Balikatan ministry update

Morning Group
Since the beginning of the year 2009, there was an increase in members of the morning session from a group of 25 to 35 and more! The turning point was the Life in the Spirit Seminar conducted in April 2009. After that seminar, our new Balikatan members became very alive and excited during our regular Saturday meetings.

Each week, with great enthusiasm, they participated in the times of Praise and Worship, small groups sharing and teachings. These teachings included the Ten Commandments, an introduction to Scriptures, and at the present moment, a series on prayer (a series of 7 teachings).


From the teachings on prayer they found it most helpful praying ‘The Jesus Prayer’ in their busy lives. The prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God , have mercy on me, a sinner” can be repeated many times throughout the whole day. They shared that praying this prayer as they cooked, cleaned, walked, went to sleep and upon waking up, helps them to be constantly aware of God’s presence and also helps them to overcome their difficulties and feelings of sadness, irritation and impatience.

We also welcome two new team members to our Balikatan team - Domisiano from Korea and Andrina from Singapore who are presently going through Staff Formation in our ICPE Centre.

Afternoon Group
At the beginning of the year the members created the vision for their afternoon group
“To have a permanent Balikatan Community in which members are supporting each other.” They are very much aware of the fact that they themselves have to carry out this vision through:
• Living Christian Life
• Helping one another as much as possible
• Helping new members
• Reaching out to their neighbors and friends in their clusters
Encouraged and strengthen by this vision and strategies they started to follow the series of teachings on Christian character like speech, integrity, virtues etc., they were also helping out with leading sharing groups in the Morning Group and reaching out to their neighbors of whom some joined the Balikatan Meetings.