Philippines Redux 3: Community

This may be my final post from my time in the Philippines (coming only 4 months since I left--sorry about that). However, it's probably the most important for me personally. Through the graciousness of a friend-of-a-friend, I got connected with fellow Christians in my area of Manila, both in a local church (Rejoice Family Church) and the University of the Philippines' chapter of Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ). These folks welcomed me into their community during my short stay in the country, for which I am incredibly grateful, and I wanted to let you all get to know some of them.

Pastor Ojie (center) with colleagues outside Rejoice

Rejoice Family Church is pastored by my friend-of-a-friend's dad, Pastor Ojie Bumanglag (Ojie is a nickname; most people in the Philippines have nicknames!). He came to the church about five years ago and sort of 're-started' the church as 'Rejoice.' Now they are ministering to the homeless and drug addicts in the area (the church calls this ministry "the Beloved," a wonderful way to look at it) and is planting churches around Manila and in the provinces around. I had the privilege of being present for the church's fifth anniversary, pictured below. They were beginning what the church called 'the Year of Sending'!

5th anniversary celebration at Rejoice

Brother Toto (left), working with kids in the mountains.

Speaking of sending, one of my friends from the church, Brother Toto (also a nickname; I made no reference to The Wizard of Oz until just now), an incredibly sweet saint who serves as the church's choir director and children's minister. Brother Toto has faithfully checked in with me and prayed for me throughout my time since leaving the Philippines, which has been a wonderful encouragement. He is now beginning service with Servants International's ministry to the urban poor (see more at http://m.servantsasia.org/app/philippines/2163130/36/). In fact, he's beginning his orientation right now. If you would like to support his ministry, please get in touch with me and I can help connect you to Brother Toto.

The young folks at Rejoice introduced me to
good etiquette: before you eat, you have to pray, and take a picture.

The young people at Rejoice also took me in, introducing me to some Philippine delicacies, including halo-halo, the great Philippine dessert (and metaphor for the country?). Halo-halo means 'mix-mix' in Tagalog, so the dessert includes ice cream, shaved ice, milk, jellies, sweet beans, and anything else you can think of. It's good. In the picture here, they introduced me to kare-kare, a stew made with a really thick peanut sauce. Not quite peanut butter, but getting there. Don't knock it until you try it--it's delicious!

The Markists.

At the University of the Philippines, I enjoyed joining the Campus Crusade branch's Wednesday prayer meetings, as well as going out on campus to share the Gospel. Since I had not been involved with Campus Crusade before, one of their leaders trained me with their materials, and we became good friends, partly because of our common name: Mark! His name, however, is Mark Lenin--his father was a communist and wanted to name him Marx Lenin, but the nurse refused, and wrote Mark Lenin on the birth certificate. (Both Mark Lenin and I describe ourselves as Markists.) Mark was and continues to be a very good friend, and I caught him at the tail end of his involvement in campus ministry, as he has now moved on to working with young professionals.






This kind of community is helpful from a practical standpoint: no matter where one goes in the world, there are likely fellow believers in Christ ready and willing to welcome you into their families. But at its heart it teaches a spiritual truth, which the book of Hebrews expresses as follows:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2, ESV)

This is the Christian church at its best: a cloud of witnesses, past and present, motivating one another on to run with endurance, unified not by language or culture or skin or even how exactly we practice our faith, but "looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith." As people, Christians are no better than others, and as a historian I can attest to the many failings of Christians in the past and present. But still we keep going, keep running with endurance, with the transcendent, spiritual strength of God's Holy Spirit empowering us and the great cloud of witnesses encouraging us.

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And now for something completely different: some workout ideas!