I am surrounded by AWESOME men, really.  Take Lester Lim – the guy loves God and he loves the Filipino people.  What a potent combination!  He is just one of several men within the family of UPCCC who make me say, “Thank You Lord for the men in my life.”  Right now he is undergoing staff training as an Associate Staff with UPCCC but he functions as though he is already a Full-Time Staff.  And when we chat about the future, his passion for missions just drips from his heart and leaks out to others.  What a dude!

And then there’s Carlo Bantola whom i met while he was still a student, majoring in Sports Science at UP’s College of Human Kinetics.  Often, when i would see him, he was drenched in sweat but with a large grin on his face.  Now that he is a CCC staff trainee, his enthusiasm for health and athletics have not diminished. Praise God!  How we need guys like him who can help spur us all towards staying fit as an expression of our love for the Lord.  My prayer is that he will stay many many years on staff developing the full gamut of his potentials and leadership skills.  i see great things up ahead for him as he simply fixes His eyes on Jesus, not on positions and titles.  And knowing him, he is apt to do that.

Then there is Sir Ferdi Medina, an Associate Staff who probably spends most of his time working for CCC rather than on his actual profession as a classical guitarist and teacher at the UP College of Music.  When i first met him, it was during a friend’s wedding.  i kept commenting to my seatmate that the music was so good and i kept clapping because the string quartet was just playing so well.  Ferdi is the staff in-charge of heading up the Artists TA, of which i am a very minor part.  It is exciting to see how the Lord is using him amidst his very full schedule and being so “in demand” for all his gifts.

This guy has so many names, he reminds me of ME. Haha!  Ace, Leyron, L.A. are monikers he goes by.  i’ve settled on Ace because it is mono-syllabic.  Even though he is a “graft” from the tree of Mapua’s CCC ministry, he has managed to fit right in with the team and the campus’s culture.  That is a tribute to his adaptability and openness.  He is naturally amiable and that is definitely a plus factor in ministry.  My prayer is that as he builds into the lives of the young men in his care, they will take on a measure of his own adaptability and openness which i believe will serve them all very well beyond college.

Because there are “so many men in my life,”  i have to split this entry into two.  Ha!  Check in next time for more on these godly and gwapo guys because the next ones are Emman the Man, Joshua (not Harris but) Garcia, and the Main Man on UPCCC’s team, Sir Al dela Torre.

Under: Co-workers in the Harvest Field