
Gosh, their souls were in danger of the fires of Hell.
As for me, I’d just trust God and He’d supply all my needs.
Let me give you my favorite example.
One day, my hair was getting too groovy for a preacher and I needed a haircut.
My problem was I had no money.
So I asked God, “Lord, I need a haircut.”
That night, someone in the prayer meeting went to my side, pushed an envelop in my pocket, and said, “God wanted me to give this to you.”
When I went home, I opened it and saw P10,000.
The next day, I went to the barbershop and asked the barber, “Give me the most expensive haircut in the world. With highlights of blue and pink. The works!”
That was how I lived my life for 18 long years.
I was living in medieval Assisi, begging with St. Francis on the streets. It was a beautiful life–the life of a celibate who embraces Lady Poverty as his bride.
But once in awhile, I saw harsh reality zap through my imagination.

This event is chiselled in my memory.
I would never be the same again after it happened.
After one prayer meeting, a woman with her small daughter approached me and asked, “Bo, can you pray over me?”
“Of course,” I smiled, “what can I pray for?”
“Tomorrow is the last day for my daughter’s enrolment and I have no money…” She quietly sobbed, clutching her daughter to her waist.
She’s explained that she’s been praying to God, but it seems as though nothing was happening. “Bo, please pray over me that God will increase my faith!”
I became curious. “How much money do you need, exactly?” I asked.
“Seven hundred,” she said.
“Seven hundred? Seven hundred only?” I couldn’t believe my ears.
“It’s a monthly instalment thing,” she explained.
At that precise moment, I wanted to pull out my wallet and give her the seven hundred bucks. I wanted to say, “Look sister, I don’t have to pray over you. Here’s the money and go home!”
But I couldn’t.
No matter how much I wanted to.
Because as I stood there in front of her, I knew that I only had P20 in my wallet. Twenty Pesos!
So what did I do?
I prayed over her.
After I laid my hands on her, she thanked me and bid farewell.
Believe me, I’ve done a lot of difficult things in my life.
But one of the most difficult was watching this lady and her daughter walk out of that room empty handed.
When they disappeared through the door, I sat down on a chair and felt a deep pain inside. A prayer formed in my heart, “Lord, I don’t want this to ever happen again. Oh to have money to help others! Help me help them.”
Fast forward a few years later. I now earn enough to send a few poor children to school. And the feeling is incredible.
But I’m going ahead of the story.

When I was 30 years old, I was already living in Anawim, a home we built for the poorest of the poor. It was built on a 5-hectare property with 10 homes, welcoming especially the abandoned elderly. Together with wonderful friends who served the poor, we lived in total dependence on God for our daily food.
In Anawim, I lived in a bamboo hut with 8 orphans.
That experience was one of the richest seasons in my life.
I fell in love with the kids and felt I could live with them forever.
Again, this was medieval Assisi and St. Francis was my guide.
But it was also at that exact time when something was happening in my soul.
I felt God was calling me to get married. (How I finally came to that conclusion after years of indecision is found in my book, How To Find Your One True Love.)
That was when the veil of medieval Assisi was lifted and reality hit me like a ten-wheeler truck. Wham!
I was back in present-day Manila.

How in the world could I get married? I had no money.
Nothing.
Nada.
Kaput.
Zilcho.
Reality hit hard.

So for a year, I scrambled to save money, at least enough for a simple wedding.
When I thought I had enough, planted one my knee before this pretty girl I was courting in my office and asked for her hand in marriage.
And on my 32nd birthday, I married her.
Our wedding was simple. Some have 5, 10, or 20 people in their entourage. We had 80. Because I wanted to include my orphans, the Anawim elderly, our community kids, etc. And our guests? Oh, not much. Only a thousand people.
Thankfully, most of the gowns were gifts, my barong tagalog was a gift, the bridal car was lent, and even the wedding rings were gifts.
And our reception for a thousand guests? Potluck.
No kidding.
What could have cost me a million pesos, I spent only P100,000.
Because that was all I had.
But my wedding was like a jarring wake-up call to me–a call to harsh reality.
Was money really this important to a married person?
It was a brutal awakening.
I was no longer in peaceful, picturesque, mountain cool Assisi.
I was now in smog-filled, horn-blowing, hot and humid Manila.
I was no longer a single man doing mission work and living by faith.
I was now married and I needed money. Fast.

My wife and I lived in a rented apartment for two years.
And like many newly weds, we searched for ways to make my small salary reach the end of the month.
We used borrowed old furniture.
We had no air-conditioning to save on electricity.
We bought margarine instead of butter.
We chose ugly, course toilet paper instead of the smooth premium brand.
And we searched for the cheapest places for our weekly romantic dates.
We only ate in fast foods (collecting discount coupons), had picnics in nearby parks, watched free theatre plays in a university, and rented a movie for P15 so we could enjoy cuddle time in our borrowed couch.
But here’s another reason why we were living simply: Before getting married, I told my would-be bride that I’d like to continue giving a part of my income to God and to the poor. At that time, I was giving 20%. And she agreed wholeheartedly.
But I’m not going to hide this truth from you: Money was tight and we fought over it. Not often, but they erupted from time to time.
Usually, it was because she wanted to buy something for the house (a tea cup, a home decor, or something like that) and I felt it was a waste of money. With my St. Francis spirituality, everything was a waste of money. Many times, I hurt my wife because I was so stingy.
Sometimes in tears, she’d tell me, “Bo, you’re so generous to others, we give 20% of our income away. But you’re not generous to your wife.”
Ouch. Why does the truth hurt?
I realized that if I wanted to keep on giving the way I wanted to–and have a happy family–I also needed to earn much more!

