EMMANUEL R. MANANSALA

I’m a man with a plan. I absolutely love STRATEGIC PLANNING. This obsession with planning helps me run our school business. I manage 3 schools located in Pasig, Apalit Pampanga, and Tarlac. I believe that without strategic planning skills I would not be able to manage these schools properly.

The problem is, although I’m a man with a PLAN, I’m not a man of PRAYER—not consistently at least.
How do you like God to answer your prayers: quickly or slowly? I’m one of those people who love to get a quick response from God. But God’s timing is different from ours. You see, for 7 long years I have been praying for two major things to happen in the schools I run.

The first is a problem in our school in Apalit Pampanga, wherein the school had a terrible phone and Internet service. And note, since we are managing an IT school business, Internet connection is very crucial. In 7 years of operation, there had never been a reputable phone service company in the area. This year PLDT decided to extend its service to Apalit, and so we immediately applied for an Internet and phone line. We assumed that once our company submitted all the requirements, the line would be immediately installed. But then the company coordinator informed us that we needed to submit more requirements and pay an additional P20+K to connect our line to their main line. It was a steep price for a small company, but we wrote the check anyway, only to be asked for even more documents.

THAT WAS NOT THE PLAN. I was so annoyed that I told one of our school directors, to write Mr. Manny Pangilinan himself, and inform him of our concern. My three school directors thought I was crazy but sent the letter off anyway. I then prayed with my staff for God to intervene.

We sent the letter two weeks ago. We knew it was a long shot that MVP will even read our letter. We didn’t even know where exactly to send it! But by GOD’S GRACE, MVP apparently received the letter and after 3 days, our staff in Apalit sent me a text saying and I quote; “Kuya, from Ms. Kai of PLDT, pakisabi latest installation will be on or before July 30. Binayaran na ni MVP yun extension of line nyo kaya wala na kayong babayaran.”

When I got this text, I was ecstatic! God pulled it off! It was a long shot but Mr. Pangilinan ANSWERED and best of all, he PAID for our connection! The highest paid executive in HK and the most successful executor in the Philippines, took notice of our need. God is truly AWESOME! I got a very quick answer from God that time. And I was reminded that if MVP could answer a simple request our school had, what more our BIG, ALL-POWERFUL GOD

The other prayer I had took 7 long years before God answered it. I had a vision of having a school-based church where the students, faculty and school administrators could worship God on the campus. We have about 70 employees and 1200 students that I want to bring to the LORD. Along with CCF’s vision and mission, I desired to bring the students to the Lord Jesus then to disciple them in His ways. I tried to enlist the help of other pastors, churches, and missionary organizations to do the work. But I became discouraged because no one seemed interested at that time.

I prayed but I easily gave up. Not because of lack of faith, but because I thought that once I told God my request, He already got it, and therefore I thought I did not find the need to mention it to Him again. I selectively forget the verse that says PRAY WITHOUT CEASING. The good thing is, while I was UNFAITHFUL in praying consistently, GOD is FAITHFUL in his plans for me and for our school.

I was reminded in ROMANS 8:26-28, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us…And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

And you know what? Because I trusted in his perfect timing, it has happened! For very recently, God has been doing amazing work in our school campuses. God provided faithful missionaries who committed to work on the campus and they have been training us on how to effectively run a campus ministry. Since they began ministering to the students, all have heard the gospel, at least 78 have come to know Christ, and a couple of Bible studies and dgroups have been started. I have, in fact, jokingly called this amazing work CCF as well: Christ Campus Fellowship or Campus for Christ Fellowship.
Seven years ago I prayed that He might use the school for His glory. I failed to pray consistently and faithfully. But GOD IS FAITHFUL. Now I understand that it doesn’t matter whether God answers QUICKLY or SLOWLY. What matters most is that GOD IS FAITHFUL IN ANSWERING our prayers, and HIS timing is perfect. He clearly has a better plan for you and me.
God is AWESOME! Glory to God alone!

I grew up in a discouraging environment, where I was often compared, criticized, and humiliated. People’s words crushed my spirit. Our finances were no source of security at all. Since my father was a self-employed electrician, what comes in usually lasts for a day or two only. As a result, my brothers and I learned to restrain ourselves by not spending much (if there really is something to spend) and by not demanding anything from our parents. There was a time during college when I went to school with 20 pesos in my pocket, just enough to get me there. The moment I set foot in the school premises, I literally had nothing to spend. I had no choice but to skip meals and walk my way back home a distance that can be covered in an hour and a half.

