July 2013 Prayer Updates

Freshmen Fellowship

Hello Praying Friends!

I pray that this letter finds you well! We are now well into the the first semester for AY 2013-2014, and the Lord has been so gracious in His ministries. I continue to serve students as a full-time campus missionary for the UP Dormitories Christian Fellowship here in UP Diliman.

Last academic year, majority of the students I've worked with for the past two and a half years have already graduated. It is my joy to see them venture into a new phase of life as working professionals. It is only by God's grace that I've managed to minister to that first batch, even if I'm not yet experienced in ministry.

At the start of this year, I am at awe for God opened several new Bible Study (BS) groups with freshmen students. At the moment, I'm serving mainly students in the Molave and Centennial Dorms. We started Evangelistic/Discipleship small group BS using Pastor Bel Magalit's "Encounters With Jesus."

This is a series of seven expositional studies focused on answering the questions, "Who is Jesus?" and "What does He teach us about salvation?" We hold the BS throughout the week aside from our weekly fellowships in the dorms.

We have several students from Pisay CVC this year who are active in both Victory and DCF. I'm thankful for the partnership because we all learn from each other's best ministry practices. I also enjoy the sessions with these students because of their evident hunger for God's Word.

Pisay CVC boys

Aside from Pisay students, God has blessed us also with several freshies coming from Christian backgrounds. This is a tremendous blessing because even if they're still young, we can already tap them to help in the fellowship one way or another.

This has been very true when it comes to inviting and engaging people to visit the weekly Bible Fellowships.

God has been working breakthroughs as well among the second year members of DCF. The Kalayaan Brigade -- the second years in charge of the Freshmen fellowship -- has been truly a blessing and an encouragement. They are very responsible, eager and bold for Christ. In fact, for the first meetings of their fellowships, they chose to speak in pairs.

This is different from the usual set up where the students asked the alumni to speak on certain topics for the fellowship. My main help has been to ensure that their messages remain Biblically-rooted and Christ-centered.

Reflecting on the new strategies that we implemented this year, I figured that genuine relationship is very important in sharing Jesus. Compared to the previous years, we chose to focus on people rather than events this year.

Centennial Fellowship

In fact, even before the start of the academic year, we went out of our way and engaged the incoming dormers by helping them during the enrollment period. We also provided review lessons for their Math exams and other school requirements. And while we did these, we grabbed every opportunity to share Christ in words or deeds.

Ultimately, however, it is God's grace that enabled the dorm ministry to survive thus far. As I always emphasize, we are not working for DCF or the glory of the organization. We are working for Jesus. Our strength and our strategies will fail if we do not rely on Him.

Continue to labor with me in prayer as we begin to deepen our discussions on the Gospel with the freshmen attendees. Pray especially for those who do not know Jesus yet that God will work in their hearts and enable them to believe. Ask the Lord to open their eyes that they may fully understand the Gospel and embrace Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Ask God to empower every DCFer especially with the increasing academic load. May each learn to balance their time and still put God at the center of all their work. Pray for me also that I may have the strength to handle the different ministry work on campus. I'm also helping out in Pisay Diliman so I really need time management and physical and emotional strength to finish all my work.

Pray to God that He will continue to provide for the fellowships. We had been providing free dinner to the freshmen attendees at Molave for the past weeks because their dorm canteen was shut down for renovations. We noticed that even this simple service is a way of extending God's love especially among the financially challenged members of the fellowship.

Ask God for wisdom for the Kalbrig as they figure out how to engage Kalayaan students better. May God also provide breakthroughs for us in this dorm which has become all girls due to the dorm renovations.

Ask God for wisdom for the other dorm fellowships that are rebuilding this sem. Pray particularly for Sampa, Kamia and Ilang that the Lord will work in the hearts of the residents so that they will seek Him more. May the DCFers in these dorms be ever steadfast and dependent on God as they go through this challenging season.

Finally, uphold all of us in prayer so that we will keep in step with the Spirit in everything that we do. May God be glorified always!

In Christ,

Pau T.

Yakal Fellowship