Renewing our commitment

On 27 February 2011, thirty men and women expressed their commitment to love and follow the Lord as his disciples, to grow together in faith, to share and support each other, and to serve in Christ’s mission to reach out to others. Of the thirty, ten were expressing their commitment for the first time. Most of them had been attending the Balikatan ministry meetings in the past year. The remaining twenty had made their first commitment in January 2010 and were renewing their commitment for another year.

There was much joy as the members made this commitment. It was apt that the Gospel for this day was from Matthew 6:24-34. In their daily struggle for survival, many of the Balikatan members face challenges to choose money, other values to be their gods. On this day, they chose clearly that that they want to serve God, and no other. Jesus’ words not to worry about what we are to eat, drink or wear, spoke into their reality since often, many of our Balikatan members and families do not really know whether they will have something to eat, drink or wear. His assurance that “your Heavenly Father knows you need them all” strengthened them to make this commitment expressing their desire to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and trust that all other things will be given them as well by the Father who knows and loves them.