Christmas inTagaytay

Our Christmas in Tagaytay was a special time of celebrating Jesus' birth with our neighbours. On 23 December, we had a party for the children who attend our monthly Children ministry. 23 children came and we shared the story of Jesus' birth through songs, a short Veggie Tales animation. The children then folded a heart from paper to symbolize their hearts and to invite Jesus in. We then ended with a time of eating and games.

That night, we went carolling around our neighbourhood and prayed with the families living around us. After a few attempts at harmonizing, we finally perfected and polished our repertoire at the last cluster! It was a beautiful time of praising and proclaiming the birth of our Saviour and our joy to be able to share it with our neighbours.

Celebrating Christmas in Montalban!

Christmas marks a special time in the Philippines. Many Filipino Catholics make special effort to attend the 9 day Dawn Mass (Simbang Gabi) leading to Christmas Day. They make special effort to arise early to attend mass at 4 am before going off to work. It is the time of the year when the churches are packed to the brim. Christ remains in the centre of Christmas. It is also a time for families to gather together to celebrate with joy, peace and love.

We had our annual Reverse Carolling project together with the members of our Balikatan Ministry (adult group). This year, we gave out 100 hampers to poor families in the area.
With each family, we sang Christmas carols and prayed for their needs. These families asked the Lord to bless their families especially their children with good health, to give work to their husbands, and that there will be food on the table each day of the new year. We continue to unite in prayer with these families that the Lord hears and answers their prayers.


And we also had our annual Christmas party with our ministry members...
For the Balikatan Ministry, it was a joyous celebration of thanksgiving as we remembered God's faithfulness and providence in the lives of our members throughout the year. A significant development in 2010 was the commitment made by some of the Balikatan members to grow as disciples of Jesus and to love and serve each other in this ministry. Another step towards growth was also the empowerment of some committed members to serve as leaders and organisers of their small groups, and various events.


With the Children Ministry, we saw our teenage group "Seeds of Faith" empowered to serve the younger groups of children in the different sessions. For Christmas, they performed a Christmas pageant for the children. Each child in the ministry received gifts and their whole year's worksheets from each session. It was priceless to see their smiles !We would like to take this opportunity to thank our generous sponsors for their kind donations that helped our ministry members spend Christmas in a special way this year! God bless you!