Jonan has 14 years of pastoral ministry experience in the Philippines before migrating to New Zealand in 2011. He is married to Jewel, and they are blessed with a daughter, Jadyn.
His parents are both pastors of the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches. He is the second of three sons.
After finishing his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering degree in 1989, Jonan underwent training in process documentation research and worked in this area for six years. He covered process documentation work in national irrigation, local government, and rural and urban poor development.
In 1996, he responded to God’s calling to become a pastor. He worked with Ajuy Baptist Church while finishing his Bachelor of Theology. He helped establish the church’s school ministry project.
Jonan became the Resident Pastor of the New Testament Baptist Church in Iloilo City in 2002. His previous urban poor development experiences enabled him to minister with the informal settlers around the old Iloilo Airport.
In 2005, he worked with Central Philippine University (CPU), a Baptist university founded by American Baptist Missionaries. While working with CPU, Jonan helped start the Creekside Baptist Church in 2006.
In 2011, the family migrated to New Zealand. They arrived in Auckland and joined Glenfield Baptist Church in North Shore.
Pursuing their resident visa, the family moved down to Timaru in 2012. They joined Wilson Street Baptist Church, where they pioneered the Multicultural Response Ministry in 2013. Jonan and his family became New Zealand citizens in 2018.
Realising the need for a pastoral ministry toolkit, Jonan started writing the Ministry Appreciation and Participation Toolkit in 2017.
Jonan pursued ministry work in a bi-vocational capacity. In 2013, he started as an independent contractor for Waugh Infrastructure Management, and in 2019, the company employed him.
Praying for growth and direction, they were thrilled to see the possible expansion of the ministry in churches around the area. They joined the Gleniti Baptist Church.
In June 2021, the Gleniti Baptist Church adopted the Multicultural Response Ministry and appointed Jonan as a part-time coordinator. Gleniti Baptist Church prayed over the Castillon family and the
Multicultural Response Ministry on 18 July 2021.
In June 2022, Jonan accepted the challenge to be the pastor of Oamaru Baptist Church. He spends the majority of his ministry time helping OBC grow and re-establish.