It was a 3-day long celebration for Couples for ChristVietnamto commemorate its 13 years as a community in this vibrant city ofHo Chi Minh.

The celebration kicked off on Friday, 19^th August 2011. Bro. Joe Tale, a member of the CFC International Council and Director for Social Ministry, gracedVietnam with his presence and shared a short yet vivid and profound reflection of how it is to be a servant in the Couples for Christ. His wisdom truly inspired everyone.

Celebration continued on Saturday, 20^th August, at the new building of the Pink Church, Hai Ba Trung, HCMC. Being on its 13^th year, CFC-Vietnam went “HIP HOP”, with each member arriving donned in cool baseball caps, baggy shirts, and of course, studded bling . Just like an active and excited teenager, each Family Ministry showcased their creativity and talent through a variety of presentations, involving hip hop performances, a musical skit, and a traditional love song presented by our very own Vietnamese brethren.  And not to be out done, Bro. Joe Tale, Bro. George and Sis. Cynthia Campos revealed their own talents, with an impromptu song and upbeat dance moves. Without a doubt, it was a memorable night filled with fun, laughter, camaraderie and most especially, love.

To conclude the festivities, CFC-Vietnam took part in the ANCOP Global Walk on Sunday, 21^st August, held at the grounds of the Ton Duc Thang Pastoral Centre. After the walk was a Holy Mass celebrated by Fr. Christian, a former YFC leader in Illigan, then followed by a short exhortation. The messages from Bro. Renan Danganan (CFC-VN Expat Country Head), Bro. Antit Macatol (CFC-VN Head of Evangelization) and Bro. George Campos (CFC-VN Country Coordinator) definitely motivated and empowered everyone to take the next step of our mission here in Vietnam- to go out of our comfort zones and reach out to our Vietnamese brethren across the country.

Additionally, a special ‘Thank you’ goes out to those who participated in the anniversary logo competition held prior to the successful celebration and for those who shared their insights as to what “Going Strong at 13” is all about.

Above is the winning entry, which became the official logo printed on the anniversary t-shirts. The logo consists of a fire to represent the love, hope and passion of each member towards the mission of evangelization; a pearl which symbolizes the 30 years of CFC, and each of the Family Ministry’s logos to signify their unity to the call of ‘One Mission..One Vision..’ Like the message from JS 1:6 inscribed at the bottom of the logo, CFC-Vietnam will remain strong and courageous in spreading the good news to inherit the land God has promised them.

The members of CFC-Vietnam, both local and expatriate, extend their warm and special appreciation to our dynamic country coordinators Bro. George and Sis. Cynthia Campos and Bro. Joe Tale for taking the time out of their busy schedules to attend this momentous event.

As our chant goes “CFC YO! CFC GO!”, we Yo and we Go to the challenge of evangelization throughoutVietnam.

All Glory and Praise be to GOD!

By: Annette Taguba

The SFC Vision

Every Single Man and Woman All Over the World Experiencing Christ.

SFC is the next generation of CFC, empowered by the spirit to journey and witness with single men and women in their discovery and pursuit of their vocation and the fullness of the mission towards building a Christ centered society.

• SFC is part of the bigger CFC community.  We share the same desired outcoome but have different roles to play to get to that outcome
• Journeying with the SFC means pastoring and mentoring them.  The effectiveness of being able to mentor and pastor requires that we embrace the SFC lifestyle.
• Our lifestyle is our formation
• Formation, Governance and Information drive our lifestyle.  Evangelization efforts need to be measured in order to be able focus actions and resources on the correct issues.

Let us all live this vision moment by moment for the rest of our lives.

Set your sails to where the spirit of the Lord is flowing

Make your resources available.

CONNECTEDNESS.  CONTINUITY. CONSISTENCY.

The growth in SFC membership and the rapid changes in the world today has made SFCs membership more diverse not only in background but also in breadth and depth of their relationship with God.

