LA biographies

Nelson Capote : What gives me joy is seeing my brothers grow and catching the vision of disclplemaking…”

Nelson Capote has been working fulltime for three years at the LA Iligan Ministry. Prior to this, he used to teach at the St. Luke 's Institute and Technology.

Seeing the meaninglessness of life apart from God and seeing the importance of investing lives with eternal values, he committed to work fulltime. God 's word in Isaiah 54:2, "Do not hold back ....,” convicted him to resign from his post after years of working. What gives him joy is seeing his brothers grow and catching the vision of disc iple-mak ing.

Through God's guidance, he and his co -workers saw the group grow from nine cells to 23 cells in 2004, with 5-15 members each.

According to him, among the challenges the ministry faces are the lack of laborers to do disciple-making and the trans lation of materials for evange lism Into the Visayan language. Seeing the need of laborers to do Ministry work, he re mains committed to the task.

Restie del Rosario: " We envision to reach out the whole BSU Community and Cordilleras.

Like other campus ministries, BSU struggled with the problem of losing contacts after graduation. Brethren who graduated from their courses went either home or to other places outside BSU to look for job. Consequently , many of them who used to involve in the m inistry work were not even connected to any local ministry area or any local church.
Reali zing the plight of these brethren who graduated, there rose a need to raise a batch of disciples who could demonstrate commitment and obed ience In laying down their lives for the sake of the gospel and the vineyard. With such challenge, most of this year 's graduate and several professionals chose to serve in the ministry as they looked up to Him for His guidance and provisions.

From a four-member core group, the ministry leadership was strengthened with five more brethren (graduating, fresh graduates and professionals) willingly committed to stay and serve the ministry at least this year. They are Dan Galang, Maricel, Joel Caasi, Darlene and McErwin Perez. They will be involved in purposive personal witnessing and disciplemaking, designed to develop leaders for the area.

The group committed to reach the whole BSU Community and the Cordilleras by being faithful to the task of evangelization and disci-plemaking. A medical mission was schedu led in Benguet last 3-5 June 2004, partly for this purpose. Two needy barangay centers were se lected: Wangal in La Trinidad and Dangkan in Tublay. The project brought doctors and dentists who offered the ir free medical services like circumcision, cataract removal, minor surgery and tooth extraction. Sharing the gospel and counseling was facilitated by the brethren. The "fruits " were channeled to the nearest brethren for follow up.

Mark Ampo: After being convicted by the Holy Spirit, he resigned from his job.

Mark Ampo first discerned God's call when Vivian Munasque shared the Gospel to him one balmy December evening in 1983 at the University of Southern Mindanao. It was at that time that he surrendered his life to Christ as his Lord and Savior. His passion and commitment to serve the Lord was rewarded six years later when God called him into another leadership challenge as he became part of the USM core group.

A graduate of BS Agriculture major in plant pathology, Mark Ampo served in various research works and teaching engagements. From 1986-1989, he was employed as a researcher at the University of Southern Mindanao Agricultural

Research Center (USMARC) until he transferred to the academe where he served for four years from 1989 to 1993 at the Wordlink Computer Center and St. Luke's Institute.

He also taught at the Notre Dame of Marbel University for four years, until he went back to USM in 1996-1999. The year 1999 proved to be meaningful as he was among the participants in the Leadership Development Institute (LDI) training sponsored by the Training and Evangelistic Leadership held at UPLB from April - May, 1999. His attendance to the LDI was a leap of faith after he resigned from his job upon the disapproval of his request for a two-month leave. Litt le did he know that this was the first step in the unfolding of God's plan for his life.

After the training, he got another job at Central Mindanao Agricultural Research Resources Development Consortium (CEMARRDEC). However, it was July of the following year when God spoke to him in Matthew saying "the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers in the f ield ...". He again resigned from his job to fulfill God's ultimate calling for his life - to be a full time ministry worker.

Barely a week later, Mark together with Erlie and their two kids decided to leave Mindanao to establish the ministry in Cebu City. The Lord provided able and committed brethren through Albert Magnaka, a professor in UP Cebu and Elsie Fantllano, a Department of Education employee (both are alumni of USM), to help in the ministry work

Mark and Erlie, together with Albert and Elsie, compose the core team of the Cebu LA ministry with the vision of reaching out the entire city for the Lord and eventually spreading the Gospel to other nearby cities.

Initial years of the Ministry

The ministry in Cebu started through a house fellowship at the residence of the Ampo family until it was moved to a rented function room at the Cebu Business Hotel in 2001. During this time, a regular Sunday service was already in place with an attendance of 15-20 members. Since the rent was too costly, the core team begun praying for another venue where they could accommodate more people and be able to use it for ministry training and equipping.

