Engage

Building Healthy Communities in Pasig and Quezon City

December 1, 2017

As a church, we believe that we have a part to play in building our nation. There is still so much to be done in the Philippines, but we are in faith that every contribution will lead to transformation.

Two months ago, God opened an opportunity for us to engage the communities of Barangay Kapasigan in Pasig and Barangay San Antonio in Quezon City by providing free medical consultations, dental services, eye check-ups, medicines, and vitamins. A hundred volunteers in Pasig and 142 volunteers in Quezon City, many of whom are doctors, nurses, optometrists, dentists, businessmen, BPO employees, housewives, students, and senior citizens, came together to serve the community with their skills and resources.

In total, 155 residents in Barangay Kapasigan and 455 people in the Barangay San Antonio community received medical services. We were grateful to see policemen, barangay officials, tricycle drivers, housewives, street vendors, employees, and students being blessed not only by the services, but also their interactions with our church community. We were privileged to also minister to persons needing counseling, and had the opportunity to share the love of God and the gospel with them.

It was a fruitful time and a moment of mutual encouragement for our volunteers and the barangay communities. We pray that, more than the medical services, the communities saw the Great Physician at work in and through the lives of His people. We are thankful to Barangay Kapasigan and Barangay San Antonio for letting us serve their communities. We would also like to thank all our volunteers who selflessly gave their time and effort for this activity.

Fear or Faith

October 23, 2017

When we preach the gospel, fear is one of the usual things we encounter. How do we respond to such instances? Let’s find out through the story of Damboo, a Victory group leader from Alabang and a volunteer at our Unashamed conference last August 2017.

After the second day of the Unashamed conference, I rode a jeepney on the way home and found a seat beside Kuya Manuel, a 59-year old jeepney driver who has been a tsuper for 47 years. I was excited to preach the gospel to him, so I engaged him in a conversation. As I talked to him, I realized that the passengers at the back could hear us. I began to doubt my ability to preach the gospel to kuya Manuel. I felt uncomfortable as I became aware of the situation. When I started to feel fear, I suddenly remembered the power of God that enables His children to be witnesses.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, ESV)

I prayed silently and asked God to guide me. In response, He told me, “Just go and share the gospel.” At his prompting, I immediately did The GOD Test with Kuya Manuel, and by God’s grace, he accepted Jesus as His Lord and Savior right there in his jeepney! I was amazed at how things turned out that night. I thanked God for giving me the courage and compassion to preach the gospel to Kuya Manuel. I couldn’t help but praise God for his power to move in our lives and in others. After my encounter with Kuya Manuel, I decided that I will go when He calls me to go. I will no longer give excuses when it comes to reaching out to people.

Damboo’s resolve to preach the gospel continues to grow as he serves. At present, he is preparing to join a Ten Days mission trip.

Like Damboo, we are faced with the challenge of giving in to fear or responding in faith everyday. In these situations, let us ask God to remind us of His power so we can walk in faith and courage.

We’re engaging future leaders in Antipolo

October 18, 2017

As a church, we are always on the lookout for opportunities to serve our communities in both big and small ways. This year, we had a chance to help out San Jose National High School, the second largest high school in Antipolo city.

San Jose National High School wanted to transform an abandoned lot behind one of their buildings into an eco-park for the students. We chose this project as our Brigada Eskwela initiative for the school. We offered to help them out and gathered more than 50 volunteers from Victory Antipolo. The volunteers helped dig, repaint, plant, landscape, cement, and clean up the area. We also provided food and donated paint, gravel, garden plants, and supplies for the project.

Through this initiative, we were not only able to help build a new facility, but we have also established genuine connections with the teachers and students of San Jose National High School. As we served the school, several doors opened for the gospel and discipleship. Some of their administrators are currently being engaged and followed up for personal discipleship. We were also given a chance to conduct the recollection for about 200 teachers of the school, where they will receive ministry from our pastors in Victory Antipolo.

