March 2014 issue - Finding Peace

E CCOuWng

Yo nals essio Prof Youn g Prof ess

iona

ls

Rhea Bless O. Lerado Editor-in-Chief Rosalind Ngo Li Sheree Go Editors Johnson Li Art Editor Marybelle Talania Layout Artist Rev. Alexander Hsu Uy Ptr. Joselito Chua Spiritual Columnists

Finding Peace Deadlines to beat, financial obligations to meet, responsibilities at home to fulfil, challenges at work to face --- add all these and what do you get? Wrinkles and white hairs! As I pen these words, my brain waves are buzzing non-stop in my head. Worries assail me like the plague. Did I make the right decision? Did I deal with the situation in a manner that is pleasing and acceptable in the eyes of the Lord? Will we be able to settle the next credit card bill? Will I ever be able to deliver all things that I have committed to? As disturbing thoughts after another whirled in my mind, I started to wonder if it is possible to escape from all these even for just a month? Maybe that's asking too much. How about a week or even for a day? Is abandoning ship and bailing out when the going gets tough the solution that I was looking for? Is shutting myself out and making myself scarce enough to get me the moment of peace that I so desperately sought?

I believe there are thousands, maybe even millions of people out there, who are also desperately seeking peace. We hear of rich, successful and famous people committing suicide at the peak of their career. And we wonder why.

They have all the money in the world so they should be happy and have peace, right? How we all wish that peace could simply be bought from a specialty store at a certain price! And when we need it, we grab a little of it each day, just enough to tide us by. But the thing is peace is not a commodity in the market. It is not for sale. It has no price tag.

When the bomb dropped that it was my turn to handle the next issue of CCOWESPONDENCE, I became restless. I immediately wracked my brain on what topics would possibly interest you, our readers. Then, I realized that everybody has experienced turbulent waters from time to time. No one is an exemption. And if we don't know how to face them God's way, these challenges will weigh us down until our ship will sink. Peace is very elusive in this troubled world. Many people seek it but can't find it. So I set my heart on tackling a topic that will hopefully attain the elusive peace that we seek in the midst of stormy seas. Take the conflict in Zamboanga, for example. It dawned on me that what is depriving me of my peace of mind is nothing compared to what is depriving theirs. How can you have peace of mind when you don't know if the next bomb is going to drop on your head?

Thus, with this issue, I am attempting to dissect the different factors that deprive us of peace and what our response should be. If we know what is causing our worry and stress, then we will be able to better address the issue so that we won't look for solutions in the wrong places or be led astray in the wrong way. Not only that, this issue will also remind us that as Christians, it is our obligation to be advocates of peace. So be inspired as you digest the story of how a couple found God's peace in the vow they promised to keep. Gain nuggets of wisdom as you read what our sister learned in her search for peace. Read about how a brother experience peace despite making unpopular decisions and many more. My friends, I urge you to invest a little of your time to flip through these pages and discover that true peace can indeed be attained in the midst of this chaotic world.

Wrinkles, white hair and worries may not be deterred from taking its toll but we can do something with how we respond to our situation. And that is to look up and let God. We can surrender our lives to Him for we know that we are safe in His arms. My dear readers, you need not look far. There is only one answer to all the searching for peace --- Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” - John 14:27

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

- Rosalind-

Twenty years ago, on the 19th day of May, my husband spoke to me the sweetest words I ever heard, “I, Noel Yasay, take you, Tetchie, to be my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.”

I never knew that the culmination of our four years of steady dating would be so wonderful; it was like a dream with a fairy tale ending. My Prince Charming is now my beloved husband.

I met him in a wedding through my best friend who was his classmate. The strange thing was that the night before we were introduced to each other, he had a short dream. In it, he saw me in a wedding. We do not know each other, we were guests. We both left the church premise and once outside, we were unexplainably drawn to each other and before any conversation can occur, he woke up. So he was surprised when he saw me for the first time because I was the girl he saw in his dream.

Our courtship period began. We started to get to know each other better and he eventually shared the strange dream to me. At first, I thought it was his way of getting me to fall for him. But he was insistent that it was real, and even brought me to his elderly uncle to whom he shared the incident. His uncle confirmed all that Noel told me.

After four blissful years of being in a relationship, Noel wanted us to get married but because his savings was not sufficient, he prayed that God would send His provision. True enough, Noel was given a short stint job in Japan that enabled him to save enough to propose to me.

At first, I had fears of getting married because I was used to the comforts of being with my loving family. But after much prayer and a genuine desire to obey God's will and direction, I got the Lord's confirmation. I believe that the decision was the best one I ever made because Noel loves God and lives a God-focused life. We enjoyed serving Him together while we were steady dating. We were busy doing mission works, which I vowed to do for the Lord when I passed my nursing licensure examination. We grew closer to God through the relationship we had as boyfriend and girlfriend. I can safely say

By Tetchie Yasay as told to Leslie Sun that we brought the best out of each other by coming together as a couple.

