For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. – Romans 1:16

I am not a good theologian, nor a good preacher. But my heart really breaks when I hear preachers deliver their message “hiding” the Gospel. Are we afraid that we are going to offend the listeners? Are we afraid that if we offend them they won’t return to our services? If yes, then you shouldn’t be a preacher!

I won’t expound here, you can go to google and search “are you ashamed of the gospel” and you will see a lot of messages about this. I just want to remind every preacher. If you are a preacher, straighten up and be a Biblical man and DON’ BE ASHAMED TO PREACH THE GOSPEL and not those “how to live/how to set goals/etc..” messages! Or at the very least, don’t forget that Jesus Christ SHOULD be the center of our messages!

Image: Arvind Balaraman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Thank you so much for all who prayed and donated! God bless. Soli Deo gloria!

If viewing the photos via the slider below is slow, you can also find the photos here, here and here.

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This coming December, we’re planning to do this project once more. We’re calling it Project Hannah (Hannah means Grace of God). We’re planning to extend the project to more families (around 30 families this time), and we want you to be part of it. Any amount that you can give will be a great help in making this project happen and make those families’ New Year’s celebration happy. It’s not a solution for their poverty, but this will let them know that someone do care for them.

We are targeting at least 30 families with a budget of 150 pesos per family. That will give us at least 4500 pesos (US$105) budget need. If you want to take part on this project, you can contact us via the information below. We prefer money donations so we could evenly distribute the gifts to the families.

Pictures from last year’s project can be seen on our Facebook page.

Thank you and God bless.

Email: lpcgumaoc@gmail.com

Web:

http://lpcgumaoc.co.cc/contact-us/

http://marvincruz.com/contact-me/

Phone:

(+63) 915 – 5709311 (Marvin)

(+63) 916 – 6228623 (Ptr. Ronnie)

Status of the donations will be posted here on this website.

Update:

Pictures from last year’s project.

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Preparations

We were planning for an activity for our Community Sunday School class (children that are not from the church) and we decided to have a program with games and food. We delegated the task to who shall do the program, games and all. Then the wife of our pastor who works in a children’s center in Manila came into contact with an organization that conducts activities for the children. They will take care of the gifts, food (popcorn and cotton candy), give aways (colors and coloring books), and the mascot. They were asked if they do go to churches and they said yes and we invited them to our church. That organization is the Chummy Chum Foundation Philippines.

Our initial target were just the attendees of the Community Sunday School class (around 60 children). However, we were informed that they usually handle 200 – 300 children in one event, so we opened the event to the whole Sunday School department and encouraged everyone to invite their friend to attend the activity.

So in short, we were saved from the trouble of preparing food, gifts etc, for the activity.

Chummy Chum

The Chummy Chum Foundation isn’t actually a Christian organization, but they have a very wonderful mission, to give joy, laughter and fun to unprivileged children in the country. They started their ministry on September 2007 and had been to many hospitals, children’s center, churches, orphanages and more, usually serving more than 200 children. They provide gifts, toys, and their trademark is the Gummy Cotton Candy Factory and Chummy Popcorn Maker. They also provide their center of attraction – Chummy Chum. For more info about their work and their organization, visit their website at http://chummychum.org. If you want to invite them, you can also sign up on their website.

They are mostly volunteers and their job is not easy so you really see that these people want to bring smile to these children’s faces.

The Big Event

The Chummy Mobile cam around 11:30 in the morning (our worship service isn’t finished yet) and the start of the program is 2pm (but we said to the children that it’ll start at 1pm). So they were able to rest in preparation for the program.

Children started coming in at 1pm. At first, we thought that we won’t reach the 200 children. But by 2pm, the church is already filled with children from all over the barangay. The program started with songs, games, and a special number. The Chummy Chum volunteers and our teachers really had a hard time ‘controlling’ the 200+ children inside the building. But despite of the heat and noise, everybody is having fun. The cotton candy maker and popcorn maker started running at 1pm and those will be given at the end of the program.

Everybody is curious what Chummy Chum look like and when the time came for him to show up, everybody was rushing to him, chanting “Chummy Chum, Chummy Chum” and wants to hold him. Chummy Chum danced for the children and had time for some picture taking before bidding farewell. If not for the intense heat that afternoon, probably he could stay longer (and we want him to stay longer but we also don’t want the person inside Chummy to suffer from heat stroke ).

After the event, we gave a certificate of appreciation to the Chummy Chum Foundation that was received by Ms. Rowena Bula, General Manager of Chummy Chum Foundation Philippines.

Popcorns, Cotton Candy, colors and coloring books were given to the children as they leave the place.

200+ children, 200+ smiles and laughter.

Soli Deo Gloria!

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Person 1: Oh, serving the Lord is tiring.

Person 2: What? You shouldn’t get tired serving the Lord!

Person 1: Really?

Have you heard this conversation before? Or have you been in this kind of conversation before. Me, I’ve heard this a lot. And just recently, I encountered this exact scenario, a servant of God saying he got tired (just tired, not quiting) due to his probably hectic schedule doing the ministry of the Lord. One of his friend said that if it is for the Lord, he shouldn’t be tired. Well, the commenter might have a pessimistic mind on that but I think that isn’t things go.