Last year, God answered their prayer when the team was able to rent a five-bedroom house at 539-N P del Rosario Extension, Sambag 1, Cebu City. The place is strategically located at the heart of the city and is accessible to a number of universities and colleges. It is also surrounded by a lot of boarding houses, making it a potential harvest field. Thus, one of the goals of the core team is to concentrate on evangelizing these boarders and students.
To carry out this goal, four evangelistic teams, with three members each, were formed to share the Gospel to the following schools and universities: San Carlos University, Southwestern University, UP Cebu, Velez University and Cebu Vineyard Christian School. The latter is an elementary school where their firstborn son is currently enrolled.

The G-12 Transition

The Cebu ministry is still in the course of transitioning to the G-12 structure. Mark handles the primary 12, composed of eight ladies and four guys. They are aiming for a homogenous group as more guy leaders are developed to fill up the structure. This year, they were able to reach their target of a 300% increase in the number of cells. From 3 cells established last year, they have now 11 existing cells. By next year, the group aims to double this number.

The outreach is also extended to high school students, where five groups with an average attendance of 20 students each are now in place. The high school team includes Mark and Erlie, Jerson, Madeline, Susan and Nelie. Both Susan and Nelie are also high school teachers. The only problem encountered by the group is the venue for fellowships as the school is quite far from the worship center.

Aside from high school outreaches, the Cebu team is also handling discipleship classes every Sunday 8:30-9:30 pm. School of leaders is also an ongoing activity held every second and fourth Saturday of the month. The first Saturday is reserved for witnessing while the third Saturday is earmarked for a Day in Prayer. The eleven cell leaders are consistently attending these training and equipping activities.

Training of leaders is done under an apartment setup. At present, Elsie leads four professional ladies while three guys are currently being trained at the Ampo residence. The team is planning to open up another guys' apartment soon under the leadership of Albert Maganaka by June 2005.

Last year, the Cebu ministry experienced an increase in the tithes and offerings as more professionals join the fellowship . However, it suffered a slump this year as some of these professionals lost their jobs. A large portion of tithes and offerings goes to the rent of the ministry training house. To augment this financial load and maximize the space, the leaders are praying for more ladies to occupy the five-bedroom space. The house can accommodate 15 persons at three persons per bedroom.

Firstly, the Cebu core group is preparing to bring about a smooth restructuring of the ministry to the G-12 set-up and eventually build homogenous cells. Secondly, they want to reach out to all the boarding houses, follow-up students, and work to get them all involved in the ministry.
The group requests prayer for (1) the full occupancy of the training house in order to cover the P15,000-monthly rental, (2 ) for the development of second line leaders by the eleven cell leaders, (3) setting up of a new training apartment for guys and (5) the procurement of an amplifier to upgrade the Praise and Worship Team equipment.

Christy Oberez: "Total commitment made me last this long of my service to the Lord"

It was February 1, 1991 when Ate Christy, then a 4 th year college student of the University of Southern Mindanao (USM), received Jesus. It was her kuya who first shared the gospel to her. She did not take It seriously at first, thinking he is introducing a new religion. However, when she met Ate Nitz Fuentes, she recalled what her brother shared and finally understood the true meaning of Jesus' death on the cross.

She then started attending bible studies and fellowships and was later given the responsibility of handling some college students when she worked in a computer shop at USM, She was also trained at the Diadem Apartment at USM.

When she was Invited to the LAMI off ice in Manila, she thought it was just a training exposure to help in the fund raising activit ies of the Lakas-Angkan. One of those is selling mattresses. She expected to be back home at USM after a year. But before her departure, Kuya Boni and Ate Luming told her to seek God's w isdom on her decision to go home. God led her to Psalms 45.

After taking a short vacation, she went back to Manila and worked as a God's full-time worker. Total commitment, according to Ate Christy, made her last th is long in her service to the Lord. She learned "real servanthood" on the work assigned to her and in doing follow-ups. She also recogni zed perseverance in serving the Lord with everything she has - her time, energy, and money. "Servanthood is a lifetime commitment. There is no retirement, no vacation in God's service", she shared.

Since then, her convictions have been realigned to do God's will. This Implies denying one's se lf, tak ing up the cross and following Christ all the days of her l ife . Although the ministry task is difficult, she finds joy in doing the Lord's work. "In everything you do", she said, " God is developing your character". Though she is constantly faced with struggles like every Christian, she holds on to God's promise that, "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord... he will be like a tree planted by the water .. and never fails to bear fruit" (Jeremiah 17:7-8).

Right now . Ate Christy helps in the LAMI office and attends different fundraising activities of the ministry.