The campus missionaries and volunteers from Every Nation Campus Antipolo are allowed to do The GOD Test and preach the gospel to students on-campus regularly. The eco-park is now also open for Victory groups to meet.

This partnership paved the way for further collaboration with the school as well. Through the “Sagip” program, which aims to help San Jose National High School students who are at risk of getting kicked out from the school, we connect with some of their students and conduct LIFE coaching meetings with them. We also praise God for using this chance to serve as a way for two students in San Jose National High School to become Real LIFE scholars.

We are grateful for the opportunity to honor God and make disciples in San Jose National High School. It is a delight to see change happening in campuses as we help future leaders come to Christ when we serve them.

Better Together in Engaging Communities in Metro Manila

October 4, 2017

This year, we made a commitment as a church to actively engage campuses and communities to preach the gospel in response to Matthew 5:13-14:

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

God called us to be salt and light to this world, so that people may hear the good news and come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. To obey this call, in March 2017, Victory in Metro Manila activated pastors, staff, and Victory group leaders to organize outreach initiatives that would impact their communities in positive ways.

Over the course of the next few months, 38 socially responsible initiatives were started to engage culture and community. Last September 30, we returned to several locations across Metro Manila with one goal: preach the gospel and help hundreds of Filipinos start their discipleship journeys!

In a day set aside to reach out to communities, we served students in campuses, families in barangays, inmates in correctional facilities, and officers in the army and national police among many others. We preached the gospel as we held seminars for students in schools such as Arellano University and Nangka Elementary School.

We also visited inmates in Silvercrest Rehab Center and several women’s correctional facilities to minister to them.

Medical clinics, parenting seminars, and values formation activities were also organized in barangays across Caloocan, Makati, Muntinlupa, Quezon City, and Santa Rosa. It was an exciting time to watch God move in and through His people!

We thank all the people who opened opportunities for the gospel to be preached and every member who participated in this city-wide event. Let us cover our efforts in prayer, and trust God that this is only the beginning of even more united efforts to declare and demonstrate the good news in every campus and community for the glory of God.

Women on a Mission

July 10, 2017

Laguna native Rosemarie Alferez is a woman on a mission, and she and the members of her Victory group will not take no for an answer. Last November 2016, she embarked on a series of outreaches with her Victory groupmates that resulted in the sharing of the gospel to more than 150 people.

“God touched my heart,” she says, “and gave me the burden to reach out to my community. After reading His Word in Matthew 25:35 to 40, I decided to share the gospel in different places by doing outreaches.”

After branding their project “Mission Possible,” Rosemarie and her Victory group started their plan to engage people in key locations throughout Laguna, identifying detainees in a correctional facility, indigent children, and the elderly. After careful planning and connecting to key persons in these places, Mission Possible set off on a four-day series of Engage activities.

First, on November 18, Rosemarie and the Victory group visited the Biñan correctional facility and ministered to the detainees there. After their preaching the gospel, about 50 detainees received Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. The very next day, the women visited Barangay De La Paz Biñan to engage, preach the gospel, and lead a hundred less-fortunate children to Jesus.

On November 21, which, coincidentally, was Rosemarie’s birthday, she and the Victory group engaged and preached the gospel to the abandoned elderly and children with disabilities at the Tahanan ni Maria care facility in Calamba.

“As i continue the mission to share the Gospel this 2017,” Rosemarie says, “Mission Possible will engage more people in Biñan, and we are finalizing agreements with some key partnerships to conduct more outreach programs. Please pray with me,” she adds, “that more lives will be reached and the gospel will be preached in the city of Biñan.”

Like Rosemarie, how can you be salt and light to your community? Share your ideas with us!

Engaging the Next Generation in Marikina

July 10, 2017

Over the summer, Victory Metro East strategically engaged the next generation through events like Youth Sessions and Kids Summer Tutorials, designed to engage and be a blessing to Marikina youth and their families.

