A Testimony of My Conversion and Call to the Ministry

Shared at the Gideons International Mindanao Camp Gathering in Tagum City on September 23, 2016

Good evening, friends. At the outset, I'd like to thank the organizer for giving me this opportunity to share with you my experience with the ministry of the Gideons International. I'd like to begin by saying that I have believed in God and was taught about Jesus since I was a child. I owned a blue New Testament given by the Gideons International representatives when I was in high school. From that New Testament I learned about the life and ministry of Jesus. Through it also I was able to read the books of Psalms and Proverbs.

Early in my life, I have desired to serve God in full-time ministry as a priest in the Roman Catholic Church. Yet I grew up a disobedient child. The concept of the fear of the Lord was unknown to me. I may have looked nice outwardly but deep within I was miserable. My conscience would always bother me and condemn me and I was so uncertainty of my future.

It wasn't very obvious to others but I was very afraid to die. Although I knew that Jesus Christ saves, still I did not have the faith to trust Him fully. So I tried hard doing nice things, like being respectful to my parents, doing the dishes and other house chores, and many other kind deeds. I was made to believe that in doing good works I can sort of earn my way to heaven.

But it did not help me at all and I was quite frustrated. There was something that I was looking for that I haven't found and tasted during those years.

It was the French physicist and philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) who spoke of people's need for God when he said, "There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man, which only God can fill through his Son Jesus Christ." About 1200 years before Pascal, Augustine (354-430) also wrote, “You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

Those quotes from Pascal and Augustine are true in my life. There was a vacuum in me that needs to be filled and there was some kind of restlessness that I didn't know how to put to rest. I thank God that in Christ he fills my emptiness and enables me to rest and to live in peace.

It was in February 1986 when I came to meet a Baptist minister from Bacolod City. He shared to me what I called "a strange teaching about God." We were roommates at a secondary school press conference in Iloilo province.

One night he saw me reading my blue Gideons New Testament. It has been my habit to read my New Testament before I sleep at night. He then asked me if I was a Christian. I was a Roman Catholic at that time. He then asked me if I could spare a few minutes to talk with me about some important things. I said "Yes" out of respect.

Using a Bible tract, he then started to explain to me the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man, and the death of Christ in a way that I did not see in my upbringing. Gradually I was beginning to understand the gospel, the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ.

At first I was so skeptical at what he was telling me. But later, I was moved to believe that Christ indeed saves, as the Bible says, and by believing in Him, I can be assured of my salvation.

Knowing this gracious saving act of God in Christ toward sinners like me, I was led to confess and repent from my sins. I then began to experience that sense of joy and peace deep within. The things that Augustine and Pascal were talking about became real to me. That peace within that wasn't there before started to overwhelm me.

My contact with this Baptist minister was short. When I returned home after the conference, I started reading some of the Bible tracts that he gave me. I also continued reading my blue Gideons New Testament. When I entered college in 1987, one of my older brothers, who was a new believer, was instrumental in my conversion and in my new found love for the Word of God.

Since then, God has used several people to help me grow in the Christian faith. And in the providence of God, I became a youth-worker serving the Lord among high school and college students. I would say that it was one of the most difficult yet faith-building experiences in life.

While I was serving as a youth-worker I was greatly influenced by the writings of John Stott and J. I. Packer. I especially like John Stott’s book Basic Christianity, which helped me in understanding the Ten Commandments. I was convicted of my sins while reading it.

However, I was also comforted knowing that Jesus paid for all my sins when He died at the cross. Stott also has emphasized in that book the atoning sacrifice of Christ at the cross and how that sacrifice satisfied the righteous requirement of God for our sin. I am so thankful that Christ did everything to secure my salvation.

The peace that I have been longing for has come as a result of the knowledge of God’s saving grace in Christ. My reading of the Bible became very meaningful. One time, I was reading Isaiah 53 where it says, "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed."

Isaiah was talking about the servant of the Lord who died and was condemned instead of God's people. Suddenly my eyes were opened to the truth that God will not take my sins against me anymore all because His servant has taken my place and paid for the penalty of my sins. That’s really amazing! That’s grace! It gripped me from the inside out.

God did many wonderful things to me since then. One of the amazing things that He did in my life was to call me to serve Him in the ministry of the gospel. He called me to become a preacher of His Word. I am now pastoring a church in Davao City.

