Behind all this excitement something awful was happening, a very challenging situation. My wife at the time, had cancer. She was diagnosed a few months prior to me accepting this job as a Senior Pastor. I believed for her healing, but on December 29, 2005, she passed away.
They say that our characters are exposed in tribulations. I wish I can say I did everything right, but I did not. The opposite, I did many things wrong. Inside of two years after accepting the call to pastor this church, I resigned and moved back to Florida. Less than a year after my wife’s death I was on my way to get married.
I was still hurt; I was still suffering from my first wife’s death, but there I was, getting marry again. I wanted what I lost; after all, it was all I knew. I married Ileana when I was only 19 and was married to her for 18 years before she went on to be with the Lord. Sadly, inside of two years that second marriage ended up in divorce. I went deeper into the valley of suffering. I felt depressed and oppressed every day. I have been running from the pastoral office ever since. Like Jonah, I have been running from my call!
To be continued…
An independent thinker with a profound call to see the orthodoxy of the church and passion for Christ manifesting together. Angel was born in Brooklyn, New York in April of 1968, he was raised on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico where he earned his B.S. degree in Sociology with a minor in Education from the Inter American University in San Germán in 1991. That same year he moved to Jacksonville, Florida. After working construction jobs for a year and learning the English language, his first job working with foster-care children in the capacity of youth care worker was with Jacksonville Youth Sanctuary in September of 1992. With JYS he was promoted several times as group home supervisor, legal caseworker, and program director.
While in Jacksonville, Angel studied a couple of martial arts styles. After earning his black belt, he became the founder of Good Fight Ministries as he used martial arts as an instrument to preach the gospel. In 2004 Angel was selected Martial Arts Instructor of the Year for the State of Florida and in 2005 Angel was inducted in the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame where he also received the Christian Spirit Award. In July of 2005 Angel accepted his call to pastor a bilingual church in Winton, NC where he served for a couple of years. Five months later he lost his first wife to cancer in December of that same year. This initiated a deep valley of suffering in his life, a mountain of costly mistakes and the embracing of lifestyles of sin that are well documented through this blog.
In August of 2012 Angel moved to Fairbanks Alaska with his wife Rayette Casiano and six children who are now adults. In Alaska, Angel continued his social work-related career and his ministry of preaching, teaching and writing. Angel is the author of two books, Hope for the divorcee: Forgiving and Moving Forward and 7 Banderas de Esperanza: La Bendición de Yokdzonot.
In January 8th of 2020 Angel and his wife moved to Arizona. On June 8th 2021 Angel started his home church, not as a starting point, but as a closer way to how the church is suppose to look like according to Scripture.
angelcasiano.com 