Stone Rollers

At 4:59 in the morning of April 4, Black Saturday, I got this message from Abbie, one my members in our Media Ministry: "Hi sis. Just wanna let you know that your  Didache reflection for today inspired me (heart, thumbs up, smiley) now I have other names for my hubby and my mom - stone rollers (another heart)." 

So lovely of her to take the time to send me that message.  That made me realize I haven't thanked my stone rollers. I was rushing to make it to our 6:00 a.m. call time for the last day of Feast Alabang's Holy Week Recollection and didn't even have time to read the day's bible passage let alone open my copy of Didache. 

Let me thank my stone rollers now. They're my family, friends, especially those from my Caring Groups (or whatever name it has morphed into - the thing is, they care for me). Thank you for always being there to turn my Good Fridays into Easter.

Here's my Didache reflection:

STONE ROLLERS

"When they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back; it was very large." 
– Mark 16:3-4

       I tell people my driver’s license has a restriction: I’m only allowed to drive up to Alabang. That’s just my excuse for not driving far. It becomes a stone block when we have events in distant places. My usual stone roller is Emy, who’s so generous in driving for our group.
       There are many stones that hinder our path. Most are small like my “driving disability.” Some are medium-sized like the difficulty of my co-servant in carrying around her son with cerebral palsy. Her stone roller was a Caring Group mate who bought the boy a wheelchair.
       Others are extremely large that they seem immovable. James Ward is a homeless youth who got accepted to Howard University but couldn’t afford the tuition. His stone roller was Jessica Sutherland, a volunteer at the homeless shelter, who launched an online movement to raise his tuition money. The campaign spread like wildfire. It was picked up by the Ellen DeGeneres show where James was given a $25,000 check and a $10,000 gift certificate.
       Like the women who visited Jesus’ tomb, we wonder how we can move the obstacles that face us. Trust that God always sends angels to roll away those stones.

Reflection: Who are your stone rollers? Thank God for sending them to you.

Lord, thank You for the people You send to help carry my load.

*Image from bibleencyclopedia.com

Let Me Love You Today

I have a confession and I hope none of my community elders will read this. I’m being disobedient about something we were instructed to do. But before I get booted out of the community for being pigheaded, let me explain (or justify) my insubordination.

THE MISSION

The Light of Jesus Family’s mission is to “Make Disciples”. Our leader, Bo Sanchez, wrote the book Love Someone Today, a One-to-One Discipleship for Catholics. This is the tool given to the servants of the Feast to use in our evangelization. It’s a small but powerful book that can and is already touching lives.

We were given marching orders to seek one person to love and eventually disciple. This meant approaching a Feast attendee, starting a relationship and going through 7 lessons with her (or him for the brothers).

THE PROBLEM

Easy enough? Not quite. Last night in our meeting, we were grouped and asked to discuss our experiences in doing one-to-one discipleship.

True, there were inspiring stories from some members. Without a doubt, there are disciples in the making.

But there were stories not shared in the assembly but only discussed in the groups.

A brother shared that he was totally ignored by an attendee he tried to connect with. The man pointedly kept his earphones on.

A sister sensed that the person she tried to disciple got freaked out. Initially, the woman tried to hide from her during the Feast. Eventually, she stopped attending altogether.

And my personal problem? I just haven’t had the time to scout around for a prospect much less squeeze in a face-to-face encounter over a cup of coffee or tea (for me, since I rarely like coffee). Considering the myriad of duties I have, I may never have time to sit and talk.

MY SOLUTION

During our Love Someone Today (LST) workshop, I already knew I wouldn’t be able to do this. I lightheartedly said that I will just blog about it.

But seriously thinking about our mission, I felt that we each have our own way of making disciples. Since I’m a writer, my blog is a tool I can use to accomplish the task I was given. (I sometimes kid that if I get mad I will duel with my blog as my weapon of choice. Since this time it's all for love, it will be used to reach out and hopefully touch lives.)

Considering the advancements in technology, it is no longer strange to form relationships in cyberspace. My niece, for instance, met a guy from China online. Their romance blossomed via the internet. Now she’s married to him and awaiting the birth of their first child. So who’s to say disciples can’t be made online?