I thank God for the privilege He has given me to serve Him as a pastor-preacher. Please pray for me that I might remain faithful in teaching and preaching the Word of God, which I first read in my blue Gideons New Testament. I don't have that Gideons New Testament anymore. I gave it to someone already. I now have the gold Gideons Bible. And I am willing to give this to anybody who needs guidance from the Lord and knowledge of the great salvation that He offers through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you very much for the opportunity you have given me to share my story about how I came to know the Lord and how God used the ministry of the Gideons International to impress upon me His precious Word, the Bible.

The Sign of Christian Baptism

Not too many of us make much of our baptism in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Some even make it optional in the Christian life. Not so with the Lord Jesus. It was not an option for Christ for He Himself has commanded that those who would believe and become His disciples are to be baptized as a sign of belonging to and being united with Him.

Baptism, as a form of ceremonial washing, "is a sign from God," says J. I. Packer, "that signifies inward cleansing and remission of sins (Acts 22:16; 1 Cor. 6:11; Eph. 5:25-27), Spirit-wrought regeneration and new life (Titus 3:5), and the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit as God's seal testifying and guaranteeing that one will be kept safe in Christ forever (1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 1:13-14)."

Dr. Packer adds that baptism "carries these meanings because first and fundamentally it signifies union with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection (Rom. 6:3-7; Col. 2:11-12); and this union with Christ is the source of every element in our salvation (1 John 5:11-12). Receiving the sign in faith assures the persons baptized that God's gift of new life in Christ is freely given to them. At the same time, it commits them to live henceforth in a new way as committed disciples of Jesus" (Concise Theology, 212).

Thus being baptized in the name of the triune God we are both privileged and duty-bound to serve and love this God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. But our Christian baptism means more than that. In baptism we are not just telling God to serve him all our lives. God is, at the same time, signifying His covenant promises to us and to our children to be our God, sealing upon us His claim of ownership. For in baptism God owns us. We belong to him. We are identified with Him and He identifies with us. He is saying to us, "I am your God; you are my people."


Therefore serving God, loving him, denying ourselves, and forsaking our sin are ways to value and to live consistently with our Christian baptism. To live as if we are "the master of our fate" and "the captain of our soul" is denying and devaluing our baptism in the name of our triune God. 

Remember what the apostle Paul said: "You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body" (1 Cor. 6:19b, 20). The apostle Paul also added: "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God...Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry...Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive...And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him" (Col. 3:3, 5, 12-13, 17).


No wonder Dr. Packer could say, "Baptism signifies a watershed point in a human life because it signifies a new-creational ingrafting into Christ's risen life" (Concise Theology, 213).

Ambrose, the Godly Bishop of Milan

Many of us know quite well St. Augustine (A.D. 354-430), the famous Latin Church Father and bishop of Hippo. Augustine penned one of the most quoted sayings in the history of Christianity which in Latin goes, “Fecisti nos ad te, Domine, et inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in te” (“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you” [The Confessions 1.1].). But the Lord used the sermons of Ambrose to quiet the restless heart of Augustine.

Ambrose of Milan (A.D. 338-397) was born in a powerful Roman Christian family. It was told that the bishop of Rome and many church dignitaries visited his parents' home when he was a child. He served as a public servant, a governor in northern Italy at that, before he became a bishop.

Two significant events in Ambrose's life are worth mentioning here. The first one is the circumstance that catapulted him to the office of bishop. One account says that "even as governor he had ecclesiastical problems to deal with. Orthodox Christians and Arians were practically at war at the time. Ambrose was no friend of the Arians, but he was so well regarded that both sides supported him. When the bishop of Milan (an Arian) died, Ambrose attended the meeting to elect a replacement, hoping that his presence would preempt violence between the parties. Much to his surprise, both sides shouted their wish for him to be their replacement.

"Ambrose really didn't want to be an ecclesiastical leader; he was doing quite well as a political one. And he hadn't even been baptized yet! But the people wrote to Emperor Valentian, asking for his seal on their verdict. Ambrose was placed under arrest until he agreed to serve" (131 Christians Everyone Should Know, 81).

The other event in Ambrose's life that's fascinating is his courage in confronting Emperor Theodosius and his atrocious order to kill 7,000 people in Thessalonica in A.D. 390. The emperor was exacting vengeance against the people for the death of his governor who did not yield to the people's demand to free a certain charioteer whom the people loved.

