REACH and churches in Butuan City serving food for youth in the Children in Conflict With the Law (CICL) program. Parents also took part.
REACH Project Coordinator, Rev. Maxie Tiguman, belongs to The Good News Butuan. The group recently sponsored a feeding program with REACH for families with children whose choices have put them in conflict with the law. Values formation was also included in the program.
The Good News Butuan is a group of pastors in Butuan City seeking to partner with local barangays to bring about social transformation. The group sees spirituality as an important component for instilling values in the community for a better society.
Other services that TGNB proposes are supplemental feeding, values formation, and marriage counseling. They also offer free mass weddings for unwed couples through Article 34 of the Family Code.
Rev. Maxie leading a group of parents during a values formation program that included food distribution.
For Meeting ID and Passcode contact Jerry Francisco and Mercy Beltran.
Missions. What is it, exactly? Is there a role for the youth? Jesus authored the definition and its scope. It’s called the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20.
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
The command is an unending chain, making missions the responsibility of every generation.
REACH Youth Kairos is an adaptation of the Kairos world-mission course. It includes real experiences and encounters of REACH field workers who conduct the program, and aims to help young men and women of REACH:
To understand God’s mission and our part in it.
Help them integrate Kingdom values to daily living.
To inspire meaningfully involvement in the World Christian Movement.
Over 40 people logged in for the first session on Zoom. The course runs for eight Saturdays beginning October 9, 2021, running through the end of November 2021. Sessions are from 7:00 PM to 9 PM.
Topics include:
Oct. 9 — Biblical Basis of Mission, History & Expansion
Oct. 13 — Evangelism and Prayer as a Lifestyle
Oct. 23 — Cultural Consideration in Mission
Oct. 30 — Wholistic Ministry
Nov. 6 — Community Development (a personal testimony)
Nov. 13 — Coping up with Modern Technology/ Evangelism and Mission in the Digital Age
Nov. 20 — Mission & God’s Overflowing Resources
Nov. 27 — Integration, Task Remaining, Teamwork
Sessions include lectures, personal testimonies, plenary and small group discussions, and reflections. In addition, the staff incorporated prayer for the Least Reached People groups (LRP).
The new REACH office is located at 7 Bignay St., Proj. 2, Quezon City.
For more than 40 years, REACH carried out God’s calling to make disciples without a home of its own. In 2003, REACH embarked on a program to finally build its own home and meet the needs of a growing ministry.
Uncertainties abounded and hurdles laid in the pathway. However, the ministry trusted in God’s unlimited capacity and resources.
The building program started as a dream of the REACH-Metro Manila ministry. Members longed to provide better accommodations to visitors. In the beginning, local members started collecting P100 from each planning team member each month.
Later, the local ministry brought the need for a better facility to the REACH Board of Trustees. The Board agreed that the facility at that time was no longer adequate as a national office, local ministry center, training apartment, and guest house. They voted to elevate the local project into a national effort.
In response, the Oplan Bayanihan fund drive launched on May 3, 2003 in Silang, Cavite during the national conference, Growing to Multiply. REACH founder, Gene Tabor, presented paper-mache figures of a carabao to each ministry area as a symbolic piggy bank in the fund-raising effort.
Over the years, there was donated property and transfers of facilities. However, it would take years to title and sell properties to raise funds for construction.
By 2012, a new fellowship center opened at the Lanzones property through a generous donation of use by the Gozon Foundation. Monthly fellowships, conferences, youth programs, and community outreaches soon followed.
Building a Home at Bignay street
However, certain limitations remained when using donated property. So REACH continued dreaming of building its own home. Additional pressure to find a permanent home came in 2015. Owners of the Chico property, which REACH rented for almost 40 years, informed the ministry of their plan to sell the property.
But surprises to the ministry did not catch God off guard.
In 2018, former Executive Officer, Mario Garcia, now living in New Zealand, offered to sell their family property at 7 Bignay St., Proj. 2. The ministry agreed to the offer. Funds continued to be solicited and the Masili property in Laguna Province finally sold after several attempts. Parties signed the deed of sale for the Bignay lot on October 2018, followed by the transferring of the certificate of title at the Land Registration Authority on January 15, 2019.
The REACH office operations transferred temporarily to 23 Lanzones in late 2019 after the Chico property was sold.
In the second half of 2019, REACH hired a contractor for the first phase of construction at Bignay St. It included a one story-structure with a mezzanine. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and the government declared a lockdown on March 15, 2020.
God of Impossible Circumstances
Once again, man’s surprise was no challenge to God. Construction of the new national center continued as much as possible under the shifting quarantine regulations. By God’s grace, despite the economic impact of the pandemic, REACH continued to receive gifts for the construction locally and from abroad.
The contract price for construction amounted to P3,385,057.43, payable in five tranches. At the beginning of 2020, REACH had a little under P1,000,000.00, lacking over two-thirds of the needed funds.
But praise the LORD for His faithfulness. God guided REACH through the many challenges (financial, weather, and other pandemic-related issues) to complete the project.
Those touched by God continued to give to the effort. That included the initial contract price for a basic unpainted structure, and finally the needed finishings, security, and supplementary works to fulfill the multifunction-purpose of the facility.
By January 2021, the first phase concluded, and payments made. January 7, 2021 marked the turnover of the completed facility to REACH.
The building includes offices for REACH and Resources Development Cooperative on the ground floor, and a boardroom in the mezzanine. Other features include a kitchen, and three sets of comfort rooms on the various levels. A roof deck provides space for other activities. The fenced garage area accommodates three vehicles and three more fit behind the other vehicles if the gate is open. The ministry looks forward to adding other floors for a conference room and dormitories as funds become available.
REACH invites you to give thanks and praise to God for His generous provision. To God be the glory!
The office staff has more space to spread out and work.
Books available for reading.
The roof deck provides a place for prayer and ministry activities.
Thriving Families in Changing Times helped anchor physical and spiritual families during the REACH National Family Conference in Danao City, Cebu on June 6-8, 2019. The conference was based on 2 Timothy 3:1-15.
