Hi Bro. Ryan here of Full Life in Christ - Assembly of God in Guiguinto, Bulacan...
I am truly blessed with your thread/story. We share the same passion in our ministry!!!
Our God gave us both the giving hearts for his music ministry.
I play guitar in our church. all my GAS purchase are purely for this ministry. I dont have a band aside from our church. I only play once or twice a month because I now live here in Manila and our church is in Bulacan pa... Medyo di na rin ako nakakauwi dun every week because of busy sched sa work.
I joined the ministry way back in 1995 pa as bass player. After college, me and my brother decided to buy our respective instruments so that we could still jam in the house. He's a drummer so medyo off kung drums and bass lang instruments namin that's why I decided to shift na sa guitar.
Since our little sister wanted to learn how to play keyboard that time, we decided to get her an entry level casio KB. Unfortunately, ako lang ang natuto ng konti at di sya. hehehehe... So we decided to donate na lang yung casio sa church.
Since di ko gusto sound nung casio that time, I decided to get Korg M1 for my self and use it every sunday sa church. Heavy-gat nun. Commute lang ako that time so hirap talaga... I believe na walang mahirap if your heart is really in worshiping God.
After a while, I sold the M1 and get a Roland JV80. Mas compact yun so mas madali na ang transpo. Lord, blessed our church with Yamaha SY77 and new keyboard players kaya nagpahinga muna yung JV80 ko sa house then eventually traded with a Roland XP10 then sold na kasi when I started to browse here in philmusic, medyo na focus na interes ko sa guitars... GAS in short...
I religiously inspect the conditions of all our musical instruments in the church. Pag tingin ko needs maintenance na, ako na nagbo-volunteer to have it fixed.
Pag may mga extra ako gamit na di naman nagagamit sa house like mic, cables, mic stands, fx, etc. dun agad sa church ang bagsak.
Even our churchmates who want to purchase instruments, ako na din ang pumipili and bumibili for them para sure na maayos ang makukuha nila.
Last 2010 when I got married, me and my wifey donated a brand new drumset for the church. Matanda pa yata sakin yung drums dun eh. hehehehe
Then sometime in 2010 also, we bought naman Stagg GAR60 guitar amp. Naaawa kasi ako sa tube amp ko na i-byahe from manila to bulacan every sunday worship service eh...
I pray to the Lord to bless me more so that I could spend for our church new building since may lote na naipundar ang church. Also, may God bless me more so that I could get our church very good musical instruments and other equipments.
Medyo maliit lang kasi ang church namin so di pa talaga afford and magagandang equipments. But I believe that our God is very much able to provide all our needs for His Glory!!!
Amen!!!