Reflections
A Worthwhile Search
By:
My search for a community did not come in effortlessly to me. But, I tell you all the efforts have paid off. God paved the way.
"I have looked for your commandments and I love them very much; yes, I have searched for them. You know this because everything I do is known to you." Psalms 119: 167-168.
I knew since then that the only way to get closer to God is through a community that provides support, prayers, and fellowships. My journey to knowing God started when I was 14 years old. I felt consumed with a desire to find God so I searched for Him anxiously like a child looking for his father.
Through His leading, I have fulfilled my desire to know Him by joining the Christ's Youth in Action (CYA) and through the help of my brothers and sisters. The "Cute Young Adults" I met were so consumed with the fire of the Lord that they were so contagious.
Through their service, commitment and dedication to the Lord; through their inspirational talks, sharing, and teachings; through their prayers, support, and guidance, I found myself no longer eager to seek God, but with a passion to know, love, and serve Him.
Through CYA, I met God, sought and established a wonderful personal relationship with Him. And while I still falter and stumble in my faith, the teachings, support, and their prayers have kept me firm and steadfast in my walk with Christ.
I tried my hardest to adjust to my new life here in the U.S. I was successful. I became well adjusted. Too adjusted to the point that I became materialistic. Material things made me happy. And suddenly, I found myself having no need for God at all.
I got disconnected with Him, so to speak.
Until in 2002 when I had the chance to go to the World Youth Day in Toronto, I felt I needed Him again. In that particular occasion, I became envious and restless. I saw all these young men and women whose eyes glittered with happiness experienced being with God and with His tremendous love right there and then.
I said I just couldn't imagine I just have let that relationship gone. I used to have that with God and I wanted to have it with Him again. When I got back from Toronto, I called a CYA alumna whose phone number I got from a CYA brother who is based in the Philippines. My mission was to search for a community similar to that of a CYA.
After several attempts of connecting with this sister in faith, from 1997 to 2002, through various means (you name it) like through common friends, going into a famous online directory anywho.com, coupled with prayers, I finally found her on the list as Roda Bautista.
After five years, we finally met. Ate Roda, with her husband, Kuya Jun formed a small faith-sharing group. It was a group of five to include Ate Eden and Ate Annabelle who meet once a month to sing praises to God, to pray for Him, to read Scriptures and to share our experiences. It was an enriching and spiritually nourishing experience for me. I felt so blessed! I said I'm back, Lord.
Aside from having the small faith-sharing group, I joined the Singles for Christ (SFC) through the invitation of my cousin. I felt really blessed for God has given me not one, but two communities that will help me grow in my relationship with Him.
I want to echo St. Paul's words to the Ephesians when he wrote in Chapter 1, verse 3, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ."
I realized that God led me to SFC because He didn't want me to feel His absence anymore. I knew Ate Roda would be gone for a while due to pregnancy. It was at those times that I became active in SFC. While I experienced my relationship with God in a new way, I met new friends, too.
But during my second year in SFC, I grew restless again. I felt I needed something, but I didn't know what it was. I tried looking for it, but I couldn't find it. When I received an email from Kuya Junby who is also part of the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals (BCBP) through the CYA-yahoo group inviting us to a BCBP Breakfast in the San Francisco Bay Area, I felt this was the one I was looking for.
Ate Roda and I had our first breakfast fellowship with BCBP in July of 2004. And I still remember it quite vividly.
I remember being welcomed warmly by Ate Myrna, Ate Edith and Tita Esther. I remember Kuya Aldo and Kuya Junby playing my two favorite CYA songs - Isaiah 60 and My Soul Finds Rest (which I haven't heard for more than five years).
The sharers were Ate Myrna and Kuya Jun Medina. I was touched by their sharing. At the end of the breakfast, I said, "God has called me home." I am at home and at peace with the BCBP being my community.
Venus "Kate" Manalo was one of the BCBP members who took the first ever CLP sponsored by the BCBP Northern California in July 2005. She can be reached at .
Copyright © 2006 Venus Catherine Manalo. Used with permission.
