by DAVE CHRISTIAN ARIZALA
Starting a Bible study group was really part of my plan since I moved up the corporate ladder. It definitely took some time for me to start it, since it seemed that every time I wanted to go ahead, problem after problem came about and due to the complexity and daily cadence of my multiple programs, this went to the backburner and I just couldn’t get myself to start it. After continued prayer, asking God’s help to start this, I just know I couldn’t do this on my own. With God’s help and with the assistance of my Operations Manager, who was also a Christian, we committed and started our own little group. My vision was to start off with my leadership team first and later on trickle the meeting down to all our staff.
What started off with just the 2 of us, has now grown into a group of 6. We started at the end of August and challenges came about immediately. When it seemed that I already had things under control workwise, things suddenly got all out of whack again. Pressure to perform, thus, exceed performance and financial goals just kept looming in weekly, with talks of program closing down if we didn’t exceed expectations/goals. Apart from that, my family started getting sick and having episodes that they never had before and I knew we were being attacked spiritually. Same thing happened with my Operations Manager. However, we continue to acknowledge Him, our God is in control of all and of our lives. We continued to persevere regardless of the pressure of work, as I knew that what we started will definitely prosper with Jesus Christ as our Center.
To date, our groupmates have started opening up more and more about their struggles and their need for God. Two from our group, Jimmy Santos and Estefany Dela Cruz, accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior last November 5th and what a wonderful opportunity of doing God’s work for the furtherance of His kingdom and spreading of His good news to the seeker.
I ask that you pray for my group, which I aptly named “God in our workplace convos”, as we continue to get together every Thursday, 10:30pm to share our praises, pains but more importantly glorifying God and learning more about His Word.
