The CHRISTmas Message

Merry CHRISTMAS to all, and my wishes for God's blessings to you and your loved ones in the coming New Year. As you all may have noticed, in honor of the season celebrating Jesus' birth, I have tried to be still and refrain myself from making any offensive entries. I have even delayed the conclusion of the What's In A Name essay. I'm saddened to note that the other side seems to feel no qualms about it. Here at the blog, I am guessing (with profound sadness) that it will be business as usual for us after the new year.

I bid you all to take this time to remember what CHRISTmas is truly is about, and honor the birth of He who gave his life for all of us. CHRISTmas is that much too short span of time when I try even harder to be that ideal person that I would like to be, every day of the year, and every year of my life. In following Jesus Christ's example, let us practice honesty, forgiveness, restraint, peace, understanding, and most of all, LOVE. No bible passages, no readings, no gospel quotes; just that simple message that I believe God would like us all to embody.

Many, many thanks to all who have helped us fight the good fight from the beginning, and those who supported CFC in this year of crisis.

My love to all of CFC, and see you all in 2008.


ps

Take it easy on the Lechon! =) You all know what I'm talking about!

Mad World

Not quite CFC related, but I think it's something to think about this CHRISTmas time. The song, Mad World, originally by Tears for Fears, used to make me bob my head in tune with it. This rendition by Gary Jules now brings tears to my eyes. The youtube video shows us some interesting ratios in representing the entire Earth's population in just 100 people. Please watch it:

The Music of Hope - A Mini-Review

In a previous entry, I had invited you all to support the 29AD band in their benefit concert for the HO. Those attended the Music of Hope event were treated to a wonderful show. I personally came away from it quite impressed with the assembled talents of all the performers. All in all, it was a very well put together show, from the front acts to the extremely funny hosts. It was well worth the money, especially considering it was something meant to benefit the HO and not the performers who gave it their all.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting something so well put together, having been jaded by some big name commercial events I've been to that was sadly lacking in coordination and sometimes...talent. This was not the case here. In fact, for such an assembly of acts and talents, I would have gladly paid double for my ticket. It was THAT GOOD.

However, there are a few things I feel I have to relate to you all. I am not the type to sugar coat anything, and I hope no one takes what I have to say personally. I have no wish to offend or discourage anybody involved in its production, least of all the awesome talents who took the stage and I was privileged to witness. First off, it was COLD. The Arena was a great venue for this event, no doubt, but somebody from the North Pole had control of the A/C! I was looking around half expecting to see the big guy in his red suit and bag of gifts. People around me were shivering in their seats. I personally am used to cold weather but this was a bit much. More than a few people left intermittently to warm themselves outside. I actually forgot I was in the Philippines for a couple of hours, half expecting to see snow piled up on the parking lot outside. I jest, but you get the picture. It seemed to me that the temperature in the Arena contributed to an early exit by some of those in attendance. When you attend an event to watch people perform, you really don't want to have your attention diverted by outside influences, in this case, the temperature. Next, in retrospect, maybe this event should not have been held on a Friday. The traffic was unbearably bad, especially in that area. It might have turned off some people, and I noticed that in the turnout. Considering the caliber of the acts and assembled talents, I really expected more people to attend. I am glad for those who did, but I had personally wanted to see more people there. I know it's the season and all, I know all about the traffic, and I do know that we have been giving a lot for the community, but this was a show well worth the drive, the money, and the time. I can't express that enough. I had a great time! I hope you don't miss the next concert, I am quite sure it will be just as good.

To those who made it, thank you! To those who missed it...here's a little video of the highlights sent in by one of our blogger friends. Forgive the bad editing, this is my first time using Microsoft's Movie Maker, hehe. There were a couple of pictures sent in too, I hope those of you who took pictures can send me some so that I can add it here and to our Flickr site.







Some pics:



The 5 Bars (previously 4, hehe)



Kenosis Band

One Time Big Time

LAST UPDATE: JUNE 11, 2008

The campaign to put our house in order is in full swing!

