Jonathan Mortiz
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First Person is produced in cooperation with the Far East Broadcasting Company, who rejoice in the stories of changed lives through the power of Jesus Christ. Learn more at febc.org. The Word became flesh, and it is Jesus who commanded us to share this story for this dying world. This is our message. This is what we are doing. This is the best story that we can tell.

His name is Jonathan Mortiz, and coming up on First Person, you'll learn why this man from the Philippines is spending his life in service to Christ through the Far East Broadcasting Company. I'm Wayne Shepherd, and welcome to First Person.

We have a variety of guests on this program each week, but once in a while we like to highlight someone connected to FEBC because every time I turn around, there's another aspect of this ministry that has a story to be told. I appreciate FEBC making it possible to bring you all of our guests. You can explore our archive of hundreds of past programs online at firstpersoninterview.com.

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Well, let's meet Jonathan Mortiz and learn about his life's work of proclaiming the gospel to people through FEBC radio and social media. He joined me online to tell me his story. Well, starting in the Philippines, yeah, I was born there, raised there, grew up there. That's my mindset, and that's my culture. However, another culture that I have is

I'm a pastor of Skid. I'm the youngest of five from my dad and mom. My parents were involved with FEBC, actually, during the earlier days. Okay.

They were part of the evangelistic mission department. So, under the leadership of Pastor Max Atienza, and he's a well-known evangelist in the Philippines earlier days of FEBC. So, that's my life. So, you literally grew up with FEBC. Yes.

Practically, pretty much. However, my dad, after FEBC, moved to another evangelistic ministry in another denomination.

But after that, but still, during those times, he's still doing broadcast with FEBC. Because, you know, when you get involved with FEBC, I think you're, actually, I heard it from a friend of mine and said, you know, my blood runs FEBC, you know, in my blood. So, when did you become a believer? I know you can't just inherit that from your parents. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

I accepted the Lord when I was six years old. I remember that. And it was an evangelistic meeting. My dad was speaking.

So that's kind of the setup we grew up in. My dad is the speaker. We will be singing as a family. So we kind of became known probably in the Philippines as a singing family. My dad preaching, my mom playing accordion, and five siblings are singing for the Lord. But during that time, when I understood the gospel message, I was only six years old.

And I understood that God loves me. Jesus loves me. He died for me. And I've been hearing that prior because my dad is, I know how many messages he had. Because he's an evangelist. You've heard them all. I heard them all.

I heard them all. But it really struck me. Even I was six years old. I said, I know I'm a sinner. I need a Savior. Yeah. And I accepted the Lord. When did you begin working with FEBC yourself then? How did that come about?

Which is, by the way, you told me earlier, your first job, right? And it's your hope and it's your only job. Yes. Well, I hope Ed will keep me until I retire. So yes, this is my first job, Wayne. I'm so blessed. Pretty much, I could say I'm a second generation FEBC-er, you know, and

my dad is still doing broadcasts together with my sister back in the Philippines. But yeah, I started after graduating from Bible college in the Philippines. So after graduating and I heard that there's an opening on

on FEBC as a radio announcer. So I applied for that. And my first boss said she took a risk on taking me in with FEBC and the rest is history. Yeah, it sure is history. You've been with the organization for a lot of years now. We'll talk about what's going on presently, but fill in the rest of the story then. How long did you serve in the Philippines?

Well, I served in the Philippines for 10 years. But when prior to that, we were still kids, we were singing, and as a family, we were singing all throughout the country because of FEBC. My dad is known on FEBC, and we're singing there as an evangelist, you know. We had Papuri in the year 1979. Papuri is the music ministry of FEBC.

And they were looking, FEBC was looking for artists, musicians. My sister composed the first theme song of Papuri. Papuri means praise. Oh. Praise. Okay, I was going to ask. All right. Yeah. And FEBC started like the praise music, original Filipino Christian music, gospel music. Hmm.

And that was 1979. I was first year high school then. And they invited us to sing in the commencement or the, you know, first Papuri, first praise concert in the Philippines. And we sang the first theme song. Wonderful. My sister, my sister wrote the song and we, my brothers and I, yeah, we, we, we sang, we

we sang the first theme song. So that was my first involvement with, with that. Okay. Interesting sidebar. As you mentioned that in many parts of the world where FEBC is heard, local broadcasters are involved in producing indigenous worship music, just like you did in the Philippines, right?

That's right. That's right. And as you know, being a radio person, music is always attached to what we are doing. Yes. You know, so yeah. So we, we, FBPC saw that need and,

And then we produced original indigenous Christian music. And the church was waiting then. Actually, it was very phenomenal. You know, God's hands was there because we saw that it was, the church was ready to receive God.

the own produced written Filipino Christian songs. Fabulous. That's part of the history. I find that fascinating. I really do. I saw that firsthand in Vietnam most recently where there's a lot of indigenous worship music being performed, written and composed and performed right there on the spot. So it's amazing. So 10 years as an announcer, you said, right? Yeah.

