Leaving But Still Very Busy

Finally, I have bid my farewell with our congregation last Sunday.  I have to do it though my contract with the church expires on October.  I think this is also a good move, since I have no other opportunity to say goodbye, and second, there will be a six months of adjustment for our congregation while I am still in their midst so that they would have prepared my departure and not affect them emotionally.  Feeling eh noh... parang very important pastor leaving... eh hindi naman.  hehehe...

For many people, six month or a year before they resign or retire would be a browse through the wind as more and more responsibilities are being unloaded from them.  But it seems, it is not with me, I really felt though some responsibilities have been taken away, I am still as busy as ever.  I even felt busier than before.  I am really exhausted.  Someone should treat me for a vacation in East Coast and Toronto for a break.   Feeling ko lang din yun...

I have preaching engagement almost every week.  Just finish my last sermon for our church last Sunday. Tomorrow, graduation messages for Makati Hope Elem and High School, and I have not finished my message for the Elem group.  Still have weekly preachings on Sunday until October with daughter churches.

This March the prayer challenge has also slowed me down because of the spiritual warfare.  We also have Precept seminars that I need to take charge.  I have not decided to join the Family Camp of the church because after the camp, I have to rush for San Pablo for the Easter Sunrise Service.  Then, off for the Southern Luzon Youth Camp where I am scheduled to preach 4 or 5 messages, which I have not prepared.

Then, I will be off with Performers' Circle for our evangelistic meeting trips to Vigan, Laoag, Baguio, and La Union.  I am also trying to organize the co-workers excursion.  Rest for a week then off to Sta. Cruz, San Pablo and Lucena for the same Performers' Circle evangelistic meetings.

There are still lecture invitations for faculty development that I have not answered.  Then 80th Anniversary is at the doorstep.  I am coordinating Heavenly Melody concerts, the Performer's Circle Musicale, Joint Choir, the Love Feast, Joint Worship and successive alternative worship services.  Then, it seems I have to push our arts team for the decor since its already April and we have not seen any information with regards to the 80th Anniversary of the church.  My goodness... I think I will be truely exhausted before I leave UECP.

I think, I have missed out somethings pa... I am almost everyday confused which one should I do first.  And this summer, I wanted to learn Photoshop and maximize the use of my camera to upgrade myself to semi-professional level.

My goodness... really no time to find a right wife and get married and settle down.  Oh.. Geran, wag na hihirit ah... hehehe

Natamaan DAW!!!

Praise God!  I was able to deliver my last pastoral message to our congregation yesterday.  I had difficulty preparing my message and so, I especially fasted for a day seeking God for guidance.  It was my last since the church has not scheduled me any other preaching activity for our worship service for the rest of the year.

I thank God for giving me insights and was able to deliver His message.  So many people really said that the message struck them hard.  I believe this was God's blessing and an evidence of God's presence in the lives of our members.

But I asked a question every time someone would give me such a comment.  Simple question, "so, have you decided to join our prayer meeting on Tuesday?"  The answer is always "no."  This make me furious hehehe.... Sabi ko nga, "hindi ka tinamaan, daplis lang.  If ever meron next time, magpapasabog ako ng bomba para tamaan ka talaga!"  hehehe...

How can you say God really spoke to you and has not moved you to action.  I think this is a misconception of being struck by the Word of God.  When God speaks, it should be something that really moved you to action because the revelation and realization is important.  What is really happening to our people?  This is a big question mark to me now.  How can we really move our people to act according to the Word of God?  If we cannot apply the Word of God in our life, then there is no point coming to church.  We cannot live a victorious life in Christ without the application of the Word of God.  We have heard the message but not perceiving -  this is more dangerous.

Thinking out loud, I thought to myself, maybe it is really time to use my prophetic preaching once again.  Prophetic preaching is very important and crucial and it will definitely move people to action or be strike by God.  This has been proven effective before but often use will also make the people numb.

Anyway, maybe God's time has not yet come.  I just need to pray more.

O Lord!  Awaken Your people to the work you have left behind.  In Jesus Name, Amen!!!

Simple Protocol

I was a little disappointed few days ago because a graduate school failed in simple protocol.  I almost got embarrassed if I have not checked their office. hehehe...

