Our July conference this year will be held in Boston. Praise God for our brethren in Boston and their hard work in hosting this conference. Let us devote this month’s Prayer Day to our conference- the major activity of Balikatan to renew, reunite, and revitalize our group all over the US and Canada.

Prayer Requests for Boston Hosting Group

1. Please pray for single mindedness of purpose and motive which is to Glorify God and lift Jesus Christ up above all.
2. Please pray for good working relationship among all the planners.
3. Pray that Otto Koning’s health and well-being be preserved and that God would anoint and use him effectively to deliver God’s truth.
4. Pray that the workshops and quiet time/personal devotions be opportunities for God to speak to each of us individually and to all of us as a group.
5. Please pray that the youth, our teenagers and the college/career group gel nicely and together learn from the Lord important truth for their practical lives.
6. Pray too that the children will have fun learning about missions and God’s desire for us to be his messengers of the gospel to others.
7. Pray that God would bring 200 conference attendees to Balikatan this year.
8. Please pray that He will provide for all the financial needs of the conference.
9. Pray for preserved health and safe travel for all those coming.
10. Finally, please pray that God would also generously provide for all those planning to come and those who determined to come.

Praise and Thanksgiving prayers:

1. Praise for the venue of the conference Gordon College Campus, it is beautiful, peaceful and affordable. (Maganda, mapayapa at mura pa).
2. Praise and gratitude for those who pledged to give financially in support of the conference out of the generosity of their hearts.
3. Praise and thanks for all the Balikatan groups and chapters who sent their pictures and their donations for the souvenir program.
4. Praise for the availability of our speaker and the workshop leaders who committed themselves to be used by the Lord in this conference.
5. Finally, praise and gratitude to all who are attending this conference from far and near with the desire to honor and glorify God, and listen to what He has to say from His heart through the scriptures and the interaction of fellow believers.

As the current Balikatan constitution assumes that discussion and decision-making has to be conducted in the context of face-to-face meetings, an interim procedural system for electronically mediated meetings was recently adopted by the Balikatan Board to further streamline and simplify the means by which motions are made through online and electronic means, how these are addressed in terms of discussions and deliberations and then resolved in terms of decisions / courses of action. The Constitution and By-laws committee was likewise directed to make recommendations for amending and aligning the current Constitution and bylaws to address these motion-making, discussion and decision-making needs in the light of evolving communications needs. Such recommendations will then be presented to the Balikatan constituency in the forthcoming annual conference.

Kindly click link below for details.

balikatan-board-resolution-1-for-an-interim-procedural-system-for-electronically-mediated-meetings1

As February is the love month, let us praise the Lord for individuals who showed their love and gave to Balikatan SPECIAL PROJECTS IN 2009. More specifically, the following amounts were raised: A) Project 11/9= $3,106 B) Typhoon Ondoy Relief= $1,400 and C) National Conference 2009= $11,100. In the midst of our country’s economic recession, God’s people have been abundantly generous. In addition, according to our friends in MEANS, in 2009 they had the greatest donation EVER in their 25+ years of ministry. Robert Morris in his book “The Blessed Life” discussed the power of offerings (such as donations to Balikatan, MEANS, and IVCF Philippines) as follows: “In Matthew 25, Jesus tells a story of three stewards. There is a principle of faithful stewardship that teaches that we should give more to God than just the title because tithing is simply returning to Him what is already His. If you’re not currently tithing, that is certainly the place to start. But if you look closely at Malachi 3, God mentions tithes and offerings (verse 8). It’s tithes and offerings that remove the curse, bring the blessings, and rebuke the devourer. God wants to bless and multiply our finances, just as He blessed and multiplied the two fish and the loaves.” Let us thank the Lord for blessed lives in Balikatan and its chapters as they continue to experience the joy of giving and the reward of receiving.

Let us also pray for an upcoming special project known as the Alumni Liaison and Communication Specialist (ALCS) position that the Board has decided to launch. We are currently in the process of recruitment and hope to fill this outsourced position soon with an IVCF volunteer, supporter, or alumni in the Philippines. The role of the ALCS is to maintain the Balikatan website, assist Balikatan in developing and maintaining a database of IVCF Philippines alumni who are residing in USA and Canada, and coordinate their integration with Balikatan chapters or groups in USA and Canada. Per Erickson’s report, there are at least a thousand IVCF alumni in the US and Canada many of whom are not even aware of Balikatan. With high tech communications we have these days, we hope to have ALCS contact these alumni and channel them to respective chapters in their city of residence. Please pray for guidance and wisdom in hiring the person God wants to be ALCS for Balikatan.

