After Three Fellowships (Reflections on CCM)

I want to summarize the first three meetings of the Centennial Christian Movement with the word humbling. We do not deny the challenges and difficulties of starting a fellowship from nothing, but we also know that God is at work in this ministry.

CCM is humbling in many ways because God shows Himself worthy despite our unworthiness as the managers of the ministry. Many times we fail to guard our hearts from sin and wrong motives, and so cause our Lord dishonor. But He is always faithful. He lifts us up in from our fall and teaches us to once more walk the road which He has set before us.

It is also humbling because through CCM we have learned to depend on God more and more. In the first three meetings, we are unsure if anyone will show up, and there were times when we were so few, but this experience taught us to trust in Jesus.

Afterall, when we started CCM, we agreed among ourselves that number is not our measure of success. We look at changed lives through the Gospel.

And so we pray that God’s Name may be honored in the Centennial Dormitory. We also pray that we will be able to build genuine relationships with the people living there, especially those whom God has brought to our weekly gatherings.

In our second meeting, I reminded Kazel and Jim that their fellowship is not the weekly event but the community of people living in the dorm. And so, the challenge is to truly live out our Christianity in our daily activities.

It is now more difficult to invite people in Bible Studies. They eye every faith-related activity with suspicion.  Thus, I encouraged them to bring Christ in their rooms, to season their conversations with salt, to pray always for sensitivity to Gospel openings and to ask God to put genuine desire in the hearts of their dormmates to know Him.

Our fellowship begins in the weekly gatherings and we are sent out after to be fishers of men and sowers of the Good News. I believe that more and more will know Christ through simple and honest conversations between friends. We have to cultivate what relationships we have now and pray that God will use these for us to share the Gospel.

Chloe brings her friends to the fellowship. (From Left to Right) Michael, RD and Kiel.

Our third fellowship is truly amazing. Chloe, our artist in DCF, invited three of her friends living in the Centennial Dorm. She had known them from her Kalayaan days. She said they usually meet as a barkada and so she used the opportunity to invite them in the fellowship.

Just later did I find out that she did not tell them where they’re going. It’s still a blessing, however, because her three friends were very open during the small group discussions. Please pray for Michael, RD and Kiel that they may know Christ and also have a relationship with Him.

Our friends whom we have been inviting for many weeks also came to the fellowship, Praise God! Patrick and JJ had free time so we were able to fellowship with them last week. Pray that we'll be able to minister to them and to our friends who still cannot come because of busy schedule.

We helped ourselves to a healthy serving of rice and
grilled food at Grill Queen.

After the fellowship, we even ate dinner together at Grill Queen. The restaurant is known for its delicious barbecue, but its serving of rice is rather small. So Kiel taught us a trick that they usually do when eating there—they buy rice from a nearby carinderia which has bigger servings at a cheaper price.

We enjoyed the extended fellowship getting to know one another more. Pray also that that this will be the start of a deeper friendship, one that’s ruled by Christ.

We will be having our fourth fellowship on Tuesday. Again, we are unsure of what will happen. But though we know not what to do, we fix our eyes on Jesus. We trust that in His own time, He will give us a harvest.

May He be glorified!

It was also JD's first time to lead praise and worship. In this photo we see
him and Jet practicing for the CCM's fellowship.