UPDATE from WCG PHILIPPINES

An official weekly e-mail newsletter from the Worldwide Church of God in the Philippines

Bukidnon Brethren Celebrates Festival 2008

Over 400 brethren from 4 local churches of Bukidnon namely: Kiara, Maramag, Quezon and Valencia gathered for 4 days (October 23-26) at the Kiara Church worship hall to celebrate this year's festival celebration with the theme, "Building a foundation through love and acceptance." The festival created an opportunity for all the brethren to have a great family reunion among themselves and with the Triune God. Longtime friends and family got to see each other again and enjoyed each other's company as a community of believers.

On the first day, Pastor Jessup Bahinting was the guest speaker followed by Pastor Levi Yuson on the second day. Area Superintendent Len Joson spoke on the third and fourth day. All through the 4 days, the speakers spoke solely on the greatness of God's love for humanity. The speakers challenged the brethren to respond to God's great love accordingly.

Other activities during the 4-day festival were: a talent show, couples/seniors night, sports and family day, dance night, and youth and singles night. Additionally, Area Supt. Len Joson met with the church leadership and conducted a seminar on small groups and discussed with them various matters affecting the local churches in Bukidnon.

What was truly inspiring during this festival was the response of the youths to the messages given. After every sermon, the youths responded to God's love by being baptized at the baptismal pool inside the Kiara Church building. It was like an SEP camp once again because all of the 22 who were baptized were youths with ages ranging from 13 to 20. (More story at http://lenjoson.blogspot.com)

All throughout the festival, the atmosphere was filled with love and friendship. Great is God's love (1 John 3:1)!

WCG Ipil Hosts Festival 2008 for Zamboanga Region Brethren

WCG Ipil hosted this year's with the theme, "A Joyful Celebration of our Glorious Hope in Jesus Christ" with 138 people attending from the two local churches of Ipil and Zamboanga City and two Outreach Bible Study (OBS) areas of Labuan in Zamboanga City and Manil in LP Postigo, Zamboanga del Norte.

The festivities began with an afternoon worship of October 24 followed by dinner fellowship "Barrio Fiesta" style and three hour of variety show which showcased the various talents of brethren from the attending churches/OBS. Two hours of non-stop dancing, singing, skits and drama pantomime. The evening was capped by one a one hour of "Mga Panid sa Handurawan" where selected participants sang old time all-Cebuano love songs complete with "phone in" requests and commercials hosted by three anchor persons from the BCF Youth.

The following day the 25th was a whole day Youth Jam held at the most popular resort in the province of Zamboanga Sibugay. Forty two young people participated in various games, sports, Bible quiz and a frolic in the resort's swimming pool later in the afternoon and while the young people have their day children ages 9 and below were also having their own Children's Hour where they were treated with a Jollibee Party together with the Jollibee Mascot. Later in the evening a couple's night was held for the attending couples where a dance clinic was held with the Villamil couple as instructor and host of the night. The couples participated in various games and received different prizes and were treated refreshments and finger foods especially prepared by the Balatero couple. The couple's night was also a memorable event for the couple Jomar and Jonalyn who were married during the night the wedding was solemnized by the pastor of WCG Ipil.

The following day, Sunday, was the final day of the festival. The day's activities was started with a final worship service which was held in another resort in Ipil where two people the couple Alex and Connie Potes committed their lives to Christ through water baptism. The speaker in the worship service was Ptr. Ven Jaralve of Zamboanga City church. After the service was a family day and a lunch which was again hosted by WCG Ipil brethren it was final meal of the "Barrio Fiesta" of the festival. Everyone went home encouraged, joyful and rejuvenated bacause the final message of the speaker is "Festival 2008-A Reunion of the Family of God." To God belongs all the praises of the success of this year's festival! --Bert Colona, WCG Ipil

CRF-SL Celebrates 3rd Year Anniversary

Last July several members from Christ The Rock Fellowship-Sta.Lucia (Nagcarlan, Laguna) attended Dunamis Evangelism training. It was sponsored by Alliance of Christian Churches in Nagcarlan (ACCIN) where our church is a member. This equipping has inspired a member to share the gospel to his neighbors and friends. Another husband and wife team shared the good news to their friends and relatives. This experience resulted in ten new baptisms last September 21, which bring the membership of our daughter church, officially at fifty. Praise God for the increase!

A week after baptism, September 28, CRF-SL celebrated it's third year Church Anniversary. It was held at a basketball court because our chapel can accommodate only 70 people. It was a joint Worship Service of San Pablo City and Brgy. Sta. Lucia Churches and Rizal OBS. We had a record attendance of 168 people. Our theme this year was from Psalm 23:3, "Restoring Our Soul".

As I look back during our first anniversary, our Area Superintendent, Dr. Rey Taniajura, declared us a church. During our second anniversary, we expanded our chapel because of the growing attendance. The Lord has been blessing our church in quantity and this year through the message that was given, it was made clear that our church also need to grow in quality. We give thanks and praises for the growth that we experienced to Almighty God! --Pastor Claro Ting

Evangelistic Activities at Jesus Living Word

Last September 17, 2008 was the first of its kind for the Jesus Living Word to conduct its first crusade at Sitio Kalarion, Barangay Rizal, San Carlos City, Negros Occidental. This was the first time because the International Care Ministry Philippines, Inc., (ICMPI) a parachurch, supported the crusade on the film showing. This was also the first time that the United Negros Interdenominational Ministers Association and the Church Multiplication Coalition, consisting of 14 pastors, joined and helped to make the crusade successful. Before the film showing started, the 14 pastors helped distribute leaflets and invitations to the residents of Sitio Kalarion. The film showing lasted for an hour and more than 150 persons attended and witnessed the occasion. During the altar call, around 120 new people came forward and accepted Jesus Christ.

