It was great to celebrate Family Day on Independence Day with church family last June 12 as the bright morning sun shone on the sprawling grounds of the UP track oval. All fears of possible rains were dissipated in the sunshine, rains that only the previous day poured heavily on Metro Manila. After deliberations by the church council on the best place to hold a church outing considering funds and logistics, it was decided that a half-day event be held right on familiar UP campus grounds.

Scheduled to kick off immediately after the baptism of twelve brethren (held at nearby Diliman Bible Church), it actually started when DCBC members trickled into the area at around 9:30AM—there was the group of baptisants and their witnesses coming from DBC, and there were those coming straight from the house.

Deacon Edwin Ortega handily spread out a banner across the front of the grandstand with the words "FAMILY DAY — Diliman Campus Bible Church." (The families actually gathered under two big shade trees at the far edge of the track oval opposite the grandstand, but in spite of the large expanse between the two points, the sign was very readable.)

In about thirty minutes, there was a good number of adults and kids, sixty or so of them, wearing brightly colored T-shirts, either green, yellow, red, or blue (depending on the team they were assigned to), all set and ready to join the fun and games. This prompted Glen Ibañez, elder in charge of the event, to officially open Family Day with a welcome note and prayer.

To keep spirits high, Jing Ocampo led off in a wacky warm-up song that soon had all singing and dancing while laughing at themselves. (You just had to love those wonderful lyrics—"Kamusta ka, kamusta ka, mukha kang masaya, pumorma ka, pumorma ka, ang cute mo talaga!" Roughly and terribly translated, "How are you, how are you, you look happy you do, pose for the crowd, pose for the crowd, you sure are cute!")

Taking over from Jing was the official Game Master of the day, Aleks Tan, DCBC Sunset Service alumnus, whose emceeing prowess could surpass that of most game show hosts. He promptly got everyone excited as he announced over the megaphone the event's official title, "Kaya Mo 'To!" (You Can Do It!)

Everyone was asked to form their groupings based on their team colors, but since there were only four color groupings and eight were actually needed, each team had to be further split into two. The teams were then asked to name their group after a national hero, in observance of Independence Day. Thus were formed the day's teams: Emil (for Emilio Aguinaldo), Gaby (for Gabriela Silang), Greg (for Gregorio del Pilar), Andy (for Andres Bonifacio), Diego (for Diego Silang), Ninoy (Ninoy Aquino), Rizal (Jose), and Lapu-lapu.

To start off, each group was asked to compose a three- to five-liner cheer for their team. To the delight of everyone, all groups came up with creative and amusing chants that sent the audience roaring and laughing. Team spirit was obviously very strong, and soon everyone was raring to move on to The Game proper.

The Game was really an assortment of similar games that challenged different powers—from physical, to mental, to gastric. There was the banana-and-polvoron-eating contest where pairs fed each other with Del Monte (name brand, not from the palengke) señorita bananas (a small variety, good thing) and polvoron. There was the plastic balloon-blowing contest where the challengers were made to blow their biggest plastic balloon ever.

Mental math was the name of the game where a lengthy, confusing "money problem" was presented to the contestants. They had to find the right set of coins submerged in dark colored water (clean) inside a plastic orinola (potty, brand-new, clean) which doubled as the first-prize "bathroom showcase", with Chocnut as a bonus prize. There was the traditional sack race for the more athletic ones small enough to fit in the sacks; the corn-on-the-cob-eating contest—hands-free style; and for coffee lovers, the dry instant coffee eating contest, "3 in 1", where coffee, sugar, and powdered milk were eaten in turn by the spoonful and washed down with a cup of water (this game definitely kept its contestants awake).

Then, finally, a "non-secular" game in which knowledge of the order of the books of the Bible was tested. A set of ten paper plates was laid out on the grass for each competing group, and each plate had the name of a book of the Bible written on it in large block letters. Each team member took turns determining which of the books in the set came first by putting a paper plate upside-down. The first group to have all paper plates upside-down was the winner.

Each team's points overall was announced, and landing as winner was the Ninoy group (yellow). And ready for their taking was the grand prize, for each winning member a "bathroom showcase" and Chocnut.

After all the running and the game-playing and even the shouting was over, everyone was ready for lunch. The ever-dependable DCBC women went to work setting the buffet picnic table (Janet Espina, Jay Rocha, Belen Ortega, Rexie Amantillo, Maquette Alforque who helped coordinate lunch, Shii Arcilla, and the very pregnant Belle Villanueva who nonetheless lifted jugs of ice water, a game not on Aleks Tan's list).

Deacon Butch Pang and the Sunset Service team led more action songs in the meantime. (A jeepful of them had arrived in the middle of the games, all the way from a two-day leadership training camp in the mountains of Montalban.) When the table was ready, Pastor Wilson Dumelod was called upon to pray for the food. Pastor Wilson also gave thanks for the baptism earlier in the day, as well as for the twelve baptisants, and for everything else connected with this happy dual occasion, DCBC Family Day and Philippine Independence Day.

Pasta in tomato sauce with noodles in different shapes and sizes was the main menu item with sandwiches and an assortment of breads to go with it. There was also a choice of cookies—chocolate chip cookies, cream sandwich biscuits, and Nina Danao's special rocky road brownies (which proved to be the "people's choice"). New baptisants Ernie and Tess Maliwat contributed rice and menudo which was a big hit as well, prompting Belle to say to the couple, "May problema ang menudo nyo!" The Maliwats gave her a worried look thinking the dish must have been spoiled or tasted awful. But Belle followed it up with "The problem with it is—kulang! Ubos kaagad! Sa susunod damihan nyo, ha?" (Kuya Ernie, menudo chef, promised that next time he would cook enough for everybody.) Even our very own Pastor Bel and Ate Lety Magalit, who came with daughter Leni and grandson Johan, shared their baon of pork adobo and rice.

There was also an overflow of bananas (good source of potassium needed by athletes) for dessert, and of course juice and lots of ice water for the thirsty. The fear that the food would be lacking was unfounded as usual, as lots of pasta was left for take-home.

Families who contributed to the picnic plenty were the Espinas, the Rochas, the Alforques, the Ibañezes, the Clementes, the Villanuevas, the Amantillos, the Ortegas, the Ugaddans, the Jocanos, and the Dumelods, thus helping to affirm the wonderful concept of Family Day. (Sadly, we missed some DCBC families and singles. You know who you are. Do come next time, ha?)

It was clear that everyone was enjoying the after-lunch fellowship despite the heat of the early afternoon, which was no problem in the shade anyway, and nobody seemed to be harboring plans to leave even with a full stomach already. (Ate Liddy Arcellana though, who brought the chocolate chip cookies but confessed she herself does not eat cookies, along with the Laguno couple had declined the carbo-heavy menu. The health-conscious three had gone off in search of green salad for lunch. Last we heard the search was a happily successful one.)

To culminate the entire event, Deacon Edwin declared a group picture-taking for posterity with the DCBC Family Day banner. It was indeed a delight to see the 130 strong gathering of DCBC members, family, and friends from all three congregations on this occasion, and for this we give all praises to God.

On a final note of thanksgiving to our loving God, we want to mention that the very next day, June 13, rains again came down in a sudden heavy downpour. One minute it was bright and sunny, the next dark and rainy. This happened at exactly the same time as the day before when all the food was laid out beneath two big trees that provided shade from the sun but not protection from heavy rain. Behind us was the open road, in front the large expanse of green and the grandstand a 500-meter dash away.

Again, all the praises to God for the success of the 2006 DCBC Family Day!