Church Council Endorses DLA BTFT Fund Generation

February 2008 Volume 6 Number 2

Church Council endorses DLA BTFT fund generation

The fund generation scheme approved by the DLA School Board as early as March last year was endorsed by the Church Council for launching this month. The scheme, re-dubbed as “Building Thru Five Thousand” (BTFT) from “A Hundred-fold Loan for the School” aims to raise a minimum of P500,000.00 for the continuation of the school building structure which remains unfinished with all the steel bars sticking out. This targeted amount will come from at least 100 people willing to entrust without interest the amount of P5,000.00 for five years, after which the same will be returned to them. The figure was inspired by the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand with only five loaves of bread and two fish. This scheme is based on the principle, “thinking big while acting small” aiming to complete an enormous building project with only a small amount of money deposited by the least number of people.

The completion of the school building will go by phase, Phase Three of which as targeted this summer will be the construction of the second floor of the west side rooms located at the back of the front building along the main road. This will give at least two additional classrooms, good enough to prepare for the high school classes which the School Board is now seriously studying its opening next school year 2009-2010, God willing. An evening computer literacy classes is envisioned to be set up by the DLA in partnership with the SCCD Scholarship Program, thus, additiona classrooms are urgently needed not to mention the necessity of transferring the pre-school classes to the DLA building.

Thus far, an amount of P296,000.00 had been received to go towards this project. P50,000.00 of this came from the generous donation of a former DOH Undersecretary who visited SCCD recently and its Simborio Outreach and went home so blessed and inspired. She left leaving a donation of P75,000.00 to SCCD which she strictly told the pastor as a gift that did not come from her but from the Source of all good and perfect gifts, who is God. The remaining P25,000.00 was distributed to SCCD’s five accounts namely Project Nehemiah, Mission Fund, Scholarship Fund, Church Workers’ Benefit Fund and General Fund, equally divided to P5,000.00 each.

The letters distributed and now being circulated via email inviting church members and non-members both here and abroad to participate in the BTFT are returning with favorable response. At least ten people have committed to participate as of this writing. Everyone is invited even if letters have not yet reached you. The amount may be paid in full or by installment till May 2008.

SCCD receives 9 new members. Nine new members, two of whom included their household were received during worship service on January 27, 2008 after attending the Discovery/Membership classes offered for two consecutive Saturdays, January 19 and 26 with 3-hour long sessions each. They are Vivian Apolinar, Rhaulyn John Arsenio, Ethel and Abelardo Dacua, Anne Ferrer, Liwayway Gealogo, Mary Ann Margallo and Danny and Aleli Tio. A separate article is to be found in this issue introducing each of them. The Discovery/Membership Class is offered every quarter particularly for those seeking official recognition as members of SCCD.

Communicants’ Class 2008 starts. The Communicants’ Class for 2008 started on January 5, 2008 and will continue until Maundy Thursday on March 20 when they will be received as full members in water baptism allowing them to partake of the Lord’s Supper. This is a preparatory membership class offered to young adolescents turning 12 years old this year as well as high school students. The Pastoral Team takes turn in handling the sessions every Saturday from 10 am to 12 noon. Topics include the UCCP Statement of Faith, Church History, Worship and Sacraments and Church Membership Responsibilities. Part of the curriculum are exposure and field trips to different churches with historical connections to SCCD and her outreach areas. Spiritual Advisers will be assigned to each of them as prayer partners and Bible sponsors to be recognized during their Reception on March 20, Maundy Thursday.

Watch for the following special events and visitors to come!

• Pinag-isang Puso on February 10, which will come in two parts – Part 1 Panel Discussion with invited guests most of whom are members of Unida Church on the topic, “Balancing Marital Life and Parenting Responsibility”; Part 2 Pre-Valentine Dinner Dance. Registration fee is P100.00/couple or P50.00/head. To take leadership over this activity is the Board of Christian Education under the leadership of Pastor Grace Fe Inocentes, CE Intern Pastor and BCE Chairperson Sis. Miriam Gerero

• Visit of ICFLC Chairperson Ms. Jill King on March 2, 2008. Mrs. Jill King is the chairperson of the International Committee of the Fellowship of the Least Coin, a prayer movement for justice, peace and reconciliation whose committee’s new Executive Secretary for the next five years is a Filipina, Ms. Corazon Tabing-Reyes. This is why the headquarters now of ICFLC is in the Philippines because of its tradition that wherever the country of residence of the Executive Secretary is, that’s where the ICFLC office will be set up. SCCD was chosen as Ms. Jill King’s host church on March 2 because of its faithful practice of Least Coin offering for peace and reconciliation in the Sunday services and Wednesday Prayer services. She will join in worship after which a luncheon fellowship will be hosted with the Church Council officers to be followed by a visit to some of the shut-ins being Communion Sunday and a visit to Simborio Outreach. A dinner will close this visit at the home of CWA President Ms. Miriam Gerero. It will indeed be a “Day with SCCD” for Ms. King.

