Psalms 111:1-4;  Hebrews 11(Selected Verses);  12:1-3;  Matthew 28:19-20

Let me invite you to reflect on the theme and focus of our 63rd Founding Anniversary “  Celebrating the Past and Looking Forward to Fruitful Years:   Therefore Go…!

         What a lively and fitting theme to challenge and guide us in our pilgrimage journey and faith mission during the next five years to come!

!. Celebrating the Past:

     The Psalmist  invites us to praise the Lord.  “ He does amazing things and made his wonderful works to be remembered: the Lord is gracious and full of compassion.”  Ps. 111:4  We celebrate by remembering the past, the work of the Lord in our lives and our walked with him during the 63 years of our church..

      In Hebrews 11 St. Paul challenged the early church to celebrate the life and faith of those who have been faithful in their covenant relationship with God. 

     He has shown to the meaning and picture of faith which became their legacy to the church. Faith is what they did in obedience to the commands of God for them to do.

     The measure of our faith is NOT our “talk” ….. it is our “walk” with God. .  St. James said: “How can I see your faith apart from your action…I’ll show you my faith by putting into practice in faith action” (James 2:18)
    Examples of faith people mentioned in from Hebrews 11
• Abel – The one who brought the appropriate sacrifice to God 

• Enoch – He walked so close to God that he just went to heaven without dying  

• Noah – The builder of the ark and the survivor of the flood  

• Abraham – The one who was known for following God by faith   

• Jacob – God changed his name to Israel

• Moses – The one who led God’s people out of Egyptian captivity
• David – The killer of Goliath and the greatest king of all Israel’s history

     We so often forget the fact that God does His best work in the lives of ordinary people.  God makes it a habit of doing the impossible through people who are not that much different from you and I.  The only difference is that those heroes of the faith opened their lives up to allow God to do His work.
    The secret to having a life that leaves a legacy is understanding that it is not what you do for yourself but rather it is what you allow God to do for others through you. This is how we make a difference in this world and this is how we make a lasting impact.

     Look back at the Hebrew 11:32-34 he says:  “And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jepthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised, “who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword, whose weakness was turned to strength; and who become powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.”
      What a great variety of people, many of them just ordinary individuals of faith, but used by God in extraordinary ways to accomplish His will. You see, God makes a habit of doing the impossible through people who are not that much different from you & me. 

     Yes truly indeed their life of faith, challenge the early Christians to press on their covenant relationship with God at the face of persecutions, trials, and even death.

A.     Today we also celebrate the faith of our immediate brothers and sisters who made an impact and legacy in the life and ministry of Davao City First United Methodist Church..

    Let me invite you to celebrate the faith of the lay people, Clergy and diaconal workers and the FUMC congregation as local church during the 63 years.

(1). We celebrate the faith of the small group of Methodist families in Davao City who met for worship and fellowship as early of May 1951. Among them are the families of Mr. & Mrs. Jose Collantes,  Atty. & Mrs. Ramon Saura, Mr. & Mrs. Castro Lardizabal, Mr. & Mrs. Constant Bringas, Mr. & Mrs. Leslie Pascua, Mr. & Mrs. Sanvictores, Miss Mercedes Castro, Mr. Pablo Galdones, and Mr. Paraso. On the initiative of Miss Mercedes Castro, and Mrs. Ramon Saura, they started worshipping together and took turns hosting the Sunday services. They were comfortable at the beautiful UCCP church downtown but their Methodist connection drew them together with the challenge of renting a house for their worship and taking turns to preach on Sundays. On October 21, 1952 they organized themselves as a worshipping congregation at the home of Mr. & Mrs. Jose Collantes with 23 people.* 

(2). We celebrate the faith-vision of the Methodist Global Connection that Davao City Methodist congregation will grow and flourish, so they bought eights lots and built a small sanctuary here in Bo. Obrero for our church building.

(3). We celebrate the faith of the lay people of FUMC in dreaming, visioning and undertaking the constructions of buildings for the ministry of the church:

  1. In 1988, our church embarked on building a sanctuary that replaced the

old church building to accommodate the growing membership of the congregation. The new church sanctuary was completed at the cost of Php. 1.4 million and was dedicated to the glory of God in 1990.

  1. In May 1991 the church started the construction of the two story UMSD

school building which continued for 7 years & completed by God’s grace in 1998, which paved the way for the UMSD to offer a complete pre-school and elementary education. 

  1. In 1998 the gymnasium was constructed that gave the local church

opportunity to offer more services to the community and the donation/income continue to raise funds for building and scholarship funds.

  1. In 2001 our church created FUMC Task Force to help Panabo UMC 

raised funds for their church lot and build a beautiful sanctuary and a parsonage. This was completed at the cost of Php. 2.1 million and was dedicated on November 28, 2001. Our local church considers Panabo City United Methodist Church as her second daughter church.

  1. In June 19, 2008 we bought a church vehicle to support our increasing

outreach and extension program ministry in the amount of 878,000.00 pesos. 

If you see from afar you will say the members of FUMC are rich people

to be able to build and buys these things worth million of pesos. But looking closer, their secret is that they are rich in faith. When they see their goal in their faith, they pray for God’s help, they give, they work, and challenge others to share. It is Faith Raising to fulfill their mission.