After the wedding, we decided to spend a couple of years saving up for our future family. We enjoyed travelling together. We were part of the start up team of our church. Then comes the time when we felt we were ready to have a baby but we cannot. The waiting period was long and arduous. In order not to have any regrets of not trying all possible measures, I had IVF (In Vitro Fertilization), but it failed. Amidst the miscarriage, we still received God's gracious peace because the miscarriage came as a relief. The last step for IVF procedure may cause birth defects to our baby. We were asked to sign a waiver in case something might happen. We prayed hard for God to

forgive us for trying to assist Him in fulfilling our dream of having a baby. This is much like Abraham and Sarah who tried to help God fulfil His promise. And the answer came when we lost our baby.

Upon the prodding of my doctors, I under went series of medical tests and soon found out that there was a ruptured cyst in my ovary that caused severe dysmenorrhea and inability to conceive. I almost died with the medical procedures done to me to correct this. I had three surgeries. Noel and I would travel from Baguio to Manila to see doctors. During those eight years of difficult times, we spent many hours on the road together and stayed in the hospital often. This bonded us together even more as we allowed God to break us, inspire us, and

talk to us as a couple. And we heard God loud and clear.

We may not have our own biological child (ren) but in the course of our journey as husband and wife and in our continuous service to God, we are able to be used as instruments of God to lead many to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and thus produce many spiritual children to take care and nurture to spiritual growth. We learn to find true joy as we surrender our lives to God. We follow His leading in every area of our lives. Thus, we have peace in our hearts, trusting God to take care of our every need. We embraced His perfect will for our lives in the good as well as in the bad times. We never felt that our lives lack anything simply because we do not have a child. We strongly believe and keep our vows to each other to faithfully love one another in times of abundance as well as in need.

Currently, we are enjoying God's bountiful blessings that include an outsourcing business with 150 personnel, which we own and manage. This allows us more free time to serve God. Noel is an elder in the church while I serve as a volunteer full time church administrator. God afforded us the opportunity to join bible study tours in Israel and Europe that deepened our faith journey.

On hindsight, amidst the trials I experienced, I have peace because of the blessing of a godly husband who never left my side, and by choosing to submit whole heartedly to God's will for my life, His agenda over my own desires, knowing full well that He is my sovereign God. I embraced God's promise in His Word found in Isaiah 26:3 “The steadfast of mind you will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in you.”

And to my husband, I, Tetchie Yasay, promise you, Noel, that I will love you always. Together with you, I vow to continue to love and serve our God with all my heart, soul and mind until death brings us apart.

The

Goodness God of

By: Heunice Ong (UEC Legazpi)

th

The 19 CCOWEF Young Professional Conference was held at Greenleaf Hotel, General Santos City, on 14-18 October 2013, and was attended by 180 delegates from thirty-six different Filipino-Chinese churches. I believe that the conference concluded with a high note, since participants, I would say, can all acclaim "God is good, and He is good all the time".

The Greenleaf Hotel only came to full operation just shortly two weeks before the camp started.

This means that we signed the contract with the owner of the hotel while its construction was still in progress. The negotiation happened because we step out in faith to trust God's leadership and to dwell on the peace he has instilled in us. Now that the conference is over, nobody, I would guess, can complain about anything, except to praise God for his provision in blessing us with a luxurious hotel with quality amenities and services. Moreover, we also see God's omniscience in that He kept us away from the recent 'unrest' in Zamboanga City as well as the earthquake in Cebu City. We originally planned to hold our camp in Zamboanga City or Cebu City; we never had General Santos City in mind as a venue for this conference. We enjoyed a great conference time because of God's protection.

Indeed, God's plan and His thoughts are always better than our ways. Finally, God has also blessed us with godly and vibrant conference speakers, Dr. Peter and Deonna Tanchi and Dr. Grace Shangkuan-Koo. These conference speakers spoke about the goodness and holiness of our God, the Father. As a father, God wants us to 'be holy, just as he is holy' (1 Pet 1:15-16), and to WALK IN HIS WAYS. Therefore, as God's dearly loved children, we must grow in our knowledge of Him. Growing in our knowledge of the Lord actually means several different things, and it also requires us to work on

“Heunice Ong - Left side�

many areas of our life. First, like King Uzziah, we must seek God's counsel and obey accordingly what He requires of us. However, unlike King Uzziah, we must not become proud when we achieve success, power, and fame in life, as pride will certainly lead to our own downfall (2 Chron. 26:1-23). Second, we must be conscious of sin and stay away from it, knowing that we will be held accountable for our words and actions before the righteous Judge (Isa. 33:22).

Third, we must be aware that for Christians, trials and persecutions are inevitable. The important thing is to learn how to overcome them. Daniel knew God intimately, and he, despite the persecution he faced, did not turn away from God's command. Daniel refused to eat the food of the Babylonians, in order to keep himself pure and undefiled (Dan 1:8). Fourth and last, we must fear God and His chastisement for our sins. Luke 12:4-7 tells us that we need to be afraid of the one who not only can kill our body but will also afterwards throw us into hell. In sum, our ultimate goal in life should be to glorify God in all we do and say. This means that we need to be diligent and not lax in our spiritual life, for the condition of our spiritual life will determine not just the quality of our Christian character that we show in public, but also our eternal destiny when Christ comes to settle account with us.

May God's blessing be always with us today and forevermore!

"In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."

Matthew 5:16