Church is not just Sundays. People have a misconception when it comes to church. They think it happens once a week. It happens to me all the time. Conversations like these:
A: So Dennis what do you do?
Me: I am a pastor. I have a church.
A: So what else do you do?
Last week we have to cancel our Sunday service (mass) because of typhoon Ondoy. When we cancelled church we did not stop being a church. Here is a recap of what happened last week.
Saturday – our campus worker Ethel had to brave the storm to open our New Manila center. We turned our college HUB where we hold our Thribe events into an evacuation center. More than 25 families made it a refuge. We had our small group leaders come and help minister to the needs of the families.
Sunday – Music Museum decided to close down their place so we set up our office in Promenade as a drop off point for relief goods. Once again volunteers poured in to help carry sacks of rice, boxes of relief goods.
Monday – Wednesday – Almost 40 volunteers would come to our center everyday to help pack the relief goods. We then coordinated with our Victory Ortigas and Fort churches who had the capabilities to deliver the goods to the affected areas. Every 6pm we then stop packing and pray for our nation. So many college students and even kids came to help us out. Even our security and staff worked overtime to make sure the goods are being delievered.
Thursday – Friday – some of the staff went to Lyka’s house to clean up. Their house was devastated by the storm. They lost everything. Pastor Larry took the initiative to help Lyka and her family clean up their house. Some of Lyka’s neighbors were blessed to see the church helping her out.
Yesterday we went to Getty and Grace’s house who was also hit by the storm. Waters were more than 12 feet high last week. When we went there the roads were covered with mud and everybody was cleaning their house. We came with some cleaning materials to help them rebuild their house.
While cleaning I told Pastor Larry that I never washed the dishes at home. We were laughing because here we were doing something unusual for us. This is church. Not the programs, not the activities. Church is about honoring God and Making Disciples even if it means we have to clean the house.
Relief Update: We are still receiving goods at Victory Center Promenade. We are currently helping distribute the goods to affected areas of Cainta where our Senior Pastor Marc Constantino is ministering to the families affected by the flood. We still have some people in church that are unaccounted for. Please pray for Pastor Marc and his team as they continue their rescue and relief operations.