Journey Led by Grace
We may make our plans, but it's God who directs our steps.
Let’s be honest, we all have different ways we’ve envisioned our life to go.
But at the end of the day, it’s God who directs our steps—even when we don’t know it. He is the gracious Author of tomorrow, shaping our stories into a beautiful masterpiece. Through His grace, we are able to overcome, and this is beautifully reflected in the story of Michael and CJ Arias, the current leaders of ICOC Pampanga.
Michael was a college student when he was first invited and attended Sunday Service in the church. Though he arrived late and missed most of the service, he still experienced the warmth of the fellowship. Growing up, Michael didn’t have many close friendships, which left him a longing for connection—something he finally found in the church. He studied the Bible for a week, but his decision to be baptized came more from pressure and a desire to please the disciples than from personal conviction. This led him to struggle with truly denying himself and kept his relationship with his then-girlfriend hidden.
For several months, Michael lived a double life, with no intention of ending it. In fact, he even planned to leave the church after seven months. God, however, had other plans.
One Sunday, he heard a message about openness and sin that deeply moved him. His heart began to change, and he chose to be more vulnerable and honest with the disciples. Michael decided to break up with his girlfriend, and through the friendships he built in the Kingdom, he was able to rekindle his relationship with God.
As Michael became more involved in the Singles Ministry, he moved to another house church and met his wife, Candy Joy (CJ). From the first time he saw her, Michael knew he wanted to pursue a relationship with her. Some brothers, however, would tell him that CJ seemed to prefer men that were a complete opposite of him. Still, this didn’t discourage Michael from bringing his desire before God in prayer. With the support of his discipler, who would arrange him encouragement dates with CJ, Michael continued to pursue her. In time, Michael was encouraged by his discipler to finally ask CJ to be his girlfriend.
For a while, it seemed as though Michael was living the dream Christian life—glorifying God through leadership in the ministry while dating the woman he had prayed for. Yet their relationship was not without struggles. Over time, Michael began to lose focus on God and became more centered on CJ. As a result, both of them fell short of their personal convictions, which in turn affected their relationship with God.
God used their relationship to keep both of them from letting go. Michael knew how the church would deal with their situation and that he would be asked to give up his relationship with CJ. Wanting to hold on to her, he tried to persuade CJ to leave the church with him. She refused to leave, and when Michael saw her decision to stay, he chose to remain as well, even though his heart was already far from God.
Michael had to step down from leadership while he and CJ focused on rebuilding their relationship with God separately. During this season, Michael often felt the urge to leave the church. The serious weight of discipling while dealing with sin pressed heavily on him.
Yet, the support of his friendships played a crucial role in helping him hold on to his relationship with God.
It took Michael a year to recover and renew his relationship with God. In time, he was restored to leadership and began going on encouragement dates with other sisters. Another year later, he and CJ found their way back to each other. Though their relationship still had its share of ups and downs, they remained committed to one another until the day they finally became engaged and, eventually, married in 2005.
Becoming husband and wife was a blessing from God, but their first few years of marriage deeply tested their faith and commitment. As a young couple, they faced financial challenges, and on top of that, they endured the heartbreaking loss of their first pregnancy. Two years later, they tried again. Only to experience another devastating loss when their little one lived for just seventeen hours after birth. This was truly a difficult time—not only for their marriage, but also for their personal walks with God. While Michael saw this as a punishment and a consequence of their past shortcomings in their convictions, God saw this as an opportunity to express His love. God graciously used their house church as a source of comfort and strength, helping them heal from their painful loss.
Despite the challenges in his personal life, Michael’s career was thriving—he even got promoted to supervisor! But soon after his promotion, the company he worked for filed for bankruptcy and eventually closed. Fortunately he found another job soon after,
not realizing that this relocation would become part of God’s greater plan. In fact, at the time, Michael did not even take the church into account in making his decision; his focus was solely on the job and the benefits that came with it. Although his leaders expressed concern about how he and CJ would manage, especially given their ongoing difficulties, Michael had already made up his mind to move.
