Little Community

It was a long and hard October for all of us.
So last Thursday night, our cell group met again.

Let me share to you first the details about our cell group.

Our purpose:
To have a circle of friends that builds faith,
gives hope, and cultivates love.

Members:
Jan Silan, Ryan Matignas, Carlof Fernandez, Andreus Cosio, and me.

Our Code:
Respect is of utmost importance
Reflect on the Word of God and on life
Reveal oneself totally
Respond to one another's needs
Regularly meet

What we do:
Every month, we make it a point to meet and dine together.
We read the bible.
We shamelessly share our life stories. No matter how dark it may be.
We share wisdom and fraternal correction.
We share our plans and dreams for the future.
We pray hard together.

Let me share to you my latest bull session with them...

We ate dinner at 8pm.
Tita Weng (Carlo's mom) cooked for us adobong may gata.
It was awesome! Thank you po!

After dinner, we started with a short worship led by Andreus.
Then we read the bible about the readings in line
with our direction for the night,
Storms in life.
The Gospel we read was taken from Matthew 8:23-27
The title reads: Jesus calming the storm.

Each person gives his reflection and shares about himself.
Experiences, struggles, feelings, blessings, everything.
After one person shares,
each of us speaks to that person who shared.
It can be affirmations, fraternal correction, prophecy, anything.
We are careful on this part, we do all of these with love.
Then the person prays for himself,
after which the whole group prays for him.

We shared to each other our storms in life.
Some of us are in the storm, another is after the storm,
and another feels that there is a storm coming into his life.

During my part,
I shared to them that I'm in the transition from the storm
to the calm after the storm.
My past month has been like a seesaw of good and bad events.
I survived my final examinations.
I almost failed 2 subjects in Medicine,
but like a miracle, its all good.
I got drunk a lot especially when semestral break came.
And in my drunkenness, I did stupid things. Like flirting with girls.
I thank my friends who understood
and safeguarded me at those moments.
Tsk tsk. I'm sorry po Lord.
My lustful addictions haunted me throughout the month.
I felt I'm a bad witness.
I had a successful team building with my classmates in Batangas.
I was blessed to be with my friends to have a vacation
in Lipa and Pampanga.
I get to spend time at home and rest.

And then my brothers turn came to speak to me.
They affirmed me first before they corrected me.
Ryan said that as much as he is already
locked and loaded to correct me,
he said that I only need to be gently reminded of things.
Haha. Thanks bro.
They felt how I felt.
They suggested that
I should give more importance to what I have now.
Especially with my blessings.
For Mayi. For my dreams.
And if I do that, it would help me resist temptation.
That I already know what I should do.
They believe in me. Just a little push to wake me up.
They support my decisions, and will help me with my weaknesses.

It took us hours to make the full circle.
We are so into it that we finished
past 1am already
The record time we finished is 3am.
And at the end of our sharing, we took time for planning.
We gave feedback and suggestions to solidify our group.
And then we rightfully closed everything with a prayer.

We went home inspired to change and to dream.
We felt light yet full of wisdom and guidance.
By the way, its not only once a month we relate, but everyday.
We communicate especially in times of trial.

Why do we meet? Because we feel the need to.
We help each other to become better persons.
We feel we are not alone in our weaknesses.
We feel free to be who we are, no masks to make us feel accepted.
And we learn much from our meetings.
Realizations we cannot learn on our own.
So we will continue our group and
hopefully share the experience to others.

Friends, having this little community has changed our lives.
I urge you to form a cell group with your closest friends.
With these little communities, when combined, we can make the world a better place.

Praying for you,

Didoy

"The group of believers was one in mind and heart.

None of them said that any of their belongings were their own,

but they all shared with one another everything they had.

With great power the apostles gave witness

to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,

and God poured rich blessings on them all."

Acts 4:32-33