Rev. Jeremiah P. Balbuena

General Secretary

For almost 40 years now, Rev. Jeremiah ‘Jerry’ Balbuena has been in various ministry involvement in a full-time capacity. Two years into his undergraduate program, he shifted direction and moved to Immanuel Bible College. On the registration week, he gave all his money to the Business Manager with these words, “this is all I got and I give this to you and just send me home when this is all used up”. Supposedly that money will only take him through the first semester and a few weeks into the second semester – but he ended up working his way through the whole four years in IBC, and subsequently completed his Master’s Degree in 1994 at Asia Pacific Theological Seminary.

Rev. Jerry is very passionate on Youth and Student ministries – and he was already in it prior and throughout his college years in IBC. Upon his graduation he came as the first intern of Agape Campus Fellowship/Chi Alpha and was one of those we call ‘someone who never let the grass grow under his feet’. On top of his ministry among students and church youth, he was speaking in Youth Gatherings, camps, retreats, conducted trainings and seminars on Youth and Student Ministries as well as developing programs and materials needed for leadership and training workshops. With his ministry partners of like-minded individuals, he organized and participated in trainings primarily to retool, sharpen what he already got and pursued his goals with a definite purpose – “But I don’t care what happens to me, as long as I finish the work the Lord Jesus gave me to do…”(Acts 20:24CEV).

In 1996, upon the invitation to serve the youth of Asia Pacific region, together with his wife (Mary Ann B. Sira) and two young children moved and settled in Metro Manila where another son was added to his family. For years, he was the missionary counterpart for Asia Pacific Campus Challenge or APCC, helped launched and coordinated the Book of Hope introduction and distribution in the Philippines and southeast Asia, served as National Youth Director for the Philippines General Council of the Assemblies of God, organized the NYD National Leadership Team, developed ministry manuals and other ministry resources for youth and student ministry within the region.

In 2005, he accepted the challenge to pastor a church while at the same time serving as the General Treasurer of the PGCAG until the present.

Through all these years, Jerry Balbuena is still by faith moving in the direction of God’s purpose, knowing that God’s purposes gives direction not specifics with his eyes gazed towards finishing the task – and for him it doesn’t matter whether it will be another seven months, another seven years, or maybe seventy years.