Isaiah 40:30-31 reads:

³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;

³¹ but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint. (NIV)

I believe the verse is clear, ‘Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;’. We are human beings. We are not robots. It is natural, let me repeat – natural - for a person to get tired, whatever he is doing cause he is using muscles that require energy to work. And like any other job, once your body has reached it’s peak on the “tiredness meter”, your brain will send out signals to your whole body to rest. If you don’t, then you’re either a super human being or you’re deceiving yourself. I remember Ptr. Rick Warren on one of his Purpose Driven Church Seminar (watched it on CD) when he said, “Mary had a little lamb, it would have been a sheep, it joined a local church and died in lack of sleep.”

Let us be honest and real. We do get tired while we are serving the Lord. However, it doesn’t end there. God made a promise. That even though you’ll get tired (verse 30), if your hope is in the Lord, he will renew your strength (verse 31). Take note the on the last two lines it said “not grow weary” and “not be faint”. Isn’t this the one that says we shouldn’t be tired when serving the Lord? I believe this only means that God will give us unlimited renewal of strength. That every time we feel weak, God will refuel us. That every time we feel tired, God will strengthen us.

Let us confess that we are only human. We do get tired. But we have a God, that’s always willing to strengthen us.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

- Matthew 11:28 (NIV)

God bless.

Image: Jeff Ratcliff / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Please send your donations via the following:

Monetary Donations

1. Bank Donations

2. Credit Card/PayPal Donations

• GMA Kapuso Foundation
• ABS-CBN Foundation
• Philippine Aid

3. SMS Donations

We also need your prayer.

My forte in the church is not CE (Christian Education). Though I did teach (on my former church) youth for sometime, my forte was in music (but I am not  an expert in music). When I came in this church (my wife’s from this church), I never planned of being involved in the church leadership. But still I was involved, first on their worship ministry (they don’t have any music team), then on Christian Education department. I was appointed by the teachers. I don’t know where to start and how to properly do it. I have some background regarding CE back in the seminary but it’s just a background. But by God’s grace, I was able to sustain more than one year of leadership.

I was blessed with a wonderful team. The teachers were cooperative, open minded and vocal. We had some “renovations” made to the structure of the Sunday School program. We’ve conducted some training for our teachers (facilitated by….. ourselves), youth seminar, a dinner fellowship for couples. We’re currently planning for a small children’s camp this April (instead of the traditional Vacation Bible School), and a supplemantary feeding program on May.

This church (which is already a more than a decade old), went through a few downfall. Currently, we are trying to establish the “Church Leadership” by electing (appointing actually) key leaders (Deacons, Deaconess, coordinators for Men, Women, etc.).

Dwelling deeper in the ministry, because I am thinking of being involved deeper on the church’s leadership. I’ve already talked to my wife and she was supportive. I am planning to be involved in the office of the Deacons. There are a couple of reason why I want to. First, as it turned out, there is only one person in the church who is willing to do the task of Diaconate and this person migh leave soon for a work abroad. Second, which might sound obscure for some, is that being in this position, I can have some sort of “authority”. It’s not that I am after that “authority” per se, but there are things I know I can do better with it. Our pastor also agreed that, it is good to have those leaders also with the Diaconate position. I don’t want to discuss the “meaning”, etc., for the word Deacon (cause different churches interprets it in different ways). There are a lot of things in my mind that I want to suggest or do in this church.

I don’t know yet when will this happen or if the existing leadership will accept my “application”. But whatever the case maybe, may the will of the Lord be done.

Also, it’s been more than a year now. And I am thinking, what progress do we have with our department. There are still a lot of things to do. We still need to put our hearts more into the ministry that the Lord had entrusted us. I pray everything will work out great, by God’s grace, this year.

Soli Deo Gloria.

We had fun, with the discussion, games and food.

We’re hoping to meet with these youth sometime this vacation.

Soli Deo Gloria

click here to view the pictures

Faithwalk Christian Ministry Inc. was founded in 2003 by missionary Esther Park under the auspices of Global Partners and with partnership of Filipino co-laborers in Christ. This organization is inter-denominational, non-profit evangelical Christian organization that aims to evangelize the lost, nurture Christians and transform society. This ministry is registered with the Philippine government with SEC # 200414144

Because here is where the action is in Dasmariñas Cavite… The Youth are the needy and the unevangelized in Dasmariñas, Cavite Philippines. Dasmariñas, as a matter of fact, is one “boiling pot” of youth. Dasmariñas is the “University Belt “ of Southern Tagalog. It is the home of more than 12 major universities (not including high-schools and elementary levels) particularly De La Salle University—Dasmariñas, Technological University of the Philippines, Emilio Aguinaldo College, AMA College, St. Jude College, Guzman College, Systems Technology Institute, Philippine Christian University and much, much more… In one university alone there are 13,000 students!

Been part of this ministry for a few times when our seminary band played/performed in a couple of campus evangelisms they had.

Check out their website for more info.

http://www.faithwalkministry.com