The Year of Vlogging

 This blog started years ago as a diary of the different reflections on my daily activities in ministries. It has transformed to include academic thoughts, sermons, and reflections. This year 2025, I will go back to logging and recording the daily ministry activities through a video. I will write news articles written in 3rd person with commentaries on significant events I will participate in. Another option, is for me to put on short clips of less than 2 minutes reporting on the ministry activity that I will cover. It will be more like a reporting with snippets of some rhetorical insights of the activity for the year 2025. But the ministry in focus will be my role as missionary doctor. Here is an example:

This year 2025, Dr. Nezer A. Soriano will remain as Health Board Coordinator of the Davao Episcopal Area of the United Methodist Church. Our ministry focus will be raising Mental Health Awareness among youth in the community, and HIV Awareness towards building HIV competent churches. I hope you will join us and pray with us as we journey through God's healing ministry this year. 

A Prayer for Our Dreams

"Dreams do come true."

Dear God,

You are the author of our future

Who gave us dreams and goals in our hearts

Keep us inspired to achieve those dreams

Through hard work, perseverance and trust in you.

Amen.

 

A Prayer for the New Year

It is 2022. 

Praying for new things to happen this year.

But Covid-19 is still here.

May God continue to protect our family and loved ones. May God continue to give his comfort and love to us. May we have the strength to always put our trust in God.

Father God,

You are the great protector,

Who have kept us safe from harm with the blood of Jesus

Cover us with your blood from all harm

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

March 2021: God's Unexpected Plan

Hope comes from God. Hope means the impossible can happen if it's God's plan. The story of Saul shows us that we might have plans that is different from God. Saul has other plans different from God but it is God's plan that happens. Everything happens according to God's plan. The news of the vaccine coming to the country through the generous donations of other countries wasn't even possible last week. Now, in just a matter of days we were told to implement the national Vaccination Plan. Well, it is always better to have an implementation than a plan remain a plan. The hope of eliminating Covid-19.

God has a plan that we do not expect. The first dose of Covid-19 vaccines were given today and I was one of the first batch to be given the dose. Despite the hesitancy of many people because of the uncertainty on the vaccine, leaders must lead by example. We got the Sinovac and almost all of us did not have any untoward reactions. By God's grace, the vaccination will help us achieve herd immunity to help end the pandemic. 

January 2021: Hair Cut

Counting change as the year 2021 ushers in. 

We love Bible stories because we can relate to them and learn important life lessons. This year, I will share some Bible Stories that relates to some important situations we encounter in this year as we face the Covid-19 Pandemic. I hope this will help us center ourselves in God's story despite the current pandemic.

 Samson had his hair cut by Delilah. Samson was a Nazirite - set apart. People forget that Samson and Delilah is a story from the Bible. And people forget it is not a love story but about God enabling us to fulfill the work God called us to do.

I grew my hair long. It was not intentional. It was symbolic of how long this pandemic has affected our lives. This pandemic caused us to be in quarantine, lockdowns, businesses closed including barbershops since last year. The haircut I got today from my wife will be the first since last year. She is not Delilah, but my wife did cut my hair. 

Freedom and Social Justice

Today is June 12. We celebrate the Philippine Independence Day. The church plays a crucial role in achieving that ideals of freedom not only from colonizers but freedom from the bondage of the present social sins. The world is broken as injustice, abuse and inequalities has tainted all of us. This brokenness has enslaved our society and the church has tried to resist and free our society from these social ills. The church, led by its pastors and church workers, is still struggling for our freedom from these social ills.