Mm-hmm. For FEBC in Manila. Was it all in Manila? In Manila. Okay. In Manila. Did you meet your wife during that time? Actually, I met my wife prior to going to FEBC. So, um,

Yep, so we dated, and then she prayed for me, actually, when I was applying for FEBC. And then I was accepted, and the rest is history. We got married. So I worked with FEBC, technically, Philippines for 10 years. But FEBC also, Philippines, asked me to go to Saipan.

So I also served in our Saipan ministry. I had forgotten that about your story, yeah. Yeah, for two and a half years. But still, ministering to Filipinos in the island of Saipan. Okay, Saipan is, locate that on the map for us.

So Saipan, most of our listeners will be knowing Guam because Guam is a military island, you know, for many of our soldiers protecting Southeast Asia. At the same time, we have a place, an island there, Saipan. It's a commonwealth during, you know, at that time. Now it's under the federal rule.

So it's easier for us to go to Saipan because FEBC established a big transmitter site there for covering Southeast Asia, as well as to justify the existence of the big transmitter. We had a local station in Saipan itself. And that facility is no longer there. You've transferred the shortwave ministry totally to the Philippines. Is that right?

Correct. Correct. We consolidated that. However, I was ministering to the Filipinos in the island. I see. So our station or our program is the only Filipino radio in that island. So these are captured audience. Yeah. Okay. Take me up to date then after Saipan.

After Saipan, I went back to Manila to do the broadcast. And that's part, my trip to Saipan is kind of their part of me for FEBC thinking of, you know, for me to be trained. So now when I went back to the Philippines in Manila,

They offered me the headship of DZAS or the music ministry, PAPURI. DZAS was the large FM station in Manila, the flagship station really of FEBC there, right? That's right. That's right. That's where we started our first broadcast in the Philippines in 1948. So DZAS. So it's...

um, you know, kind of a training for me. So I, they, they asked me to go and, and it's either I, I served as the, the station manager for DZAS or, uh, take the responsibility of the music ministry and being a, um,

a worship guy, I chose the worship, the papuri, the praise ministry. And at the same time, you know how you work with radios and Christian radio, so you still do the broadcast. Other duties as assigned, yes. I still do the broadcast, and at the same time, I love the creation of

production of Christian music. We'll continue to get to know Jonathan Mortiz of the Far East Broadcasting Company as you stay with us now for First Person.

Here's Ed Cannon on the Vision for FEBC's weekly podcast. The primary purpose of Until All Have Heard, of course, is to share the experience that FEBC has because we have staff on the ground in so many oppressive places. But in addition to that, we're trying to speak to you in a way that only the kind of testimonies you'll hear from around the globe can do. Discover how the gospel is making a difference around the world.

Search for Until All Have Heard on your favorite podcast platform or hear it online at febc.org. My guest is Jonathan Mortiz, who today is liaison for international ministry for the Far East Broadcasting Company. And we're so grateful to have Jonathan here today to tell us his story, a long time, a

Person who's been on the staff with FEBC. How many years has it been thus far, Jonathan? Well, I started 1987 in FEBC Philippines. I'm 38. How many years now? I stopped counting. And of course, you're based in the U.S. now.

I'm based in California. But you travel a great deal on behalf of FEBC. Talk to me about today's assignment, Liaison for International Ministry, and what that means. And talk about the fields where you pay particular attention.

Well, I'm so blessed, again, humbled to be part of this wonderful ministry. So I'm very much involved in our ethnic ministry in operating in Thailand. So we have

20 ethnic languages that we are serving there in Thailand. So I'm there as a consultant, I'm there as, you know, helping them. I'm part of the board of the ethnic ministry in Thailand.

So, just to give you a background, Wayne, on that. When I was in the Philippines doing my Tagalog broadcast, you know, so that's my square, that's my box. I'm using, preaching Tagalog or sharing the word, the gospel in Tagalog.

But I know we are broadcasting to Southeast Asia. There's a room in, in FEBC Philippines that you could look at the map and see the signal where, where we are broadcasting in Southeast Asia. So, so if I'm kind of, uh, you know, uh, tired, I say, I look at that map and it's covering a big area of, of, of Asia. And that's always an encouragement for me. Now, now, uh,

When I moved to the U.S. in 1997,

I had the opportunity, or I now have the opportunity of ministering to a bigger area in the map. And I could still envision when I'm always looking at the map and said, wow, we are sharing the gospel to this millions of people in this area. So, thank God now I have that opportunity. I still serve the Philippines, and at the same time I serve

at least 20 ethnic languages and I also serve in our Thailand ministry. I serve in another country that I don't want to mention right now because we're serving kind of in an unsensitive area. So I thank God for that opportunity. So I serve and visit them pretty much four or five times a year

And so I thank God for that opportunity. Talk about your trips recently where you've been with some of these minority language groups. And tell me the story of what God is doing there. As I understand it, these are people who are located within the countries of Southeast Asia, but they speak an entirely different language there.

