Every year, students face various opportunities to witness by God’s Word during conflicts with curriculum requirements and exam schedules. For the students who seek help, everyone in the spiritual family is then able to support, our elder updating us on the current Philippine legislation that provides for those who keep the 7th-day Sabbath, and each one shares, recalling personal miracles in standing for the faith and striving to honor GOD first in everything... A sampling from current students was shared during the Sabbath of November 14. 2009, ... 

JUSTINE MENCIAS: “...Every semester I encounter challenges where I learn to stand firm and give reason for the faith. After the Feast of Tabernacles 2009, I asked my mom to accompany me, but the department staff said there was no way that the college dean was going to grant me a special exam. If that happened I would not be able to intern next year and it would take me one more year to finish the requirements before internship. I prayed and also asked other brethren to pray, and help me compose a letter before setting an appointment with the dean. When I went to the office, the dean read the letter and authorized a special exam for me! Thank You, Father! Now I hope I will pass the exam and have something good to show for all the answered prayer...”

JOANNA HIPE:

(on Sabbath evening Mrs. Vivian Hipe had requested intercessory prayer for the schooling situation of Joanna, niece of her husband Raul, and on the Sabbath, Joanna shared the following experience:

“I tried applying for the scholarship program in the city university this week to prepare for this incoming semester... But there were so many students waiting in line that yesterday they said, “Come back tomorrow. It will be the last day of enrolling for the scholarship program.” But it’s the Sabbath. I hope there will be an extension. (Joanna smiles, not worried at all) Any way, I know it will be all right. God will take care...”

Later that evening, after Sabbath, Mrs. Vivian Hipe sent this SMS: “Brethren, thank you all for your prayers. Our merciful Father has immediately answered our prayers... Joanna’s classmate said that Saturday’s enrolment had only been opened for 2nd year students. They, the 1st year-enrollees were asked to come back on Tuesday...!”

DOMINIC FLORES:

“I did not have any failing grades last semester, but there were times when I asked for God’s help but I really disappointed Him not obeying Him fully... Still I had a subject in which the professor gave me a passing 2.5 grade even if I was not able to take the exam scheduled during the Feast...This semester I have three subjects which have classes scheduled on the Sabbath, but I talked to all three professors saying that I won’t be able to come on Saturdays, and they told me it's all right as long as I do well during the exams...

“Does not wisdom cry out, and understanding lift up her voice?...
Receive my instruction, and not silver,
And knowledge rather than choice gold;...
Blessed are those who keep my ways...
Hear instruction and be wise, And do not disdain it...” —(The Book of Proverbs, ch.8)

For what pain, suffering, wretchedness plague us when parents and sons and daughters ignore wise counsel! Not just on one person but on the whole spiritual community. The concealments mutate, consequences become unbearable, the damage irreversible. Sin didn’t keep the promises it offered at first! What felt like freedom and happiness turned out to be back-to-zero, wrenching heartbreak, heavier obligations than those we ran away  from, disillusionment, depression, piling debt, drowning, the dark terrified aloneness of being apart from our Creator.

Yet while others might take longer to return, it is a miracle to still be alive for a second chance. So last Sabbath, November 7, when one of our young people returned to the community, after fervent prayer and counselling with our elders , saying “Gusto ko talagang bumalik sa Panginoon at mag-keep ulit ng Sabbath... nagkasala po ako at mali ang aking ginawa... hindi ko lang po alam ang gagawin...” (“I really want to return to the Lord GOD and keep the Sabbath again... I sinned and wronged everyone including myself... I just don't know what to do...”) we cried deep, tears of sorrow at the rebellion of our daughters, fists full of rage against vicious males who prey on their weaknesses, tears of lament, not even yet tears of joy, to be honest, as the hosts of heaven are capable of, ever in the presence of the Almighty Father who alone knows the hearts of all. With the help and strengthening of the Holy Spirit and by the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, the whole congregation opened its arms to a daughter who asked forgiveness and truly desires to repent...

“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Put away the evil of your doing from before My eyes.
Cease to do evil ,
Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Rebuke the oppressor;
Defend the fatherless,
Plead for the widow.

“‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the LORD
Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be white as snow...”
(the book of Isaiah, chapter 1)

In the middle of school exams and full working weekdays, Earl, Ralph, Seve and Arielle sat down with kuya Jon and Dominic in the Sharing Village office. The teachers were in for a surprise when they found out that nearly all the bits and pieces of precious guitar techniques they were taught over the years, they had to pass on to the eager learners in one afternoon! (",)

Two months of summer break came to an end right after the Day of Pentecost, and college students again faced costlier tuition, getting out of bed before sunrise, and the issue of Saturday-scheduled classes. Especially with professors who never held class on any day BUT the day they break from other jobs. Justine Mencias was anxious about a pending request she submitted to her department. The professor said he would comply with whatever the department recommended. “I made the letter myself,” she said, “Auntie Gina forced herself not to respond to my cries for help!” It was like a refreshing stream to see that someone from the next generation wanted to really make a go of standing for the faith she was taught from childhood. When she asked for counsel and prayer, we assured and encouraged her that as it was since the beginning, and as we ourselves saw with our own eyes, the Almighty God ALWAYS works out innumerable ways  for those who seek to honor Him first.

Then last Sabbath, June 14, 2008, she related with a radiant smile that her department and professor had agreed to assign her coursework in lieu of Saturday-class attendance. Thank You, Great God our Father!

Her story was not without the usual downers at the start, as she relates in this mp3 soundclip (in Tagalog). CLICK ON THE LINK to listen...

Justine tells how she handled Sabbath-scheduled classes this semester (mp3)...