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Day 22: Leading worship, speaking to the youth, and lovin’ my family

February 10, 2013 – 2:19 pm

February 10 at Lifex

1. Leading worship. My husband was assigned to lead the praise and worship in church last Sunday, and I stood up there with him again (at his request). It’s what I would do too when I’m the one leading worship—I’d ask him to stand up there with me. Not that we couldn’t do it apart from each other; it’s more of, we simply love doing this together. It doesn’t feel like a long time ago when I was just praying to have someone I can grow in faith with and worship the Lord with. God answered those prayers beyond my imagination. Not only do I get to worship with D now and all the days of our lives, I also get to do this ministry I love with him.

2. Speaking to the youth. Later in the afternoon, I delivered a message at Lifextreme, our church’s youth worship. The last time I had the privilege of speaking to the young people in church was February last year, where I talked about, well, marriage. And then I got pregnant and took a little hiatus from speaking in front. One year later, last Sunday, I spoke about loving your family. Funny, these topics they assign to me. Someone’s getting old.

So I told them the obvious, that we get to choose our friends, who we hang out with, and in a way, who we work with. But the family we’re born into.. now that is something that God chose for us. It’s a gift, something that we should nurture and take care of even though, and especially because, these are the people who know us for who we are. And these are the people we’ll go through life with, whether we like it or not! Be kind to the ones you do life with, says Bobbie Houston. I stood up in the pulpit for 30 minutes speaking about this topic that means so much to me, especially now that we’re starting a family of our own.

3. I love my family. I could never get tired saying it. I love my family. I love the family I was born into, and I love this new family God has blessed me with. The thing with speaking about topics like this is, as you study your passage and review your notes, you also get to look into your own life and have a deeper appreciation of what you have. I feel so blessed beyond words.

*The rest of the 30 Days of Gratitude shall be posted with dates backtracked. Like I anticipated, it’s easy to list down blessings, but to find time to post them here.. it’s more challenging than ever. I just need one uninterrupted afternoon to get those drafts out, so watch out for a flood of posts soon. ;)

30 Days of Gratitude, Day 22.

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Day 2: 39 years, on the RED, and carrying on the family’s legacy

January 20, 2013 – 3:31 am

SBCC

1. 39 years. Today, Sampaloc Bible Christian Community celebrated its 39th anniversary. Everyone was wearing something red, and oh what a beautiful color it is! It’s the color of love, and passion, and fire. But more importantly, it’s the color of the blood of Jesus, the very reason why SBCC exists through the years.

As I looked around in a sea of red, I was in awe of how so much has changed and yet so much has remained the same. People have come and gone and come back again, children have grown, families have increased in number—and still, God’s work in SBCC remains and continues throughout generations. I’m so blessed to be part of this family.

2. On the RED. We’re starting the year “on the RED”: Relying on God, Expecting great things from Him, and Delighting ourselves in Him. Kudos to our Pastor Dave for such a profound acronym. And what a beautiful paradox too, using a phrase that usually means lacking in something, to mean having so much more. 

3. Carrying on the family’s legacy. This morning as I was getting the twins ready for church, I remembered how, years ago, my Mom and Dad would bring the whole family to church every Sunday without fail. My brothers and I didn’t understand it when we were younger, we just knew that we had to be where our parents were. (There goes the life of a Pastor’s kid.) But as years passed and we grew a little older, a little wiser, we learned to embrace this calling as our own.

Our church has been our life. God’s work has been our life.

And I’m so blessed to marry someone, a Pastor’s kid like me, who understands exactly how it’s like because that’s exactly how his childhood was too. Now we carry on this legacy with our own kids. We’ll drag them to church (hehe), and pray that someday, when they’re older and they can decide for their own, they will be ready to embrace this calling too.

30 Days of Gratitude, Day 2.

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SBCC turned 38; 2012 will be epic!

January 25, 2012 – 5:42 pm

I love that our church celebrates its anniversary on the first month of the year. Being a daughter of SBCC‘s first Senior Pastor, January has always been like this for me and my family, even after Dad went to be with the Lord. In fact, it almost feels as if my mind was programmed to think that the holiday season goes like this: Christmas, and then New Year, and then Church Anniversary.

That’s how it felt like last Sunday. Like Christmas morning and the dawn of New Year all in one day.

The worship tent was overflowing with both familiar faces and strangers. Seeing new faces in church is a real joy; to me that means our church is growing, and God’s Word is being widely spread in the community. I looked around the church I grew up in, thankful that God kept me here at such a time as this and grateful for the opportunity to witness such growth, such revival.

Listening to the sermon, I wrote on my journal profusely—notes about seeing each situation with eyes of faith; of giving your all and not holding back; of rejoicing about things that are still unseen. It still blows my mind how God knows exactly what I need to hear when I need to hear it. Do you feel that too?

And now, as I read the notes I wrote on my journal last Sunday, this sentence zoomed in on me:

Sometimes, God operates in ways that don’t make sense.

I read it once, twice, thrice. I read it many times over. I thought of the things in my life that don’t make sense to me, enumerating them like a mental checklist—frustrating things, impossible things, unfair things. It’s easy to feel dejected thinking about things that don’t make sense, no? Humans that we are, we long to understand what’s happening, to get a glimpse of what’s going to happen next or when the torture is going to end, to find answers to questions quick.

But it seems that these are God’s best working conditions. He operates in the realm of the impossible, that’s why when life finally reveals what He’s been up to, we often find ourselves surprised, in awe, amazed.

Sampaloc Bible Christian Community is a testament to that.

My life is a testament to that. Last year, most especially.

So if you’re going through something that seems impossible and does not make sense, I say, instead of feeling frustrated, be crazy excited! It only means that God is silently at work, getting you ready for something truly amazing.

This is how I know that 2012 will be even more. mind. blowing. ;)

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