At an early age, I had envisioned and resolved to lift my family from this situation. I studied in a public school when I was in grade school and became a scholar for the most part of my academic life—in an exclusive school during highschool and in the Ateneo when I went to college. I devoted myself to acads, fueled by a struggle for significance.

I was convinced that I was the one who pushed myself up, given that my parents were spared from spending hundreds of thousands for my education. I became proud. I stopped consulting my parents regarding my plans. I would not ask permission. I would just inform them about my decisions. I was disobedient, impatient and irritable. I would shout at them in disrespect whenever they ask questionsquestions that for me, are too simple to ask. At the back of my mind, I was thinking I knew better than them. I would curse them in my mind, make faces, and grumble whenever they reprimand me. I would not usually invite them to school activities because I was ashamed of them. I had caused them excessive sorrow and pain that made both of them cry not once.

As the eldest and the only girl among four, I abused my position to manipulate my brothers. They experienced the full magnitude of my violence both in speech and in actions. I would curse, insult, and criticize them. I would punch, pinch, scratch, and throw things at them. I was my brothers’ worst nightmare. In fact, they used to call me “bruha”. I questioned God’s wisdom then. I despised how He made me and where He had placed me. I thought it would be better if they weren’t my parents or if I were not born to our family.
But God did not leave me this way. In 2003, my mother was invited to the Purpose Driven Life seminar. We started attending worship services in CCF after that. But my commitment was half-hearted. I was exposed to the Gospel but I did not really understand it. In 2005, I attended a youth retreat in CCF Marikina. That was the third time the Gospel was shared to me and it was where I fully understood and embraced what God did to save me.

I learned that I was created to spend eternity with God but because of sin, I was separated from Him. I was a sinner bound for hell and no amount of good works and high grades can compensate for the penalty of my sins. But God, in His love for us, gave His only Son, Jesus Christ, the only person qualified to take our place. He died for our sins once and for all in order that He may bring us to God. But the grave could not contain Him. He rose on the third day and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. This is the hope that we have: if we put our faith in Jesus, we also shall live in eternity with Him. To accept or reject what He freely gave is our choice.

I accepted His free gift of life and for the first time, I experienced love in its perfection one that is never earned by performance. I have found real security. Since then, the cross has gradually transformed my life in ways unimaginable. A new life with Him put to death my old self. I hungered for His Word and thirsted for His presence. The more I came to know Him, the more I came to see myself the way He sees me. He showed me what I’m worth: that is, significant enough to cost Him the life of His Son. The more I see His greatness and holiness, the more I am humbled to be considered His child. He started transforming me into the likeness of Christ. And He started His work in the most challenging place: at home.

God changed my attitude toward my parents. I became expressive and affectionate in words and in actions. I learned to say thank you even for the smallest favors, I love you every time I have the chance to say it and sorry whenever I offend them. I submitted to their God-designated authority. I would choose not to talk back or to grumble. I learned to honor them by asking permission and by respecting their decisions.

God taught me how to be patient, especially with my brothers. They would often hurt me by disobeying or disrespecting me but I would opt not to respond negatively. I learned to weigh down my words before speaking, evaluating which words would build up and which ones would tear down my brothers. I started to invest in my relationship with them in terms of time, effort and money.

I gained the trust and favor of my parents. They also became expressive in their affection. My brothers also started responding to me in love. We stopped fighting over menial things. They would willingly obey me. They would respect me out of love, not out of fear. They would spend time with me talking about their smallest concerns. I became deeply involved in my family’s life.

When God called me to work fulltime here in CCF, I wrestled with Him for I was plagued with insecurities over my job and my family’s finances. But God’s call was irresistible. He told me He doesn’t deserve leftovers. He requires excellence and that if I’m able to do it, why not do it for Him here? He invited me to give not out of surplus but out of poverty to put in all I owned and all I have to live on. By this time, I knew that I would be missing out on His best if I refuse to obey Him.
Time and again, God proved Himself trustworthy. I never lacked any good thing throughout my stay here in CCF. I am able to help finance the education of my brothers and help out in household expenses. He blessed me with a work that I truly love and is consistent with how He shaped me.

God wanted me to honor Him by trusting Him. He says in Isaiah 48:17, “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is BEST for you, who directs you in the way you should go.” As a Father, He will only prepare the best for His child. I am assured that my future is secured in His hands. I trust His wisdom in carefully crafting every detail of my life. I am grateful for how He created me and for where He had placed me. He definitely knew better than I.

I am Joanna Tapar, God’s victory on the cross. To God be the glory!

