Balubad Outreach: Mass Wedding

"Where will we get the funds, Lord?"  I remember asking the Lord this question when we had our first outreach in Balubad back in December 2010.  I can still hear God whisper,  "Anak, when I ask you to do something, I will enable you to do it and I will provide for your every need."  Right before our very eyes, the Lord did just that.  And so from them on, as we continued ministering to the people he brought to us, we have learned to depend on Him for our every need.  

 We have already conducted several marriage seminars and biblical foundation classes from March til August of this year, and finally, last August 27, we had the opportunity to serve the Lord through a mass wedding.  The Lord has provided the funds for our group to sponsor the wedding of 9 couples who attended the 1st outreach.  Praise God!  These couples, by the way, live in Balubad Resettlement Area.  When there's typhoon, these families would always be the 1st to be evacuated.  Seeing their happy and excited faces during the wedding,  was enough reason to rejoice.  I thank the Lord for using us to bless these couples in ways I never thought possible.   Everything is the work of the Lord and I just want to praise Him and thank Him, that by His grace, He gave us the privilege to serve Him and to experience how big and mighty He is.

Thank you for everyone who made the mass wedding possible.

1. Pastor Leo and Ate Sheila - for their vision and entrusting us to be part of it, for their untiring support - as if they have 30 hours a day to spare.  Thank you ate She for the souvenirs.
2. Pastor Erwin and Sis. Jhie - for officiating the wedding, for their support and blessing us with their presence
3. Ma'am Fifi - for her patience and for helping us with all the needed documents
4. Archie of Media Ministry for volunteering to cover the event
5. Arnie and  Bebeth - for their generosity,  providing the chafing dishes and for cooking and preparing the food. (so yummy! The food was overflowing that we even have enough to feed those people who were "just passing by", those who helped clean up the place and also more than enough "pabalot or pabaon" for us and the barangay workers
6. Lara & Mario (and ate also)- for helping us organize, for her generosity, supplying us with the things we need  
7. URC - for sharing 7 boxes of Chumbos that we used for our 2 marriage seminars, as well as, again, the goods (around 20++ boxes) they provided in our December 2010 outreach which we used for the Christmas baskets that we gave away. 
8. Ate Amy - She was an answered prayer for us also! The couple who were supposed to head the food committee were absent and God sent us the best person to take their place.  We thank her  for sharing with us her time and expertise esp. in handling food and arranging the buffet table
9. OMF - they gave a lot of 'Ang Buhay Na Hindi Bitin' booklet in our Dec 2010 outreach that we had enough to give away during the mass wedding
10. Kapitan Randy Leal and his secretary, Marijoy - for all their support
11. Kuya Palag for helping us with the set-up and preparing the stage ahead of time
12. For our prayer partners - everyone who prayed for the event
13. And of course, for our Dgroup... Rolly & Veck, Mike & Misce, Jesse & Ria, Henry & Che, Mark & Abi, Prakash & Nanu, George and Jhen, Carlo & Malou, (and the dgroup kids) We are blessed to see them serving the Lord with their gifts. (The number of the boys  singing "Kahit maputi na ang buhok ko" was awesome!  Hearing them sing and watching them perform on stage, we just can't help falling in love with our husbands all over again!)   It was amazing to see everyone working as one, even without instructions from us.  We hope they will continue to grow and we are praying that everyone would start handling their own dgroups soon. (Amen!)  :-)

In the next months, please pray with us as we continue to minister to the couples and their families through home visitations and Bible studies.  And by God's grace, we pray that we will be able to carry out the planned livelihood programs, parenting seminar and follow-up outreaches in the same area.  

I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, "who has strengthened us, because  He considered us faithful, putting us into service" (1 Tim 1:12) To you, O, Lord Jesus, be the glory, forever and ever!

OUR DGROUP w/ Ptr Erwin, Sis Jhie, Ptr Leo & family (digiscrap kit by LST)

Riel and Aethan packing the spoons and forks for the mass wedding

 

Preparing the place amidst typhoon Mina, a portion of the gym was already flooded - BUT praise God - the rain stopped minutes before the wedding and it didn't rain all throughout the event --- Thank you Lord!

Henry - preparing the stage - We were not able to put everything that we planned because of the rain - but the placed still looked beautiful. :-)

The boys practicing their song

THE COUPLES

 

Praise God for our DGroup singers!

 

Pastor Erwin and Sis. Jhie with Marvin and Jeannel

THE CAKES AND THE SOUVENIRS - We got yummy cakes that were not expensive. One couple got 1 cake each. Praise God! Thank you ate She for the beautiful souvenirs. Thank you Lara for the cloth bags. Each couple also got 1 Bible.  (They don't have Bibles at home)

Kapitan Randy Leal

DGROUP GIRLS

The boys - during their song number - "Kahit Maputi Na ang Buhok Ko"

DGROUP BOYS

THE FOOD - Our Dgroup member assigned to head the food committee wasn't able to attend but Praise God He provided the best person to take her place. Ate Amy from Astoria Plaza was there to help us set-up the buffet table and prepare the food. Thank you Arnie and Bebeth for the food.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

It started as a project in GLC 4.  In June 2010, We were challenged by our church to conduct a bridging event.  We rose up to the challenge and that is when we experienced firsthand how to actually prepare, plan, coordinate and conduct outreaches. 

Some photos of our outreach

credits:Erica Hite,SbyJ

All glory to God!