#ULOG 10 // Ones To Treasure

_{Retreat participants getting ready for the picture taking.}

I just came back from joining the two-day retreat of our church. It was held at Loleng's Mountain Resort. This is an annual event of our church and we usually do it every November 1 and 2.

New preacher

This year's retreat was not a typical retreat because for the first time, our Senior Pastor was not the one who delivered the sermons.

The women of our church requested our pastor to be part of the audience this time around so he can also take some rest from preaching. They requested to invite a pastor not from our church to speak at the retreat.

Our Senior Pastor tried to invite, but he said the one he invited was bound for the US on the same day of the retreat.

So what we did was watch sermons on YouTube!

We watched the sermons of Pastor Ed Lapiz.

I already heard Pastor Ed before. One of the AM stations here air his sermons every morning. But this would be my first time to listen to his sermons attentively.

And I have to say that Pastor Ed is a great preacher! I really like his style.

Though I like expository preaching more than topical, I was still hooked by Pastor Ed's sermons despite his topical style.

What I don't like about topical preaching is that there are way too many verses used in one sermon that sometimes it can get really messy and confusing. Although Pastor Ed also uses a lot of verses, they were appropriate verses and they helped get his points across.

We watched three sermons from him. It should have been four, but there was no internet connection for our last session so we were not able to watch it.

Still, we learned a ton of things from his messages!

His messages were funny, but real, and very practical! They also adapt well to the Filipino culture which is a good thing to consider when doing messages in a Filipino setting.

I got great reminders from his sermons, also inspiration and motivation as I reach for my dreams in life and as I prepare for my future.

New memories

Aside from the enlightening sessions, the moments I shared with other churchmates and guests outside of the sessions were ones to treasure!

These are my favorite moments in every retreat. The chance to bond with other believers, especially my fellow young professionals and young people, is the thing that I look forward to the most, aside from the messages.

You can't buy the happiness, the laughter, the conversations, and the fun.

As we always we do, we played some games. We teased each other. And we talked about our lives and how we are progressing as followers of Jesus.

I really had a great time with my fellow young people! I love them.

I badly missed my girlfriend though who was not with us for the first time in forever. As I have said in my previous journal, she's currently in Taiwan to study. I really missed her!

Still, I'm looking forward to the next retreat!

JHY