Stewardship Committee Releases Gift Fridge Magnets
The Stewardship Committee, through heads Benjie and Wins Mirasol, released their end-of-2018 refrigerator magnet give-aways to their regular Stewardship donors and to the PPC members during the First Advent Sunday masses. The cute magnets, a set of four and squarish in shape, are reminders of ‘Stewardship as a Way of Life’. They replace the desktop calendar that the Committee had always given away at the end of the year.
For December 2018, the Committee wanted to give more people than the usual number because of the realization that CTK is composed not just of the people who serve and who are seen regularly to participate in the various liturgical as well as community building activities organized in the parish but also includes the hundreds of families who regularly or occasionally attend the ten Saturday & Sunday masses and who may not even live in the nearby villages but farther, some as far as Antipolo and Marikina. There are also regular weekday morning and evening massgoers, on their way to work or on their way home from the ofQice, who also do not live in the villages designated as part of the CTK GM parish.
Thus the Committee members thought that perhaps on one weekend in December, the Committee can give all these families of mass goers the annual token gift, which had traditionally been the CTK stewardship calendar. For the past few years, the Stewardship Committee has been giving calendars for the following year either at Christmas time or early at the start of the year, as a token of appreciation to parishioners who serve in the various ministries and organizations of the parish. The calendar features photos of the past year’s activities of the ministries and organizations, some stewardship messages, and bible verses on stewardship. But producing five or ten times more calendars than usual would be prohibitively expensive. Besides, the Stewardship Committee noticed that for the last two years, they had so many leftover copies of the desk calendar after having allocated the requested number of copies of the calendars, and despite sending copies to share outside the parish like the diocese clergy and the other parishes’ stewardship committees. It also dawned on CTK’s Stewardship Committee that many people today use their phone and laptop calendars. Besides, calendars also are the usual Christmas corporate giveaways. Putting the committee members’ heads together, they agreed on small refrigerator magnets with stewardship bible verses. After all, they argued, family members go to the refrigerator often in one day. The ref door is also used in varied ways: a place for your reminders, short messages to each other, emergency telephone numbers, delivery hotlines, cute family photos for cheering up, the report card with a star or an “A”, mementos of your travels, other favorite magnets, etc.
The four bible verses for the four magnets to describe the characteristics of a good steward were nominated by Angel Viloria, a committee member, and the floral background and text typeface and layout designed by Angel’s daughter Ali. The project was presented for review to Fr Steve Zabala and the media and finance heads of the PPC to get their blessings. Each of the four magnets will remind the owner that:
‣ A good steward is grateful for all the blessings he receives from the Lord. The basis of Stewardship is gratitude. Everything comes from God.
‣ Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His love endures forever. (Corinthians 16:34) A good steward is responsible for everything that God has blessed him with. One must use those blessings prudently, also making sure that they are not wasted or diminished from lack of use. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men. (Colossians 3:23)
‣ A good steward is generous, joyfully sharing all his blessings with justice and love. He knows that it is better to give than to receive. Freely you have received, freely give. (Matthew 10:8)
‣ A good steward gives back to the Lord with increase, because the Lord can never be outdone in generosity and He knows what’s best for each one of us. One day we have to stand in accountability before the judgment seat of God. And God will ask: What did you do with all the time that you had? What did you do with all the gifts I gave you? What did you do with your life? From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded. (Luke 12:48)
Wins added, ‘We hope that everytime a recipient opens what some call the ‘door to happiness’, he or she is reminded how blessed he or she is, and that God wants he or she to bless others too!’
Related to the Stewardship Committee, Benjie and Wins announced the Search for CTK Stewards of the Year. At the last November PPC meeting last November 10, Benjie and Wins announced the draft rules for the Stewardship Recognition Program, the main objectives of which are to recognize members who exemplify stewardship traits and to highlight the message that CTK is a Stewardship Parish.
The organizers are also thinking that the annual search becomes a regular source of witnessing stories for future stewardship articles and videos. Every ministry, mandated organization and renewal movement will be encouraged to identify a member who best exemplifies the ideals of gratitude, responsibility, giving back and generosity, with more emphasis on ‘time’ and ‘talent’ vis-a-vis ‘treasure’.
