Then I remembered what my Grade 4 teacher said about eating every last grain of rice on our plates. Farmers toil hard for every grain of rice. I have been a member of the "clean plate club" ever since. I eat every last grain of rice on my plate at every meal.

If I care about every grain of rice on my plate and every last morsel of coffee beans in the bag, I thought of how much more God cares for every human being. Jesus says that not even a bird that sells for a few cents falls to the ground without the Father knowing it, how much more does He care about us? Peter in his second epistle said: "The Lord isn't really being slow about his promise to return, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to perish, so he is giving more time for everyone to repent." (2 Peter 3:9 NLT)

Simply put, God does not want anyone to go to hell and be forever separated from Him. That's why He sent Jesus to save us from our sins. Christ told every follower of His to make sure we help every human become a student (disciple) of Jesus. Be identified with Him through baptism and teach them all that Jesus taught that they in turn may continue the cycle of helping, recruiting, teaching and training more folks.

It's why we do basketball. That's the reason for the family camp. We give away goods useful for the cold weather season. Be kind and possibly turn strangers into friends. Pass on some food from our pantries to people needing grocery items. Go downtown and feed our neighbors who live on the streets. Pack our good clothing and footwear and share them with people who can make better use of them.

It's why we invite teachers to teach and preachers to preach. Workers who are experienced with community development and relief work come to inform and invite us to partner with their work in near and far communities. We encourage FFACers to take courses. Learn. Then get on their feet, open their Bibles and open their mouths and speak and teach others. Gather into small groups. Care for one another. Dare to break up long-time small groups so that more care groups will be formed and more people discipled.

We challenge people to adopt other countries as their home and workplace - just like our international workers are doing - to reach nations still indifferent to Christ and anything that have to do with Him. Setting aside our conveniences, we're now open Sunday evenings at 6pm to give people who work during the day a chance to worship God right here after their shop or office hours. We plan and pray and hop on airplanes, regardless of tax benefits or none.  If some are not able to participate in the front lines of what we do, we urge them to stay behind and pray and give generously. We do these because of the main thing that FFAC stands for: Help people become followers of Jesus Christ. Train them to develop Christ-like characters and reproduce themselves in others who will keep on doing the same.

We do it right here at FFAC, in our city. We do cooperative work with other churches and like-minded organizations locally, across our land and across the oceans. Every person on this planet counts and is precious in God's sight. So we want to see each person included beyond plates and coffee cups, but in the family and kingdom of Jesus Christ.

All for the glory of God.

Warmly,

ricky p. mapa, pastor