FINDING FRIENDS ONLINE

As a Didache and Gabay* writer, I often get messages from people who were touched by my reflection. Some have become cyber-buddies that I exchange emails with.

So here’s what I commit to do. I will write about each chapter of the LST booklet and do online discipleship. (I’m not encouraging others to do this. This is just me because writing is my gift. I say, “Go find your own thing” :) lest I be taken to task for being a bad influence.)

It may not exactly be what we were tasked to do but I feel I have God’s blessings on this one. I got His confirmation just this morning as I was praying about my plan:

“Go and take your place in the temple area, and tell the people everything about this life.” – Acts 5:20

The passage said “take your place” and my place is to write…here in my blog. I take it that “this life” refers to the life in community, a life following Jesus.

By writing about the lessons in this book I hope to deepen friendships with 3 ladies I met online:

I got to know Jennet because she would comment on my articles in our now-defunct website, Proudly Filipina. We reconnected through Didache and became online friends. I regularly send her my blogs.

May sent an email to all Didache writers about her job problem in Australia and I responded. After an exchange of emails, she visited us in Feast Alabang when she came home. She got a wonderful miracle a few weeks after – she and her husband got jobs in the U.S. We kept in touch for a while after she left. I hope through this online LST, we can continue the friendship.

I “met” Erma also because of my Didache reflection. She is planning a trip to Manila soon and I’ve invited her to visit me at the Feast Alabang. In the meantime, I have connected her to Feast Cagayan de Oro.

But I’m not limiting the interaction to these three ladies. If you can relate, become touched or would just like to reflect on what I will write about the LST, be my cyber-friend and drop me a line.

See you all soon for my take on the Intro to Love Someone Today.

*Didache and Gabay are daily bible reflections for Catholics.

Third Row Season

‘Tis the season for Kerygma Conference again. For the third time I’m joining the KCon choir for the Grand Feast. And for the third time I am relegated to the nether world of choirdom. You know that spot on the third row where without risers, you cannot be seen just heard?

During rehearsals we were told to “find your height” for blocking purposes. This must be the most difficult directive to follow. There’s that first part where smaller people are supposed to be in front of us. And then there’s that part where taller people are supposed to be behind us.

So difficult and confusing in fact that I found myself on the third row peeping through the shoulders of taller members. But the marvelous thing about this experience is that it teaches you serenity and humility.

This time around I wasn’t bothered about it. Why? Because for the past two years I have seen God’s hand in this arrangement.

My experience in 2009 when only a fourth of my face was seen in the official photos gave birth to a Didache reflection used in this year’s edition. Not only that, an amazing coincidence related to that reflection happened just last month. This, I believe, was used by God to also bless Feast Alabang attendees.

In KCon 2010, it wasn’t just about this blocking confusion but about the venue assignment. Since all the attendees could not be accommodated in one venue for the Grand Feast, the choir had to be divided into two. Group A was to go to PICC Plenary Hall and Group B to the hot and noisy Forum tent outside.

Whoops of delight greeted Group A assignments. Several of us from the Feast Alabang choir somberly listened as our names were called for Group B.

Friends in Group A egged us to appeal for transfer. But I felt we needed to be obedient to God’s will. The others in Group B felt the same way. And so we stayed.

You know how God rewarded our obedience? Right before the event, we were told that the Forum tent venue was scrapped. Group B will instead sing at the Reception Hall. So there we were in the same air-conditioned, chandeliered grandeur as Group A.

But as we waited for our cues to sing, Group A sat on the stairs of the Plenary Hall while we lounged on comfortable chairs in the spacious Reception Hall. We even had access to the luxurious dressing room nearby. Group A, on the other hand, had to make do with the public rest rooms (as I love to tease my friends in that group).

So this year, instead of fretting about my third row perch I am actually quite excited. I’m excited to see how God will surprise and delight and bless me in that spot He has picked out especially for me.

