The Holy Trinity Community and Emmaus Way (Part 2 of 2)

Emmaus Basic Course 2015

Read Part 1

Who can join Emmaus Basic Course (EBC)?

It is meant to invite everyone, couples, who are married, married mommies, daddies, the singles. The only limitation is that “no students” kase they are covered with an outreach called the Christ Youth in Action (CYA).

The course brings this people; let them attend the course itself and then after the so-called graduation, we will be inviting primarily the married people to Emmaus Way, and then the Singles into Lingkod ng Panginoon.

In this manner, the Emmaus Way group is composed now of mostly married people, but not limited. Of course, there will be the more “mature” singles that would rather stay with Emmaus Way, than go with Lingkod, because the nature of Lingkod is very dynamic, very vibrant, more on the 35 years old and below. So, the graduates of EBC will now be members of Emmaus Way, and in Emmaus Way, there’s no hard line, there’s no strict commitment.

It is an open group where we will conduct career meetings every Friday, and then we will be giving more talks, more inputs, more pre-formation courses.

When is EBC being conducted?

It starts every year on Ash Wednesday and ends on Palm Sunday. Basically, ang approach namin para siyang Lenten retreat. But it runs about seven weeks total. Today (April 5, 2015) is the culmination. Christian Life Program is like EBC. EBC is like CLP. CLP is like LSS. CLP is given by Lingkod, that is what we call their pre-formation program. Sa amin naman ang EBC which is the Alpha before.

Where do EBC modules come from?

Everything comes from our international community known as The Sword of the Spirit. HTC is part of it. HTC and Ligaya ng Panginoon as a charismatic community are both part of The Sword of the Spirit.

The Sword of the Spirit:
A Community of Disciples on Mission

The Sword of the Spirit is a growing network of more than 75 lay Christian communities around the world that have a common vision, way of life, and spiritual culture. Recent estimates put the numbers of those involved at around 9,000 people worldwide. We sometimes describe ourselves as a “community of communities.” Each community within the Sword of the Spirit is self-governing, but receives help in living out its life as a community from the sharing of resources with other communities around the world. (www.swordofthespirit.net)

Where is the prayer meeting being held every Friday?

Initially, we have an HTC center along Bonifacio St. But if the number is very good, we have to transfer. There are around 60-70 active individuals. Today, we have about 105, that is why the singles will be brought to Lingkod. It specializes in singles. That is where they will find life.

What is your vision?

Remember that we are coming from the HTC. Of course, the number 1 is that we hope many, if not 100 percent of Emmaus Way graduates would embrace the lay community life and become HTC committed members. Another vision is that Emmaus Way will give birth to other Emmaus Way sites. We cannot handle a very big Emmaus Way. So, our prayer is that Emmaus Way will give birth to Emmaus Way North, South, Central, Sasa, Panabo, Toril, mga ganun.

What about in the parishes and GKKs?

Another project of HTC is to touch based with parish. EBC, one of these days will be trying to build a bridge, so this is one way of doing a mission, becoming a church builder since Emmaus Way will be able to help the Church and conduct the EBC within the church in the GKK level. We have done that already.

Testimony

I started in Lingkod ng Panginoon in 1996. And then since Lingkod is a singles movement, when we got married in 1999, me and my wife attended the Holy Trinity community until now. My wife and I are both covenanted members of HTC. We are among the 21 over a 160 here in Davao. We have publicly made a commitment. There is a process.

We are doing this because this is our way of responding to God’s love for us, and ultimately the call for us to bring more people into the Church, into God’s kingdom and this is our conviction that we will do everything that we can within our means, capabilities and abilities to serve Him through evangelistic efforts on Emmaus Way. But of course, that is just part of the whole picture. There are many things that the way we responded, the way we worship, the way we pray, reading the Bible, service/outreach when we go to far-flung places, those are also responses but in this particular way on Emmaus Way, this is part of our mission to bring more to Him.

ON THE YEAR OF THE POOR

HTC has a big program for the year of the Poor through the Social Action Ministry headed by a brother on doing different activities on reaching out. Since we are a church builder, we literally build a chapel. We have built chapels in Comval and Baganga after Pablo, and in Leyte after Yolanda.

For announcements about social action programs
FB: EMMAUS WAY GROUP – an OUTREACH OF THE HOLY TRINITY DAVAO

Editor’s Note: HTC is a partner of Davao Verbum Dei Media Foundation, Inc. in its upcoming World Communications Sunday on May 17, 2015.