Unity in Sports for Nation Building

Binhi sang Pagtuo

October 26, 2009

Dear Centralians and Friends,

Greetings from the campus!

Last Saturday, October 24, 2009, the 14th National University Games started at Central Philippine University. The campus is now teeming with athletes from various schools all over the country. The theme of this event is “Unity in Sports for Nation Building.”

What lessons can we learn from sports that can help us in nation building?

First, we must trust each other. Team mates need to trust each other. During game time each one should trust each other to perform their respective roles. One should never abandon his/her task and play the task of another. One must have the confidence with his/her team mate that he/she should be in the designated spot when you pass the ball because if not, then indecisiveness comes in and consequently mistakes will happen.

Filipinos should learn to trust each other. This is one way that we can help our country.

Second, we must listen to each other. Every player needs to listen to the advice of his/her fellow players, and especially to the coach. Yesterday, my players in Table Tennis learn this lesson the hard way. I have to call a timeout and tell them the gameplan once again. It nearly cost us the game but we prevailed against our rival in Negros. Hopefully, we can duplicate our win in the next games.

Filipinos should learn to listen to each other. Nobody has the monopoly of bright ideas. We also need a coach. The coach can be our leaders. The coach can identify the weaknesses and strengths and points us to the right direction. But of course the best coach is God, and the gameplan is the Bible.

Third, we need to have determination, intensity, focus, passion and enjoyment. These are the keywords that are repeatedly heard in the game courts. Coaches, team mates and fans shout these words as a reminder to those who are playing. The most popular words in the duration of the game are “kaya mo yan” and “focus.” Most often, the intensity level of the players is heightened when they concentrate and give the best that they can. The result is a good game with no or little regrets.

Filipinos oftentimes have the mentality that a foreigner is better than him/her. He/she does not believe in him/herself. Filipinos sometimes resigned their fate to whatever will happen next, and not making his/her own destiny. We need to be determined, and be passionate. We need to bring back the pride of being a Filipino – “kaya natin to!”

May God bless us all!

Sincerely,

Pastor Francis Neil G. Jalando-on

Assistant Chaplain

Commitment to the mission of God

Binhi sang Pagtuo

October 19, 2009

Dear Centralians and Friends,

Greetings from the campus!

Yesterday, October 18, I celebrated my birthday. A friend asked how old I am, and I jokingly answered, “the age in which Jesus died on the cross.” Later, I reflected on my remark and noticed that Jesus died as a young man, yet fully confident that he has finished his mission in life.

I then remembered yesterday’s early morning incident while I was searching for my coffee mug in which I accidentally broke the handle of my wife’s mug. She said that I have to fix it. I mixed an epoxy and fixed the mug. BAM! I got a birthday message from God – Jesus was telling me, “My body was broken at 33 years old so that your broken life can be mended and used for My mission.”

During the Baccalaureate Service for the 1st Semester’s graduates at the University Church yesterday, I heard the acceptance speech of a student encouraging her fellow graduates to commit themselves to nation building especially in such a time like this. I was moved by her boldness to commit in such an endeavour.

Let me end this reflection by a poem written by Jennie Claire Adams, one of the missionaries who were executed during World War II.

“Let me live bravely;

For life has many battlefields, Where valor must be shown,

Many darkened corners, Where pain and fear are known,

Life calls for sacrifice, To share the highest good,

To serve courageously, Sometimes to give life’s blood.

As others lived and gave, Let me be brave.

Let me serve faithfully;

Content with work to do, Whatsoever life may bring,

I’m serving others well, Thus do I serve my King.

May I not weary grow, When tasks seem burdensome,

Nor turn aside distraught, Before life’s work is done.

As others served, proved true, Let me be faithful too.

Let me die heroically;

Steadfast in faith and calm, When that great day is near

Knowing no hour of dread, Feeling no anxious fear,

For death is but a door, Closed tight on pain and strife,

A door that opens up That we may enter Life.

As heroes die, Still brave and true, Let me die, too.” (Centralite, 1946, p.24)

May God bless us all!

Sincerely,

Pastor Francis Neil G. Jalando-on

Assistant Chaplain

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Chaplain's Office Website: http://www.cpu.edu.ph/chaplain
Audio Sermons of Binhi sang Pagtuo: http://binhi.4shared.com
Blog: http://cpuchaplain.blogspot.com

Let us connect with our past

Binhi sang Pagtuo

October 12, 2009

Dear Centralians and Friends,

Greetings from the campus!

This coming October 16, 2009, the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches will be choosing its next General Secretary. The fifteen members of Board of Trustees will meet and decide on who that person will be.