"Ambrose was horrified. He wrote an angry letter to Theodosius demanding his repentance. 'I exhort, I beg, I entreat, I admonish you, because it is grief to me that the perishing of so many innocent is no grief to you,' he wrote. 'And now I call on you to repent.' He forbade the emperor to attend worship until he prostrated himself at the altar.

"Theodosius obeyed, marking the first time church triumphed over state" (131 Christians Everyone Should Know, 81-82).

Later in Ambrose's ministry, one "skeptical professor of rhetoric had gone to Milan in 384 to hear the bishop's famous allegorical preaching. By the time he left four years later, he had been baptized by Ambrose and given a philosophical basis he would use to transform Christian theology" (131 Christians Everyone Should Know, 82). This professor of rhetoric was Augustine. He was greatly influenced by this eloquent preacher and godly bishop of Milan.

Just how much influence did Ambrose have on Augustine? Here's the latter's account in his book, The Confessions:

"So I came to Milan and to Bishop Ambrose, who was known throughout the world as one of the best men. He was a devout worshiper of you, lord, and at that time his energetic preaching provided your people with choicest wheat and the joy of oil and the sober intoxication of wine. Unknowingly I was led by you to him, so that through him I might be led, knowingly, to you.

"This man of God welcomed me with fatherly kindness and showed the charitable concern for my pilgrimage that befitted a bishop. I began to feel affection for him, not at first as a teacher of truth, for that I had given up hope of finding in your Church, but simply as a man who was kind to me. With professional interest I listened to him conducting disputes before the people, but my intention was not the right one: I was assessing his eloquence to see whether it matched with which rumor credited him was really there, or something more, or less. I hung keenly upon his words, but cared little for their content, and indeed despised it, as I stood there delighting in the sweetness of his discourse. Though more learned than that of Faustus it was less light-hearted and beguiling; but such criticism concerns the style only, for with regard to the content there was no comparison. While Faustus would wander off into Manichean whimsy, this man was teaching about salvation in a thoroughly salutary way. But salvation is far from sinners, and a sinner I was at that time. Yet little by little, without knowing it, I was drawing near" (The Confessions [Maria Boulding, OSB, trans.] 5.13).

God Uses the Ordinary to Accomplish His Purpose

If you think about it, many of the human instruments the Lord used to accomplish his divine purpose were unknown before they became well-known. In His providence and by His grace He calls ordinary and unknown man or woman (a few were even unnamed) to do exploits in order to advance His kingdom. 


There are times when God uses the best and the brightest, even the worst and the wicked, in extraordinary circumstance, to do what He has decreed beforehand. But often times He accomplishes His greater agenda through ordinary folks and by usual means in a very common situation.


As someone rightly said, "You may not have many gifts, talents or abilities but...whatever gift, talent, or ability God has given you, use it for His glory. Whatever influence [you have], whether great or small, use it for His glory. God may not give you a great deal of influence [or success] and that is okay. Focus not on the breadth of your ministry but on the depth of your ministry from God’s Word. Remember, it is not the most able who are blessed in their ministry it is the most holy."

A Homeschooling Parents' Advantage

4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. ~ Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (NIV)

Brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus, the God who commanded these words to his people in the Old Testament is the same God that we worship and serve today. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, this God has become our God. And by faith in him, we become His people.

So these words are his commands for us. And the essence of God's command is this: Since the LORD is our God - and we ought not to have any other gods - and since we belong to him by virtue of saving us and loving us in our Lord Jesus Christ, God wants us to love him wholeheartedly. God wants us to be loyal to him as his own people.

One way of showing our love and loyalty to him is to love the children he has given us. Fellow parents, our children are inheritance from the Lord (Psalm 127:3). Our children belong to God first and foremost. He entrusted them to us in order to raise them up and nurture them the way He would nurture them. Children, you belong to God first and foremost.

Do you understand the implication of this truth? God is saying, "You are mine. Your children are mine. I love you and I want you to love me with all your life. Love me by loving the children that I gave you."

And how do we show our love for the children that God has given us to nurture? By teaching them everything that he has commanded us to do. When and where do we teach our children God's commandments? When we sit comfortably in our home. While we walk on the street. While we lie down on our bed. At the dining table. While we drive our car. While shopping or doing our grocery. While on vacation. In the morning or in the evening. At noon time. All day long and all the time.

