Thirty Five Years of God's Faithfulness

No, it is not my 35th birthday!  And sadly, no, I did not win the blue bear I posted about in my previous post.  But I have much to rejoice about!

Thirty five years ago, a handful of men and women who attended a weekly prayer meeting experienced the growing desire to be a community, to be brothers and sisters like the early Christians were. 

Starting out as a group of 41 men and women who attended a retreat in July 1975, the community, called Ang Ligaya ng Panginoon (The Joy of the Lord) now has more than 1,900 members.  And I am one of them!

Yesterday we celebrated our anniversary, full of gratefulness for God's faithfulness for the past 35 years.  What a joy to come together to celebrate! 

Each year we have a theme, or special words we feel God is saying to us as a community and we recall these words with a parade of banners every time we celebrate our anniversary. 

This year, we were assigned to make new banners with each of the 35 years' themes. I was assigned to design banners for the years 1977: "You shall see my glory" and 1978: "I have called you to be my people". 

After we had the two banners made (there was too little time to make the whole banner ourselves), some of us decorated the banners with stitching and some sequins and beads.  It was wonderful to see the creativity of the different groups that made each of the 35 banners (each group so pleased with their handiwork)!

Our theme for this year is "More of God, more for God, 35 years of discipleship and service".  From a roomful of people 35 years ago, to a gym full of brothers and sisters in the Lord, a community.  And not only that, we are bound together with Christians from all over the world, members of the Sword of the Spirit, an international, ecumenical association of Christian covenant communities.  How amazing to see how God can take our five loaves and two fishes and multiply them.  How wonderful to see how the mustard seed can grow...

“What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it?  It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground.  Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade.”  Mark 4:30-31

And I pray that in the coming years, we will always hunger and thirst for more of God and continue to be faithful in loving and serving Him and living our lives  more and more for Him.

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9