Beloved.
This is the theme for this year's Metro Manila Conference. It happens to be my first MMC, the second conference I took part on as a full-pledged member of the Singles for Christ ministry. As always, I'm more than excited not just for myself, but also for our brothers and sisters, especially the new ones, who will be attending the MMC. Adding to the excitement is that this will be celebrated in Subic, Zambales, a place known for its cleanliness and orderliness. It's time to experience another refreshing and blissful weekend for our Lord God.
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Day 1, July 19, 2013.
We scheduled our trip early Friday morning as to arrive at the venue before the event starts. I had Zel, Jeff, Ate Gemma, Boss Bent and Jhoy with me on a 3 and a half-hour trip to our accommodation. Just in time for the beginning of the conference, we proceeded to the venue, the Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center.
A celebration of the Holy Eucharist is first on schedule to bless the entire festivities. Time was allotted for dinner. Participants started filling in the venue to set the biggest attendance record in the history of MMC. Moments later, we had our opening worship and the first talk:
Love Never Ending.
Like Talks 1 and 2 of the CLP, we had a restatement of the topics on God's Love and Who is Jesus Christ today. It is then essential to answer the question "who is Jesus Christ to you?" The best response each one of us can give is through our personal relationship with Him. He can be a friend, a best friend, and a father to us. This is one of the many ways the Lord showed His love for us.
The story of Nathanael (John 1:46-51) highlighted the first day of the MMC. This is about how Nathanael had answered an invitation from Phillip to meet Jesus. Having uncertainties initially for Jesus is from Nazareth, Nathanael still responded. He came and saw Him. Just by their first meeting, Nathanael understood the greatness of Jesus and became a good follower. Also mentioned in the story is the fig tree where Nathanael first saw Jesus. The fig tree is a sign of blessing and peace. This further convinced Nathanael and made him utter the words of praise and blessing to the Lord.
Each of us has our own fig trees and invitations. How we will use and respond to them will make a great deal in our lives. We are invited by God to love Him.
"God places in every heart a longing and desire to know the one who created us in love and for love." God created us. He created us with love.
For He love us so much, he is UNCEASINGLY inviting us to experience His love. "God longs to give himself and be more to each of us PERSONALLY."
"His love is Universal. His brand of loving is intimate and personal." We should response through these ways as well, for it is only through His love that enabled us to love back.
We had three sharers to nourish us more about the topic. First in line is Bro. Aldrin. Something remarkable about his tale is how he brought SFC to his workplace. It is not an easy task, considering the nature of his work. Despite the tediousness of the job, he came out successful in evangelizing some of his colleagues and brought them closer to God.
Second are couple coordinators Bro. Binoy and Sis. Mariz. A combination of a love story and service, their narration inspired the participants to keep on "running the race even when we wait."
The last sharer is Sis. Rona. A non-SFC member when she attended her first ICON, she immediately experienced how great is our God, and from then on, she continued what was an unexpected start and lit the fire of service for the community.
Day one is done. The next day will be a full one for sure.
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Day 2, July 20
It is the Workshop Day. Before the MMC started, we already had decided on which workshops to attend to. I believed each of my brothers and sisters have gained inspiration and insights from the talks and experiences. Let me share my story.
I had no second doubts upon seeing the list of workshops and decided what I want. I love to write, to be a Shakespeare in Love. Armed with my pen and notebook, I joined El and Alex in this learning opportunity.
Our presenter for this workshop is Sis. Sam. Before the talk proper, she discussed one of the recent trends : the Social Media and how it is and should be related to writing/blogging. As an interactive medium, there are some points to observe in the use of social media. Here are they:
1. Avoid posting direct preachy messages. There are other ways on how to inspire others. We may not necessarily write or post something that will sound like we're preaching. It depends on our delivery, and there are a lot of ways to do so.
2. Living out the Christian Life. We are called to live according to His words.
3. Do not only preach to the choir. We had lots of groups aside from our inner circles that need guidance. Let us share the word to everyone. After all, we are commissioned by Christ, just like the first disciples, to spread the good news all over the world.
Writing/Blogging proper tips. I found these very interesting and hopes to observe them.
- Be bold
- Be creative
- Be relevant
Simple words, yet very meaningful. This can greatly improve ones writing if conformed with.
Some simple steps in blogging.
- Pray. Start from the heart. "Whatever flows from our hearts are always the best masterpieces we can create."
- Throw kites. Strict observance of grammar, technical writing tools and getting swayed by other's reactions will not help much. We are free to express the love of God in many ways. Just like our dreams, we can never know how high our kites can fly when thrown up in the windy sky. Share our personal truths. A simple and honest sharing of experience would be a good example.
- Goldmine of inspiration. Make God an inspiration in writing. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. (Phil 4:13).
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Some other concepts on blogging:
Psychology - everything that makes you tick and makes you uniquely you.
Marketing - using our own concept, a one-of-a-kind packaging
Art - layout, color scheme, font.