So godly instruction begins in the home but does not end there. It also flows over into a life under the Lordship of Christ in every aspect and sphere of life. In the home the children are taught the basic principles of how to seek the will of the Lord and how to please him.

Someone rightly said, "History proves when the family is sound, both Church and society flourish. The family is the foundation of human society. Give us thus [faithful Christian] families and the Church [and society] will prosper. Otherwise we will certainly face a dark future."

As homeschoolers, we are on the best position to obey this command of the Lord. We really are. Why? We have our kids with us at home most of the time. We see them always. And that's a wonderful blessing that homeschooling brings us. And we thank the Lord for that!

Do we always have the opportunity to teach them? Opportunity? Yes! But do we always take those opportunities? I doubt it! I always fail with my responsibility to teach them. There are times that Facebook is more appealing to me than teaching or spending time with my children. Now you know that I'm an ordinary parent like you. I have my own weaknesses. We all have and we don't pretend. We learn to admit and confess them.

But the thing is, we don't give up teaching our children in spite of our failures. We also admit our sin and weakness and ask for the Lord's forgiveness. And by the way, since failures and frustrations are pretty much part of our life here on earth, we teach ourselves, and our children as well, to accept them and deal with them in a godly way.

We tell our children that even if they fail once, twice, or many times, they don't give up. Rather, we turn to God again and again through our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who humble themselves before God, no matter how many times they fail or fall, are pardoned and accepted by God because of what Christ has done in our behalf.

Today and tomorrow are opportunities to show our children and our brothers and sisters in Christ the love of God in us. Right here. If we truly love God the way Christ loved us by giving up his life for us, we will also be willing to love others, even to give up our comforts and rights, for our children, for our fellow homeschoolers, for our friends and neighbors, and most of all, for the sake of God's kingdom and for the glory of God.

Remember: the Lord is our God. And we belong to him. Let us give others the opportunity to see our Lord Jesus Christ in our lives today, tomorrow, and the rest of our lives.

(A devotional talk given at the opening of our "Yes! You Can Homeschool" Conference at the NCCC Mall Davao on November 19-20, 2016).

An Earnest Prayer of a Pastor for the Congregation He Serves

Our heavenly Father, Sovereign Creator of the universe. You are our Lord and great God, the king who towers above all the power and authority over all the earth and the one true God who is above all false gods and idols. In your hands are the depths of the earth and the mountain peaks belong to you. The seas are yours for you made them and your hands formed the dry land, too. We come to you as your people bowing down before your holy presence in humble worship. We are your flock nurtured and nourished by your tender care.

We are always amazed by your great faithfulness to us who for generations have been kept and prospered by your great love in spite of our unfaithfulness. O that we would know you more and be inspired by your amazing grace and be emboldened by your greatness! O that we may comprehend your glorious majesty that we may grow in our boldness and confidence like Daniel and his friends who knew you and stuck their necks out for their faith and commitment to you rather than bowing before the image made by human hands in exchange for human approval and recognition!

Make us, O Lord, a people who really know you and serve you no matter what the cost is. Be merciful to us when sometimes we are complacent in our service to you and for your kingdom. Forgive us for those times when we fail to realize that our greatest joy and contentment is in you alone. O we are easily tempted and distracted by the cares and concerns of this world that our minds and hearts are turned to temporal and worldly things rather than on things that really matter the most, that is, your glory and your praise.

Direct our gaze, we pray, upon the beauty of your holiness, to the perfect and sinless Son who is the image of the invisible God and the firstborn over all creation. For you were pleased, O Father, to have all your fullness dwell in your Son, and through him to reconcile to yourself all things. Grant us the desire to be instructed fully in your Word by your Holy Spirit that we may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that we may know the mystery and glory of your name revealed in the person and work of your Son in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Let us not be easily deceived by fine-sounding arguments and hollow, deceptive philosophy of man that are being propagated in the world today trying to get our attention away from you in order to turn to man's foolish ways and the evil one's scheming devices. Father, save your people from those dangerous teachings that exalt human idea and accomplishments and disregard true wisdom that comes from you. Equip us by your Spirit to discern the truth and to walk according to your Word and live according to its precepts. Cause the light of the gospel to be all the more clear in our minds and hearts that we may behold the glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that we may love him and give our lives for him and his sake. Make us faithful followers of Jesus daily denying ourselves, humbly taking up our cross with gladness knowing that the afflictions of this life are nothing compared to the joy and glory that awaits us at his coming.