The first thing I did was read everything I could read about money.
But here’s the big difference: I read these books with the eyes of my faith. (Medieval Assisi was no longer my world, but it still lived in my heart–and that was good.) I rejected greed in all its forms. I threw away materialism when I saw its ugly shadow. And I only accepted information that could be baptized into our service for God.
So strong was my conviction that materialism destroys a person, I knew that wealth wasn’t the answer. It had to be much bigger than wealth.
Here’s the second thing that I did: In my work, I met rich people who broke my old stereotypes of rich people. They weren’t greedy at all.
In fact, they were incredibly loving and phenomenal human beings.
And they were extremely generous! This was how they viewed their wealth: They earned money so that they could give more to God and His poor.
So I spent time with these True Millionaires.
I had lunch with them.
I picked their brains.
I asked questions.
I took down notes.
I even videotaped our conversations.
Friends, what I learned from these conversations are the 8 secrets that the Truly Rich do which the poor don’t do.
Finally, I immediately applied them into my life.
And what has happened over the past years has been nothing but spectacular.

In one sense, this book isn’t about me.
This book is about my True Millionaire friends who generously shared their secrets on how they became Truly Rich and loved at the same time.
But I’m sure you’d like to know what has happened to me financially.
I now enjoy 16 sources of income. These are small investments and small businesses. They’re giving me tiny trickles of income. But put them together and I have more than enough to give 40% of my income to God–and live on the 60%. (Actually, I live on 30%, because I reinvest the other 30% back into my businesses.)

In that sense, this book isn’t for everyone.
It’s not for people who don’t want to get rich.
That would include celibates, religious people in congregations, and missionaries working in the boondocks. That would include very special people who have consecrated themselves to sacrificial poverty. (I know a number of them and I have the highest admiration for them.)
This book isn’t also for people who are content with where they are. I’ve met people who tell me, “Bo, as long as we can eat three meals a day, I’m happy. I don’t want the stress of learning anything new. Anyway, I can serve others without being rich, right?”
Of course! You can bless the poor through your talents, your time, your friendship. And I respect people who want to remain in their income level.
Life is like a doughnut shop. There’s a doughnut for everyone. Some like it with peanut butter (Yes!), others with chocolate, still others with strawberry, and a few strange people like it with coconut.
But for the rest of you who want freedom from your money problems…
For the rest of you who want the freedom to help your loved ones financially…
For the rest of you who dream of a rich Philippines by becoming rich yourself…
For the rest of you who want to create material wealth and spiritual abundance at the same time…

This book is for you.

Because you can be rich.
Yes, you can get out of debt, save enough for the future, be very generous to the poor and God’s work.
So who’s stopping you?
Here’s the answer: YOU.
No one else can stop you.
Not your family, not your friends, not the government, not the poverty of the country. And God?
He won’t stop you too. Why would He? He invented wealth.
That’s why I’m writing to you today.
Here’s my promise: If you learn these 8 Secrets Of The Truly Rich–and apply them into your life, you’ll change your financial future forever.
Why am I so confident that these principles will work for you?
Because I’ve seen them at work in my life.
Because I’ve seen them at work in the lives of countless others.
Because these principles are laws that rule God’s universe.

There is a science of getting rich, and it is an exact science, like algebra or arithmetic. There are certain laws which govern the process of acquiring riches, and once these laws are learned and obeyed by anyone, that person will get rich with mathematical certainty.
–Wallace Wattles

Turn the page and begin your journey to True Riches.

FREE “8 Secrets” Book For You
I’m giving an autographed FREE copy of my new book,
8 Secrets Of The Truly Rich, to every KerygmaFamily.com member as my big Thank You gift.
I’m giving it to every KerygmaFamily.com member who regularly supports the ministry with at least P300 or US$20 a month. If you haven’t signed up yet, join now. Register in http://www.kerygmafamily.com/ and bless the world by being part of our ministry that shares God’s love through media and our work for the poorest of the poor.

See You In America and Canada
Bo’s US & CANADA Preaching Tour 2007

I’m going to go to the US and Canada in May (West Coast) and June (East Coast) to speak at some Conferences. If you want me to speak to your group, email Angie at processing@dawnbreedlove.com. Because of the very few days available, Angie will have to prioritize bigger groups so that I could reach more people with the limited number of days I have in the area.

And in October 2007, I’m thinking of bringing the entire gang of Kerygma Preachers to stage the Botoks Concert in the US and Canada. If you want to organize the Concert in your city, email Angie at processing@dawnbreedlove.com right away. If there are enough events to make this feasible, we’ll do it.
Build Communication in Your Marriage
This course will help married couples lay the groundwork for successful marriage thru communication. It will help couples understand each other at deeper levels, become aware of the differences in the way men and women communicate, and teach effective listening skills.

To be conducted by the Light of Jesus Counseling Center at the Ground Floor, LIGHTHOUSE, 60 Chicago Street, Cubao, Quezon City on Saturday, March 3; 2-5 p.m. The Fee is P200/head; P300/couple (discounted). Speakers are Vic & Ditas Español. For reservations, please contact 726-0267, weekdays from 10 a.m. — 6 p.m.