Baguio City was once again one of the two Feast of Tabernacles’ sites for the United Church of God, aIA here in the Philippines.  For the 11th consecutive time, the United Church of God’s Festival of Tabernacles was again held at the conference hall of the “Ang Ating Tahanan” grounds of the Girl Scout of the Philippines located at the South Drive in Baguio City.

The Feast started out with our traditional Opening Night Service on the evening of October 12 with the opening night message being delivered by the festival coordinator for the Baguio Festival Site.  We were expecting an attendance of only about 110 this year, but were pleasantly surprised to have our highest attendance reach 115 on the Last Great Day surpassing our expectation! We had a good number of overseas brethren who kept the Feast and rejoiced with us coming from Australia and the United States.

We were blessed this year with very wonderful weather conditions during the entire Feast with beautiful sunshine and some few scattered rain showers just to cool the day.
We were privileged to have with us for the first half of the Feast Mr. and Mrs. Earl Roemer. Mr. Roemer spoke in the afternoon of the first day of the Feast and he expounded on the meaning of peace and how true peace can be established here on earth when righteousness reigns. For the second half of the Feast, we were joined by Mr. and Mrs. David Dobson who spent the first half of the Feast in the Davao Festival Site.

The messages were all uplifting, inspiring and encouraging especially the Festival Sermon video entitled, “In Pursuit of the Kingdom of God” as presented by UCG President, Mr. Dennis Luker.

The Festival Show this year was held on the fifth day of the Feast. It featured songs and dances from a number of countries around the world. Featured as well were a number of Filipino songs, music and classic folk dances like the famous “Tinikling”. Various activities were all likewise prepared for both the young and old alike as well as for the whole family, where everyone had the opportunity to enjoy fun, food, fellowship and games. Among the activities were the youth day activities for the pre-teens and teens, family day, and the seniors’ dinner hosted by the teens and young adults at the Feast. For those who loved to sing and dance, we also had a “videoke” night and a dance night as well.

With the fine fellowship, rejoicing and fun time the brethren shared and experienced as well as the spiritually inspiring messages we received during this Feast, everyone present felt they were blessed with a greater level of unity, love and togetherness in this Festival site. And so, the just concluded Feast of
Tabernacles and Last Great Day will be remembered as the most positive and spiritually uplifting Feast ever.

—Reported by Rey Evasco