Reflections of a Running Reverend

The Rapanut grandkids having a light moment together before we drove to the airport. My mother passed away earlier this month . And while she had not fully recovered from the stroke she suffered almost two years ago, her death was sudden and completely unexpected. The last time I talked to her, she was full of life and happy to report that she was making good progress in learning to walk again. That was three weeks before she died. Phone and internet lines had gone down after the devastation of typhoon Mankhut, preventing us from making wi-fi calls. Perhaps I should have tried harder to find other means to connect. It's too late now. No matter how hard we prepare ourselves and our loved ones for it, death still comes with an impact that shakes us to the very core .  We who are left behind are left to pick-up the pieces from the life that has ended while dealing with the void created in our own lives and the deep sense of loss. So many details . So many matters to think of...

I have not written a blogpost for a while. Two years and five months to be exact. The last piece I wrote was on May 24, 2016 shortly after the adjournment of the 2016 UMC General Conference. I'm sure there are a myriad of reasons why I haven't been writing, but its nothing I've been able to put my finger on. As life and work went on, I just lost the desire, the impetus, and consequently even the time, to write. That changed a month or so ago when our Bishop Elaine JW Stanovsky invited all of us in the Greater Northwest Area to a " year of Crossing Over to LIFE " using Brian McLaren's book, We Make the Road by Walking , as our roadmap. It is an invitation to spiritual renewal and alignment with Christ. This call to journey resonated with me vocationally as a pastor and in my role as Superintendent of the Alaska Conference but even more so personally as husband, parent, son and friend. I'll be sharing more about the personal impacts later. As a pastor,...

This is the fourth day since General Conference 2016 adjourned. Many reflections have been offered since. I would like to add my voice to the mix.  After the sudden turn of events at the beginning of the second week of General Conference, this scripture came to me: He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:11-13, NRSV) Elijah was on the run. He had just defeated 450 prophets of Baal i...

The 2016 General Conference of the United Methodist Church convenes in exactly a week from today. While it may be purely coincidence and totally unplanned, I think it is significant to note that the Sunday in the middle of the two weeks of General Conference is the Day of Pentecost. So, just as the disciples gathered together behind locked doors prayerfully awaiting the coming of the promised Holy Spirit, so I approach General Conference with this prayer: Come, Holy Spirit, Come! Move in our General Conference. Move in our United Methodist Church. We acknowledge that we are not of one mind on many issues. Empower us to "speak in tongues" of love and grace, enabling us to transcend our many differences that we may come together around what truly matters, making disciples of Jesus Christ who will transform the world. May we be sensitive to where your wind is blowing and follow where you lead. May our hearts be ablaze with the passion that burns i...

I've lived in Alaska for almost 8 years now but the changing of the seasons still fascinate me. Until we moved up in 2008, I had lived all my life in the Philippines where the only seasons are wet (rainy) and dry (summer). We had none of the changing of the colors and the subsequent shedding of leaves in autumn. We didn't have snow and winter although the temperatures did get a relatively cooler. One could say that we lived in an eternal hybrid season of spring and summer.  One of the things that I continue to marvel about, because I've never seen it before coming to Alaska, is the budding of the trees. After "dying" in the fall and remaining "dead" all winter, the trees are beginning to show signs of new life, of resurrection, if you may. So fascinated am I with this cycle of death and new life that I have probably written an article or preached a sermon about it every year for the past 8 years! It is such a great metaphor for our lives as Christian d...

Sunday, April 10th was an exceptionally busy and stressful day for me. It was emotionally charged, mentally draining and spiritually challenging. I will not go into details... In the midst of the busyness, my iPhone chimed. Wanting a break from the craziness, I took a look. It was Facebook reminding me of a memory from a year ago. For non-Facebook users, they have a new feature where they remind you of "memories" - posts that you made on the exact, same date in the past. Facebook was telling me that on that very day a year ago, I had posted this picture with the following caption: "Lord, on this day-off, deliver me from the guilt that comes from doing nothing. Thank you for a day that I can 'simply be' and be away from the pressure to 'always do'. Amen." It was a great reminder to pause, to breathe, to be still and know that God is God! This Facebook memory got me through the day, allowing me to respond to its most trying moments wi...

When the disciples brought the dilemma of having a hungry crowd of more than 5,000 people to Jesus, he said: "You give them something to eat." They had hoped that Jesus would agree with their proposal to "send them away and let them look for food". Yet instead, Jesus said, "Feed them." And they did. This was not the case for hungry farmers in the town of Kidapawan in Southern Philippines this past weekend. Last Saturday, April 1, 2016, more than 6,000 farmers and their families took to the streets to ask government for food support. The El Nino phenomenon has brought about a severe drought to the country, so bad that even farmers are asking for food assistance. Sources say they tried to request food through the "proper" channels prescribed by government. Their pleas were unheard, dismissed for technicalities. So they took to the streets. Instead of giving them food, they were violently dispersed and "sent away". Instead...