Balikatan’s Alumni-in-Ministry
2018 Grant Awardees
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The Balikatan Board of Directors is pleased to announce the recipients of the Alumni in Ministry (AIM) Grant for 2018. The AIM Grant is Balikatan’s humble way of expressing our appreciation and gratefulness to nominated and selected Intervarsity Christian Fellowship of the Philippines (IVCFP) alumni who have responded to Jesus Christ’s call to serve Him in the mission field, full time.
The fund is raised annually from you - our generous donors - who have specifically designated your gifts toward this critical ministry program. This year, each grant recipient will receive $600 (US) = PHP 30,000.
This fiscal year we invite all of Balikatan to prayerfully give (again) towards the 2019 AIM Grant so that together, next year, we can bless even more IVCFP full time, hard working ministers to the Glory and Honor of God!
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Maria Nelma or “Pappet” is the team leader and co-founder of Elpis Ministries. Elpis Ministries work with migrant people in the northwestern border of Thailand, in a town called Maesot. It is composed of a
Faith House
, a shelter for girls at risk, and the
Blessing Center
, a student center for migrant children. Pappet and her team serve as partners of
Elpis School
- a school for migrant children. They also do organic gardening & community development work in two villages. Elpis Ministries is also a registered non-governmental organization (NGO) in the Philippines, and partners with children’s work in the town of Hinigaran, Negros Occidental.
“My involvement with IVCFP was when I was in high school when school mates would invite me to Interschool Christian Fellowship (ISCF) gatherings in the YMCA building in Rosario St., Bacolod City,” said Pappet. "Josephine ‘Pinky’ Cabalfin was persistent. Amy Javelosa Rio was one of the student leaders then. I had not attended many gatherings nor did I go to a Kawayan Camp. But I had lots of IVCFP friends. In Balikatan, I attended the 2010 conference in Boston and also the 2015 one in Alberta, Canada.”
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Elsie, or
Ate Elsie,
was the National Director of IVCFP from 2000 to 2006. She is currently a freelance trainor/facilitator and retreat director. “I am a regular resource person for Open Doors with Brother Andrew. I train Christian women in some countries where Christians are persecuted and discriminated, such as Vietnam, Laos, and Bhutan,” shared
Ate Elsie.
“I don’t work full time with Open Doors, though. I go only when I am invited around two or three times a year. Recently, I have been invited to train Hmong women in Chiang Mai, Thailand by another group ministering to Hmongs.”
Ate Elsie
is also a resource person for the Alliance of Christian Development Agencies (ACDA). She serves as a trainor/facilitator for Christian leaders and pastors. She gets invitations to teach/facilitate in IVCFP staff trainings and student camps. Other organizations would seek her to facilitate spiritual retreats.
“I was brought up in a Protestant family. I attended church and Sunday School regularly. My mother was a deaconess, and we had daily family altar when we were small. But I came to know Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior through the IVCFP chapter in Philippine Normal University (PNU). I attended weekly Bible Studies and cell groups. I heard the Gospel clearly from
Kuya Jonathan Parreno
who was then our speaker in an evangelistic meeting in July 1968. I realized I had to make a personal decision to receive Christ. That night I invited Him to come into my life, and I surrendered my life to Him.”
Ate Elsie
then became an active member of the PNU campus fellowship. She later became an officer, and led weekly cell groups. She attended Kawayan Camp in 1970. After graduating from PNU,
Ate Elsie
joined the Graduates’ Christian Fellowship meetings periodically. While teaching at St. Scholastica’s College, she completed a course by InterVarsity Missionary Fellowship (IVMF) taught by
Kuya Dick
and
Ate Rose Dowsett
of OMF. While teaching at Del Monte School in Bukidnon,
Ate Elsie
volunteered as a Grad Team member in Cagayan de Oro City, and started ISCF chapters in a few high schools there from 1979 to
1981.
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Jehovah Jireh Aliw
Siodora-Albaniel
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Jehovah Jireh Aliw, or “Aliw” for short, ministers with her husband, Pastor Rony, in the greater Osaka area in Japan. Aliw has a ministry to Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) professionals, to single parent mothers and their families, and to Japanese and Filipino women in the Kobe and Osaka areas. She and her husband visit and minister to detained Filipinos in Osaka. They help support the Japanese pastors and the Filipino missionaries in the area through their regular fellowship gatherings. They also lead English Bible Studies. The couple helps facilitate conflict resolutions as well.
During her college years, Aliw was a member of Campus Impact Christian Fellowship at Philippine Christian University. She later served as the campus group’s president. Aliw attended Kawayan Camp in 1982.
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Partner with us in praying for and financially supporting the AIM. For more information on Balikatan's AIM Program, please contact Ramon 'Mon' Rocha, AIM Committee Chair, at
ramonrocha111@gmail.com
.
Thank you, and may God bless you!
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