Download the PDF HERE.
(I'm testing out a new file storage service, please give me feedback if you have the time. Thanks!)

This will reportedly get daily updates as the fund drive progresses. Here's the first update as I received it in my email. At the end of it, if someone from The Center doesn't compile it I'll go ahead and create a pdf document that has all the pages.

Bulletin No. 1, Dec. 12, 2007

Bulletin No. 2, Dec. 13, 2007

Bulletin No. 3, Dec. 14, 2007

Bulletin No. 4, Dec. 17, 2007

Bulletin No. 5, Dec. 18, 2007
Bulletin No. 6, Dec. 19, 2007

I've received a note from George Asensi with an explanation about the format of Bulletin Nos 5 & 6. Their scanner has bogged down and these bulletins don't have his signature, but rest assured they are genuine.

Bulletin No. 7, Dec. 20, 2007

Bulletin No. 8, Dec. 21, 2007


Bulletin No. 9, Dec. 27, 2007


Bulletin No. 10, Dec. 28, 2007


Bulletin No. 11, Dec. 29, 2007


Bulletin No. 12, Jan. 2, 2008


Bulletin No. 13, Jan. 3, 2008


Bulletin No. 14, Jan. 4, 2008

Bulletin No. 15, Jan. 11, 2008* * *

Edit:
I keep assuming the campaign to be over, hehe. It is still going strong, and believe it or not, we're halfway there! Lets keep this up, friends!

Here's a short message from George Asensi:

dear everyone, the Araneta conference and the 2 other conferences that followed, together with the full to capacity MC gathering last night were indeed awe-inspiring, uplifting, life-giving and truly Spirit-filled for us in Couples for Christ. we were waylaid for a while, but, now we are back in solid footing in metro manila, the entire philippines and abroad. we now move on.... let us not fail our AWESOME GOD! we are now over the half-way mark of our OTBT target. if we can accumulate the same amount in less than 5 months the same amount we were able to amass in less than a month, then we will be truly debt-free on the day we celebrate our 27th Anniversary at the Luneta in June. share your passion & love for community and to the Lord to the other brethren who have not heard yet of this campaign. or if the Lord is prodding you to be more generous still, go ahead, remit now! attached is the latest bulletin. i will be coming out with weekly bulletins to update you. God bless you all always! in the Lord's service, george

* * *
The Campaign Continues:

Bulletin No. 16, Jan. 18, 2008


Bulletin No. 17, Jan. 25, 2008

Bulletin No. 18, Feb.1, 2008
A note from George Re: Bulletin #18:

This report covers the period from when we started the campaign up to today which is exactly 52 days. from a high of almost P20M, our debt is now down to only a little over P7M. that is about a third of the original obligations and in less than two months! how can you beat that?

if we push a little harder, let us wipe out, first, the P4.1M bank loans and, second, let us ask bridge-fund lenders to waive collections of their loans to the community. i have the list of these brothers and sisters. if you are one of them, please call me on my mobile phone 0920.9509039 or office landline at 727.9618.

in due time, we would be a debt-free CFC as we celebrate our 27th anniversary in june.

God is good, all the time!

George Asensi

Bulletin No. 19, Feb.8, 2008

Bulletin No. 20, Feb.15, 2008

Comparative Report, Feb.22, 2008

dear brethren,

in lieu of the weekly bulletins that i previously issued, we are giving you instead the current loan balances (with comparative figures). these are based from the records of our accounting department. and you can be sure that the diminishing balances are because of your financial generosity.

we are almost there. we are just a little over P3M in our bank loans as of month end of February. we will be making additional payments soon. it won't be long now.

so, come on..... share those blessings! you know how God has blessed you brethren. show your love for God and community more concretely.

God bless you all!

in the Lord's service,

george

* * *

I am sure I don't have to reiterate, this is the best time and the best way to show our support and love for CFC. Let us ALL help put our house in order.