In 2009, Michael relocated to the province of Pampanga first, and CJ followed after she had resigned from her job in the city. Both of them were able to thrive in their careers in Pampanga. Little did they know, God would not only use the church to help them with their marriage but also use them to bring healing to the church in Pampanga.
During this time, ICOC Pampanga was still known as ICOC Angeles—a small church with just over twenty members. The intimacy of this setting became a blessing for Michael and CJ, as their leaders and fellow disciples were able to give them the attention and care they needed. With the support of the church family, countless counseling sessions, and many heart-to-heart conversations, Michael and CJ did their best to fight for their marriage.
What Michael thought was simply a career move, God turned into an opportunity to heal their marriage and preserve their love. In Michael’s words:
“Our marriage was beyond saving pero God was so gracious and ang bait lang talaga ni God kasi madaming tumulong sa amin dito sa Pampanga
(Our marriage was beyond saving, but God was so gracious and kind, showing His goodness through the many disciples who helped us here in Pampanga).”
Eventually, Michael and CJ were appointed as family group leaders in the married’s ministry. In 2016, the leaders of Pampanga moved to another city. Another disciple was chosen to serve as the point person, but after a year, they stepped down too. Come 2018, Michael was asked to take on the responsibility. He hesitated at first, wanting to focus on his career and simply support the leadership. However, CJ, with her missionary heart, encouraged him to accept. Inspired by his wife’s faith, Michael stepped into the role of point person for ICOC Pampanga. Though he accepted the role, it took him three years to fully embrace it.
Though ICOC Pampanga strengthened Michael and CJ’s marriage, their spiritual needs for growth have yet to be met. Many disciples from the Pampanga Church moved abroad, which led to them facing challenges with numbers and finances. Another challenge was finding disciples who could preach and speak of God’s word to the church—because for the longest time, they had a full-time leader who would handle all the preaching during services. But by God’s grace, the church was able to overcome these challenges bit by bit.
As Michael and CJ embraced the role of leadership, their relationship grew deeper with the local disciples. This helped them take a leap of faith and encouraged the disciples to serve more and put faith into action; coupled with God sending more disciples with the missionary mindset to ICOC Pampanga and being surrounded with supportive leaders who shared their own wisdom and guidance,
the church was able to grow steadily over time.
Each month they were able to set concrete goals—like a goal number of people to share the Word with—and organized bi-monthly community outreaches; it was activities like these that gave the disciples direction and a sense of purpose. Even during the pandemic, when movement was restricted, God used ICOC Pampanga to bring ten people to Him. From just a little over thirty in 2016, ICOC Pampanga has now grown to a hundred members this year.
God is not done with His work in ICOC Pampanga. With their new venue inside a mall, the church looks forward to reaching more people and welcoming them into their services and gatherings. They also envision raising more workers by organizing the church into two sectors. By 2030, their prayer is to see the fellowship grow to over two hundred disciples—more lives transformed, more hearts drawn to God.
When Michael and CJ moved to Pampanga, their marriage and walk with God were far from well. They were still healing from a devastating loss, carrying with them a plan of their own. Yet through their journey, we are reminded of this truth:
we may make our plans, but it is God who directs our steps.
Their story is living proof of God’s grace at work. What once seemed like unneeded detours and dead ends became stepping stones in His greater plan—not only for their lives, but also for those in ICOC Pampanga.
As God continues to write their story, He is also writing the story of a church that has endured, grown, and thrived under His care. Truly, He is the gracious Author of tomorrow, shaping every trial and triumph into a masterpiece that brings Him glory.
With your support we can help Michael, CJ, and the rest of Pampanga Church evangelize their city!
You may be miles away but with your donation, you can be part of God’s mission.
Watch our newest Walking in the Footsteps video below!