Two Youth Sessions events held last April 28 and May 27 drew almost 130 high school students under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program of Marikina’s local government. Spearheaded by Faye Tundagui, a Victory group leader and social worker with the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the two sessions helped these students understand their identity and purpose and Christ.

Several students began a relationship with Jesus at the Youth Sessions, and were soon connected to Victory groups, whose leaders began helping them grow deeper in their relationship with Christ.

Also, after the sessions, the students were arranged according to their campuses. After discovering that several students attended Concepcion Integrated School, one of Victory Metro East’s campus missionaries set up an appointment with them. From that initial group came additional discipleship opportunities, and a weekly Victory group for young men now meets regularly and joins us at our Friday youth services.

Last May 15 to 26, five Victory group leaders and interns, led by volunteer Mercy Santos, connected with students and parents in Barangays Tumana and Doña Petra by offering summer tutorials. Not content to engage merely with this activity, they even walked the streets of the town, preaching the gospel using Rice Broocks’ The God Test, and successfully leading four people to start a relationship with Jesus.

Today, more Victory group leaders and interns are now engaging several residents of the barangay, conducting ONE 2 ONE and discipling 43 students in Victory groups every Thursday after the town’s morning Zumba. Let us cover our leaders in prayer as they engage their communities and disciple the next generation of leaders in Marikina for God’s glory.

May each of us be inspired to be salt and light in our communities!

Let’s be a BLESSING by actively LISTENING!

May 25, 2017

God gives us daily opportunities to bless the people we meet. As one church, we can speak a blessing on our cities and communities, invite God’s presence, and pray for protection and peace.

This month, we invite everyone to be a blessing to others by actively listening and praying very specifically for them. James 1:19 tells us, ‘My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.’” Let us take this opportunity to not just pray for the people we meet, but to be available to actively listen when they need someone to talk to.

When we listen to people, try to spend at least 90% of the time listening so you will have something meaningful to say. When we actively listen, we consciously try to understand the complete message of the person, not just the words he or she is saying. Here are some tips to help you actively listen to people:

Meet in a place with little to no distractions. Public places aren’t the best place to meet people who want to share something personal with you. Aside from these places being noisy, with a lot of things going on that may take your attention away from the person confiding in you, he or she may be hesitant to share because of fear they may be overheard.
Focus on the other person. Do not allow yourself to lose focus on the person confiding in you, and avoid the temptation to get or look bored. One useful tip is to mentally remember of some of their keywords; this helps you stay focused and keep track of what their key issues are. Also, put aside your mobile phones so you can avoid browsing websites and social networks in front of the person confiding in you.
Don’t form counter-arguments. Our primary objective in active listening is to provide a stable ear and prayer support for the person confiding in you; it is not primarily to offer advice, or to condemn him or her. We want to bless them, not condemn them.
Ask about or paraphrase key points to ensure you understand what they’re saying. Every now and then, ask the person confiding in you if you’ve understood, or paraphrase a key point. “So when you said this, what did you mean?”, “So do you mean,” or “So you said this (key point). Did I understand you correctly?”
Be tactful but honest in your response, and always leave an avenue for hope. You can be truthful in how you respond to the person confiding in you, but remember to be respectful of his situation, and continue to treat him with respect. Remind him that there is always hope in Christ.
Set action items or another date to talk, and don’t forget to pray for him or her before you leave.

Sometimes, God may speak to you very clearly during this time and invite you to preach the gospel to the person confiding in you. If this happens, ask Him for courage and wisdom, and share it towards or at the end of your listening session. We listen in order to preach the gospel, so don’t lose sight of that goal as well.

If you would like to share how God gave you an opportunity to listen to someone, share how it happened–not the story that the person shared with you, please!–and use the hashtag #EngagePH. Also, if you have any other ideas on how we can listen to others to be a blessing to them, you can leave a Comment.

Some of the content in this article were taken from Active Listening.