Praise sprouts up from all nations — the Philippines
Praise God for the wonderful works He has done for the past 20 years of planting trees of Life everywhere. We are blessed in the Philippines to witness and experience the passionate work of our 611 Hong Kong church to build up lives and transform the Nations.
I myself am one of the numerous people transformed through the 611 Vision. As a pastor’s kid, I was like a dry tree, planted and grown in a soil of despair, disappointments and unbelief. I grew up seeing how powerless the church and thinking how unreal God is. I grew up hating the church and hating God as I watched my family crumble because of poverty and the wrong ministry mindset. But I thank God for His saving mercy. Through the Vision of our Hong Kong church to transform lives, my life has been tremendously changed. The truth they taught and their life-changing Core Values have impacted my life by transforming my mindset on how to interact with God. In this church I was healed and was transformed to personally know God and be in love with Him.
To have grown in 611 and molded by God through her discipleship is one of the grateful experiences I had. In this church I have learned the true meaning of love and grace as they embrace me in all my shortcomings and weaknesses. They taught me to understand my true self, acknowledge my feelings, accept my difficulties and rise above them. They taught me to dream big dreams, enjoy the process of pruning and cultivating myself in faith. This has helped me to realize the power of God through His church to transform and build up lives. Because of this, I received the joy to serve Him and eventually respond to the call to become the pastor of Manila 611.
I can say that serving God is not always a smooth jour ney. There are tough times, but journeying with our mother church makes serving a joyful experience and the mother church shows us the perfect example on how to respond to God in every circumstance. They continue to nurture us, support us and lift us up when we cannot carry on. Even in this time of pandemic, we are so blessed to have our mother church lead us to persist in faith as we follow God and the 611 Vision to empower us to move forward as one with Joy.
The extent of 611’s Vision and love is breaking all the boundaries of distance, race, culture and difficulties. Their commitment to God’s will leads them to embrace all nations including us, the Filipinos despite the huge difference in many things. They are nourishing many dried churches in the Philippines to eventually become Trees of Life to impact our nation.
As we have been receiving the nourishment from our mother church, today we arise to continue with the Vision, pass on this joy to cultivate more trees of life to cover the whole nation and eventually the whole world. May the Lord continue to anoint us and lead us to more years of victorious and joyful journey!
Maricar Buguina
Manila 611