Lilia Salazar-Nigro, Board Member
Special Projects and Fund Development Committee

The Lord has blessed IVCARES with the experience of having a deeper appreciation of His grace and faithfulness. Faced with the challenges posed by health problems, schedules and resources, IVCARES embarked on a new program to raise funds for IVCF Philippines last year. Our usual caroling project that required us to go from house to house on the first three weekends of December would have been very difficult if not impossible for us to do. After much prayers and deliberation, The Lord led us to try a different way of caroling. Instead of going from house to house to carol on cold winter nights, we invited our donors and friends to a party and caroling in one of the members’ home. We praise the Lord for the many guests that came. They were treated to a sumptuous noche buena style dinner, caroling by the IVCARES choir, carols sing-along and warm fellowship. Our donors have been very generous with their giving. There were donors who were not able to make it to the party and just sent their donations and gifts. A total amount of $6,203.00 was raised. Praise the Lord indeed! From this amount, $253.00 went to the IVCARES operational funds. $5,950.00 was sent to Balikatan for IVCF Philippines staff’s thirteenth month pay.

Prayer Request:

Our group will be meeting, hopefully this coming Sunday January 31, to discuss the possiblity of hosting HIS sounds this coming fall. Pray for the Lord’s guidance and wisdom as we discuss and decide.

From: IV CARES Coordinator, Dr. Pete Parayno
Phone Number: 630-497-8432 paraynop@yahoo.com

Thanks a lot for all your input (and IV CARES help) in this Balikatan. It was a refreshing and blessed time for us. Even Alejandro (Leni’s husband) was very aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit moving us toward a certain direction. So here are some reflections:

During our trip to Mackinaw Island, post Balikatan, Kevin, Bethel’s son asked: “Why was this Balikatan historic?” He wanted to know because he had heard comments to that effect from a number of participants. I agree with this observation, albeit as someone who attends every 10 years or so. One senses a kind of awe inspiring anticipation in the air when something important is about to happen. I began to sense this as I followed the back and forth emails regarding the workshop on “Keeping Faith and Identity in a Multicultural World.” Soul searching questions were being asked. Honest efforts of looking at Scriptural models were put forward. Dialogue was happening, but always with a humble desire to submit to the context of praise and worship.

At the conference business meeting, an innocent question about membership fees gave way to deeper questions of identity: both group and member identity. Then musings on the need to revisit Balikatan’s purpose began to surface, perhaps not for the first time.

The workshop on “Keeping Faith and Identity” happened. Instead of the dreaded difficulties, I sensed an openness in the sharing of immigrants’ experiences. Bonds of connections were strengthened as we identified with each others’ struggles, pains, and triumphs, grateful for God’s faithfulness through it all. It was evident that the question of bringing up our Filipino bicultural children (whether from bicultural marriages or not) was foremost in many hearts. We wanted them to preserve their Filipino heritage in the context of their American realities. We needed help in guiding our children in understanding their identity as Filipino American Christians. We acknowledged our own groping for clarity of definition of our own multi-layered identity as the Filipino American church within the mainstream church of the U.S. society we are now a part of. As Melba gave us the final challenge of the night, we recognized that there were no easy answers, but we knew we could not ignore these questions and Balikatan’s role in searching for answers.

I believe the Holy Spirit continued moving hours after the last session. In an informal gathering around snacks, Filipino style, animated discussions of the mission of the “Filipino diaspora” continued. And then – a hush, as everybody became aware of the gravity of the moment: a vision for a growing role of Balikatan was forming. Members of the board (past and present) started scribbling notes on napkins to capture the beginnings of this vision.

Going back to Kevin’s( Bethel’s son) question: Why is this Balikatan historic? Something happened in this Balikatan. Through the worship, the talks, the business meetings, the missionary reports, the workshop, the formal concert, the informal singing around the piano, the sharing and informal discussions around midnight snacks, He brought us to the threshold of a new vision for Balikatan. That is historic. It behooves us to follow where He leads from here.

I’m sorry that I could not be more detailed, but the above expresses the gist of what most impacted me in this Balikatan. I hope to hear from our “guardians” of the vision (those who wrote notes on napkins that night). Let’s continue discussing in a prayerful stance.

Didn’t have the opportunity to write? Contact us:

Thank you to those who shared their experiences. If there are some of you who wish to share how the Lord has blessed you at Balikatan 2009, please send your reflections to Ernie Jimenez (ernievee03@comcast.net) or Lina Padilla (lrp568@yahoo.com)