Thank you to my son, Buddy, for the cartoon :)

Long Term Plan

The inspiration came from an incident that happened in November 2009. I wrote about it in December 2010. On October 12, 2011, the date of my Didache reflection, two friends (J and Gina) commented on the amazing coincidence that it came out on that particular day.

The last date in this trilogy was the birthday of Reggie, a brother in our community. It was a special celebration – a thanksgiving for a blessed life. To honor him and as a gift for a man who has almost everything, we prepared a dance.

We threw all dignity to the wind for the love of a brother. We were jokingly threatened to be disowned by other members of the community if we tarnish the good name of Feast Alabang. And since some of the people who were going to perform our Grease number were no longer strangers to arthritis and high blood pressure, disownment was a huge possibility.

By the grace of God, we pulled it off. The cheers and enthusiastic applause by the audience assured we don’t have to say we belong to Feast Marilao or some other Feast.

Was it just an amazing coincidence or a divine long term plan that my reflection came out on that day? I’d say the second because the Sunday immediately after the party, our worship leader even used the coincidence in his exhortation. With God’s perfect timing, people are still being blessed by an incident that happened two years ago.

My October 12 Didache reflection:

A CHORUS LINE

“Woe to you, Pharisees! You love the seat of honor in synagogues and greetings in marketplaces.” – Luke 11: 43

I love performing. That’s the reason why I joined the glee club in college. Singing and dancing onstage under the lights, in front of big applauding crowds, was the highlight of my college life.

When I joined Light of Jesus, my ministry of choice was, naturally, music. Later, our chapter’s Music Ministry was absorbed into the South Feast in Alabang. I noticed that pride was an issue in the beginning. We were like Pharisees who loved the limelight. Feelings were hurt over lead singer assignments; some members thought they were too good to be taught. But as our service increased, pride slowly decreased.

Joining the chorus at the 2009 Kerygma Conference was a humbling experience for many of us. It was a big chorus. Those of us in the third row were not seen by the audience or on camera. But more than performing in front of a huge crowd in Araneta, our biggest thrill was singing for the Lord and touching the people there. It didn’t matter to me that only a fourth of my face was seen in the official photos. I knew from where He sat, the Lord could see us.

My Little Big Artifact

Like ants in a sugar bowl, Proudly Filipina members swarmed around the registration table at the posh entrance of The Spa at the Fort. They each grabbed a token and tied it around their wrists. The less staid Ka-Pinays tied it around their ankles. Each component of the bracelet/anklet was a symbol of our race – a nacre sampaguita, pearls, coconut shell and carabao horn beads. All the lady guests wanted one including celebrity host Christine Bersola-Babao. I felt a pinch of pride. The trinket was something I spent several cross-eyed-from-lack-of-sleep nights crafting for our launch Spa-rty.

That was two years and many articles ago. I brought the bracelet to the writer’s workshop, “Write Now,” that I attended on Jan. 15, 2011, Rissa Singson-Kawpeng, our writing coach, asked us to bring an artifact. It was a tool we can use to introduce ourselves. Also a mental post-it to make the memory about the participants stick.

My artifact chronicles a short story. It tells how I like to make things with my hands – fashion accessories for one. It is also a memento of the first time I had the audacity to write for public consumption through the online magazine of Proudly Filipina.com. Inserted in its pages are the interesting and accomplished Filipinas I met, interviewed and wrote about.

This trinket also linked each chapter in my new profession. My two gifts that the bracelet represented – crafting and writing – were keys that opened the double-locked door to the world of writing for Insight Magazine and Didache. (I have blogged about how long I’ve wanted to write for Didache and how I met Rissa through my accessories.)

Because I wrote a reflection for Didache about an old blog, I was pushed (forced by embarrassment actually) to resurrect it before the reflection was due to come out. Didache readers might look for the blog and find articles as old and outmoded as last season’s fashion bling. I wanted them to read something new and sparkling.

From this blog, another link was created. An article I submitted to Bo Sanchez’s Facebook page was chosen Blog of the Week. It also caught the eye of Kerygma Magazine’s managing editor, Tess Atienza. At that time, she needed a testimony for their January issue. My story was exactly what she was looking for. A new chapter began when Tess asked me to be a contributing writer for Kerygma – another dream inscribed in my heart for many years.

