Warm greetings in Jesus’ precious name.

Last year ended on a tragic note when a devastating flash flood swept through the riverbank settlements of the cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro in Northern Mindanao on Dec.16, 2011. Thousands were severely affected including many IVCF’ers in the two cities. A KC’89 grad from Iligan, Lotlot Daulong, died in the swirling flood together with her daughter and 13 other relatives. Three weeks later, her husband, Jun, died of heart failure, leaving the surviving three children orphaned. More than a thousand others died and around 70,000 families lost their homes.

By God’s grace, we were able to join hands and are actively participating in the ongoing relief and rehabilitation efforts. After having launched Operation Ahon in Calumpit, Bulacan last October, we activated it again the day after the flood. IVCF’ers from here and abroad, their churches and friends gave generously so that we were able to minister to around 100 families in both cities. We were also able to minister to 56 pastors and Christian workers in Cagayan de Oro by conducting a Counselling Workshop for Surviving Psychological Trauma last Jan.28. Two Medical Missions Teams from our Southern Mindanao Regional Unit also ministered in CDO from Jan. 26 – 29.

These developments show that we now have this capability to minister to our larger communities during times of calamities. Thank you for faithfully and lovingly partnering with us in our expanding ministry. Through Operation Ahon we are sharing the gospel and engaging society in a more wholistic way as envisioned in our IVCF dream.

In our joint effort in responding to the devastating flood, we have provided relief goods to some of the victims, have also provided medical aid to them and have followed this up with the training of Psychological First-Aiders and Counselors to help them and those who are ministering to them, find healing from their psychological trauma. We have also set up a Trust Fund for the education of the orphaned Daulong children, have provided for the setting up of a new IV Home and have formed an 8-man certified Rescue Team in the neighboring province of Caraga in anticipation of future calamities.

That we were able to do all these in just six weeks is a testament to everyone’s dedication and God’s enabling grace in helping us to faithfully follow His leading.

May the same grace find us on the same narrow road of sacrifice and obedience in the succeeding months and years ahead.

Again, thank you very much for blessing the journey with your support and companionship. Let us praise Him together as we give back all the glory to Him alone for all He has done and is doing in us and through us.

Every blessing,

Ferdi Juni

National Director
IVCF Philippines

The workshop became an avenue for the participants to share their stories and to listen to one another. This sharing and listening helped them process the traumatic experiences they had because of the devastation of typhoon Sendong. The workshop specifically encouraged and empowered the pastors to continue journeying with their church members towards healing.

The day ended with words of affirmations and testimonies from some participants. Ptr. Nady Nacua and Mr. Bong Palacio volunteered to form a support group for the “psychological first-aiders.” This group was a response and a follow-up of the workshop. Some IV grads stayed for fellowship with the team even after it ended.

A team of doctors and graduates from Southern Mindanao also conducted Medical Missions in three different communities in CDO last January 26-28.
Last Sunday, the team had lunch fellowship with Mr. Dodo Cansino (an IV Grad and a Sendong survivor), Mr. & Mrs. Rudy & Donna Mijares and Mr. Art Baul. Ms. Jocelyn Mariscal (Vice-Chairman for World Vision-Mindanao) also treated the team with a Thai dinner.

We have given to the survivors and the first-aiders of the recent devastation but we also received much from the Lord to whom all life and love begun. Praise the Lord!

One of the affected area.

Just one of the many tent cities in CDO.

Participants attentively listens to the speaker.

IVCF Staff and Graduates.

Warm holiday greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I spent most of the past three months visiting the regions in our country outside Metro Manila. It was a great privilege to see the Lord’s work first hand in these various places. IVCF is very much alive and well in the Philippines. God gifted us with stalwarts and champions from among our graduates who steadfastly nurtured the movement in their respective regions for many years. We will be introducing them to you in the succeeding updates.

The romance of our ministry continues – from the idyllic boat ride to Guimaras island, with the thrilling embarkation and disembarkation along the outriggers, to the 3:30am walk in the picturesque USM campus in Kabacan. After all, our faith journey is also a surprise-filled adventure of knowing God and self in the vicissitudes of life. Thankfully, in IVCF, we have enduring travel companions who brighten our way and lighten our burdens. I especially like the various ways we are reaching the communities apart from our usual campus ministry. To name just a few…

Ministry to orphans in Good Shepherd’s Fold Christian Academy in Guimaras Island, Iloilo. This ministry was started by the Cruz family and continues to be supported by them, Orpha Palencia and other Western Visayas grads.