A few months ago, I received an email asking whether I will be attending graduation rites or not.  So, I replied, "Yes, will be there because I good friend is graduating."  Afterwards, I have not received any communications.  A few days before graduation, I decided to call up the office and inquire what is the call time.  And to my surprise, I was informed that only faculty who have taught two courses and above will be allowed to march with the graduates.  Of course, with modesty, I said, "Oh, ok, no worries!"  I taught my first course only this term.

I thought, this is graduate school and yet they failed in simple protocol especially on treatment with their graduate school professors.  They should have not asked me in the first place whether I would attend graduation or not; or they should have replied to my email that I am not yet allowed to march with the graduates for the following reasons.  Better, if they could have just sent the policies about that matter to all faculty.  At first, I really felt embarrassed when I asked what was the call time and I would get such a reply.  And it would even be a greater embarrassment if I went there in my toga and would be asked to step aside.  Good thing, God moved me to ask and save me from all of those embarrassment.

It was not really a big deal for me. I attended the graduation by the way.  I did not boycott it... hehehe

But isn't it incredible for a graduate school who teaches graduate studies to miss out simple protocol!!! Maybe it is simple, that is why such simple things are oftentimes neglected.  Anyway, past is past.  I just want to blog this for my personal record purposes only... hehehe

Refreshed with Family

Our prayer meeting tonight has allowed me to appreciate more my family.  Though I have a lot of frustrations with my family, praying for them tonight seriously has allowed me to have a renewed appreciation of them, especially my dad.  I praise God that a lot of people came again to tonight prayer meeting.  I was especially blessed with the message and witnessing so many siblings, family, and couples were together praying for each other.

It would be a wonderful opportunity to see our church full of families that are praying together.  I believed many has a renewed experience and a special opportunity to experience praying together as a family tonight.

Praise the Lord!!!

God's Gonna Do It Again!!!

Few decades ago, there was a great revival that happened in UECP.  There was this two ladies from China who came to preach the gospel.  The evangelistic meetings started 7 days but it continued until it reach 21 days.  After that, UECP was never the same again.  UECP's number boosted a record high that until now is still the biggest Filipino-Chinese church in the country with the largest church worshippers.

It has been quite sometime that our number is more than a thousand.  It has kept going up and down but we were not able to breakthrough our mark.  Sometimes, it is frustrating because it seems all works are in vain.

I praise God for listening to our prayers for the past month.  It has been a month since we started our prayer meeting challenge.  Last week our prayer meeting attendance doubled from the average of 55 to 120 participants. Last night, we reached 150 participants.  We have not reached this number of prayer meeting participants since our church split last June 2000.

It seems God is going to do something to our church as we celebrate our 80th year.  He will bring revival.  All the more we need to come to pray for our church now.  We cannot allow our prayer meeting to plateau in a certain number or all of these things will fall into "just another church activity."

I personally hope that we reach 25% of the total Sunday worshippers by the end of the month and that is 300 church members coming to prayer meeting.  Thinking the 80/20 principle, if we have 300 as 20% then our church Sunday worshippers would have grown to 1,500.  If we have 500 as 20% then our church Sunday worshippers would have grown to 2,500.  Isn't this exciting?

I am very much excited how God is working in our church right now.  I believe God is gonna do it again; to bring revival in UECP.  I hope more and more church members would get excited in attending prayer meeting and stir up a spiritual revival among members of our church.

I also pray that those people who have not come to prayer meeting will reconsider so that if ever God started to act in a special way, they are part of it rather than left out.  I suddenly remember the 10 virgins in the Gospel.  Five were ready and five were not... I hope all are part of the five who are ready when the LORD stirs up UECP.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY!!!

This Tuesday, we will prayer for the different needs of our family.  See you there!!!

Tagalog Preaching Improving???

Many really wonder when it was their first time they heard me preaching in Tagalog.  They say I can freely explain and connect with my listeners; really better than English and Chinese.  Actually, Tagalog or Filipino is our native tongue, we all can easily express ourselves in this language because we really grew up with it.  And I have not had many opportunities preaching in Tagalog expect in UEC Sta. Cruz, -Tagalog Service and some Memorial Service of our English Congregation members.

My English and Chinese sermons were both well written manuscripts before I preach them, but for Tagalog wala... though I am trying to preach without manuscript, one time I tried it, but my brain seems not ready to think in logical sequence hehehe... next time as I try to sharpen my mind further.