These are the links so far in my story bracelet. Links that show big opportunities can come from little things. You never know where a blessing will start. It can begin from something as trivial as my trinket.

Creative House's Rissa Singson-Kawpeng, Arun & Lallaine Gogna (third to fifth from the left) with "Write Now" participants from Feast Alabang Osy Erica, Lella Santiago, Desi Tomas & Jo Ann Fauni

Thanks to Osy for this photo.

A Personal Worship

It was casually mentioned on our way home from the Kerygma Conference last Sunday that Belle, Josie and I were going to lead the worship for our Feast Alabang Servants’ Christmas party. I thought it was a big joke. “Hmmm,” I said to myself, “Cercado Sisters* minus 1, tander version. "Tander as in matanda, get it? Better yet, translate that to the more politically correct term – “mature”.

Although being a worship leader has been flitting around the fringes of my dreams, it was not something that really called me with a passion. Unlike Niko, our youngest worship leader, who clearly heard God’s promise that he will lead worship in the Feast, there was not even a whisper to me.

Besides, I was afraid I wouldn’t be porous enough for the Spirit to fill me. I have observed the really good worship leaders to be so soaked in the Holy Spirit that it just radiates from them to the whole congregation. As for me, I can be hard-hearted and hard-headed at times.

Then I remembered the prayer I say before I write anything – for my blog or for Didache or for Halo-Halong Hālo: “Lord, let me be a straw through which your blessings or message will flow to the people who need it today.” A straw is not porous. It just needs an entry and an exit point. My entry point is my mind which God enlightens and fills with wisdom. My exit points are my hands that write. All I do is open myself up for the Holy Spirit to use me as a channel – hard head and hard heart pushed to the sides to clear the flow.

That worship leader thing was just the joke that I thought it was after all. An idea miscommunicated along the way. But God woke me up at 5:00 a.m. that following Monday (it’s a holiday, Lord!!!) prodding me to write my worship. So here’s a writer’s personal worship – written not spoken, read not heard:

To end this year, I want to praise and thank God for the many blessings He has given me, my family and my Feast Alabang family.

When I started serving at the South Feast, my life was going nowhere. You know that saying, “When God closes a door, He opens a window”? I could not relate. My prayers were unanswered for so many years. I felt that after all the doors closed there was very little light coming in – only slivers of light from under a closed door or a glow at the very far end of a tunnel.

But I kept serving through harassments and financially lean times. When I was asked to join the igive.club, I jokingly said to Becky, “Pwede ba recibo na lang ng gastos ko sa Feast ang ilagay sa envelop?” (“Can I put receipts for expenses I incurred for the Feast inside the envelop instead?")

But God is a God who cannot be out-given. This year He has thrown open many doors and windows all at the same time:

This year my elder son graduated from college and got a job.

This year my younger son’s thesis won multiple awards (yup, he just won another award for his category in Animahenasyon, the Philippine Animation Festival, and was even in contention for the grand prize).

This year my father survived a medical emergency. This year both my parents celebrated their 80th birthdays.

This year my calling as a writer began to bear fruit: I now have a blog, My B.A.G. of Miracles. I was named feature editor of the magazine I write for, I became a Didache writer. And just last month, I was also asked to write for Kerygma Magazine. As a matter of fact, the January 2011 issue features an article I wrote.

This year the Feast Alabang Center was built blessing around 1,400 people each week. We have our own place. A place we call home.

This year the number of servants grew from the twenty-four that started South Feast to almost two hundred. We now know more people to love and to be loved by.

I, personally, and we as the Feast Alabang family have many, many things to thank God for. No one deserves all our praises more than You, Jesus. Lord, receive the honor that You’re due. Receive my offering of worship.