• Easter Sunday Welcome Fellowship and Cultural Presentation on March 23, 2008 immediately after the Easter Sunrise Service to welcome our Mission workers from the US, the Shields Family comprised by Debbie Shields and Bob Feldman with their teenage sons Alex and Jay who will be arriving on March 15 with the Frani couple Efren and Louie. The Shields Family planned to come to the Philippines more than a year ago moved by a strong spirit to serve. Debbie will conduct “reiki” healing sessions not only within Cavite area but also in Mindanao and the Visayas while the sons together with the father will help build up and upgrade the DLA Computer Lab. All CROs and other groups like children and choir are expected to prepare a presentation with Filipiniana theme and Filipino cultural galore to bring cheers to our visitors. Let them have a taste of Filipino hospitality!

“Be-ing a Caring Body of Christ”

I try to recall that parable I heard and even read somewhere of a person seeing a vision of “heaven” and “hell.” According to the story she was led in a tour by St. Peter while she was lay dying on bed. St Peter showed her two doors, one leading to hell and the other to heaven. She was not told which is which but by what she saw in each of them she easily identified which was heaven and which was hell. In the first door, she saw people seated around a dining table with delicious food spread all over and each of them was holding a spoon with a handle longer than their arms. They were all quiet, sullen with anger in their eyes and very famished that they looked like zombies. Despite the sumptuous dinner set before them they were all malnourished for they could not reach the food with their long handle-spoon. She left that room feeling sorry for those persons whom she saw living in plenty yet hungry.

When St. Peter opened the other door she was stunned by a great feasting and revelry. Compared to the food next door, this wasn’t as sumptuous yet people here were happy and well fed. They were also holding a long-handle spoon but what made the difference was that the people were feeding each other knowing that such kind of spoon would never feed themselves and eat on their own. The “tourist” got what St. Peter was perhaps trying to teach her on heaven and hell. Indeed either a person perishes in hell because of conceit or self-centeredness or joyfully lives eternally in heaven because of sharing and carrying each other’s burden.

The Church, which the Apostle Paul described as the one Body of Christ, is designed to be a caring and sharing community of believers whose witness within attracts and brings people outside of the fold to God. The image of the body best describes what a church is and ought to be. Eugene Peterson in his book, “Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work” quoted another author, John A. T. Robinson in his classic study of Pauline anthropology, The Body. He said, “The flesh-body was not, what partitioned a man off from his neighbor; it was rather what bound him in the bundle of life with all men and nature, so that he could never make his unique answer to God as an isolated individual, apart from his relation to his neighbor.” “Instead of a mass of individuals,” Peterson added, “pebbles in a box, there was a consciousness of being one body, an individual in Christ and members of another.”[1]

The creation story in Genesis 2 reinforces this truth. The man’s (“adam” in Hebrew) identity as a man (“ish” in Hebrew) was firmed up when the woman was created by God from out of one of his ribs. The man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman (“ishah”) for out of Man (“ish”) this one was taken. Prior to the creation of woman, it was God who saw that it is not good for a man to be alone, thus, forming every animal of the field and bird of the air in the Garden of Eden. This shows that all God’s creatures find identity in each other and not in isolation. There is connectedness and interdependence. Hence, as John Robinson pointed out, “the flesh-body is what bound a person in the bundle of life with other persons and nature.”

The man’s position in the garden as “tiller” and “keeper” with the woman as helper teaches responsibility in the context of partnership and not dominion or lording over. It is realizing that when one hurts another, that person also hurts him/herself for their body parts are interconnected. The hurt inflicted whether necessary or unnecessary must be recognized as also his/her hurt. It is only in this sense that solidarity in community life would be strengthened. Therefore, to be a “body of Christ” is to affirm our connectedness as God’s creatures and drawing our center from the Head who is holding the whole body together. To affirm our connectedness is to care for each other not in the emotional or “romantic” sense as has always been associated with the word “love” but to commit to the wellness and wholeness of each other no matter what it takes. To commit to the wholeness of each other is a decision, a resolve where “walking out” of each one at the height of conflict is not entertained in our thoughts.

To be a caring Body of Christ is a lifelong process of “becoming,” that is why our theme emphasizes “be-ing.” We don’t become caring and compassionate in a “twinkling of an eye.” It is a process requiring effort but drawing from the grace and mercies of God in Christ Jesus. February is Membership Renewal Month in the UCCP. As we focus our meditations on this theme, may it truly be a serious community endeavor of lifting each other up and carrying one another’s burden.

