Last May 5-6 2018, we in Familia Singles had our enrichment retreat entitled “Life Leadership” at the Mornese Center of Spirituality, Calamba, Laguna. More than 80 participants attended the retreat, coming from different areas – Baguio & La Union; Talavera, Munoz, & Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija; Tarlac; Minalin & San Fernando, Pampanga; and East A & B, South 4 & 5, Metro Manila.
We all face similar issues about our careers, choices in life, our service to our families and the Familia community, finances, self-worth, health, and relationships. We are very blessed to attend the Life Leadership retreat because it really helped us oversee these 7 areas of our lives: Spiritual, Family, Physical, Intellectual, Financial, Work/Career, and Social or our Ministry. It gave us a new perspective on how to improve and gauge ourselves about where we are now, what are we currently doing, and what we need to do to achieve our greatest dreams in life. Kuya Jon Escoto and Kuya Lawrence Guevarra gave us 4 powerful talks: Purpose, Plan, Practice, and Produce. All of these taught us to deliberately and intentionally manage the 7 areas of our lives. I felt like Kuya Jon and Kuya Lawrence are speaking specifically just to me! Later, I’ve heard other participants saying they’ve felt that, too. The talks really hit us. It’s awakening. It’s what we need.
Part of the retreat is for the participants to do the 30-day challenge where we will develop good habits by doing them for the next 30 days. It may include waking up early in the morning, making time for exercise, reading books, getting mentors, having a daily prayer time. Whatever we think that will help us reach our goals in the future. Because of this, we need also to be accountable to someone who will monitor us if we are doing what we’ve committed to do for the next 30 days. That’s we asked someone from our groups to monitor us, it could be our homecell head, or a close friend.
One of the most powerful worship I witnessed, too, was our prayer meeting on the night of May 5 (Saturday). Before we close the sessions for the first day, we gathered around and worshipped with all our hearts. I heard so many voices singing in the Spirit, all in tune! It felt like there are thousands of voices! It’s amazing because we’re only more than 80 in the chapel where we held the prayer meeting. People are crying, pouring our hearts out in praises for the Lord. People lifting their doubts and fears, surrendering our greatest dreams for our ministries and families. We also had our ministry time that night where the leaders prayed over the participants. It was really a powerful worship. Later that night, we had our fellowship. Representatives from different areas showed off their talents. Even Kuya Lawrence sang his favorite song “Prayer for Generosity” to entertain the Singles. It was a fun and loving fellowship.
We’ve ended the retreat on the second day by having a plenary session. Some of the Singles shared their takeaways and inspired everyone to continue pursuing the Lord’s assignment for their lives. Of all of these, I think that the participants will always remember these three principles as we go on with our lives: “Start now. Start small. Start again.” With that, I believe we now have a new spirit to reach for our dreams. We understand that the greatest motivation we have is that we will do it not just for ourselves, but to love our neighbors. We understand that it is God who planted those deepest desires in our hearts for us to be instruments of His love to others. We will honor him best if we become the best versions of ourselves in our spirit, our relationships, finances and career, and in our ministries. As one of the favorite songs of Familia Singles today says, “This is living now!”