My name is Geof Quiec. I grew up in a Christian family and came to know the Lord at an early age. I was really happy about my faith, because I thought that I was already saved and that I had Jesus living in me.

As years passed, my devotion started to wane and I began to see attending worship services as something I had to do out of obligation. In college I wanted to be popular with my peers and be the guy that everyone wanted to hang out with. I did everything that was acceptable and “cool” to society I started drinking and attending parties to get to know more people and to be popular. Popularity became so important to me. I started to enjoy these experiences and it gradually became my lifestyle.

In 2004, when I was 24, I went to China to study Mandarin. I was really excited to go I would be independent for the first time and I wasn’t going to be bound by family or rules. In China, I was living it up. I was a bachelor, had a driver and my own car, a great apartment to stay, and didn’t have any problems. My days were spent with endless partying and drinking, even on weekdays, and I would frequently pick up girls and sleep around, sometimes even paying women to sleep with me. I felt like I was on top of the world. Friends would call me when they wanted to look for a good time. I was even featured in a popular magazine in Shanghai as “ Club Guy”.

This life continued until I started working. I used my high salary to support my worldly lifestyle. But I had to admit that on most nights, I felt empty, dirty and scared. Despite my seemingly happy lifestyle, I knew that I was missing something in my life.

Believe it or not, I was still reading the Bible every day.

The Word of God is truly living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12) because even though I continued this worldly lifestyle, I slowly felt God speaking to me through His word. I realized that the answer to this discontentment and emptiness was God and I knew that I needed to change. When an opportunity to go home to Manila came, I decided to take it. Even though I didn’t have a job to come home to, I knew that I needed to get away from my sinful lifestyle in China.

When I came home, I joined a Bible study group in CCF and this started my path back to the light of the Lord. My new friends helped me with my struggles and I began to learn more about God’s Word. I remember even finishing the Bible, from cover to cover for the first time. I decided to recommit my life to the Lord and live as an ambassador of Christ.

From that moment on I felt very light and free. I experienced being set free from the sins that I used to struggle with such as cursing, anger, and lust. I also became more aware of and careful of my actions; keen on pleasing God and living for Him. I’ve realized that it’s not really the big sins that pull me away from the Lord but the small ones that I constantly allow to linger. I finally understood what Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” I no longer had the desire to chase after popularity and enjoyment, instead, what took its place was a desire to serve God. I gave up my old masters, my reputation and pleasure, to live for Jesus Christ, my new master.

God has also blessed me beyond my expectation by giving me a wonderful partner who is also part of a ministry in CCF, whom I am now engage to. I believe I only met her after God prepared my heart allowing me to understand what unconditional love means in His eyes. Matthew 6:33 is very much alive in my life. “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Don’t get me wrong, my life is definitely far from perfect. I still experience a lot of struggles. I still struggle with lust, and anger, and I am still faced with the temptations of this world. However unlike before, by God’s grace, I am no longer enslaved to these sins. He has transformed my heart so significantly since I recommitted my faith that more and more, day by day, I experience victory over these temptations.

Jesus Christ truly wants us to live an abundant life. It has been three years since I made that life-changing decision. Looking back, I would never want to exchange my new life with my old one. My life is now more meaningful. I now trust Him completely and have given Him free rein to mould me into the person that He wants me to be. I am Geof Quiec and it has been a great privilege to share God’s work in my life with you. To God my heavenly Father be the glory!!!

My name is Rhea Balagso, a follower of Christ. I am an only child, who grew up without a father. I was raised practically by my grandmother, because my mom was so busy with a life of her own. I grew up in a dysfunctional family.

At 16, I remember waking up one Saturday morning puzzled and confused, only to find out that my mother was actually getting married to her boyfriend I never thought she had. Because no one spoke to me about it I felt very hurt, ignored and rejected as if my feelings really didn’t matter. From then on I started to keep my distance and felt uneasy whenever I was with my mother.
It was in high school that I was first exposed to homosexual relationships. I thought it was okay since many of my schoolmates were involved in it, but I did not engage in it then. During my college years, I got involved with 2 serious relationships with boys. It was after college when I began to feel a deep longing for attention and a different kind of love. This started my involvement with my first serious homosexual relationship. I loved the attention and the affection I was getting from my partner; yet, I was deeply bothered inside. I knew that I could not be a Christian and a homosexual at the same time. I struggled because I knew that God was real but I couldn’t deny the fact that I was living in sin and believed that my homosexuality could not be changed. Therefore, this forced me to make a choice between being a homosexual and being a Christian. I ignored God’s teachings and slowly turned away from Him. Eventually, I decided to leave our church and the ministry embracing the homosexual lifestyle, deluding myself that God will love me anyway.

