CAVITE FEAST CELEBRATES FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE

The trumpets sounded and the angels sang when Feast Cavite began the celebration of its 1st Year Anniversary last October 23, 2011. Almost 800 exuberant people of God graced the event. Our three in-house worship leaders, Ariel de Leon, Poch Castaneda & Lito Saura intensified the momentum of the celebration as they led us into God’s throneroom together with the launching of the inimitable theme song of Feast Cavite entitled “Pinakamasayang Pyesta sa Cavite”. Lyrics and music are by the endowed Bro. Joselle Balonzo. Then our hearts continued to jump with joy when our Cavite Feast Builder, Bro. Rex Robillos, together with his twins, the youngest worship leaders, RS and RJ Robillos defined our theme through more worship songs.

God spoke through our South District Feast Builder, Bro.Hermie Morelos who talked about our theme Faith, Hope and Love through various Bible verses and through the testimonies of Froilan Plaza, Didith Aguilar and Helen Sangalang as they shared how they held on to God in the midst of their adversities.  The prayers and intensions lifted by Bro. Rex captured the faith that gave power to the existing hope and love in each one’s heart. Then, LOJ Family’s Mr. Energy, the Director of the Radical Training, Consultant of our Youth Mission and Feast Builder of Pasig and Manila, Bro. Obet Cabrillas eloquently motivated everybody to bring to God their daily burdens and never carry them alone. Then he discussed the 3 Soul Disorders: Fear, Despair and Apathy. Thank God for all our inspiring speakers!

To abreast ourselves with the times, our Media Ministry launched our very own website www.cavitefeast.tk where the Feast Cavite can be watched livestream every Sunday.

Various video presentations, including of course the message of our founder, Bro. Bo Sanchez, our ever-lively and dedicated Music Ministry, great dance numbers from our Awesome Kids and Dance Ministry, amusing presentation of our Youth, special song numbers from Singles for Christ, the creative stage design, props, food, prizes – all these gave life and color to our celebration!

And last but not the least is the FHL Souvenir magazine that features everything that transpired during Feast Cavite’s first year and everyone who tirelessly and selflessly continue to serve and support Feast Cavite. Hats off to all our elders, leaders, servants, members, sponsors and friends from other Feasts and communities! Your support will always linger in our hearts that would give reason for us to continue our mission of sharing the light of Jesus to others and making disciples. God bless us even more.

We indeed witnessed in this celebration God’s glory at Cavite Feast, Ang Pinakamasayang Pyesta sa Cavite! And this shall remain tagged in everyone’s minds and hearts.

Source: Cavite Feast Bulletin
By. Ma. Crisca P. Manuel

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A Test of Hope

I have failed a zillion times. It can be from the simplest failure up to the hardest one. It still boils down to one thing… I experience failures. But who doesn’t, anyway? We all have our share of trials and mistakes but these are all part of our growing up. These hardships are one of the main ingredients that spice up our life.

I would like to make a confession. Way back from my college days, I had this major subject which got me so irritably disappointed. During that semester, I was so confident that I’ll get high grades because I knew deep inside that I did pretty well in that subject. With a face that radiated glows and smiles, I received my class card full of high hopes. As I flipped my precious little class card, I saw ….. (Well, let me not brag about this one). Let’s just say that it was REALLY disappointing. Because of this, I lost my scholarship. Losing a scholarship meant shouldering the full tuition fee. Even if our school’s tuition fee was very cheap compared to other schools, I still felt a huge loss. At that time, our family experienced financial struggles and that’s what I contributed - a popped scholarship.

College life for me was mostly made up of trials concerning money and travel matters. It was so hard commuting back and forth from our house to school because that was like 20++ km away. I lost hope for having a year-end award; I lost hope for my health (I was really like a zombie back then); and I lost hope if I could graduate, financially speaking. But you know what? God didn’t lose His hope for me. He is really a God of surprises. Treasures I received from these trials? I graduated with a Latin award. (Ahem!J)

God will never fail us. We may experience trials now but hey, the best is always yet to come. Let us just be hopeful and always put an undeniably 100% trust on Him. Everything will surely go well. And where will it lead? A happy life! J


Source Cavite Feast Bulletin
by Sis. Elai Fariscal

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Be Open

The happy mood of Cavite Feast’s attendees truly matched the topic of last Sunday’s Feast. Everyone was full of energy as we started the new series on HAPPYTUDES, an attitude that will make us happy and blessed. As Bro. Ralph Sioson led the worship, he shared his own experience on how typhoon Pedring affected their house.  But because of Bro. Ralph’s happytude, he could still serve God without a trace of any unpleasant things around him.

Likewise, full of happiness and grace, Bro. Rex’s started his talk on how we should be open for God’s blessing.  As children of God, we need not do anything to please our Heavenly Father. We should remember that we worship a God of Happiness. Things around us may be temporary but the overflowing love of God will remain permanent.

Bro. Rex shared three postures of the heart: proud, pitiful and prepared.  Two feast actors and an actress were called on stage to illustrate these postures.  We saw Mr. Proud who doesn’t seem to care about anyone and doesn’t need anybody. Therefore he could not get whatever blessings thrown at him. Mr. Pitiful always looks down and feel bad about himself.  When the blessings of God were thrown at him, he tends to just ignore them because he is desperate. Ms. Prepared on the other hand was the opposite. She doesn’t miss any opportunity of God’s blessings. There are times she missed to get some blessings but never failed to get up and prepare again and again.

 Bro. Rex further narrates that happiness is an attitude and should not depend on what is happening outside of a person. It should rather depend on what is happening inside a person. If we want true happiness, we must be desperate for God just like our desperation for gasping the air we breathe. When we are desperate for God, we must also be ready all the time. There are no shortages of blessings, only shortage of being ready to receive God’s blessing.

