(Time, relative to events can seem either long or short. I have been with the DCBC Sunset service since July 2004. I spent enough time growing with the rest of the congregation to see how a person could be used to serve and could learn lessons a hundredfold. An anniversary can seem like any other day. Or it can be like a birthday. Setting aside a day to remember special things allows us to review how far we have gone and how much we have to look forward to, how much we now know and how we should live it.)

The Sunset Service 13th Anniversary celebration, on February 4, 2007, came at the end of an eventful day for DCBC. The English service had its first-Sunday-of-the-month love feast, DCBC had its annual congregational meeting, Pastor Bel Magalit held a teaching session, and the Sunset Music Team rehearsed the songs to be sung that evening.

At the anniversary worship service itself, people gathered in excitement. We started at 4:30PM with the room already almost filled. Ate Mikay De Leon led us in worship. Our program began with the call to worship, then the singing of songs led by Kuya Butch Pang. Listening, I got a distinct sense of God's tender personal touch and His victory in the lives of His children.

Two members of the congregation were assigned to give their testimonies, one older and one new and younger. Ate Junette Galagala told of how she began as a shy quiet member, and how she grew through the music ministry. She stressed the process of growing, the experiencing of both pain and fulfillment along the way. (Tears were inevitable, though laughter more than tears is what I remember of that evening.)

Remrick Patagan in his testimony described change and surrender. Change, he said, is something which is not always sudden, but is always surprising. He started attending the Sunset service only a few months before, and for some of us, hearing him speak for the first time was like having him introduce himself to us.

After the testimonies, we prayed as a congregation, led by Kuya Butch. I then presented a review of the Missions Exposure Trip we made to Lucban, Quezon last October 2006.

After the brief presentation, Kuya Caloy Novisteros gave a report about the growing number of believers in Lucban. Kuya Caloy mentioned that there are already worship services held there every other Saturday. There are a number of bible study groups meeting every week in the dormitories, doors are open to the Gospel at the Southern Luzon Polytechnic College, and already there is a core of young leaders.

The work we did in Lucban, Quezon began with much hope, and indeed the Lord is giving us a harvest there. After Kuya Caloy’s report, we prayed for Lucban, led by Kuya Paolo Gonzales. We praised God for how much He is blessing Lucban, and prayed that Pastor Leo, Pastor Paul, Les and the other leaders may continue to grow and be strengthened.

We gave our tithes and offerings. Then we came to the reading of scripture, learning of Jesus and Peter from John 21:15-19. Kuya Caloy preached that the intimacy which a believer seeks after as he matures in the faith is evidence of how the Lord convicts us in our tendency to be self-sufficient. Kuya Caloy pointed out that even when we begin strongly just as Peter did, we fall and then regress, and are always in dire need of the Lord's grace and mercy. God keeps reaching out to us, and calls us to remember our salvation, repent, pick ourselves up, and go on following Jesus.

Our reflections after the message continued in the song offerings of the Music Team. We sang "Amazing Love, What Sacrifice" and "How Deep Our Father's Love for Us." After the singing, we closed in prayer and headed on to the dinner prepared for us with the help of Ate Maquette Alforque and Paul Balite (among others). We had a choice of pesto and tuna spaghetti. (I am not sure what else was on the table, but I did get three servings of everything that night.)

As we were having dinner, we listened to more praise songs. We also watched a presentation with pictures of the Sunset service, chronicling how people grew bigger and older. We had our pictures taken then capped the evening with more laughter and loving embraces.

It had been a relatively long day. Worship service is not even the end of the day for most of the Sunset congregation. Sunset Anniversary Sunday like any other Sunday could still be followed by the same old Monday morning blues, but it always serves to mark where we started walking in the light and from what point we should carry on.

When the core leaders of the Sunset service met in January to plan for the year, part of our agenda was to pick a theme. For this year, it was “Going Back to the Basics,” encouraging the congregation to be more intimate with the Father and with each other as brothers and sisters all, members of His family. Indeed, the Sunset congregation has become a matrix of tight-knit relationships in which love for the Lord is placed first.