Lucban: the Living Word Student Centre

After a ride through the picturesque Quezon province, swerving on winding mountain roads, passing by the placid Laguna Lake, we finally arrived in Quezon. We met Pastor Paul who brought us to the Living Word student centre. A place open from 8am to 8pm for students to chill out, finish their assignments, talk and have fun before, in between and after a class. In other words a place which is perfect for forming relationships and sharing the gospel!

We were introduced to some of the young leaders; Anne a full time worker at the centre, Pastor Jess who is doing missions there for a year, Aga, Junas, Joy, Aimar and plenty of others. The centre is frequented by about 40-50 students a day, half of which are non-Christian and always buzzing with activity. On any given day, Anne is leading Bible study, a couple of students will be playing chess or scrabble, a few are just having a chat while someone’s taking a nap snuggled at the corner of the couch.

The students have been welcomed us with warm, open arms. They have opened their homes for us, some people giving up their rooms or beds to house us. None of us will ever have more than 3 minutes of silence since everyone’s always talking to us. Jonathan had a first tagalog lesson given by a crowd of about 7 enthusiastic native speakers. John has shown a few students some gizmos, particularly his “cute” (according to one of the students) easy pc and Marisol has practised some of her limited tagalog as well as becoming an expert in the nap taking. UNO, one of the most popular games has also seen Marisol and Jonathan doing “pumps” after having lost, videos of which have been recorded but will not be placed either in youtube or on this blog to protect the dignity of said losers.

The Living Word Student Centre holds two weekly meetings: a student one on Tuesday and a vesper service on Sunday evening. Students listen to talks on the Bible, play ice breaker style games and sing worship songs (which are all so good since any given Filipino either has a recording artist’s voice or is a virtuoso on an acoustic guitar). John shared his testimony (only having been told he was to give it a couple of hours in advance and only 7 minutes to speak – bravo John!) on the student meeting on the day we arrived which was last Tuesday. We will definitely be doing more throughout the next few meetings.

A lot of ministry also takes place outside the centre as weekly bible studies are held all over Lucban at different houses. It’s been so encouraging to see how eager people are to learn about Jesus, and the lengths the leaders will go to to have the Gospel heard. At one Bible study 15 girls were sitting together in a tight space, some of which had to sit on steps on the staircase. Pastor Paul makes 2 or 3 rides on his trusty motorbike to and from any given home to make sure bible study members are safe at home after the study.

We'll write more about the teaching work in the university later.

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