Let us stay blessed and be ready at all times!

Source Cavite Feast Bulletin
by George Evangelip

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TIME HEALS ALL WOUNDS

Maybe some of us are currently in an awful situation: whether physically, emotionally, financially, or spiritually. We admit it often takes so long for our wounds to heal; wounds we had from the past, even childhood memories that keep bothering or haunting us. We hear that some people decided to end their lives because they felt worthless after having experienced a lot of failures. But behind these negative thoughts, the fact is, a bright future awaits all of us that will surely make us better and stronger persons.

We just have to learn to surrender everything to our God and He will take care of the rest. Sometimes, we’re just too pre-occupied with things around us and we tend to forget our God. When we’re tired, it helps to be still and be quiet (as in, without saying anything), and just listen to God’s message for us. Our God knows what we need even before we speak for He has greater plans. Let us open our hearts to receive blessings of abundance and faith and all things will follow.

Live life as if it is your last day here on earth. Enjoy every second with your family, friends, community, relatives, neighbors, colleagues. If along the way, you again experience pain and brokenness, dwell not on it. Go and live life with love in your heart and make God, the center of your life. Wait and see, miracles are always on the way.  Keep praying, believing and having faith with our God.

Source: Cavite Feast Bulletin

by Sis. Joanne Lejos

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The Light of Jesus ENCOUNTER

It was a beautiful sunny day that Saturday morning. My husband-Joel and I were up early and had our family breakfast with our two girls. We had to leave the house by 6am in order to be at De La Salle by 7:30am.

When we arrived at the venue, Bro.Jomar and Sis.Lynn Mondejar were warmly greeting all early birds. Cavite Feast Builder Bro.Rex, together with servants from Cavite and Pasig Feasts were so busy in the preparations-while the Music Ministry from Pasig Feast tried to warm-up with worship songs.

I have been to De La Salle-Dasma several times, but it was my first time to be in that area of the university. The place was so serene, surrounded by trees and cheerful birds. The quietness was a welcome respite for city people like us. It was such a perfect venue for the 1^st Jesus Encounter for Feast Cavite Servants.

By 8:30am, Bro.Jay Yogawin of Feast Alabang started the lively Praise and Worship, together with the Pasig Music Ministry. It was followed by the warm welcome and introduction to “God’s Love” by our very own Feast Builder-Bro.Rex Robillos. His short, but very enriching talk reminded all of us that despite all our sins and shortcomings, still God loves us more than we can imagine!

Talk No.1 “ Who We Are”

given by Bro.Jay Yogawin – enlightened us on the humble beginnings of Light of Jesus Community founded by Bro.Bo Sanchez on September 1980. LOJ started with only 20 dedicated attendees at its original home at 56 Chicago,Cubao,QC. Its Mission then was to share the Light of Jesus to others as widely and effectively as possible through Evangelization, Discipleship, Community, Ministry and Worship.

At present, LOJ has become The Light of Jesus Family (LOJF) representing its wide membership growth from all-over the different parts of the country and even abroad. It is now structured by Feast Area, headed by its respective Feast Builders. Talk No.1 can be summarized by the following:

What : Light of Jesus Family

Mission : Make Disciples

Vision : 1,000 Feasts around the world

Strategy : Friendship

Tools : Caring Groups

Talk No.2 “Our Beliefs” 

was discussed by Bro. Boggs Burbos – Feast Builder of Feast Cabanatuan. It focused on the LOJF’s 21 core beliefs that reminded all participants that our life has different areas that should be nourished regularly. As Catholics, it is not enough that we attend Sunday Mass, rather, we should also look for a community that would allow us to share our love, our time, our talent and our blessings to those who need them most. As a servant of LOJF, it is good to be reminded of these core beliefs so that we may be able to serve God and the community to the best that we can. To sum it all up, LOJF believed that every human being is a child of God-no matter what race or religion. It believes in working for unity among Christians and non-Christians.

Talk No.3 “Baptism/Day of Anointing” 

was conducted by our South District Feast Builder-Bro.Hermie Morelos. He shared with us about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, particularly, the Gift of Tongues, and how we can open our hearts and minds in order to receive them.  However, not everybody can receive all these gifts unless they are able to overcome the following obstacles: Sin, Pride, Doubt and an Unrepentant heart. We can only receive the Gifts of the Holy Spirit through the ff:

1.       We must desire it

2.       We must earnestly ask God for it

3.       We must believe God will give it to us

Bro.Hermie led the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, followed by the Anointing with Oil by all community leaders. This was followed by a short, but very inspiring “sharing” by some of our brothers and sisters – who, in one way or the other, have experienced God’s love in their lives at a time when they are most vulnerable. Their stories are living testimonies of God’s unconditional love and mercy.

For the last part of the Jesus Encounter, a candle lighting ritual was led by Bro.Boggs – to symbolize the LOJF and Feast Cavite’s commitment to serve God and the community with all their hearts and minds.  The Commitment to LOJ  Community was led by Bro.Jomar Mondejar, followed by the closing prayer by Sis.Lynn Mondejar.

Indeed, the Jesus Encounter by the Light of Jesus Family was one experience my husband and I would always cherish in our lives. Not only did it strengthen our Catholic faith and love for Jesus as our only Savior—but above all, I believe that by the grace of God – our marriage and relationship as a couple was even more strengthened and inspired to do our share to help make the MISSION of LOJF a realization.

That beautiful day of October 15, we did not only meet wonderful people and servants of the Light of Jesus Family, but above all – we Encountered Jesus!

October 15, 2011

De La Salle University, Dasmarinas, Cavite

written by Sis.Pam Constantino

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