Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Pastor Justin


one of the other reasons that made it hard for dan and i to leave the States was the church in Pasadena. since 2004, when we split from the original church, we have seen our son, Justin Daniel, literally take the ball and run with it with regards to pastoring/shepherding EL International Church-Pasadena. from november 2004 to february 2008, we were meeting for FREE in the meeting room of Pasadena's Hastings Branch Library. in february of this year, God answered our prayers for a bigger location and we were approved to "nest" at the First Southern Baptist Church's facility on washington blvd. of course, this meant that we would now be paying for the use of the facility and with dan and i leaving and no longer giving our tithes to the church, paying for their monthly bills might prove to be daunting for this small church.

on top of that, as a young pastor with a wife and child, justin has the added burden of being the sole breadwinner for the family since he and gina chose to have gina quit her job so she could stay at home with keilah for the next few years.

as his parents, when we hear of his concerns, we begin to second guess ourselves about leaving and staying back there to help, especially financially. it's really hard for us to be so far away, totally helpless to do what we can to help.

recently, justin interviewed and was offered a position with a sales & marketing company where he would be working with forture 500 companies. it would have been a great experience and stepping stone for him career-wise, but he turned it down because it would have meant less time for his family and for the ministry. justin believed that God would "fill in the gaps" and he decided to go ahead and trust God to provide for ALL of his and his family's needs.

when we heard of his decision, we just prayed even more for justin -- that God will provide for ALL his needs; that God will show him in tangible ways that giving his family and the ministry priority would be worth it all in the end and, especially, that God would bring people alongside him who will be an encouragement & support to him, personally and ministry-wise. and God HAS provided that in the form of dan's cousin, mark caes lacanilao. mark has been awesome and we can't thank God enough for him and his care for our son.

that same week-end after turning down the job, justin preached to the young people at mark's church -- his first time to preach there. many of the LA area lacanilaos attend that church of which tito paul is the senior pastor. there was a good number of folks in attendance and justin preached on missions. when we asked him how it went, he said he really wasn't sure, but that mark said it was a "home run" message. we thanked God for the opportunity justin was given to share some of his vision and were pleasantly surprised to receive the following email from mark. God has once again showed justin that if he follows Him and trusts Him to provide, He will. He especially provided the words of encouragement that justin needs to hear. being a pastor is often a lonely road, but those times when your message touches the hearts of people, those words can do so much to lift your spirits and provide the impetus to keep moving in the direction in which God has led you.

this friday, he will be preaching at the youth camp of the filipino church where we served for several years in the early 1990s and we pray that God will also use him mightily there.

with justin's permission, i would like to share mark's email to him that we were cc'ed on. our hearts are overflowing with joy and gratitude for the wonderful sign from God that justin is on the right track. thanks for keeping justin (and his family) in your prayers.

Hey Juss!

What a "home-run" message! I am really proud of you with how you have delivered the message yesterday. It has all the rudiments of an effective and life-changing message.

Just wanted to let you let know that I didn't even need to poll the young people (which I normally do to gain any perspective on what type of impact the message has brought to them) with regards to the message the invited speaker has given. But rather, the college core group and high school were voluntarily coming up to me and complementing about how your message really made an impact. All Glory to God! Amen!
They were all able to relate to the message that you have presented. Some of the comments they gave were :
" The message he gave really hits home to my heart..." - Bryan
"I was really able to relate to what he was saying..." - Aprille
"What an awesome message..." - Jessica
"a perfect message...the service was great from beginning to end..." - Kuya Andy
" i felt like he was really speaking directly to me with a personal touch..." - Another High school student
They were asking me about who you were, what church you go to, etc. and I was willing to oblige information although not to a great extent but enough for them to consider you in their prayers with regards to your ministry and involvement.
They (College core) wanted to visit your church in Pasadena sometime. I also told them about your up and coming Evangelistic seminar. They are interested in coming.
This would be a good ministry "collaboration" of some sort.
I hope these comments would greatly encourage you to serve Him with gladness and humility for the sake of His Kingdom!

God Bless you all the more!
Uncle Mark

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