We prayed. We believed. We trusted. We followed through. We experienced God’s miracle.
The theme for our 24th anniversary – “BE BLESSED. BE HEALED. BE FRUITFUL”.
It would take pages and pages to share all the stories of all that has happened in preparation for our 24th anniversary. These stories are best shared by all of us, the very people who gave their time, talent and treasure in order to put together a great celebration. The people who organized, rehearsed and worked on the logistics. And the people who were there and experienced warmth, happy reunion, beautiful music, great message, healing, and miracles.
The bottomline is this: God heard the PRAYERS of the faithful and righteous.
Our brothers and sisters from Familia Batangas who were given the assignment to host the 24th anniversary prayed a lot and even did Jericho walks where they prayed while walking around the venue which was still under construction.
We prayed for the theme. We need to realize that we are blessed. We need to acknowledge God’s abundant blessings and so we launched a 40-Day Blessing reminder through scripture and reflections. Those who missed it can still go back to our Familia fanpage or at our Familia Community Official facebook account.
Long before the day of the anniversary itself. Long before the pilgrimage to the Padre Pio Shrine where many miraculous healings have taken place. We already put out our expectant faith knowing fully well that God will heal our bodies, our minds, our emotions and our spirit.
Were not our hearts burning from the time we arrived all the way to the end? Our smiles from ear to ear held much longer as we bump into one another greeting brothers and sisters we have not seen for a while.
Bishop Ted Bacani also gave us a beautiful message which embodies Familia’s calling. “Marriage is a mystery. It is not us who chose our husbands/wives. It is God’s will. The prerogative, therefore, to end the marriage is not ours but His”. Its like God is saying “This is my marriage. Don’t mess with it!”
We are a work in progress…and in 24 years we have truly grown a lot. More and more it is getting clearer that God is blessing Familia. God wants Familia to continue. God led Familia to start from within and create a transition from our children (Familia Little Ones, Familia Young Adults, Familia Youth and Familia Singles) all the way to becoming heads of their own families (the mainstream Familia husband and wives along with our Women and Men of Wisdom. And now that these are in place, we are ready to expand and reach out. This is God’s design. Familia is God’s community. To stretch Bishop Bacani’s message – “This is my community. Don’t mess with it.”
One word sums up all of these. We have loved and we continue to love. We may have experienced challenges, problems but all those were meant to shape and mold us. So, let us continue to do what God called us to do – Bring more families back to God’s plan. God wants Familia to be fruitful. Together, let us continue to care. Continue to share. Continue to love.