Hello blog world! It's been a while again since I've put my last post here. Been busy with campus ministry in the past few weeks. As you know, classes already started last month, and we're on the process of recruiting students to be part of our discipleship groups.
XA UBelt
I'm excited that our ministry in University Belt is growing. I have moved out (for now) of PUP & TUP after we've established student leaders who will lead the movement in these schools. This semester, some of us focused in universities surrounding our student center. One university has been showing signs of harvest: FEU. Today we have a strong discipleship group going on every week, and we're praying that leaders will rise up from this group. We're continually praying for movements in UE, UST and other schools.
Last semester we do our life gathering, a celebration gathering/worship service of all discipleship groups, once a month. This semester we took a step of faith to make it a weekly gathering. One of our concern was adding another time commitment for the students to commit to. But we do see the value of seeing each other's discipleship groups and celebrating the victories God has given us as a community. Every Friday we are amazed at testimonies of students about how God is answering their prayers and prospering their discipleship groups.
We are now working towards solidifying our groups. Come August, we will be starting our discipleship lessons. We will be launching our new discipleship curriculum called SIM or Student Intentional Moves, a student version of an existing IM. This comes as an answered prayer to have a discipleship tool for students. So in partnership with ICI Ministries, the National Youth Department and Chi Alpha worked together to produce this tool. Personally, I can't wait to see students leading other students with this tool.
Next week we are also hosting an 8-person XA missions team from Ball State University Indianapolis. The week will be full of meet and greets and other events with them. Excited to work with them and invest in their lives as well.
XA National
On the national XA scene, we had a fruitful ministry last summer. From March to May XA Training Teams were deployed to different parts of the Philippines to train students and churches in starting their new Chi Alpha groups in their own locale. Our teams were quite different this time from when we started. Before it was only a 3-person team. But today, there are more people, even a new generation of trainors who have joined us. It was a response to the need of more trainors for more locations that some of us haven't worked together during summer because we're assigned to different locations. We only saw each other, and celebrated what God has done during our get together party after summer.
Some places where we had training:
- Angeles, Pampanga
- Metro Manila
- Bicol Region
- Cebu
- Aklan
- Davao City (Mindanao region wide)
- La Union
Training students and churches was an exciting time. It's like planting seeds. Planting seeds of vision and passion for the lost and the campus. By June, our teams return to their own local ministries while tuned to the developments that would happen in places where we did our training. And praise God because when the school year kicked-off, new Chi Alpha discipleship groups started and new Chi Alpha organizations were registered in their respective universities. These are always exciting times for us.
New XA developments around the Philippines
- Personal victories from students who shared Christ to their classmates.
- XA is now an official student organization in Technological University of the Philippines, Bataan Peninsula State University Dinalupihan Campus, Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University in Agoo, La Union, Cebu Technological University Argao Campus. UP Diliman is also working to be an official student organization this year.
- XA dgroups have been established for the first time in University of Makati, Aklan State University, Miriam College.
- In Bicol Region, new XA movements have been established in different provinces. Like in Camarines Sur, 4 campus movements were immediately started after the training in 4 major university locations.
- In the past we have seen movements among high school students rise up. This year, we have launched a new identity for high school movements called "XA High", this new identity will see the development of specific tools and strategies in reaching high school students.
- We continue to discover new movements as a result of our trainings in the past years. It continues to encourage us and affirm God's Word that says, "our work in the Lord is not in vain."
Thank you for praying with us!
