The Testimony of Pastor Ray Malo

From my youth up I was raised in the Catholic faith, even to the point of being an altar boy for a few years. When I turned 14 years old, I left the church with no desire to go back. To me it was boring and without meaning in my life and I didn’t see the need to waste more time with church. After many years I met the woman who would become my wife. We were married on March 31st, 1984. Through a series of circumstances beyond our control, including a house fire, we found ourselves without a home, furniture and most of our belongings. The future looked dim. During this time, my wife, said she wanted to go to a Pentecostal church, to thank the Lord for sparing all our lives during the fire, so I went with her (because we were just married). I remember that I was in the car, not looking forward to even going into the building. To me it was boring and it was hard to understand what they said. When I walked into the church, I felt this warmth wrap itself around me. It felt great but I had no idea what it was, as that had never happened to me before. I later came to realize this was the Lord expressing His love for me. Over the next few weeks, we continued to go to the church. God showed Himself to me in ways that I couldn’t explain. He showed me how my understanding of Him and the things of heaven were wrong. Then on July 22, 1984 my wife and I both gave our lives to the Lord. I remember that my wife and I (unknown to each other, because our eyes were closed) had raised our hands to accept Christ into our hearts. We walked to the altar at the front as we were asked by the pastor. No one prayed for us or even acknowledged we were there (it was strange, others at the altar were prayed over). But God saw our hearts. We knew there had been a change. We now loved the things that God loved and hated what He hated. We had a desire to read His word and attend church so we could learn of Him. At this time in my life I had a mouth that would put a sailor to shame and smoked three packs of cigarettes a day. One of the first things God did was to deliver me from the cigarette addiction. It was through this He showed me that he was real and my confession of faith had been heard. My wife and others had tried for years to get me to stop smoking. My father said to my mom if Kathy can’t get him to stop smoking no one ever will. I came out of service one day and told the Lord I will give Him a chance and threw out the pack of cigarettes in my pocket. From that moment on I felt as if I had just smoked a cigarette. There were no withdrawal symptoms or anything else that usually happened. I was even around others that smoked and it never bothered me. It has been about 36 years now, smoke free. The cursing and swearing also went but I have no idea when the Lord took that away. I was with my father going to work one day and someone cut me off. It almost caused an accident that’s how bad it was. My father looked at me and asked if I was going to curse that guy out or not. It was at that moment I realized the Lord had dealt with my filthy mouth and I had not known it. I was a high school drop-out and failed in English class, it was my worst subject. Over the years with the help of my wife I earned my GED. Unknown to me at the time God had plans for my life. I was called to ministry and the Lord had set up for me to go to college. No one in my family had ever done that. I started out with an Associate’s degree in Ministerial Theology. I finished that and believed that was the height of my academic achievements. I was completely satisfied and believed I had accomplished a great thing. After a little time, the Lord told me to get my Bachelor’s degree. I kind of argued about it and complained that I thought it was enough. As always, the Lord won the battle and after I received my Bachelor’s Degree in Biblical Theology I sat back. The Lord again told me to go and get my Master’s Degree and then finally to get my Doctorate in Biblical Theology. It was all part of His purpose for the calling He placed on my life. Over the years the Lord has sent me on many missionary trips in the states and once to Tobago, in the Caribbean. We have been involved in helping to begin ministries and to help support and make changes in others. I have gone out with different people to pass out tracts and to witness. I also have gone out on the streets to witness at special events, such as festivals, crusades, and booths at flea markets. As of this writing the Lord led me to write two books. Although I could continue telling of all the Lord has done, we will end here. As I bring this to a close, I give all credit, praise and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ for all of the accomplishments, for the schooling, the books that were written and the man that I am today. My life would have been extremely different if He had not come into it.