The IVCF Regional Center in Legaspi City that is also a retreat center and a top notch review center for aspiring engineers. This is actually the residence of our Bicol Regional Director, Ferdie Maraño.

IVCF radio broadcast in the University of Southern Mindanao (4 – 5 am) in Kabacan, North Cotabato, that ministers to the early risers in the community including many faculty members. This was started by our GTs Estrella dela Cruz (a Chemistry professor) and Rhoderick Benez who works in the campus radio station.

City Youth Camp In Kabadbaran City, Caraga. We have been running the city’s youth camp for  delinquent youths for two quarters. Gays became true men; addicts and gang leaders were set free and reformed. The mayor, recognizing God’s hand at work, plans to engrave the phrase “To God Be The Glory” in the façade of the new city hall that will be built.

Camp Moriah in Malaybalay, Bukidnon. Ran by IVCF grads Grace Ayala and Belen Bautista, has been ministering to the poor and delinquent youths in the city as well as to the “jungle” youths of the province’s native tribes for the past 11 years. It also houses a growing orphanage for toddlers.

Meanwhile, the various regions conducted their sem break Discipleship and Leadership Camps last October. A total of 172 student leaders served 322 student trainees in 9 regions across the country.

We have set the stage for the revival of the Student Missions Conference that was last convened in 1981. A steering committee of staff and grads (from the Missions Team) has been formed to start planning for the conference scheduled for December next year.

We are also organizing “Chi Rho Mundo” the disaster preparedness and response arm of IVCF Phils. Under this project, we launched Operation Ahon last October to help the flood victims in Calumpit, Bulacan.

We had a grand time celebrating IVCF’s 58^th Anniversary last Nov.26. In Metro Manila, we featured the 55^th anniversary of the ISCF ministry. We relaunched  “Come and Grow”, our main discipleship material for highschoolers. The printing of the revised edition was made possible by a grant from MEANS Int’l. Over 200 attended the joyful occasion, a goodly gathering of young ‘uns and the venerable elderly.

Thank you so much for being our faithful and prayerful partner in all these kingdom endeavours. Indeed, every good and perfect gift comes from our Father in heaven above (James 1.17) – the gift of friendship and partnership, the gift of service and perseverance, the gift of faith and compassion, the gift of salvation and love. All is gift. We simply discover and receive.

A blessed Christmas and a New Year full of grace and God’s favor to you and your loved ones.

Sincerely,

Ferdinand Juni
National Director
ferdijuni@ivcfphil.org

To bring relief goods to families in Meyto, Calumpit, Bulacan affected by flood.
This project is under a newly formed Chi Rho Mundo, a disaster preparedness and response ministry of IVCF Phils. The seed money will come from 10% of Operation Ahon funds to establish food, clothes, and medicine bank.

Zion Christian Community Church (for distributions and facilitate and determines the recipients)
IVCF Alumni, Groups and Friends
Manila Leaders Council
IV Students and Grad volunteers
Time Line:
October 7- 12, 2011
- Rallying and Gathering donations
October 13, 2011
Morning- procurements
Afternoon- Packing
October 14, 2011
- Packing 9:00am-5pm
October 15, 2011
- Distributions

Dear friends and Ministry Partners,

Warm greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The first quarter of the school year quickly passed by and we capped it with our Annual Corporation meeting last Aug.20, 2011. Praise God for enabling us to double our membership roll this year. This was made possible by a phenomenal reconnection of our alumni through facebook. We hope that with more active participation, many IVCFers would be led to faithfully serve Jesus once more where we need them the most – in the vast harvest field of the country’s student world.

We would like to give special thanks to Balikatan for generously and quickly raising the funds needed to repair the ceiling and electrical wirings in the second floor of our IVCF Bldg. in Don Antonio. We also give special thanks to MEANS for providing a timely grant so we can print a revised edition of our ISCF book Come and Grow. It should be out in time for the celebration of ISCF’s 55th anniversary this November.

The Lord graciously allowed us to open the Ubelt Student Center last June 26 in time for the school opening. It is located within the compound of our partner church United Church of Manila at C.M. Recto and Loyola Sts. It is now being used as a training, prayer and study center by both our grads and students. We need to raise funds to help defray the cost of its construction as well as for its operational upkeep.

Please pray for the small groups in FEU, UST, Arellano and UE. May they increase in number as they share the Gospel in their respective campuses and become established fellowships. Pray also for open doors in the other UBelt campuses and the corresponding student leaders and GTs to begin the work there.

