Mayon Voclano as seen from my Legazpi window
Mayon Volcatno used to sit on my left side out of my Cagraray Island window; now it sits out on my right out of the window of my new apartment in Legazpi. In my last blog I described how the Lord had opened the doors for a youth camp on the islands – a camp that overflowed into setting up a new center for student ministry in Legazpi City. Well, since then the student ministry in Legazpi has taken off, and this in turn has led to my moving part-time to Legazpi to try to keep up with it.
Front of student center/ boarding house/ church just after panting
The dilapidated third-floor apartment, which the island youth fervently repainted and repaired to be the base for this student ministry in Legazpi, has since become a boarding house for 7 students at Bicol University, a student center, as well as a venue for a new church plant. So much packed into one small apartment! Setting up a new ministry in a new city has been a lot of work! However, it has been such a joy to watch as God begins to do some amazing things this side of Mayon. Here are highlights of some of them:
#1 – Approval for on-campus ministry at Bicol University
Standing by the Four Pillars on the BU campus
Bicol University is our main target for student ministry at the moment. The largest university in the region, students attend from four of the provinces most unreached with the gospel. Thus, it is a strategic spot to reach out with God’s Word.
Students on BU grounds. This is the same way we often meet for informal Bible studies.
BU has been much on my heart fom years, when various groups from this school used to visit our Cagraray Island campsite. Last year a group from a geology class spent the night at our campsite. As part of their tour, I had the chance to conduct a stargazing session for them.
Our Student Ministry Logo
Talking about God naturally flowed out of the stargazing session, and it ended with a group of students wanting to know more. This and other experiences with BU students led me to believe that BU was the place where we should start the Legazpi ministry. And so far God has seemed to continue to confirm this!
One of our first student gatherings at our student center.
One of the first ways the BU ministry was confirmed was through unusually fast accreditation of our ministry.
Emmylou, Mila, Ann Ann, and Jenny. These four are our Legazpi campus team. Though working with another ministry to underprivileged kids, they give time each week to reach out to students. (Ann Ann is from our church on Cagraray, and Emmylou was a volunteer there as well).
For some Christian groups, it required three years to become accredited as a University Based Organization on BU. By an amazing act of God grace, however, we were approved within just three weeks! We began our ministry the 2nd week of June, and by the last week God had brought enough students into our realm of influence to qualify as an organization.
One of our monthly Round Up’s last October.
We named the group Aletheian Student Circle (ASC). Aletheian is the Greek Word for “Truth Seeker.” Because Jesus is called the “The Way, the Truth, and the Life,” it seemed an appropriate name as a group focused on helping students find the Truth.
Leading games at one of our student gatherings.
Within ASC, the Lord has granted us the opportunity to start monthly student gatherings, which we call “Round Up’s.” Besides these, we offer weekly discipleship meetings called “small circles.” At present ten small circles and one-on-one discipleship are ongoing, led by myself and 4 other part-time volunteers.
Leading a “small circle” on the BU campus.
One of these small circles began with an amazing open door from the Lord. A friend and professor at BU allowed me to share in one of her first-year classes on the topic of “Being Successful in Studies.” I included in my talk a section about the importance of trusting in God. From this talk a disciple-group of 10 students emerged, which has been meeting regularly since June.
Evangelism training being conducted at our student center in Legazpi.
Besides this group three of the girls who attended the campsite stargazing mentioned earlier did in fact continue to study the Bible with me when I got to Legazpi and all accepted the Lord!
#2 – Church plant
Sharing at one of our first services.
I am a firm believer in the importance of the church. Jesus said that this is what He would be about building (Matt 16:18), and so the new student ministry has as well a back up church plant, where students, as they grow in Christ can be channeled and further nurtured.
Talking with students after one of the first services.
Named Generation Christian Fellowship, this new Sunday afternoon fellowship at our boarding house/students center is a joy to observe and be part of.
Sharing at the ASC Christmas Party.
The church is really Jesus’, not ours, and so, as we meet weekly, there is such an anticipation of what Jesus is going to do. It is so exciting for me to see how the Lord has already begun to change lives through this fledgling church and begin to craft the fellowship into the unique character He wants. It’s like watching a newborn baby start to grow and then crawl, awaiting the day it takes its first steps and utters its first words. I can hardly wait to see what God has planed for this church!
#3 – Baptism!
First group to be baptized in the work God has given us in Legazpi.
At the end of December God gave us the chance to have our first baptism. It began with one girl asking if she could be baptized. When I agreed, six more students stepped forward to join the ranks. What a wonderful day it was listening to the unique and amazing ways God had revealed Himself to each one of these students and brought them to the point of wishing to follow Him with their whole heart. Now each one is continuing in discipleship.
John Renz about to be baptized. John Renz is from the island of Mabate & is also one of our boarders.
It’s been a big stretch moving part-time from one side of Mayon to the other, and then move back and forth between the two nearly every week.
Hazel was one of the girls in the stargazing. She was a Christian before we started the Legazpi ministry & was instrumental in helping start the campus Bible study with the other girls in the stargazing. She felt called in one of our studies to become a missionary when she graduates.
However, it has truly been a blessing to be part of the new work that God is doing!
The daughter of the former foreman of our Cagraray campsite project, Cyrene actually accepted the Lord in our youth camp two years ago. Because she was not from our islands we rarely saw her after that. However, we reconnected at BU, where she studies, and she was so excited to be baptized!
News from the Islands 