Calvary Chapel Pre-Valentine's 2008

GOD IS LOVE. (1 John 4:8)

February 13, 2008. T'was the night before Valentine's Day. We decided to make the midweek service a pre-Valentine celebration instead. The youth group, Pastor Mark, and I organized a special service to be able to focus on the topic of love and courtship from God's perspective.


We invited young people and a lot of them came, including those from Central Philippine University, John B. Lacson University, and West Visayas State University.


We had fun with the games. There were two games: the plane fight, and the heart-match puzzle. The young people were able to get to know each other and interact with new peers. This was a fun way to build fellowship.





We gave away prizes for these as well.


I led worship as we rocked out with loud praise that night. So it was more of a youth service /singles night than it was a regular midweek Bible study.




Pastor Mike taught on the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 13, and taught us how to keep the Lord Jesus central in the area of relationships. He also gave opportunity for those who didn't know the Lord to receive Him that night into their hearts as their personal Lord and Savior.


After the message we sang some songs and distributed food to those who came.












May we always love one another with the same love God has shown us in Christ Jesus. And not just on Valentine's.

Calvary Chapel of Iloilo 6th Year Anniversary

"till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ...speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ..."

- Ephesians 4:13, 15

On February 10, 2008, Calvary Chapel of Iloilo celebrated its 6th year anniversary. We are six years as local church, and this year we used the theme "Being perfected in Christ through faith and love."


Our guest this year is Pastor Mike Ramsey, our missionary pastor who first came to Iloilo and started Calvary Chapel here. He arrived on a Friday night, and we were able to spend time with him while at the same time preparing for the anniversary celebration.



On Saturday, we made our final preparations especially with the worship team and the setup of the gym we were going to rent for the occasion. We had to stay up late, but it's a joy to be preparing and serving the Lord in even the small things.

On Sunday was the service proper. We celebrated in the gym as we worshiped the Lord together with joyful singing. Me and Pastor Mark led the worship songs and the congregation joyfully and powerfully praised the Lord for His goodness and faithfulness to our lives and to the local church. The songs we sang included God of Wonders, Unchanging, and How Can I Keep From Singing?


My mom led the congregation to hold hands and pray together as one body of Christ, including the nation of the Philippines in the prayer.

I also did the Scripture reading on Proverbs 30, the climax to the book of Proverbs, featuring the words of Agur.

Pastor Mike taught on Ephesians 4:7-16. This is where our theme for this year is based on. The essence of it is that we are all part of the body of Christ in this local church and everyone is gifted by God to function in a unique way. But first he played a video his wife made about their family in the U.S. and what God is doing in their lives.


After the message we worshiped the Lord with one more song, The Potter's Hand.

We had fellowship together over lunch. The food went by fast.




We also had special presentations from Calvary Kids, the Sentinels of Christ youth ministry, the housemates, and me and Vicente's instantly-formed band.


After that, since the gym was still ours until 5:00 pm, we had fun playing around the gym. It was a badminton gym.


The celebration didn't end with games. Some of us stayed behind to clean up and make sure things are arranged and stored back where they belong.


Lingering is something we do when we just want to stay behind and fellowship. We lingered at the church office until it was time to eat dinner. The sleeping guy is Lester, sleeping on his sister Joenah's lap.


Together with Pastor Mike, some of us went to Barbecue Park for a dinner fellowship. At the end of a busy celebration, it was nice to sit down and eat.