“True community does not come into being because people have feelings for each other (though that is required, too), but rather on two accounts: all of them have to stand in a living, reciprocal relationship to a single living center, and they have to stand in a living, reciprocal relationship to one another. The second event has its source in the first but is not immediately given with it. A living reciprocal relationship includes feelings but is not derived from them. A community is built upon a living, reciprocal relationship, but the builder is the living, active center.” Martin Buber[2]

/ Lectionary and Schedule of Preachers for February 2008
Membership Renewal MonthTheme:
“Be-ing a Caring Body of Christ” Gal. 6:2
February 3 – Communion Sunday “Christ’s Body Broken for Us”
OT: Leviticus 7:1-15 NT: 1 Corinthians 10:14-22
Preacher: Pastor Leng Lubang/CYAF Choir
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February 10 – “A New Commandment: Love One Another”
OT: Exodus 22:21-27NT: John 13:34-38
Preacher: Pastor Grace Fe Inocentes/Children’s Choir
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February 17 – “Caring in Woundedness”
OT: Isaiah 53:7-12NT: Luke 23:39-43
Preacher: Pastor Leng Lubang/UCM
Testimony on Stewardship: Elder Amparo “Baby” Sapida
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February 24 – “The Freedom of Caring”
OT: Deuteronomy 10:14-22 NT: Galatians 5:13-26
Preacher: Sis. Wilma Pelagio/CYF Choir

Getting to know our new church members

• Vivian Apolinar. Vivian was brought to the SCCD fold by Bro. Renee Cantada whose connection with the Apolinar family started through Vivian’s children who love to hang out and help Bro. Renee in his farm beside Mary Cris subdivision. She has six children with the younger ones now attending the Sunday school regularly. These children are Jobin, 17; Dionisio Jr., 15; Francis, 12; Izza Mae, 11, Mikko Dave, 7 and John Paul, 1. Her husband’s stay-in work in Manila keeps him from joining the family in worship on Sundays, thus, Vivian is seen alone most of the time on Sundays with her small children tailing behind. Vivian relates that her almost four months of attending SCCD has brought her to an intimate relationship with God and has seen her through especially the past several months of trials in their family. They live in Mary Cris subdivision.

• Rhaulyn John Arsenio. Rhaulyn is the younger brother of Cherry Pie Madrid who just moved late November to Cavite from Mindanao. In the two sessions, Rhaulyn unabashedly shared his young adult life in Mindanao with good and stable job but spiritually empty until God found him. Deciding to turn back from a life too close to temptation, he came to Cavite to live with his sister’s family and found a spiritual home in SCCD. He longs to find a job here in the area and get accepted in any of the companies he recently applied to.

• Abelardo and Ethel Dacua. This couple Ethel and Boy have been residents of Mary Cris subdivision for already nine years when they finally decided to attend SCCD regularly last year January and be a member. It took a tragedy to bring them back to church. Their youngest child, Angel, died of sudden death in January 2007 at age 3 triggered by diarrhea. It was during this time when thru Dyna and Andy Bolotaolo they sought pastoral service from SCCD for their child’s funeral. Since then the family had been attending SCCD and they have even opened a Children’s Saturday Outreach class in their place and also an Adult BS group. Ethel and Boy are UCCP members in Zamboanga City in Mindanao. Their four other children who are all girls include Kishee Marri, 14; Kiara Mae, 11; Keena Kassandra Luke, 10 and Keith Yance, 8.

• Ma. Angela “Anne” Ferrer. Anne is a resident of nearby Greensborough subdivision. She entered the doors of SCCD sanctuary in August when she decided to look for a church nearby as the church where she used to goes to is quite far. She came from a large family of 10 whose ancestral lineage is from Iloilo but her late father’s military job brought them to Manila. Their purchase of a unit in Greensborough brought them to Sabang, Dasmarinas which they have considered as their home. Anne is a single parent supporting three children, Kim Adam, 19; Alyanna Eva, 15 and Ken Nathaniel, 5 with an office job in Sta. Elena Golf, Sta. Rosa, Laguna. She comes home only on weekends, thus, her hunger for intimate moments with her family and also with God whose presence she experiences at SCCD.

• Liwayway Gealogo. Liway was led to SCCD through the adult Bible Study in the Dacua home at Mary Cris where she lives with her 12 year old child, Angelito. Also a single parent, quiet and quite reserved Liway expressed in her story her spiritual searching which in some ways worship at SCCD is filling up. Liway could be seen on Sundays seated with Mary Ann, also a newly recognized member.

• Mary Ann Margallo. Also a participant of the Adult Bible Study at Dacua Home in Mary Cris, Mary Ann had been attending SCCD Sunday worship services for some time now, thus, the decision to be a member of SCCD is a product of this regular worship attendance, not to mention the BS sessions. A Manila born, Mary Ann moved just a few years ago to Mary Cris with her three children Kenneth Roger, 11; Froilan, 10 and Carlos, 5. Her husband is an Overseas Filipino Worker currently based in Korea.

• Danny and Aleli Tio. This couple is not really that new to the SCCD community having been worshippers here since 2005 and Aleli working as part time librarian at the DLA. Aleli also served for some time as SCCD’s bookkeeper. It took them a long time to finally accept the invitation to attend the Membership/Discovery Class and formalize their membership. The reason was Danny’s job which eats most of his weekdays even weekends included. Since their move to Parklane in the early 2000s they have always prayed for a church where they would be nurtured spiritually as a family until they chanced upon SCCD through Sam Tabiando, Danny’s former high school classmate in Mindanao who, by divine coincidence, he met at a bus ride going home. Danny and Aleli have four children all girls, Mary Mei, 10; twins Marie Danice and Mariel Daniela, 7 and Mary Michele Dian, 4.