Angie’s Song

I sit in a karaoke bar and my heart melts as I listen to
Angie sing. This is not an ordinary bar
and this is no ordinary song. Something
special has happened here. Something
significant. Blue Note karaoke bar is
Angie’s prior place of employment. She
once was the bar manager and she used to employ prostituted girls to work
here. I look around now and aside from
one table of young people, the bar is empty. There are no longer any victims to be found here.   Angie has witnessed to them, she has poured out
her life for the girls who once worked under her. She has told them about a God who gives
second chances, who reaches down with His Almighty Hand and pulls us out of any
pit we find ourselves in. She has told
them about His love, His grace, His mercy, she has walked beside them into
freedom. Angie knows firsthand the
redemption God offers. He has shown it
time and again in her own life. Listen
with me to her story as she beautifully sings the song, “You are my all in
all.”

Testimony of Angie Gomez:

“I consider my life as a total transformation of God. I was left in the hand of my Master Jesus who
renewed my life. At the age of 20 I
already had a son. I was deprived of
education. My mother did not allow me to
go to school, but rather gave me to a relative to work as a helper at the age
of 13. Because of our poverty and being
the youngest of 11 children, I really had a heart to help my family survive, no
matter what the cost.

At a young age I experienced a lot of hard work, which led
to my entering a nightclub where I met the father of my first son. He left me after giving birth, and I was
later married to a man who also worked at the club as a drummer and
singer. He is the one who taught me to
sing. We both went to Japan and met a
financier who helped us set up an illegal business sending women to Japan as
Japajuki with fake passports and money. We were able to travel freely between the Philippines and Japan bringing
in women. We left our children in the
hands of other people for the sake of the money gained. I was helping those women who got pregnant to
abort their child. 

Before the end of 1984, I was separated from my husband
because of 3^rd and 4^th parties. My life was very confused with no
direction. I just continued to live for
my children, singing in the club as our “bread and butter”. I was drowning and helpless. I just needed to work to support my
children. Working at the club was like
hell … or hell in reality. I was
involved in many vices and the syndicate. I had been involved in drugs, alcohol, smoking, gambling, and
relationships with different men, as well as living as a lesbian. I had been shot by a .37 caliber gun, due to
an abduction, so I am blessed to still be alive. In 1992, I decided to transfer to Baguio,
because I discovered that my eldest son was a fraternity leader at his school
and had been involved in violations of school rules. 

I continued my work in Baguio as a singer and operation
manager at a well known karaoke bar. I
met the “Lords of the World.” I served
the gambling lord, drug lord, and lust lord. I drank, danced, laughed, and ate with them.   They gave me a share of the money from
corruption. I experienced hell in my
life until one day the true and ever living LORD struck me with emptiness in my
life in spite of the material things I had. The only god I knew then was the statue of Mary. I considered myself as an answered prayer of
my youngest daughter who met Christ when she was in the grade 6. She is now a missionary to Thailand,
Cambodia, and now China. I met the God
of Heaven and Earth, and received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, August 8,
1998, a Tuesday, at 2:30 PM. The rest of
my life has been a testimony of the Lord renewing me day by day, from glory to
glory, and putting me onto higher ground in my faith.

November 8, 2005 was the biggest turning point or
breakthrough of my Christian Life. A
Crusade happened then at our church and my eldest daughter volunteered herself
to give a testimony. She came up to
Baguio just to give this testimony. At
the time I considered her as my most stubborn child because of the fights we
had been through. She also had a love
child when she was 20 years old. She
stood with my apo on the stage of a barangay basketball court with many people
watching the crusade. Before doing a
musical number they planned, she started her testimony. She called me to the stage with them. I still remember the words she spoke. “Satan deceived me for 22 years. When I was 4 years old my uncle raped
me. And when I was 6 years old, I had
been raped again.” When I heard those
words my knees shook. It was like a bomb
going off in my head. I saw in my mind 1
Thessalonians 5:18: “In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus for you.” While kneeling
and crying I heard a voice I knew was from the Lord. “You have to release, you have to release.”

That following Sunday I stood in the middle of my
congregation and shared the hidden testimony I had been keeping. For 34 years, Satan deceived me too. I had bitterness with my mother. I had not experienced love, a hug, comforting
words, or advice from her even when she knew of my plan to sell my virginity
just to help my family pay the debt we had on our rent, not even when I was
about to give her the money. I was
waiting for her to hug and cry with me. I was released after my testimony. God is real and good. After those
revelations were done, I just cried out thanking God for His faithfulness. I just can’t imagine my daughter experiencing
feeling so reviled earlier. God is a
just God and a merciful God.