The work in 8 other regions has also started to gain their Spirit-led pace for the schoolyear. The work in the newest region, Southern Luzon, is steadily gaining ground in Laguna, Cavite and Batangas. Mindoro has also opened up with organized ISCF groups in Calapan and nearby towns. May they grow not only in numbers but in their love and knowledge of God as well. May their GTs and grads be united in developing a regional perspective so they can assist and learn from each other to the glory of God.

In addition to helping us in reclaiming our stake in the Ubelt area please pray for, support and participate in the rest of our priority programs for this year…

Missions – for deeper and wider interest and engagement both inside and outside the country. We plan to hold a student missions conference again soon.

Literature – for keen and equipped Christian minds developed by an avid love for reading

Grad Team Ministry – for the recruiting and equipping of our corps of volunteers who are directly involved in student work including the Faculty Advisers. This is our training pool from which future staffworkers come from.

ISCF Ministry – for wisdom in developing new ways to reach highschoolers who will be significantly older with the extra 2 years added to the curriculum and for a stronger growing ministry in Metro Manila.

Prayer – for the holding once more of Daily Prayer Meetings in our campus chapters. Also for a vibrant, well attended monthly Day of Prayer. We were born in prayer. We can only grow and move forward also in prayer.

Thank you so much for your continuing prayers and support for IVCF. We are encouraged and inspired to continue the work knowing that you, together with the Holy Spirit, are dependably behind us in this great and challenging task. God bless you.

For the praise of His glory,

Ferdi Juni
National Director

Last July 23, 2011, Iloilo-Guimaras Area Assembly was held at Green Mango Function Hall, Jaro, Iloilo. There were 11 High School students, 27 College students and 14 Graduates who came in fellowship and camaraderie. This was also a time for us to hear updates from the different campus chapters here in Panay and as well as updates from the region as a whole. We were so blessed to have the opportunity to be a blessing to one another by praying for every campus chapter here in Iloilo. We praise the Lord for how He had made this event possible, for the lives of the new Iloilo Leaders’ Council officers and we give Him the glory for how He has been at work in the student ministry here in Iloilo and in Guimaras through IVCF. We as well thank the Sovereign God for the life of Kuya Alfredo Diaz whom He has used to remind us of where we are right now and where we should be going for us to get there together.

May the Lord be greatly glorified as He continually uses our lives and IVCF as a channel of His grace, blessings and love. Together we will abide in Him, together we will bear fruit, together we will proclaim His goodness and love, together, we will get there. To God be the glory!

By: Kezia Lois Arcolas – ILC Chairman; 4th year student at UPV

Iloilo-Guimaras Group

Eumir giving the regional report at Iloilo-Guimaras Area Assembly

Kuya Alf Diaz, our speaker at Iloilo-Guimaras Area Assembly

The event started with songs that prepared the hearts and minds of the participants and getting-to-know-each-other activity. Mr. Mario Gonzaga, our speaker shared some inspirational messages and his personal testimony on how the Lord has been good to him. His encouragements and words filled our hearts and minds with thoughts to ponder. There were reports of the current IVCF activities and future plans and targets.

The event ended with a prayer for all the chapters here in Negros as well as for the staffs, donors, students, graduates and for the organization itself. It’s been a long time of blessings that God has bestowed in the IVCF and it will continue to work for its goals and to reach its vision.

By Ellen Teorima

Dear IVCF Family,

Warm greetings in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Thank you for the expressions of support and trust that many of you conveyed to me when I started taking on the daunting task of leading our movement. Let me now share with you, in all candor, three important matters that the Lord impressed upon me for us to seriously consider and prayerfully address together.

First of all, let us be fruitful disciples of Christ. When God looks at His vineyard in IVCF, He seeks and expects to find fruit that will last. Too often we mistakenly associate fruitfulness with popularity and success in bringing vast crowds into our fellowships or churches. But what Jesus refers to in John 15 is the fruit of holiness – a Christlike character that should be every believer’s goal (Gal 5.22-25). Therefore, the going, the baptizing and the teaching that we do in carrying out the Great Commission is for making not just disciples but fruitful disciples of Christ. Men and women, whose lives are defined and shaped not by self, people, culture, or tradition (certainly not even by our own IVCF culture or tradition) but by Christ. They are those who resemble Jesus in their thoughts, words and actions. How closely do we resemble Jesus after all the years that we have known him?

