Our September newsletter presents the last two talks at our July 2011 conference at UC Berkeley. Dr. Leni Juarez shares her experiences on “What Do We Encounter?” and Atty. Eric Tadeo focuses on our personal action plan on “What Do We Render?”

In our forthcoming October issue, we will be focusing on the new Vision Statement adopted by Balikatan in our July conference. We also encourage you as our stakeholders to renew your membership with us for the next twelve months. To renew your membership online, simply click here.

Shalom!

Jojo Remigio
Board Member

Leni S. Juárez

by Leni S. Juárez, Ed.D

Acts 1:1-5

1. The acts of Jesus Christ and the acts of the Holy Spirit

• Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship is a movement of the Spirit.

2.  The reign of God/The Kingdom of God

• The central message of Jesus in the Gospels and the heart of the message of the Apostles
• Acts 1:6-11

3. Witnesses of the Kingdom

• We seek to relate what we read in the gospels and in the book of Acts with our own life and history.

4. Witnesses to the ends of the earth

• We are witnesses to our fellow Filipinos and to all peoples.

5. The coming of the Holy Spirit

• In the Pentecost, the Holy Spirit affirmed the importance of culture and language in the church.
• Acts 8:1-40

6. The Church scatters – What does it encounter?

• The Filipino Diaspora in the Middle East, in North America, and the ends of the earth

7. Encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch

• The Filipino Diaspora in the margins of society

Enrico Tadeo

By Enrico Tadeo, J.D.

To answer the news reporter’s questions on the above Scripture:

• When do we render? After we receive the Holy Spirit (thus, this is a command to all believers)
• How do we render? By being witnesses for Jesus, connecting with people and reflecting Jesus with our life and our words; evangelism and discipleship
• Where do we render? Remotest part of the earth; consider the United States as a remote part of the earth, in many ways it is; wherever we are is a remote part of the earth
• Who will render? You.
• Why do we render? God told us to do so.

Rendering needs at least TWO parties: The Renderer and the Renderee. And you need the ‘thing’ to be rendered, the thing that the Renderer have and the Renderee needs.

To find out what we render, we need to take a good look at ourselves, our current situation, our family, our job, what we have and who are the people around us we might have an impact on. Then commit to render.

So, what do we render? First, we look at what we have: Our gifts and experiences, the journey we have taken that had strengthened us, our Filipino-ness – the traits of the culture that contributes so much to the good of the greater number; most of all, Jesus in us. We also have the things that God had bestowed on us: our time, our passions, our energies, expertise and education, our material possession, our money; resources given to us that Renderees may need.

Who are the Renderees? Look at the people around you; not just those who are physically around you, but those with you have contact (even online), those you can touch both literally and figuratively – your spouse, your children, your parents, people in your church, your co-workers, your local Filipino-American community and organizations, people in the Philippines, Intervarsity Philippines, and Balikatan. Ask yourselves why God put these people within your reach, and why God gave you the ability to impact these people. God does not do things without a purpose.

So, given these inventories, how do you start figuring out what we render? First, pray to God that He makes these things clear to you; let God reveal the next step – be open to it, be prepared for it.
Then, commit to it. Write this letter to God:

Dear God – Thank you for _______________________ (inventory of the things you have, pick say the top 2 or 3). Thank you for bringing into my circle of impact _________________________ (inventory of people I am in touch with, pick say the top 2 or 3). I commit within this next year to __________________________ (make your commitment – make it specific, specifying what you have that you are rendering, and who you are rendering it to).
(Sign your Name)

(We will mail this commitment letter back to you in around 6 months to remind you of your commitment. Thanks to all those who turned in your commitment letter. You can still turn them in by putting it inside an envelope and sending it to: Enrico Tadeo 8006 NW 15th Ct, Vancouver, WA 98665).