Power Tripped

Happy and sad do not always exist together on the same plane. Usually, it’s one or the other.  Last month, this mixed emotion was felt at the Saturday Feast Alabang (SFA) because of the change in leadership.

Sad because we said good-bye to Randy Borromeo, our first Feast Builder, who had been nurturing us for four months. We had “borrowed” him from Feast Makati while our Feast Builder was undergoing training.

Happy because our permanent Saturday Feast Builder, James Nicolas, was finally installed. He is also Feast Alabang’s Evangelism Pillar head and we had been happily serving under him and his wife, Jinky, since last year.

The excitement was high the first time Bro James was going to give the talk as SFA Builder. It was also the week-end of Feast Alabang’s third anniversary so there were many things going on.

A few minutes into Bro James’ talk, the power in Festival Mall suddenly went out. Everything was pitch black. Fortunately, or so we thought, it only lasted for a while. The lights went back on but the microphones remained silent.

I froze. I couldn’t even feel the panic any Events head should be going through at that moment. Our sound mixer (at least I think that’s what it’s called) had blown a fuse when the power went out. I could only look helplessly on as our Tech Ministry tried to fix it to no avail.

Four months of handling SFA Events did not prepare me for this. But God never puts us in a situation without providing for our needs.

Sis Myrna, Events Pillar head and a three-year veteran of countless stress-inducing glitches in the Sunday Feast, was there. So was Bro Dom who is a really dependable guy especially in stage management. They’re normally not around on Saturdays. They were just at the center preparing for the anniversary the next day.

They moved faster than the speed of light to have the portable sound system set up and to have a new fuse procured. In my catatonic state, I couldn’t think of doing those things.  All I could do to help was to shoo the choir off the riser where the mics for the portable sound system were kept.

There are things in life that we just have to learn so we can become better at what we do. Sometimes the experience is as painful as a scraped knee. I was blessed that God provided me that day with people who cushioned the blows of my learning experience.


Saturday Feast Alabang is held on Saturdays at 6:00 pm with anticipated mass at 7:30 pm.
Visit www.feastalabang.com for the complete schedule of the sessions (Wednesdays & Sundays) and Sunday masses. 

SFA Photo by Ysza Bianca Pineda

Love Someone Today Lesson 1

God Has a Great Purpose for Your Life

I spent the better part of my morning rummaging through old issues of Kerygma Magazine. There’s this story about a disabled girl I was looking for. 


I can’t recall what her disability was. All I remember is that she can’t move around like a normal person does. What was remarkable about her was that she blesses so many people from her bed. She is a prayer warrior. People text her their petitions and she prays for them. That’s what she spends most of her waking time on.


I wasn’t able to find the article. It’s a good thing this month’s (May 2012) issue of Kerygma featured another amazing girl with a disability, Jessica Cox. Jessica was born without any arms but she can do everything a person with hands can do. More than that, she plays the piano, has 2 black belts in Taekwondo and is listed in Guinness as the first armless person to get a pilot’s certification.  (I have two hands and forearms and triceps and biceps and I can’t do any of that.)


In the KMag article by Tess Atienza, Jessica admitted she did go through times when she questioned God and pitied herself. If I remember right, the other girl did too. But they did not waste their time whining about their lot, throwing tantrums when they can’t have their way (read in the article how Jessica dealt creatively with her desire to have a TV) and cursing the womb that bore them. Instead they rose above their disabilities to serve as inspiration to others.


Lesson 1 of Bo Sanchez’s book Love Someone Today is “God Has a Great Purpose for Your Life.” God has a plan for you no matter what shape or form or color or status you were brought into this world. Just look at these two girls. 


Bo said: “I believe your most important purpose is to be one with God – because from your oneness with God, you’ll be able to share His love to the world through the gifts and talents He has given you.” No matter how physically, economically, emotionally challenged you are, YOU HAVE A GIFT AND A PURPOSE. 


Some friends and I faced a challenge this week via a barrage of text messages. I’ve said it before and I say it again: God uses ingenious ways (yes, even exasperation) to inspire my blogs. These are some thoughts He prodded me to write:

The acceptance of your disability, character flaw or misfortune in life is the start of accepting yourself. Once you learn to accept yourself, you can start “fulfilling God’s design for your life.” The feeling of rejection comes from focusing on your neediness for other people’s acceptance. 