Secondly, let us be servants. I guess that in our desire to excel, being mostly gifted and driven by nature, we have redefined servants as servant-leaders, with a greater emphasis on leaders than on servant. We say we want to serve when in fact we want to lead. However, Jesus says if we want to lead we must in fact be the servant of all. This is not just a matter of semantics as some would say. This is a matter of right attitude. Jesus, in leading us to salvation and God’s kingdom took on the form of a suffering servant, not that of a political or a religious leader. Without the proper attitude of humility and meekness of a servant, we blunder into the worldly way of leading. We say we are servants but our idol-egos bristle with indignation when we are treated as one. In our desire to lead and succeed, how far have we strayed from Christ and the cross?

Thirdly, let us grow in love. We will be known as Christ’s disciples by our love for one another. Not conditionally as the world loves, but unconditionally as God loves us. Love that is accepting, affirming, forgiving and reconciling. Love that transcends our sins, our quarrels, our prejudices and our theological and political schisms. Love that is especially sensitive to the lost, the weak and the hurting among us. Have we loved each other as the Father loved us?

This pursuit for Christlikeness and the practice of unconditional love come with a wonderful promise. If we bear fruit that will last, God will give us whatever we ask in Jesus’ name (Jn.15.16). Let us humbly ask the Lord then to bless the following goals even as we are enabled by the Holy Spirit to grow in fruitfulness.

Our immediate goal this year is to revive our ministry in Metro Manila particularly in the UBelt area. It is quite ironic that while we have gone out to minister into 8 regions of our country, the ministry in the capital, where we have our roots, has gradually weakened so that IVCF chapters in the UBelt have become practically extinct. By faith, we responded by building the Student Center in Recto at the United Church of Manila in May this year. Let us now help to raise the funds needed to defray the cost of construction and maintain its operations.
Another goal is for our local grads to finally band together as a national body, like the Balikatan in the United States, that exists to unite IVCF alumni and friends to nurture and support each other and IVCF. Let us fervently pray that God’s grace and wisdom will enable us, especially the Graduates Council, to achieve this unity, gaining the cooperation of all alumni even that of some disheartened groups and individuals.

Our ultimate goal is for IVCF to be an amply funded, spiritually maturing movement that will be an inexhaustible source of Christlike servants. They will lovingly and boldly bring the healing and transforming light of the gospel into all sectors of Philippine society and the world. In partnership with the rest of the Christian community, they will help make fruitful disciples of all nations for the glory of God. Many of our alumni, by the grace of God, have already blazed the trail towards this goal. Many of them have reached and are approaching retirement. But Dr. Joel Ruiz, called back to missions work after retiring, has admirably put another meaning to retired as “having a new set of tires”. Let us prepare the next generation of IVCF’ers to faithfully continue what their elders have done in building God’s Kingdom.

May the Lord’s favor rest upon us because He finds us fruitful and loving servants.

Yours sincerely,
Ferdi Juni
National Director
IVCF Philippines

The Lord is also strengthening the high school ministries in Calapan. We thank the Lord for allowing the InterSchool Christian Fellowship to conduct bible studies and fellowships inside the campus of two public schools. Both schools are very supportive to the ministry. They allowed us to meet in the chapel and the hall of their school for our regular fellowships. In Leido High School, they allowed us to conduct a room to room campaign. Praise the Lord! This has brought almost a hundred attendees in the first fellowship in the said school. We praise the Lord for the commitment of the ISCF Coordinator in Mindoro, the ISCF Counselors in each school and their Advisers who serve despite their hectic schedules. We are continuously praying and anticipating for more high school ministries not just in Calapan but in other areas in Oriental Mindoro. Connections are starting to build up with other interested possible partners in the high school ministry in other town in Mindoro. We know that this will not be an easy task for us, especially for the graduating student ISCF coordinator in Mindoro, but we believe that His grace is sufficient for us.

We believe that we can reach out to other high schools and colleges in Mindoro by God’s help for His glory. Nothing is impossible for Him. All the praises and thanksgiving be unto Him alone.

Joshua Samaco Tallada
IVCF Mindoro Coordinator

“If we are not evangelizing, we have no right to call ourselves Christ’s disciple.” (Dr. Isabelo Magalit) This is a constant challenge to all of us in IVCF. Pray for our students as they continue to share the Gospel in their respective campuses, and to their family and friends. Pray also for the staffworkers as they faithfully follow them up. May their adventures in sharing the Gospel be both exciting and fruitful.

Kevin Samuel Del Castillo of Technological University of the Philippines (gent in orange polo) and Trisha Anne Tan of University of Sto. Thomas (lady in pink shirt) shared the gospel to a student of University of the East (lady in yellow shirt).

Raffy Magdaong
MetroManila Staffworker