CFC - A Womb-To-Tomb
Ministry
For the first 12 years of the life
of CFC, the single focus was on evangelizing and renewing married couples.
Even though many non-couples were asking about how they could also be a
part of the CFC community, the mandate of the Lord extended only to the
work with couples. It has since become clear that the Lord simply
wanted to assure a solid fondation, one based on the renewal of Christian
couples and their families, for the large work that was to come.
And it came in June of 1993, on CFC's
12th anniversary. At that time, the CFC Family Ministries were launched:
The CFC Kids for Christ is basically
an in-house program for the younger children of CFC members, those with
ages 4 to 12 years. It is actually a children's club, where the kids of
CFC members can identify themselves with, and where they can experience
fun, friendship and faith. It is not a formation program, a catechetical
instruction group, or a Sunday school type program. KFC exists to empower
the CFC parent, having the right balance of activities which is integrated
into the over-all structure of CFC. The Junior Kids Day (four hours) is
the formal entry point to kids ages four to eight. The Senior Kids Camp
(one and a half days), meanwhile, is for ages 9 to 12. With YFC members
as facilitators, the Kids Day and Kids Camp is similar to a Youth Camp,
but has more games and activities which incalculate the same values and
teachings meaningful to those who belong to this age group.
The CFC Youth for Christ is for older
youth, those with ages from 12 to 21 years. The Lord imbued YFC with a
strong missionary spirit. The youth can be effective partners in mission
and are in fact crucial to the future of Couples for Christ, the church
and the country. To spread the good news more effectively by creating an
environment in the campus and the community that is appealing and life-giving
to young adults. Thus the need to organize sportsfest, praisefest, songfest
and other social activities exciting to the youth. By focusing on the need
for young people to grow in holiness and to view their body as the temple
of the Holy Spirit - stressing not just purity for woman, but for the men
as well. In YFC, we talk about virginity for men, particularly since they
initiate sexual activities and often lead the girls to sin. To create a
greater awareness for service to the community particularly the poor and
the dispossessed. As CFC expands its ministry in depressed areas, YFC is
a major component in its work since the youth oftentimes are the hardest
hit victims of poverty leading many of them to gangs and a life of crime.
The CFC Singles for Christ is for
single men and women with ages from 21 to the 40's. Truly, most single
professional men and woman have been burdened in climbing the ledder to
success. Fortunately, thousands of these singles have responded to God's
call and acknowledged that only He can lessen the burden and make them
live joyful and peaceful lives. They may be in the world, but they are
not of the world. One exciting and interesting highlight about SFC's existence
is its smooth integration to CFC, not only in terms of its structure, but
also because a good number of its members have found their lifetime partners
in SFC, while those who came in ahead invited their "loves" to join as
well, thereby forging a stronger relationship focused on the Lord.
The CFC Handmaids of the Lord (HOLD)
is for single parents, separated or divorced, unmarried mature singles,
married with husbands working overseas or physically incapacitated and
widows. The ministry has a vision parallel to Couples for Christ, that
is, to bring all families into a life of renewal in the Holy Spirit. Empowered
by the Holy Spirit, single parent women, with the dual role of mother and
father, shape the lives of their children with direction coming from the
Lord. Migrant women workers under the Lord's guidance can bring honor to
their home country and spread the faith wherever they are. Wives of overseas
workers can inspire their husbands to likewise live lives which have been
renewed in the Holy Spirit, as they themselves are experiencing a life
of peace and joy inspite of being apart.
The CFC Servants of the Lord (SOLD)
is the counterpart of the Handmaids for the men. As the male counterpart
of HOLD, the members of SOLDS are overseas countract workers, some members
of the military, single parents (widowers, separated or divorced), unmarried
mature single men, married with wives working overseas of physically incapacitated.
In addition, CFC has established Child
Development Centers for kids ages 2 to 6 years.
What all the above has given us in
CFC a "womb-to-tomb" ministry. When a child is born into a CFC family,
its first two years are spent being nurtured and learning to walk and talk.
Then the child can be enrolled in a CFC Child Development Center. At age
6 or so, the child can join CFC Youth for Christ. At age 12 or so, the
budding teenager can join CFC Youth for Christ. After school, at about
age 21, he or she can join CFC Single for Christ. Once they get married,
they move on to Couples for Christ. When a spouse dies, the surviving spouse
can transfer to CFC Handmaids or the Lord (for widows) of CFC Servant of
the Lord (for widowers).
There is a continuity in spiritual
formation and support which is not found in most other groups. There is
an assurance of a familiar environment and community culture for the full
length of one's earthly life. One can continue to grow in the Lord through
the years in the same Christian community, able to deepen personal friendships
and relationships which endure. A single person can find a spouse and be
assured of solid formation and a compatible spirituality. There can be
a focus on the one mission in which the whole CFC family is involved.
A CFC child starts life in the womb
of godly CFC mother supported by a godly CFC father, is born into a godly
CFC home where he or she is nurtured and loved, and then starts a lifelong
journey of involvement in the larger family of CFC. In addition to parental
formation and support, he or she is supported by a vibrant, loving community
through the years of childhold, adolescence, single life, marriage, and
later the death of one's spouse. In CFC, with is "womb-to-tomb" ministry,
one can literally invest a whole lifetime.
This is God's gift to all of us in
the community that is CFC. It is our assurance of the Lord's blessings
from birth to death. It is God's provision for us to enable us after our
earthly sojourn to enter into our eternal reward in heaven. |