In another event on September 19 following the film showing, the ICMPI sponsored an Open Air Clinic hosted by the local church of Jesus Living Word, WCG San Carlos City. The nearby residents were given free medical consultation and medicine.

Around 69 persons of the 72 who attended accepted and received Jesus Christ during the altar call. All the events including the previous film showing gave Jesus Living Word the biggest challenge for the first time considering the few laborers who are presently available to follow-up those who just accepted and received Jesus Christ. --Pastor Laurencio Sabanal Jr.

Back to Basics: Singles Conference this December 26-29!

Visit this site for more details: http://cebu.wcgweb.org. Or contact Vee Dequito for more details at +63906-295-9974.

2008 Festival Schedule

These festivals are not commanded assemblies found in Leviticus 23. We are not keeping "old covenant" practices. This is not the Feast of Tabernacles. Rather, these festivals are opportunities for brethren to gather together as one big family, some kind of a big family reunion. This is also an opportunity for brethren to worship God together as a big group, one big family. Thanks be to God we have this freedom to do so. Have a wonderful family reunion with the brethren and with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

Cagayan de Oro City - October 31 - November 2. Contact person: Ptr. Rollen Olango at +63927-345-5522.

Dumaguete City - October 31 - November 2. Le Toundra Peak, Bacong, Negros Oriental. Contact person: Ptr. Angelo Ouano at +63915-804-4740.

Davao City - November 1-2. Contact person: Dr. Boy Garcia at +63916-267-3168.

Speaking of Life 112: Water into Wine

Dr. Joseph Tkach

The Gospel of John tells an interesting story that took place near the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. He went to a wedding and turned water into wine. At first glance, this miracle seems unimportant, more along the line of a magician’s trick than dealing with human suffering like Jesus’ other miracles.

John knew about more of Jesus’ miracles than he had room to write about, and yet he chose this one as the first to mention in his book. In John 20, verses 30 and 31, we read:

“Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

How does this miracle of changing water into wine help achieve John’s purpose—to help us believe that Jesus is the Christ? How does it show that Jesus is the Messiah, rather than a mere magician (as the Jewish Talmud later claimed him to be)?

The story begins with a wedding in the small Galilee village of Cana. Weddings were the biggest and most important celebrations among the first century Jewish people—a weeklong party that displayed the social status of the new family in the community.

Weddings were such joyous occasions that when people wanted to describe the blessings of the messianic age, they often used a wedding banquet as a metaphor. In some of his parables, Jesus used the image of a wedding banquet to describe the kingdom of God.

At this wedding in Cana, the wine ran out early, something of a disaster for the host. Mary told Jesus about it, and he responded in an unusual way. He said, “Why do you involve me?”

In other words, what does this have to do with me? “My time has not yet come.”

Even so – even though his time had not yet come – Jesus did something anyway.

In this way, John lets us know that what Jesus is doing is somehow ahead of its time. The messianic banquet is not yet here in its fullness, and yet Jesus was already at work.

Now there happened to be six stone water containers standing nearby, and they were not regular water jars, John tells us—they were the kind the Jews used for ceremonial washing. They held more than 20 gallons of water each—far too heavy for picking up and pouring.

Jesus turned all this ceremonial water, whose sole use was for the ritual purity of those who were cleansed by it, into wine of the highest quality.

What Jesus did at Cana was far more than solve the problem of an embarrassed host who ran out of wine. The ceremonial water represented the Law of Moses, by which sinners were judged guilty and condemned to death. The wine symbolized the blood of Jesus, by which sinners are judged forgiven and called to new life in Christ.

John included this miracle because it symbolized a transformation from the Law of Moses to the new and better covenant in Jesus’ blood.

The point of the miracle is that the death penalty imposed on sinners by the Law of Moses is overwhelmed by Jesus’ atoning sacrifice, by which the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit forgave and removed all the sins of humanity through Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension on our behalf.

And the ritual purity provided by the Law is overwhelmed by the true righteousness of Christ offered to the Father on our behalf and in our place.

The lesson John wants us to understand is that the spiritual cleansing that comes by Jesus’ blood supersedes the ritual purity of the Law, as well as any other means we might think we have of being righteous before God.

Just as Jesus transformed the ritual water into wine, so he transformed the relationship between humanity and God, replacing the Law that kills with new life in him.

Comments from our Subscribers

"Thank you for the recent updates. It is always a joy to learn about the recent activities of our brethren in the Philippines and how His Word is being shared with others.

I just came back from attending this year's Thanksgiving Celebration of Christ in Penticton, BC. Ptr. Joseph Tkach Jr. was one of the speakers. In the course of giving a brief overview of what's happening in various congregations of the WCG around the world he mentioned the unbounded enthusiasm of the brethren in the Philippines for spreading the gospel and the growth of the work there." --From Canada

"Thank you for your labor of love. This issue (October 10 Weekly Update) truly warmed my heart bringing warm memories in the past. Always remembering you and your family and the important work you do. Blessings..." --From China

Links: WCG Philippines website: http://philippines.wcg.org. Blog/forum site for youths and singles: http://lenjoson.blogspot.com.

Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you." (2 Thessalonians 3:1)