While we have a united purpose and a united way of fulfilling this purpose, we need to evolve our tools and programs to be more relevant and meaningful to our membership.  As such, we have:

• Evolved our pastoral formation framework
• Started to incorporate technology as a key enabler to our ministry
• Utilized metrics and measures to better guide our decisions and choices as ministry

Fr. Savio Siccuan, OSB’s homily during the Sunday Mass of the 2nd SFC Global Leaders Summit.

He spoke about love and its nature as we missionaries are sent out into the world.  He also spoke as well of our community that every community is not perfect but we are all molded together because of love and because of His grace.

3 Mountains to overcome while living in a community

1. Mountain of disillusionment – people change, everything changes. No one is perfect. If you are looking for the perfect community, you should not get into one.

2. Mountain of our mistakes – learning to forgive

3. Mountain of our ego – the battle with our pride. The ultimate battle in life is the battle with the heart. The ultimate enemy is not outside of us but inside us.

When we are in disillussion with other people is just the disillusionment that we have in ourselves

Rob Escano, SFC Core Team member talks about the SFC Lifestyle (Session 3).  We, as leaders of SFCs should be empowered witnesses of God’s light and love to the world.

Inspite of the diversity of the SFC, membership in SFC means joining a community with a united purpose and a united way of fulfilling this purpose.  All of those in SFC especially the anointed leaders need to be united in this purpose and method in order to achieve Connectedness, Continuity and Consistency.

The SFC Lifestye:

• Evangelization
• Household
• Tithing
• Formation
• Work with the poor

The united purpose brings about a common way of life which in turn becomes the lifestyle that continually forms us into a unified community of brothers and sisters working toward achieving the vision of Every Single Man and Woman All Over the World Experiencing Christ.

“To journey with the SFC is not to simply serve as a companion.  To journey is to be a pastor, a mentor, a confidant and to a certain extent to be a parent.” Kirby Llaban, an SFC Core member gives the second session of the summit which talks about our “Called to Journey.”

We are in the business of loving people.

The Singles for Christ has 4Ls

LOVELIFE = Has a GG or lack of a lovelife affects our self-esteem?

LIFESTYLE = A whole new world is opening up for us to conquer and discover.  There’s also a new set of temptations and influences.

LIVELIHOOD = Start of a career in an unstable job market.  Many SFCs are either unemployed or underemployed or reluctant breadwinners.

LEADERSHIP = The struggle to standout or to conform.  Brothers who are ‘emasculated’ and Sisters who are ‘fatigued’ inside and outside SFC.

The wide age range drives the diversity in the state of life of the SFC for each of the Ls.  As pastors who journey with them, we must accept and embrace the reality that SFC is a transition stage.

The first session of the SFC Global Leaders Summit which was given by Bro. Mannix Ocampo, CFC Family Ministries director talks about SFC as the “Next Generation of Couples for Christ.” Aligning the CFC Vision of Families in the Holy Spirit Renewing the Face of the Earth to SFC’s Vision of Every Single Man and Woman all Over the World Experiencing Christ.

SFC is part of CFC called to witness in making Christ known to every single man and woman all over the world. CFC’s vision may look different to SFC’s, but its of the same Spirit, aligned and supplementary to each other.

Anointed by God, SFC Leaders are called to bridge these two visions together. Experiencing Christ is personal but the process is communal. We should be one in imploring this thrust God has gifted us.

‎”If you try to make your audience sleep, you are not a good speaker.” Fr. Savio Siccuan, OSB says as he keeps everyone laughing with his homily here at the 2nd SFC Global Leaders Summit.

“We are not in control, we make plans, we propose, but we should also take God seriously. He can change our plans and strategies. ”

“Only by God’s mercy that we can continue serving in His ministry. We don’t deserve the call to lead His people, but He still called us.”

“We should have inner peace because we could not serve with all our hearts if we don’t have that peace in our hearts.”

“The happy people are the people with prayerful hearts. It is from prayer that we draw our strength and happiness in life.”

Sawaddee khrap!

A warm welcome to all participants of the 2nd SFC Global Leaders Summit to this exotic and amazing GMA country, Thailand – the Land of Smiles!