I've added a song in the player that I especially liked from the movie, Enchanted. I think it is kind of fitting.

* * *

Update from George, May 6, 2008

RCBC - P 600,000.00

Bridge Fund - 1,627,000.00

-------------------------

P 2,227,000.00

We only have about P30,000 of OTBT funds after we made our last payment to the bank. Thus, we still need around P570,000.00 to completely wipe off the bank loans. As to the bridge funding, we continue to call on the lenders to waive collections over them and if they really want payments, then they will have to wait a little while.

In any case, consider that we only have about 1/10 (~10%) of the original debt we were left with! Great Job EVERYONE!

OTBT has shown that we all can step up when called upon. While the goal was not met in pesos....YET, it definitely was in spirit. Even through the budget crunches of the season, we collectively were able to raise a huge amount in support of something we believe and have faith in. While I certainly don't speak for the Council, I am quite certain they'd like to thank each and every one of you personally for the trust you've given to fulfill the task they've given themselves to better serve all of you. Let us now continue helping them to set our house in order and start the new year right with the Lord's graces.

The following is a short Q & A based on some of the feedback you've given regarding the OTBT campaign.





Download the PDF file HERE.

Update June 11, 2008 From George Asensi:

As of today, our loan with RCBC still has an outstanding balance of P300,000.00, but, we have at least P60,000 from the OTBT contributions that we can use to pay. Thus, it would seem that we are not yet entirely debt-free as of today. We still need some P240,000.00 yet. Also, there is still a balance of P1.187M of the bridge funds. Of this, P715,000 is due to brethren who have aligned themselves with FFL and some P472,000 from CFC brethren who have not signified waiving collection of their advances.

The accounting department now has the responsibility to account for OTBT contributions. This responsibility was taken away from me to avoid conflict in our figures. Once a month, I am away from the office because of my assignment as PAH of Catanduanes, thus, i will miss at least a week of monitoring funds coming in. The department should be able to account if asked to because they have all the records with them. The loan figures I am giving out also come from the accounting department thru tita Norma Gabutina, Accounting Dept. head.

I am sure we will be able to wipe out our RCBC outstanding loan before June 21.

* * *

I believe we can all pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. Let us now look ahead to the years to come of transparency, fiscal soundness, and honest accounting. I for one am expecting it, and I believe this welcome change will be a very, very good thing.

A Season For Giving

Friends, here's another worthwhile cause for the season. Let us support the Tekton Guild in their fund-raiser for Gawad Kabuhayan, their micro-enterprise development program.

To quote their email to me:

These are not ordinary greeting cards. Each card comes with a personal accident insurance for Php 10,000. The cards cost Php 40 each, or Php 200 per pack of 5's. I have announced this to the MCG so this is just a friendly reminder to those who might have forgotten about this yuletide offering.

Thanks very much! This will greatly help us in raising more resources for our values formation training, microfinance, skills training, technical training, and enterprise development activities.

Lets make this CHRISTmas a merry and Holy one for all!

A Little Reminder

Hello everyone!

Please be informed that Cardinal Rosales will be our guest at our Mission Core Teaching Night on Tuesday, December 11 at the Xavier School Gym.

Let us all be there. Please pass this message on to every MC member that you know. This is our last teaching night for the year 2007.

God bless us all.

Ugnayan Multimedia Center

Oh Happy Day!

SEND ME YOUR PICTURES!

More photos here, I'll be adding to them as I receive more.

Direct link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20917674@N04

It is with great excitement that I invite you all to a grand CFC gathering to be held at the Ultra Stadium on December 2, 2007:

"A Time To Dance"

I believe that this is just the medicine that CFC needs; fancy footwork, colored lights, and UNITY. It is very, very exciting news and I hope that every one of the readers of this blog makes it a point to be a part of it. Please forward this to all you know and get your dancing shoes ready. =)

Who knows, maybe we'll see each other there?

ps

I made this entry the first ever resident of the new "Events and Announcements" section on the right side over there -->