Just as we have been raised with Christ in his resurrection, help us to set our hearts on things above where Christ is seated at your right hand. Cause us then to put to death everything that belongs to our sinful nature such as sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Help us to forsake everything that our old sinful nature craves, ridding ourselves of unhealthy anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from our lips. Instead grant that by your Spirit, we would only speak the truth in love, to speak that which is helpful for the building up of other believers according to their needs.

Merciful God, make us gentle and kind, compassionate and loving to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. Enable us to forgive each other from the heart just as in Christ you forgave us. We want to be known not only as people who are theologically astute and doctrinally sound but more so as people who are godly and loving thinking not only our own interest but the interest of others as well.

Help us to teach our children these precious truths in your Word patiently and to set before them a clear pattern of godliness that they may learn to imitate us just as we imitate our Lord Jesus Christ in his obedience and faithfulness even in his suffering. Enable our children to catch the vision of you as our holy and righteous God who loves his people dearly and works everything for their good. Help us all to embrace and treasure your Word and the principles of your kingdom that we may be willing and ready to live and die in the pursuit of these things knowing that we belong to you and to your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in whose name, we pray. Amen.

Anchor and Lighthouses in Homeschooling

In many ways, homeschooling is like a journey. Sometimes it feels like a sea journey. There are times when the voyage is smooth while at other times it’s rough. Sometimes the journey is as clear as the daylight, but there are also times when it’s uncertain and as dark as the darkest night.

Sixteen years ago, we decided to homeschool our children in spite of lack of knowledge, resources and materials, in spite of zero moral support from family and friends, and non-existence of homeschool support group like our Lighthouse Homeschool Network (LHN) now.

What I want to share with you today are some of the lessons that Cathy and I have learned from our homeschooling journey, which I’m comparing to a sea voyage, and we as amateur sailors. As I do, I would like to focus on two important things, which I call mariner’s aids or tools that help provide a stable and safer homeschooling journey. The first tool is the anchor and the second one is the lighthouse.

As homeschoolers on a journey, we have a goal and a destiny. Of course, our ultimate goal as Christians in all and every endeavor, including homeschooling, is to give glory to God. We were created to show forth the beauty and majesty of our Lord and Creator who revealed Himself clearly in the person of His Son Jesus Christ. That’s our ultimate goal in everything – to honor him.

Now, how do we get there? It’s a life-long journey, you would say. And that’s true. And our homeschool journey is an important aspect of that lifelong journey.

What do we need in order to get there? Well, like traveling at sea, we need first of all, an anchor, “that which gives the [assurance] of stability or security, or a source of abiding confidence.” An anchor symbolizes strength and stability in seafaring especially in the midst of a storm.

In the Bible anchor is used figuratively of the hope that we have in the promises of God. Hebrews 6:19 says: We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. Well, in context, the promises of God pertain to the believers’ secured position in Christ which includes our redemption from and forgiveness of sin and the hope of entering God’s glorious presence.

In other words, our hope, our anchor, is securely fastened to our faithful and unchanging God who fulfills all His promises to His children. And the anchor that firmly connects us to God is our Lord Jesus Christ.

In Him, our hope, our position, cannot be moved or shipwrecked by the storms of life. That’s how strong our anchor is! That’s how stable and solid the rock which our anchor holds on to!

Thus, like the sailors that drop their anchor in the middle of the sea in order to provide stability for the ship, especially during the storm, we also fasten our hope, we fix our eyes on our Lord Jesus Christ, our anchor, who provides us with security and firmness, as Christ intercedes and connects us to God.

The only difference between the sailors’ anchor and ours is that while the sailors drop their anchor with the hope that it would hold on to something firm and sturdy under the sea we, however, thrust our anchor, by faith, upward to heaven, where our hope is fixed, even in Christ who ministers for us at the Father’s right hand. Christ is our hope of glory who provides for us security and stability in times of trouble. Christ does this for us through His unceasing intercession and through the constant ministry of His Spirit in our lives.