When you look beyond yourself and serve others with joy, other people will naturally gravitate to you. A person who exudes love for others is easy to like and difficult to reject. Looking outward (what can I do to make other people happy) instead of looking inward (what should other people do to make me happy) is the key to acceptance and the antidote to rejection. 

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For my cyber-friends to whom I dedicate this LST series to, let me share this tip from the book: “As you begin your relationship with Jesus, start with J.O.Y.


Join a weekly Prayer Meeting (such as The Feast) and Small Groups for personal discipleship.


Obey God’s Word by reading the Bible every day. You may use the assigned Mass Readings of the day or read 3 chapters of the Bible daily.


Yield to the Holy Spirit so you can share Jesus to others.”

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By the way, thank you Jennet (one of the cyber-friends I mentioned in my last blog) . I made this Strawberry Cheesecake with the luscious strawberries you sent.

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Postscript:


I found the KMag article (April 2007) I was looking for thanks to Tess who also wrote it. The  differently-abled girl's name is Ann Martha Padilla and she has cerebral palsy. She is “a prayer warrior of the Regina Rosarii Contemplative Association.” 


Like Jessica, she uses her toes to do things particularly texting her advice to the many people who send her messages. She said, “I would ask God what he wanted me to do given my condition.” Through her disability, she is performing God’s great purpose for her life – to “offer encouragement and prayer for His troubled people.”



Photo of Jessica from Jessica Cox Motivational Services http://rightfooted.com/photos/

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.

Sticks and Stones

I’m sure you’re familiar with this famous reply to taunts and threats: “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me”? This may be true in the physical sense but words can harm in other ways.

Speak God’s Words. That’s the title of talk 2 of the Transformed series at the Feast. The talk last Sunday (Dec. 4) reminded me of the ways that my words can destroy other people or how I can be hurt by some thoughtless remark. When words are used to complain, criticize and ridicule they become instruments that can shatter a person’s worth, reputation and self esteem.

There was an incident that happened when I was just starting to serve as emcee. Someone remarked that I was not good enough for the job for the simple reason that I happened to have a uterus and my voice can only go as low as Alto 2. In short, only men are fit to be emcees. I was floored by the chauvinism.

Not only that, the critic proceeded to rattle off the names of every Tom, Dick and Harry who are more qualified…to my face. That almost shattered my ego and almost stopped me from hosting any event ever again. I said almost because I happen to have skin about an inch thick (that thick) on my face (in Tagalog we call it kapalmuks) so it didn’t bother me too much. I was okay after about a month. ;) Other people who are more sensitive might have quit on the spot. Imagine the harm done if this was said to a young person at the brink of launching a longed-for career.

During the talk we were exhorted to use our words for good instead. They must be used to compliment, correct in a loving manner and refresh. Let me share something I wrote in my journal almost a year ago to illustrate my point.

Jan.14, 2011

Giving Delight

“Listen, for I will speak noble things; And the opening of my lips will reveal right things.” – Proverbs 8:6

As I was preparing the articles I have to bring to the writing seminar I’m attending tomorrow, it dawned on me that writing is not the greatest gift that the Lord has given me. My greatest gift is delighting people with the articles that I write about them or their businesses. I make them happy because I highlight the good that they do.

One of the articles I’m bringing is about the controversial Vicki Belo. When it was posted in Proudly Filipina.com, someone commented to my partner that my series of articles managed to bring out her good points.

Another article in my portfolio is the one I wrote about my father for his 80th birthday. I was feeling a bit down on his birthday because I could not afford to splurge on a grand party for him. All we could manage was a nice, classy dinner in Alba’s for the family. After the occasion, I wrote an article for Insight Magazine extolling his virtues as a man of God, a family man, a friend and a crusading lawyer. He was ecstatic when it was published. He must have given out several dozens to friends and colleagues. That, more than the fancy dinner, was the best gift I could give him.

Words must be used to give life and hope rather than to kill dreams. In the wrong mouth, words can be deadlier than a sword.

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 :)