What do you think?  How's my English, Chinese and Tagalog Preaching?  Feedback are very important for us Pastors so that we can further improve our preaching.  This is the difficulty serving in a Filipino-Chinese Church, we need to be multi-language pastors.  The demands to be a Filipino-Chinese pastor is quite impossible.  You should be multi-language speaker; not only for conversation but also for preaching.  And you need to preach good messages or be condemned for life.  Besides the three languages, here comes Mandarin, which I am trying to brush up but have not tried preaching a sermon using it.

Hirap maging pastor... ayaw ko na... Academe here I come!!!

Prayer of Repentance - First Among Five

We had our first of the five series of prayer meeting last night.  It was well attended though we did not reach our target of 200.  There were only around 120 people who attended but it seems the English and Chinese congregation were equally represented.

The organ really made a difference last night as it uplifts the mood as we sang hymns throughout the night.  Gladly, the young people tried to learn the hymns as well as they sang loud enough for people to hear.  I hope our young people will learn how to appreciate the vast message and theology of these hymns.

The message of Pastor Wiljo was really straight and simple on repentance but really caught our attention especially on those sins that we take for granted.  There are really some sins in our life that we have already accepted or embraced as part of us.  He was able to gave good emphasis on those for us to rethink our ways.

The prayer of repentance seems to be a little off - too quiet hehehe.  I suppose no one wants to be exclaiming their sins in public hehehe.  I was happy to use my prayer bell once again.  It has been years since the dawn watch folded that we were no longer using my prayer bell.

The symbolic casting of sins to the cross with a big stone in each of the participants hands were striking for many.  It was really unloading our sins, family sins, church sins and nation's sins to Christ.  Many commented felt free and release.

We need more feedback to better prepare the next prayer meeting as we enter the prayer for healing.  We now need to mobilize double time as we need to target more members to come to prayer meeting.  I believe when more people start to attend prayer meetings, it would be time for God to move in our church in another level.

I praise God, we were able to meet our two objectives for the night.  1.     To educate church members about sin – personal sins, family sins, church sins, and country sins. 2.     To give church members opportunity to cast their cares upon Christ through confession and repentance.

Praise be to God.

A Real Prayer Challenge - for Us!!!

I knew it!  I knew it!  This prayer challenge will be a big challenge not for our church member but for us who have conceptualize this series of prayer meeting.  Now, I remembered why I have not done this kind of activity for the last two years.  It has been a taxing and I am always physically exhausted when I launch this kind of activity.  The only confidence I have is that God is victorious through Christ's victory on the cross, so Satan can't do anything but to accept defeat.

The prayer challenge is shaking the gates of hell.  And after launching this a week ago, heavy spiritual battle took place in my life as well as Pastor Wiljo's.  It seems this prayer meeting is crucial for our church since we are now experiencing many challenges in these past few days that is preventing us from working effectively in our ministries and preparing for this prayer meetings.

Pastor Wiljo and I has been down and sick since last week after launching this prayer meeting. It seems our sickness is a little bit strange; both of us are having sleepless nights. Wiljo has fever and chilling for several days. I have stuffy nose but no mucus, sore throat but has not lost my voice and cough entered only after four days; everyday I have headache, dizziness, and lacks physical stamina, and last Sunday I black out in our bathroom. Weird but it is true, the whole week has prevented us from doing our task in church, such as preparing messages, meeting with my small groups, and monitoring and implementing the details of our preparation for our prayer meeting. Lastly, so far, the aircon of the lower chapel suddenly bogged down yesterday.   And TODAY, we are experiencing heavy rains, which I suppose to continue until tomorrow to prevent people from coming to our prayer meeting.

Every time these spiritual activities are highlighted, I would always go through such spiritual warfare - at least these time no demons involve, only physical afflictions through sickness. This is not to scare anyone but it seems the turn of events tells us that we are doing something right that is why Satan is also actively discouraging us and preventing us from fully doing our task. And all of these afflictions we are suffering for our church will be useless, if members of UECP family would not heed to our call to join the prayer meeting.

Pastors needs prayer from its flock.... everyday! I like the Koreans, they have a sequence in the regular prayer time. Their country, their pastor and the spiritual renewal of the church. The pastor is always highlighted and rank second in all of their prayer time. I think we can learn something from them.

I hope our people will not think this as another church activity but instead a time for personal spiritual renewal with our relationship with God.  Our church needs people who takes prayer seriously. In doing so, it would put our church in order and our worship on Sunday will become more meaningful as a church family.