Right. And minority ethnic language. So talk about that experience, if you would. Well, I think we're safe to say that these people groups are in Myanmar. Okay. And these are called the people group Palong, Palong people group. And we started broadcasting to them decades ago.

And just recently, I received an email from a missionary who lives who lived there and said, you know what, Jonathan?

We have been getting responses from the Polong people group of how they have been coming to know the Lord village by village. Because they said, this is our first time going to this village. And they said, we have been waiting for you because we have heard the message already.

on the radio coming from the Philippines and they are ready to hear the gospel message. And that's only a part of it because there are also other villages that when you ask me about this visit that I did in Thailand, the one lady who is from that people group who's ministering to that people group had visited Thailand at that time and

and said, "You know what? Even in the border of Myanmar and Thailand, or China, there's a monastery, a Buddhist monastery. Now it became a church."

Because the whole village came to know the Lord by listening to the broadcast from radio, from the shortwave broadcast. And now when they visited them, they're very open to hear the gospel and they're just saying, okay.

Please teach us more. Teach us more about what Jesus is teaching. And I thank God for that. So you are on the front lines of seeing what God is doing in this part of the world, which seems so foreign to us. But there's no doubt that God's Spirit is moving mightily in these people groups today.

and historically, FEBC has done this with shortwave radio, as you mentioned, and continues shortwave radio. It's vital, but social media has risen as a means of sharing the gospel as well. Talk about what, uh, what's being accomplished through social media. Oh, this is amazing. Uh, Wayne, um,

just last 2024. And the wonderful thing with social media is you could track down, you have measurements, you have figures, you have numbers to, to, to, to show the data. So in 2024, um, alone, we already have 26 million views. Wow.

four-hour broadcast in the ethnic people's group. In fact, this was the reason why we went to Thailand recently, because there are two more people groups who are asking us to help them in producing. So they now have the wonderful thing with FABC Wayne, as you know, we look for nationals.

indigenous people who are biblically trained, solidly foundation. The fault, the foundation is solid in Jesus and they are the ones who will be teaching to their people. They're speaking the heart language of the listener.

Correct, correct. So they approached us and said, we've seen the work of what God is doing through broadcast and social media to the Polong. Please teach us, train us, so we can also do this to our people group. So it's called Rumay Entay Kamti. So now...

We we're teaching them and with social media alongside with so this is only what we are doing From the broadcast that we do we put it on Facebook Yeah, so we just put a little bit of pictures and still the audio is there, you know We're putting a little bit of pictures but still the broadcast on short wife is the same as

broadcast that they're hearing on social media. I see. Okay. And we need to explain that they have access to Facebook because of the advent of the cell phone, which is very prolific in that part of the world because it's much easier to establish a cell service than it is to string wires and have landlines. So just about everybody has a smartphone, right?

That's really true. That's really true. And, you know, in Southeast Asia, everywhere you go, there's a smartphone already. But at the same time, in the very remote areas, you know, they don't have signal, they don't have infrastructure for internet. So that's why the shortwave radio is very, very important. It's a one-two punch, isn't it?

Oh, yes, yes, yes. Well, Jonathan, you're a vital part of this ministry known as the Far East Broadcasting Company. Any scripture rattling around in your head about why you do what you do that really guides you in your ministry? Well, the wonderful thing that we always have is, you know, the Great Commission, right?

make disciples of all nations because the authority is in Christ and we cling on to that authority alone. And the wonderful thing, Wayne, and I always share this to our people, our faith is based on a narrative. It's a story that is written and media is all storytelling.

Unfortunately, media right now, we have so many media outlets that are telling bad stories or fake stories, but we have the great story that we can share. And this is the one that changes lives. And we believe that because Jesus came into this world. It is written.

The Word became flesh, and it is Jesus who commanded us to share this narrative, this story, for this dying world. This is our message. This is what we are doing. And this is the best story that we can tell. Indeed, Jonathan Mortiz is a great example of the many broadcasters and staff of the Far East Broadcasting Company who know the urgency of sharing the gospel message until all have heard.

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The same FEBC ministry that we highlighted on this edition of First Person helps to make this program possible each week. Next time, we'll focus on an entirely different personality and ministry, but that's the heart of FEBC, to present people in stories that are dedicated to the same gospel purposes. To say thank you, please visit febc.org and hear more stories from listeners in many countries. And learn how to pray at febc.org.

Now, with thanks to my friend and producer Joe Carlson, I'm Wayne Shepherd. Join us next time for First Person. First Person.