CFC-Thailand and its Family Ministries, specifically Singles for Christ, is greatly honored to host this very first SFC international leaders’ event outside of the Philippines, after the 1st SFC Global Leaders Summit held in Cebu City in February 2009.

On behalf of Tito Cesar and Tita Sylvia Cruz, country coordinators for Thailand, the Thai national council, SFC-Bangkok Central, and SFC-Bangkok North, and the Greater Mekong Area countries, which Bangkok is the home base of CFC mission – welcome.

For those of you new to this GMA Mission Area – Greater Mekong Area region is composed of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. Some of you will be part of the Backpackers Adventure covering some of the said countries.

Many of you may have seen and became scared by the CNN reports of the central plains being under water with the floods spilling into Bangkok during the past three weeks.

Actually our first venue, the Pines Resort Hotel and Spa in Pathum Thani outside Bangkok, where our SFC’s held their Intimacy Weekend last year, was hit by flooding last week the day after we cancelled the YFC Discovery Camp at the same place.

The Service Team has been scouring various places last week and they have covered Bangkok from east to west for about three days. They enjoyed it, it was a free city tour, but the concern was quite obvious in their worried faces.

It’s not easy to answer emails from the GLS Secretariat in Manila “we don’t know yet” when we are asked where the new venue will be.

But God is good!

Our new venue is the Juntra Resort Hotel in Nakhon Nayok an hour’s drive east of Bangkok.

I told Kuya Shok Ariola that this GLS must be a great Singles conference because we have faced many obstacles and he said that it’s true because the obstacles were not man-made. No one, not even the local government, expected the severe flooding of the past month.
Truly God is great!

Let’s praise and give thanks to our wonderful God who arranges everything according to His great plan for us!

JIMMY LOZARE
CFC Thailand – National Director

On September 11, a team led by Bro. Mel and Sis Aimee Serrano had successfully conducted a CLP for 56 Myanmar nationals. Based on the initial list, there are 10 couples, 1 SOLD and 35 SFC members who completed all the sessions. Praise God!

What’s a mission trip without any challenges? Even weeks prior to this mission trip, the team already were experiencing some. From cancellation of the CLP in Yangon to the change of date of the CLP in Mandalay. But yet through it all, the mission team came mission ready.

Three Manila groups flew into Bangkok – the jump-off point – separately – the first group on the 7th, Wednesday, the 2nd group on the afternoon of the 8th, Thursday, and the 3rd group at close to midnight on the 8th. The 1st group stayed a night in the CFC-Thailand mission house, met the 2nd group in the Bangkok airport on the afternoon of the 8th and took a plane to Yangon that same day. Upon arrival, they stayed for one night at the Winner’s Inn and proceeded to take a 9-hour bus trip to Mandalay the next morning. Almost all the cars one can see on the streets were vintage 1970s and ’80s but were in running condition. But the bus was not too bad as it was of later vintage and was airconditioned. Apart from a few potholes here and there, and a stop-over of around an hour, the trip was generally smooth.

Fr. Edmond and Fr. Augustine greeted the mission team. The 6th floor of the parish center was the venue of the CLP. The participants greeted us enthusiastically. Fr. Bosco and Fr. Augustine, both Myanmar (locals), alternated in being the interpreters for the talks. Quite a number of the participants spoke a smattering of English and understood somewhat what we were saying, but they were more comfortable listening in their own language. They sang with energy the songs taught to them, including the action song “My Life Is In You Lord.”

Everything was going smoothly. Until come talk 8 and 9, the electricity started to sputter intermittently, and by the time the pray over was being done, then there was a brownout. The LCD projector could not be used. When the corporate worship started, it was pitch black. Only the generator of the parish saved us but it was able to turn on the LCD projector and the microphones. We were praising the Lord in darkness and the only fluorescent bulb that could have lighted the mini-praisefest, exploded while we were teaching them how to praise. But nobody was fazed. Everybody carried on as if the venue was lit. In their hearts, and in ours, as well, we knew that the light coming from above was the more important light, and that particular evening; we were all shining, through the grace of the Holy Spirit.