Dear friends,

Happy New Year!

Typhoon Agaton entered the Philippines in the first day of the year 2018 (I+m writing this while stranded in the pier). In the last weeks of 2017, there were two Typhoons (Urduja and Vinta) that caused destruction, floods, landslides and deaths. It seems that last year ended with a tragedy, and the new year also started with a tragedy.

In spite of these tragedies, a Christian could still find reasons to have hope and even find time to sing a Sunday School song, “With Christ in my vessel, I can smile at the storm…” Why?

First, we have hope because the Bible tells us that God sends a rainbow after the storm.

A rainbow is a sign of hope for the family of Noah who just survived a great flood. A rainbow is also a beautiful picture that in spite of the many diversities in life, we can unite and make this world a better place for us and for the next generation. We do not have to be of the same color. We need to respect other colors (race, gender and opinions) and stand side by side with them.

Second, we have hope because God has made a promise to never leave us nor forsake us.

In the Gospels, there is a story that the disciples and Jesus were aboard a vessel when they encountered a fierce storm. It can be considered an above normal storm because the disciples who were fishermen decided to woke up Jesus. Normally, a fisherman might not wake up a carpenter in the middle of the storm. But they knew and believed that Jesus was more than a carpenter — He is the Messiah. So Jesus stood up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and then all was calm. Jesus also asked his disciples on where is their faith, and why they were afraid. This statement implies that when we have Jesus in our lives, we need not fear if we just continue to have faith in Him.

Have a hope-filled new year everyone!

Sincerely,

Rev. Francis Neil G. Jalando-on

Director
Office of Communications
Central Philippine University