How does it relate to our homeschooling? Well, it’s through this. If our aim is to please Christ or to glorify God, our homeschooling materials and resources and activities must be grounded on something that help us achieve this aim. That means that our resources and materials and activities should be Biblically-based, Christ-centered, and God-pleasing.

There are a lot of teaching materials and resources available in the internet and the market today that will help our children achieve academic excellence and earn them scholarship in prestigious institutions of higher learning. But academic excellence must not be our ultimate aim in homeschooling. It must be subordinate to our main goal of knowing and pleasing Christ.

We may have children who will become academic elite, but if they lack humility, respect for authority and genuine concern for other people and the kingdom of Christ, their academic achievements will fail them eventually.

We want children who are not only academically competent but also spiritually mature and committed to help in accomplishing the Great Commission of Christ, which is to make faithful disciples from all corners of the earth.

I want to address our children here. Children, in your studies, aim for something that’s beyond the here and now. Anchor your effort in your studies to something bigger than this world. Aim at serving Christ and glorifying Christ in your studies now. Use the gifts and talents God has given you to serve Him and to serve others and you will know that your anchor, your effort, is holding on to something stable.

Now, boys and girls, how about the lighthouse? What is a lighthouse and what is its purpose? A lighthouse “is a tower with a bright light at the top, located at an important or dangerous place regarding navigation (or travel over water). The two main purposes of a lighthouse are to serve as a navigational aid and to warn boats of dangerous areas. It is like a traffic sign on the sea.”

Historians said that the first lighthouses were actually given by nature itself. Sailors sometimes used landmarks such as glowing volcanoes to guide them. In the ancient world, trading ships were eventually built enabling navigators to sail long distances to buy and sell goods. In the days of wooden ships with sails, the wind and waves could easily push them against the rocks and wreck them. And so, the need for lighthouses as warning signals arose.

In homeschooling, we need lighthouses. We need something, or someone, to guide us on our way and to warn us when we are heading at the wrong direction. I would like to share with you only two lighthouses in our own homeschooling experience.

First, we need counselors or mentors in homeschooling. Proverbs 11:14 says, “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.” The Word of God encourages us to employ the wise counsel of others in our endeavors, and homeschooling is no exception. With many unknowns and many options in homeschooling, it is important that in our journey we have fellow voyagers and pilgrims who not only give us wise counsel but also encourage us when we are down and troubled.

That’s where we’ve seen the need to start a homeschool support group in 2009. Lighthouse Homeschool Network has been a great support group for our family here in Davao City and I encourage you to avail of the wisdom and experience of our fellow homeschoolers. To some of you maybe your church support group has been serving as a lighthouse as well.

Some families can do it all by themselves, but many of us opt to pull resources together. And for us the journey has been more enjoyable and pleasing with LHN. So thank you so much for all of you who have encouraged us and helped us in our own journey. We’ve gained a lot of friends and connections through LHN. We also have grown in our knowledge of homeschooling and Christian parenting through many of you. I hope that you will continue to keep your lights shining, your Christian virtues and values, to help our fellow travelers in homeschooling.

Another lighthouse that has been guiding our homeschooling – and this is very important – is of course the Word of God, the Bible. One of the most memorable times I have in homeschooling our children is to be able to read with them the Bible and to share with one another the things that we’re learning from it. Bible reading is an important lighthouse for homeschoolers.

Aside from the Bible, we’ve also read books together, either books that help us know God more, or books about Church Fathers, Christian theologians, missionaries, pastors, and even musicians in the past. These books have enriched not only our knowledge of God and Christ and the lives of believers in the past, but they also made our homeschooling experience enjoyable and exciting. Just reading books together enlightens a lot our way.

I know many of you, if not all of you are doing this already. But, boys and girls, isn’t it a lot of fun when mommy or daddy reads books aloud for us? Of course! Maybe, sometime we could have reading stories together as a support group. That’s something that we could probably include in our joint activities in the future.

Well, I could add some more ‘lighthouses’ that could guide our way in homeschooling but I think those two are important – support group and family time. Let us remember that our greater goal in homeschooling is to bring ourselves to a deeper understanding of Christ and a greater commitment to His kingship and lordship over us.

Ultimately, we want to glorify and honor God in everything we do, including our labor to bring up and teach our children in the ways of the Lord. May the Lord continue to give us the grace and the right motive to do this!