As we continue to reflect on the Foundation Day celebration of CPU, let us remember the Baptist roots of our alma mater.

Let us read some of my historical notes:

In 1935, when the American government granted a commonwealth status to the Philippines, a great milestone in the history of Philippine Baptist churches occurred…Representatives of the Philippine Baptist churches and the American Baptist missionaries dissolved the WVC on May 23, 1935 to give birth to the Kasapulanan sang Bautista nga Pilipinhon (Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches).

The significance of this new development was described by Nelson and Herradura. Their words deserve a longer quotation,

“This new organization changed the status of Central Philippine College from being an institution of the Foreign Mission Society to a cooperating entity of the Convention (CPBC). The by-laws specified that the corporation members should be members of Convention-related Baptist churches, elected by the annual assembly of the Convention, and that two thirds of the College Board of Trustees should be members of Baptist churches. With this development, majority control of policy-making passed from American to Filipino hands.

Consequently, the campus of the college was leased to the Convention as the field body responsible for its oversight. All requests by the college for appropriation, missionary personnel, and other related needs had to be coursed through the Convention Board of Trustees, to the Society. Furthermore, proposed changes in the constitution of the college or its by-laws must be ratified by the Convention in session before they could be enforced.” (Linnea A. Nelson and Elma S. Herradura, 1981, p. 45.)

Going back to the New Testament, Paul was reminding Timothy to remember the genuine faith that he has which was passed on by two generations – his grandmother Lois and mother Eunice. Paul was telling Timothy not to put to shame the faith that he has inherited.

In the Filipino culture, we always tell our children not to put into shame our family name. We always tell them that we cannot give them money but we can give them a good name – a name that they can carry with pride because it has a good reputation.

Here at CPU it is common to have 3 generations of Centralians. We even have up to 5 generations of Centralians. This is so because the old generation trusted CPU to pass on the faith to the next generation.

Are we still passing the faith of the older generation to the latest generation? Foundation Day celebration is good time to remember our heroes of faith, the past American Baptist missionaries, and Filipino pastors and leaders. Are we remembering their names, their ministries and their words? Or are we disconnecting ourselves from the legacy that they have started?

I hope that CPU will continue to connect with the past so that the faith that they have will be passed on to us.

May God bless us all!

Sincerely,

Pastor Francis Neil G. Jalando-on

Assistant Chaplain

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Chaplain's Office Website: http://www.cpu.edu.ph/chaplain
Audio Sermons of Binhi sang Pagtuo: http://binhi.4shared.com
Blog: http://cpuchaplain.blogspot.com

Decalogue of Central Philippine University

Binhi sang Pagtuo

October 5, 2009

Dear Centralians and Friends,

Greetings from CPU campus!

Last week on October 1, 2009, CPU celebrated its 104th Foundation Day.

Let us reflect on the Central Decalogue*:

1. I believe in Central Philippine University because she believes in the future of the Filipino youth;

2. I believe in her democratic spirit;

3. I believe in her emphasis on scholarship and character;

4. I believe in her teaching that the human personality is sacred and its dignity should be upheld over and above the arrogance of wealth and the tyranny of power;

5. I believe in her educating the poor in order to lift them up and free them from the shackles of social and religious prejudice, ignorance, and superstition;

6. I believe in her educating the rich in order to imbue them with high social conscience for imaginative vision, generous attitudes, civilized humility, and sacrificial dedication to the welfare of the people;

7. I believe in her classroom instruction which insists that students must be free to explore honestly any area of knowledge and push back the horizons of their intellect and educate the emotions of the heart;

8. I believe in the freedom and fearlessness of her professors to discuss ideas and issues without imposing their will, but guiding the youth along the path of broadmindedness, independence, self-reliance, and creativeness;

9. I believe in the necessity of research in the atmosphere of freedom because a university is not truly a university unless it carries on research;

10. I believe that a university with a Christian base and a Christian orientation should be more progressive and more daring in pressing ahead of its times in all things, to the end that the human spirit will come to full flowering under constant ferment.

May God bless us all!

Sincerely,

Pastor Francis Neil G. Jalando-on

Assistant Chaplain

*published in the 1960 Student Handbook, reprinted in The Central Time 1905-2005, 2005, p.122. The original version of the Centralian’s Decalogue can also be found in the 1946 issue of the Centralite, p. 22.

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Chaplain's Office Website: http://www.cpu.edu.ph/chaplain
Audio Sermons of Binhi sang Pagtuo: http://binhi.4shared.com
Blog: http://cpuchaplain.blogspot.com