  (4) Our Commission as a church is to go Preach, teach, make disciples, baptize, which will lead into a church. So we celebrate the birth of FUMC daughter churches as a result of their mission ministry: In November 24, 1966, FUMC gave birth to its first daughter church, the Davao City Central Methodist Church.

 In 1988 our church started to support the mission work in Panabo City until it was organized into a chartered local church on March 10, 1990. We continued to support them in acquiring a lot and built a beautiful sanctuary with a parsonage, completed at the cost of Php. 2.1 million and was dedicated on November 28, 2001. We work & supported them for 13 years. FUMC considers Panabo City United Methodist Church as her second daughter church.

       (5).We also celebrate the vigorous educational mission of FUMC leading to two noble ministry: a). the establishment of one of the first or if not the first kindergarten school in Davao City (Twinkle Star Learning Center/ UMSD) b). Scholarship program of the church and UMSD. We have scholarship to candidates for the ministry studying at Southern Philippines Methodist Colleges, Mindanao Methodist Bible School and the Wesley Divinity School. Our scholars the past years included the following: Edison Umayam Jr., Daisy Villegas, Rosemie Laman, Romeo Salutan, Kevin Nebran, Eleonor Tumale, Melvin Serrano, and Ike Pama. Today our scholars at SPMCI are Romelito Gallardo, Geraldine Alcid, and Darlyn Sanchez all from MINPAC.

      (6) We celebrate the leadership ministry and fruitful participation of lay and clergy/diaconal members of FUMC in the leadership of the District, annual conference, Phil. Central Conference, and General conference. (Jeanne Deocampo, Rudy Lucero, Victoriano Lozano, Fidela Bilog, Hope Duroon-Tugade, Eunice Atienzar, Hector Guzman, Samuel Domingo, Francisco Bilog).

(7). We celebrate the Ministry of Deaconeses who touched the lives of our children, youth and women. To mention some of them: Mrs. Mercedes Castro inspired and encouraged the organization of the first congregation of FUMC, Mrs. Phebe Pidut Perasol, worked hard for the establishment of Twinkle Star, the predecessor of UMSD, Mrs. Ester Campos, sacrificially working hard in the  opening, and growth of Panabo UMC.

2. We celebrate by Looking Forward to Fruitful years.

        By celebrating the walk of faith and the successes of our church ministry during the 63 years is an evidence of the truth of God’s word, yesterday, today and the years to come.

        Now FUMC looks forward for the next five years or so, we see a vision,  beautiful pictures of two mission goals or event : First is the expansion of our FUMC church building and the birthing a daughter church in Babak, IGACOS.

    This vision picture will be the result of faithfulness to the great commission Jesus has commanded to our church to do,“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the command I have given you. .” (Mtt. 28:18-20.)  

      Yes, the reason for expanding our church sanctuary is our covenant with God to make disciples of Jesus Church and bring them into fold of the church. By faith  each one of us, from the youth to older adult may disciples one each year. FUMC will be overcrowded in the next five years. One way of starting is to practice radical hospitality in our church, family and community. This will result to a relationship and friendship which will give you great opportunity to make your friend disciples of Jesus Christ, then bring to the fold of the church for spiritual growth towards maturity..

       St. Paul wrote in Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through him who gives me strength.”  Do you believe this by faith? So, having this faith in God we could achieve great things for God to be fruitful in making disciples of Jesus Christ and bring them to the fold of the church. So fruitful in this endeavor we really need to expand our church sanctuary.

      By faith we can raise the amount to expand our church building. By faith we did it before, so by our faith raising we can do it again. (Ex. Promises to raised and pay the amount of building parts- such as post, façade, square meter worth) 

      By faith I believed that it was God’s plan for FUMC to have a daughter church in Babak Samal. God has only used Rev. Choi to start the work, and EMPAC to send us there to make the reality of the birth a local Methodist church.  God’s words which I am quoting is assuring us we can do it with God’s help:  Philip. 1:6 says, “…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”      Isa. 41:10, 11.   “Do not be afraid, I am with you. Don’t tremble with fear, I am your God. I will make you strong, as I protect you with my arm and give you victories. I am the Lord your God. I am holding your hand so don’t be afraid. I am here to help you.”  

     3) Therefore go…

              Our text challenges us to go. “And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. “ (Heb. 12:1-2)

Yes, “Therefore go…”  says the slogan of our global UMC this coming four years. We also vigorously say “Therefore go…”  Go to what?… make disciples of Jesus Christ and bring them to the kingdom of God. Remember your covenant promised to support and uphold the UMC with your prayers, presence, gift, service and witness. Witnessing means making others a disciple of Jesus Christ. 

      We usually wish a newly married couple to be fruitful, meaning to have several children. This means when we look forward to be fruitful in the coming years, we are with great intent to vigorously supporting our mission work, the realization of the birth of a daughter church in Zamal Island.

      The coming years to come that God bestows upon us and our church, open many opportunities for us to be fruitful in making disciples of Jesus Christ and building a bigger sanctuary for them and for the church for the honor and glory of God.

Let us press on then with faith and with courage, therefore go and do,  taking hold of the opportunities that God will give to all of us, and FUMC.

 God bless the faith and life of FUMC more and more! 

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