One of the church workers active in the work of the church is Rev. Edgar de Jesus. He is the current President of the NAFAUM. I had a quick chat with Pastor Edgar today. He was inviting me to the upcoming Zoom Webinar on June 22 entitled "Leading the Church in the time of Pandemic." This has been a series of ongoing discussions which is a very timely topic as the world goes through a major change in its daily activities including the church. The way how church activities like mission work, outreach, conferences and the regular worship service is being affected such as the church sacraments of baptism, Holy Communion and even the rituals of wedding and burial have to be drastically change. It has create confusion, chaos, debates and unanswered questions. People can no longer have the Lord's Supper because of the quarantine. People can not gather in worship so will they be allowed to celebrate the Lord's Supper online? If gatherings are not allowed, then how can public declarations of the couple's love be done during their dream wedding. Will it be done online? Even the annual conferences, which is the major and crucial activity in the church have to be postponed. How can deliberations on church concerns be done including the reading of appointments? And this has domino effect on the length of stay of the administrative pastors and the District Superintendents and even the episcopacy. But the crucial concern is how can the church perform now its mission in the society? The forum will focus on how the pandemic affected the programs of the church in promoting social justice. Have we all just paused our work as Christians because of the health concern? Will Jesus have stopped ministering to the poor and oppressed because there was a curfew and quarantine? I am excited about this online event. This webinar will be able to provide insight and guidance to how the church will move forward in its life even as we anticipate major changes in the United Methodist Church. Pastor Edgar will moderate this event.

I met Pastor Edgar when I was in seminary. He was assigned to me as my mentor when I was an intern in Hurdle Mills United Methodist Church in North Carolina. It was one of my best time as a young Pastor. He took time to guide me on the ministry of the Pastor not only as a preacher but as a community leader. He made sure that I understood that the church is not confined in the four corners of the building and thus the work of the Pastor does not end in the worship service but includes community service. He took me to home visits as well as to community events and activities. Although I was more interested with the different Southern food recipes in every event we attended, I was slowly learning that collaborating with other faith groups and participating in the daily life of the community is part of the mission work of the church. Resisting the social ills in the community also means showing love to all people, especially those who are often neglected. Visiting the sick and bringing food to the shut-ins is not less significant to providing work opportunity to the unemployed and assisting migrants get documented. As Christians, we are called to be leaders... leading the church towards freedom.

Join the forum. Register in advance for the NAFAUM Leadership Webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/…/tZEsd--opz8vGdG1LrDf-RvvZoB9v_334…

3 Things to Know about Wesleyan Heritage in Surigao City

There is no United Methodist Church in Surigao City. Do not worry. You will still not miss your worship service when you visit this region. There are many Protestant churches in this area that shares a Wesleyan heritage with the United Methodist Church. So here are three things to remember about our Wesleyan heritage:

1. We share a lot of common things with other faith denominations that share our Wesleyan heritage. That includes the liturgy, the hymns, and even the church architecture all feels familiar. You won't feel like a stranger when you visit other denominations that share our heritage. 
2. The closest church with a Wesleyan heritage is the United Church of Chirst in the Philippines that shares a rich history with the United Methodist Church in the Philippines. In fact, they have close historical ties with the Methodist Church and the United Bretheren as part of the merging churches that formed the UCCP in 1948. 
3. We can participate in their sacrament of Holy Communion. When we were in Surigao, we had our worship service with the United Church of Christ in the Philippines as we also celebrated the marriage of my brother in the same church. The co-celebrant of the communion was shared between the clergy of the UMC and the UCCP. As our Wesleyan heriate, the table of the Lord is open for all those who believe in Christ as divine Lord and Savior. The worship service was such a blessing. It helped that the congregation was very helpful and welcoming too.

The UCCP in Surigao is a big church with the first floor serving as a school with multipurpose classrooms. The second floor is the sanctuary which is beautifully designed to host more than a hundred worshippers.

The United Church of Christ in the Philippines in Surigao is located along Narciso St., Downtown Surigao City.

What are your goals for the New Year 2018?

We start a new year 2018.

We have a new house. We live in a new subdivision. We have a new neighborhood.

We have a new member in the family. These are some of our accomplisments for 2017.

We have new goals. We have new dreams.

We are excited on what the new year brings. As we start the new year, we always plan. However, we know that our plan may not be God's perfect plan. Yet, we still pray that the desires of our heart will be granted. But we remain humble to bow according to God's will.

As we commit this new year to God, we also re-commit ourselves in obedience to God's will. We strive hard to do our best and leaving the rest to God's desire.

God is in control. We trust in what God has in store for us.