My Brother’s Keeper

“How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!” Psalm 133:1

Hi! David here. You might not know me personally but I have a very personal message for you.

Jesus longs for you!

That same message serves as my fuel and compass in my discipleship service. So, if you’re a Good samarites (este Good Samaritan) like me, please feel free to continue on to read the stories of my brothers and how God used my service to know Him and trust Him more.

First, a quick throwback from 2022.

A new normal was about to begin and life was moving on from face shields and community lockdowns. My new normal as one of the Singles Ministry’s disciplers would begin. This was the year I started my first one-on-one discipleship and it started with Jericho Lacandazo.

Jericho, or Icko for short, was part of our larger all-boys Light Group (LG). When asked why he joined our LG, he always says how it’s important for him to have a group of men that talks about Christ. He wants to learn more about faith and, to this day, still asks questions about our faith.

How he found our group is a more interesting story.

My brother Icko was actually pursuing someone at that time. His fiance - his then dream girl - introduced him to the Feast. I cannot remember the exact words as we prayed for his intentions but I can remember that, at the heart of it, he wants to follow God’s will. I remember he told me Sagutin or Hindi (whether she says yes or no), he would continue his spiritual journey.

His passion for pursuing Jesus led me to discover that God is also passionately pursuing me, a stubborn sinner. It fueled my desire to let others know this -

You are God’s pursuit.

In the pursuit of knowing Him more, God has blessed me with someone who knows so much about our faith. This is James Medina or, as our group calls him, “Father James.”

If you have faith-relation questions, James is the one you want sitting beside you. When he joined our singles retreats (Love Life Retreat), I was his group’s facilitator. Unbeknownst to James, I did stalk his Facebook profile before the retreat. That’s why I knew he was immersed in our faith, especially our practices, even before we met.

One thing he always mentions during our discussions is his desire to know more about the Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium. I am in awe of how much the Lord has blessed him with knowledge and wisdom about faith.

I thank God that I get to disciple and build God-centered relationships with these brothers. Not only did they fuel my desire to do good and pursue Christ but they also pointed our brothers in the right direction as we deepened our knowledge about our faith. In my service of letting Jesus be known to others, He has also blessed me with the grace to know Him more through the people He sends my way.

“To be a disciple of Jesus is to allow one’s self to be loved.” — Henri J.M. Nouwen