At first, I was happily content with my partner. We did almost all things together: work and business at the same time. However, along the way, I started to feel trapped and became conscious of so many complications about my relationship with her. I started to feel unhappy and unfulfilled. In spite of those feelings, the relationship went on for 8 years for convenience’s sake.

One unexpected day, I accidentally met my high school female crush. We started to communicate and saw each other almost daily. I even took her to Sunday worships. Again, I found myself practicing the beginnings of another homosexual relationship. It felt so right and I believed I was in love again. I broke up with my partner so that I can be with her. For the second time, I depended on another girl to fill my need for love and affirmation.

In August 2009, just right after attending the CCF anniversary worship, my new partner told me that she could no longer continue the relationship because she felt convicted during the pastor’s invitation of acceptance of Jesus Christ. In my mind, I knew that I should be happy for this person because she was beginning to know God, but there was an extreme pain inside my heart. I then knew that the Lord was speaking to me as He broke my wilful spirit. He wanted me to recognize my sins and turn away from them. I realized that there was no way we could continue anymore because we both felt confused and restless with the relationship. So then, I let her go, but it was extremely painful for I soon found out that I was deceived by her because she was actually trying to go back and reunite with her previous girlfriend. I felt so much anger inside because of the deceit and betrayal. The alarms were sounding in my head, convicting me that I only had myself to blame for my misery. It was actually God’s voice calling from the beginning and yet, I chose to ignore Him and flung myself into another immoral relationship. I was a mess because of my deliberate disobedience.

I found myself praying to God for help. This was the time He fully opened my eyes to my faults. I tried to seek help from my previous partner and best friend for comfort but she turned her back on me because of my betrayal. I was left broken, all alone with no one to turn to. And in so much pain, despair and helplessness I called out to God and begged for mercy.

At that time, a friend informed me of a ministry in CCF which helps homosexuals like me. Right away I called CCF and was referred to the Living Free Ministry. Right there and then God gave me the answer to my first question – “What should I do, Lord? Please help me.” In my heart, I then heard Him say, “Reach out.” The following day, without hesitation, I met with one of the LFM volunteer women counsellors and we spoke for 2 hours. I still remember the first question I asked her, “Is it really hard?” With boldness and courage she answered, “Yes, it is, but it is possible with God.” Gasping for breath, I knew I would have to endure the consequences of my sins. I was advised to attend the Living Free Ministry on Mondays and was encouraged to join their support group. To attend the weekly sessions was something I couldn’t decide on right away. To help me in making that decision, I sought counsel from someone. With what I have learned in that session, God gave me the humility and the spirit of obedience to finally join LFM where I started to receive healing. All the arguments and justifications I had about my homosexual lifestyle ended. There were no excuses for me anymore to keep sinning once I was confronted with God’s call.

In Living Free Ministry I met people with deeper wounds than I had. Seeing them so full of life, at peace and with joy in their hearts made me realize, “If these people could make it through by the power and loving grace of GOD, I’m sure with and because of Jesus, I can, too.” Finding people who love God, striving and seeking for a closer relationship with the Lord encouraged me to walk with Jesus. I began to know God deeper, more than ever before. My desire for sinful behaviour has taken a nosedive. The excruciating pain I thought would never end started to subside. The anger that drove me into a life of wretchedness and forlorn began to fade. Finally, after a long deep sleep in sin, I was back on my feet praising Him for His amazing work in me. It was the love and fear of the Lord that healed my pain.

Each day now is a new day filled with joy in my heart. It is something I do not want to hide. As stated in 1 John 1:3, “We are telling you about what we ourselves have actually seen and heard, so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.” Every day, I am learning to trust God and to obey my Heavenly Father’s will. In my heart I know that He is a loving Father who wants to protect His children from hurting themselves from sin and being eternally lost. He is the Father who gave up His Son to save me from sin to give me eternal life and joy.
At this point in my life, I stand in confidence that He is at work and will perfect all things about me as I fully surrender and let go of any remnants of my past sinful life. It is clear to me now that the life of homosexuality offered me an escape from my unmet need for love and affirmation. I had wanted a shortcut to happiness and homosexuality became the easy route. God showed me that the only way that leads to a life of holiness and real lasting joy to Him is through my Savior Jesus Christ.

Everything our eyes can see is temporary. Let us turn instead heavenward and love God and worship Him. To Him be all praises and glory!