What started as sneezing and runny nose on Wednesday ended up immobilizing me on bed for the rest of the week. I had muscle and joint pains, headache, fever, cough and colds. But I am a lot better now. The fact that I can now update you means I'm out of my bed and am now typing this blog post.
I want to thank God because He is my Jehovah Rapha (The Lord our Healer). Though most of the time I was asleep and wasn't able to talk to Him, I knew that He heard the prayers of everyone who interceded for me. I am humbled because I felt the support and love of people from our church, my family, friends, my students and even my college classmates.
The words of encouragement and prayers gave me a full heart even when I was bed-ridden at home.
The few things I was able to do this week included my Bible study with freshmen from the Molave dorm. We're doing a series on evangelism in our small group. We looked at the motivations for sharing Jesus as well as our part and God's in evangelism.
I always emphasize that love for God should motivate us rather than fear or guilt. At the same time, we must always desire God's glory as the end result of all our evangelism.
Immediately after our SG, I went on to join Lads and Gay to apply our lesson. Every Monday, DCF shares Jesus to students in the dorms and the Sunken Garden. The program is called "Sheep Among Wolves" or SAW.
God opened wonderful Gospel opportunities for me that day. I was able to talk to three freshmen from the University of the East. They were very polite and listened intently to what I was sharing.
One of the students was very much interested. He kept asking questions and clarifying things. He later revealed that he used to have interactions with several religious groups that's why he was so interested with the subject. Please pray that God will water and nurture the seeds of truth planted in his heart. I'm praying to be reconnected with this group even just through Facebook.
I also met another Christian, a helper who was waiting for her alaga who had a swimming lesson in the nearby UP swimming pool. We had a wonderful time of conversation. She told me that she could not find a church near their place in Pasig. Please pray that she can find a community of believers there. She also had no Bible of her own. I wanted to give her one, but I'm hoping I can meet her again this week for the Bible. The good thing is I have her contact number so I can ask her if she is on campus.
While sharing in the Sunken Garden, Gay had the chance to witness to a student who joins the "god the mother" group in UP. Their conversation lasted almost an hour. We've long since interacted with this group, helping the students whom they've recruited understand the Bible more clearly, rather than simply using verses out of context.
Please pray that God will open their eyes to Jesus so that they can find satisfaction in Him alone rather than in any other man-made teachings or philosophies.
We've decided to talk about the New Life as we entered the new year. This series is a follow up for the new and the young believers in our group. But it is also effective for continuing Gospel discussions with those who don't have a relationship with Jesus yet.
During that particular Monday, the Pisay community was busy preparing for a school-wide fair. Most of my students could not come because they're rushing projects and requirements for the event. Two attended, however-- JC and Michael.
I'm blessed by one of Michael's reflections after our meeting. He saw the importance of living out our faith in Jesus as a testimony to those around us. This meant always being intentional to radiate Christlikeness in everything we do, everyday.
He even noted that when a professing believer lives a life contrary to Jesus' teachings, he taints Jesus' Name. His wonderful realizations bring me to Proverbs 22:6, "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." This is also my prayer for all the students I'm teaching at Pisay. Though they are still young, I pray that God set them up on the way of Truth that they will never depart from it until their dying days.
At the close of Monday, I joined DCF's prayer meeting at the Centennial Dormitory. This is our first prayer meeting for the year to dedicate to God all our plans for 2014. Many of the praise items have to do with the Christmas vacation. The students were grateful for the rest and family bonding last December.
At the start of this year, however, they were greeted by numerous academic requirements and tests. So, it's not a surprise that many of the prayer items dealt with exams, papers and theses. As a ministry, DCF's entering its election phase. The biggest prayer item is for God to raise up leaders for the next generation.
The dorm ministry has always been student-led. Please pray that the younger ones will catch this vision even as they are challenged to stand up for greater leadership roles next year.
Because of my flu, I was only able to attend one fellowship this week. Yakal opted for a birthday surprise for MC, our vice-chair 1, on Tuesday evening. They had a simple celebration with the famous DCF birthday song, a cake, Bible verses and words of encouragement.
We'll be starting with Jehovah-Jireh this week, clarifying what it meant that God is our Provider versus He is our personal Genie. Please pray for the last-minute preparations and that we can also invite friends to the fellowship.
After Wednesday, I was at home most of the time, bed-ridden because of flu. But God granted me healing on Saturday. I was able to meet Christian, a freshman from Cente, for our weekly Bible Study. We're learning the OIA method of studying the Bible. This was his request so that he can grow more in his understanding of God's Word.
It was Christian's birthday yesterday! If you know him, you can still greet him a belated Happy Birthday!
Then on the afternoon, I joined our local church's evangelistic event at the Sunken Garden. We called it, "No Ordinary Picnic." The idea was for the congregation to gather in fellowship at the Sunken Garden while a number of us go out and share Jesus. It was a simple step of reaching out to the Diliman Community, but one that left me truly blessed.
I went with Eden, the daughter of our Tagalog pastor. Eden was my ever supportive prayer warrior. While I shared the Gospel, she was very fervent in praying. She gave the comment that we met so many kind people in our witnessing. I encouraged her by saying that they were God's answers to our prayer requests.
We'll be doing the NOP once a month. Pray with me that more from our local church can join us.
Thank you for reading. Please continue to pray for healing. I developed a cough after the flu. Ask God that He will clean my lungs and restore my health. God bless you all!
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