Communication - writing style and voice
Mathematics - statistics, numbers, monitoring of views
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The Sandwich Principle on Blogging
Start with Christ
Arrange (Architect and Gardener)
New
Develop patterns
Write
Inspire
Be Honest
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Just before the workshop ended, we were tasked to write a blog about one of the topics on first crush, recent blessing, and a favorite movie. I came up with one of my favorite topics from my previous posts years ago, and the words just kept flowing in.
We had our lunch after the workshops and we're back to the main hall. Time for another talk, with Fr. Noel on stage.
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Obedience and Discipleship
An interesting start of the talk was the communication cycle presented by Fr. Noel. The Speaker-Message-Listener-Feedback-Speaker... and so on cycle was replaced by a great manifestation of how we should obey God. By putting God first, Revealing Him to Man, Faith happens and Man will believe in God, and so on.
"We walk by faith and only hindsight is 20-20."
This is how our lives will be if we follow the cycle above. We need not fear being in unknown territory or situation (terra incognita). Everything else will have the feeling of familiarity, of knowing (terra firma).
"When you radically obey, you will radically be blessed." Good things come to those who believe and follow Him.
Fr. Noel mentioned stories about David. Here are some of the essential points in these stories:
"Don't settle for partial victories.'
"The pain of discipline is temporary but the pain of compromise is permanent."
"Destiny is worth fighting for."
"What you cannot confront, you cannot conquer; and what you cannot conquer will taunt you for the rest of your life."
All these could be connected to our dreams. Some words to ponder on how we can reach the dreams we're longing for.
Therefore, we must: humble ourselves, have a made-up mind, and go on our knees.
"God determines our destiny."
"You are not what people label you."
"The size of your enemy indicates the size of your destiny."
Also tackled was the story of Rahab, one of the few women mentioned in the Genealogy of Christ. The story teaches that:
"Just one touch of God's favor can change your life."
And more importantly, to move forward, we must get rid of self-pity. "We have our own races to run. Give everyday a chance."
A cute story was narrated by Fr. Noel to emphasize the meaning of the statements above. The contrasting stories of the Dog and the cat indicates that we can always see things and treat them as "my favorite", and everything will be on a positive note, instead of the cat who is vengeful and keeps on whining at almost everything. We can always say thank you and be grateful for everything, even the not-so-good ones.
That I think is one of the better sessions for the entire Day 2 of MMC. :)
Evening came and the last set of talks for the day started.
Beloved
Sis. Maan conducted this talk: one of the day's highlights as well. We will go back to the theme. Since we are created by God, there is always a desire for God imprinted in our hearts. We are God's beloved children (Jn 3:16).
Today's world poses several obstacles for man to be God's beloved. They are:
1. Attachment to the cares and riches of the world - We should prioritize total loyalty and commitment instead.
2. Blinded by Ignorance - The story of Judas teaches us not to be indifferent. We must be intimate to God so we can imitate His love.
3. Attachment to sin - The the Samaritan woman by the well tells us the power of conversation to conversion.
God tells us:
You are my Beloved.
I love you.
You are mine.
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Be loved.
-Fear
-Doubt
-Inadequacy
-Unforgiveness
-Sins and Death
God's love is so powerful. We just need to totally surrender ourselves and fully submit it to Him. This we have manifested through the prayer sessions with our partners from the entire community. It is just like confession, but has a different twist in it; the results are all the same : a lighter heart, more understanding and a heart free from fear, doubt, inadequacy, unforgiveness and sins.
Day 2 has just ended. We are about to give our all in the last day of MMC.
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Day 3, July 21.
Yes, it is already the last day of MMC. Again, the Holy Mass was celebrated before we begin with the activities. The opening worship fired us up , and it kept ablaze the whole time.
Bro. Bob took over the stage for the conference's last session. We are back where it all started: with God's love. Some of the characteristics of this are as follows:
- Free
- Total
- Faithful
- Fruitful
We must also be reminded of the greatest commandments He gave us. To love our god with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul and all our strength; and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
The response is easy to remember and needs full commitment:
Sustainable active membership growth
Faithful in stewardship of time, talent and treasure
CFC integration
The reinforce these topics, we had another wave of sharers. Bro. Rene started with his story on how he overcame self pity and poverty. It was such an inspiring story, could be one of the common success stories but it is still in the writing process. The initial obstacles brought about by being born in a not-so-well-off family and self-pity has already passed. He just made them an inspiration to keep on struggling.
"Lahat ng struggle, may purpose." True indeed, and the blessing kept on coming after he was introduced to the community.
Sis. Jen told her story of service in prison, GK and Cornerstone, and how these services has improved her outlook and relationship with her family.
After the sharing, we had our final activity - the wearing of the cross. Everyone, from the Core Team down to the chapter members received our crosses, a symbol of God's Love for our salvation.
The weekend filled with love has come to a close. The events may have ended, but the love we received remains and keeps on burning within us. We will share and love others, for God has loved us first.
For all these, May God be Praised!
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