The sun cannot compare

To the glory of Your love

There is no shadow in Your presence

No mortal man would dare

To stand before Your throne

Before the Holy One of heaven

It's only by Your blood

And it's only through Your mercy

Lord I come

I bring an offering of worship to my King

No one on earth deserves the praises that I sing

Jesus may You receive the honor that You're due

O Lord I bring an offering to You

O Lord I bring an offering to You

– Offering , Paul Baloche

To my fellow servants, I exhort you to pursue your dreams. But keep serving the Lord and see the surprises He has in store for you because He is a loving, wonderful God. He is magnificent and glorious.

Who compares to You?

Who set the stars in their place?

You who calmed the raging seas

That came crashing over me

Who compares to You?

You who bring the morning light

The hope of all the earth

Is rest assured in Your great love

When the evening fades

You call forth songs of joy

As the morning wakes

We Your children give You praise

You are magnificent, eternally

Wonderful, glorious, Jesus

No one ever will compare to You Jesus

– Magnificent, Hillsong

You O Lord are truly wonderful and glorious and you deserve all the praises because You are our king, You are our savior, You are Emmanuel, You are God who is with us. And we praise you and we glorify you.

Here I am, I've come to thank You

Here I am, a life You've changed

Because You gave Your life for me, You were crucified for me

How can I do anything but praise, I praise

You, You are God, You are Lord

You are all I'm living for

You are King of everything

I want my life to praise You

You are God, You are Lord

You are all I'm living for

You are King of everything

I want my life to praise You

– You, You are God

Thank you for this year Lord and thank you for the avalanche of blessings that are coming next year. I worship you my God.

*The Cercado Sisters are talented young women who won 16 gold medals in the 10th World Championship of Performing Arts in 2006. The sisters shared their touching story and talent at the recently concluded Kerygma Conference. If I’m not mistaken they serve with the Feast Quezon City.

The Third Wish

My dream No. 3.a.1 in my Novena to God’s Love is to become a writer. Dream No. 3c is to have what I do bless others and inspire them to improve their lives.

Yesterday, something awesome happened that made me realize that this third wish is slowly coming true. (There’s still 3.a.2, 3.a.3, 3b and 3d, you see.)

Allow me to flashback a bit to how this all started. A couple of years ago, when I was still in the religious gifts business, I offered to make accessories for Rissa Singson-Kawpeng, Kerygma mag editor-in-chief. She was hosting Kerygma TV. I gave her necklaces and earrings to wear on cam. At that time it was the only thing I could contribute to their mission in spreading God’s

word. Rissa was appreciative, even asked me to make her tiara for her wedding.

When I got involved in Proudly Filipina.com, an online magazine and social network for Filipinas, I was clueless about what an editor does. I asked Rissa for some tips and sent her the link to some of my articles to get a critique. I guess she liked them because she asked me to write for Didache 2010. Wow me, a Didache writer! It was a twelve year old dream that finally came true. (I wrote about this for Didache 2011. Just watch for it there.)

My reflection for Sept. 20, 2010 was about a principle we were taught when I was taking up my Masters in Entrepreneurship. In that piece I included a prayer I composed as an entrepreneur. It’s a quirky little prayer borne out of my business frustrations but written with great faith:

When business dips and sales are few, O Lord, sustain me. When the BIR comes and finds non-existent income, O Lord, defend me. When strategies and ideas run dry, O Lord, inspire me. When opportunities knock and the risk is scary, O Lord, encourage me. When money is scarce and the SSS and Philhealth checks need to be signed, O Lord, empower me. When you finally bless us with abundance and loyal employees need a raise, O Lord, remind me.

The next day, I received some emails thanking me for the reflection. It warmed my heart that my simple little prayer touched these people. One email in particular floored me. It said:

“don't know you but I would like to thank you for your "prayer" sa Didache reflection yesterday.

"When money is scarce and checks need to be signed, O Lord, empower me."

I really like this sis. It became my inspiration since yesterday and I want to make it my personal prayer from now on. I actually posted it in my FB account. You see, I needed to fund a check worth 35k today and since yesterday, been worrying how to produce that amount since funds are low. Praise be to God, before 3pm today, I was able to produce exactly that amount... The Lord empowered me… and thank you so much. May the Lord continue to use you. God bless you.”

So this is what it feels like to be the straw through which God’s blessings flow. I was amazed, awed and humbled.